Job hunting anyone else struggling with the rejection.?struggling to keep going .

[notmrscookie]

Looking to move into another sector or pay grade.
I have had a few interviews but haven't got the jobs. Feedback they had someone a better fit etc.
I just can't summon the energy to keep going and spend hours in some cases filling in an application form and then researching information to go to an interview and not get the role.
I am finding very few jobs that interest me at around 25k that I feel confident applying for.
How do you cope ?

Sympathies, it is tough. The only advice I can give is that if you are regularly getting to interview stage and getting positive or vague feedback you are clearly doing well and are qualified and able to do the roles, and you just need to keep chipping away at it. The only advice I do regularly give (and try to keep in mind myself although sometimes it's hard to heed my own words ) is try and not despair at a few failed interviews - it's very standard and normal when interviewing to bring in at least 3, average 4-5 and up to 7 candidates, all of whom are qualified, experienced and able for the job (or at least have very strong potential) - so it often is a bit of a lottery who has the particular niche desirable experience or skill or simply who fits in the best or performs best on the day - purely looking at chance that gives you an at best 33% and maybe as low as 15% chance of getting the job, so while it may feel hideously unlucky to have gone for maybe 10 interviews and not got the job, actually in statistical terms that's barely above expected variance.

Like I say though, I totally get how annoying it is, applying for jobs is such a total ball ache and you get so little back out of it when you get that annoying 'you were our second choice' feedback, particularly when looking to change sector. It winds me up a little how people on social media/forums and even legit, apparently qualified careers advisors will often talk about 'transferable skills' and 'moving sideways' as though it's totally easy and completely standard, whereas my experience absolutely is that employers very strongly prefer candidates coming from within the same sector, and pretty strongly prefer candidates with specific experience of their own particular niche/industry/business area. I have to admit that when I am on the other side of the table and recruit myself it's the same, I do normally prefer someone who's doing a close a job as possible and that includes ideally being in the same industry, and while of course I consider those with more of a different background and skillset, for a competitive job with lots of candidates to choose from it's very tempting to just go for the person who you know already knows all the industry lingo and systems and so on and will slot right in over the person that might have more ultimate potential but will be more of a gamble and need much more initial support and training.... sad but there you go.

I work in the NHS and it's not even that easy to move around different parts of the public sector, when I was looking for a change a few years ago I had a 0% success rate applying for private sector jobs (don't think I ever even got shortlisted), only quite moderate results for at charity or other 3rd sector type things and patchy even when looking at different types of public sector role, I had loads of interviews where like you I got nice feedback saying I'd done really well but in the end they went with a candidate 'with a background in LA/civil service/regulatory as that more closely matched what they were looking for' - and I work in a corporate job with absolutely easily transferable skills plus I was applying for equivalent roles to my current job, not going for promotion or anything and carefully and painstakingly tailoring my CV and cover letter to each job and drawing out those 'transferable skills'. In the end I caved and just took another NHS job as I couldn't be bothered any more. So yes, you have my sympathies!

@maxelly
Thanks for your reply.
I done loads to improve myself in my spare time and voluntering for things to get my name about.
I will just have to keep going.Its hard as I am a teaching assistant in a private sen school so they pay well which means its harder to justify only say 2000 more a Yr for 7 weeks extra wk.
Glad you found something that suited you.

I left as a school attendance officer. I should never have gone back in September and tried to look while still working but I couldn’t devote enough headspace to it, so I left at October half term. It’s been really tough, I have found it very depressing at times. I am well educated, qualified, experienced. I wasn’t even getting interviews.

I set very clear parameters for what I wanted , specifically home based or hybrid, third sector or some other moral fibre to the role, pay 22+. Everything I applied for I would genuinely have taken if offered. I set alerts on indeed for homeworking, remote, hybrid and towns local to me, so anything that was hybrid was near enough for me to travel to easily.

i signed up for temping and have had some office work in a school for the last few weeks until feb half term. That boosted my morale a bit. Temp agency would send me things to apply for as well.

i had an interview on Friday and have been offered the job, exactly 3 months after leaving my old role. It’s genuinely been the hardest few months. But I am so glad to be finally out of schools! My new role is data handling, uses all my transferable skill, home based, £24K.

Keep going, keep your eyes on the prize. Make sure every application you hit every point in the person spec and job description and use the wording from the documents so you get through the screening. On some of my applications I was one of 500 applicants. It was really soul destroying. If I had continued to be unsuccessful I would have gone to the agencies and applied for things through them, to give me a little extra nudge, but thankfully it hasn’t come to that.