HELP! Jobless and no one is taking me in!

[Tulvander]

I need sound advice please. If you're just going to mock and point my shortcomings, I'd like to politely ask you to leave.

My previous job ended in December as that was their last season. I've been searching for jobs since October and I haven't been successful in landing a placement. I live in an area that is highly regarded for its tourism industry and I have been working in this sector for over 8 years so I have experience. I have a 2.5. year old son who goes to nursery 3 days a week (M, Thur, Fri) and Dad looks after him on Tuesdays when he is off work. My husband is a chef who is paid quite well but apart from Tuesdays, he doesn't get set days off and he ALWAYS works on weekends. All the applications I have sent were either declined or taken into consideration because of the fact that I can't work weekends. I've gone to interviews and when they asked if I can work weekends, I had to reluctantly tell them that I couldn't. I have no one to look after my son on weekends and Im not willing to pay for a nanny to come look after him whilst I go to work because I won't be breaking even. I have tried to convince my husband to ask his manager if he can either have Saturdays or Sundays off as set weekend but it came back with a firm no.

I can't take my son out of nursery but I can't be going without a job. We've been using tax free childcare to help pay the nursery bills but since I've applied for Universal Credit, I won't be able to do that anymore. I have a feeling that our first month's pay will amount to £0.00 as we had the money to pay for rent and nursery fees this month but come the end of the month, we will only be relying on my husband's wage to pay for everything. Ive been checking the job site everyday but nobody has been getting back to me. Most of the jobs I've applied for seem to have a starting date between end of Feb-mid March which is far too long to wait. I have three interviews next week (Spa Receptionist, Housekeeping Duty Manager, Nursery Practitioner, Part-time Housekeeper) .I even have an interview for a Business Admin Apprentice at our local college. The pay sucks but its something that can lead to a Mon-Fri job.

This all sucks. Any ideas on how else I can get a job that can work around my childcare commitments? 😣

it sounds like that industry is not an appropriate option for you at this current time, and you should look further afield

Will you be required to do shift work with a different pattern every week? Or would they want to permanently give you a weekend day?

If it's fixed and it's the latter, would it be an option to drop one nursery day (if you don't need it) and swap it with a childminder/nanny who can do weekends for one of the weekend days? I appreciate this won't work possibly if it needs to be a flexible schedule and every week is different

It sounds like you’ve been looking at a lot of retail and hospitality jobs, but they will always want someone for weekends. So unless you are incredibly good and can sell it to them that you’re worth having on-Fri, I think you’re best looking at industries that are typically mon-Fri hours.
admin, local schools and nurseries, call centres etc. Or work that happens early or late, through the week or kindof on your own time, like some cleaning work.
alternatively if they want you to work every weekend can you get set days that include the weekend and drop nursery hours to pay for weekend childminders?
or unfortunately your dh needs to look for a new job, this is not only your problem to solve. his work means he can’t do any childcare and his wage isn’t enough for you to live on. so he either needs to make enough money that you don’t need to worry about that as much, or he needs to look for something else with better hours. It depends how much he’s making but perhaps him taking a wage hit but you both earning full time mon - Fri could be the better than just one of you working. Or are there other chef jobs that allow him a day off at the weekend for example?
does dc need to be in nursery 3 days? if you’re not working, and is dh perhaps around during the day sometimes, would that also save some money?

I think you need to apply for office roles which are generally Monday-friday. Look at gp surgeries, nhs admin, school admin, higher education admin and solicitors.

@spearthatbroc thats not possible. We only share one car and whoever has the car (usually me) is responsible for picking up our son at nursery. Nursery closes at 5:30 and my husband works until 5:30 earliest. If I have to travel further afield, you’re looking at around 30-45 minutes drive which is not doable.

@imeanwhy unfortunately, the shift varies every week according to what I have been told during interviews that require weekend work. Most job descriptions says “will require to work some weekends”.

i didn’t say further afield 😐

i said a “different industry”

School admin, or civil service jobs would be your best bet.

@Chaiandtoast i agree with you. I’ve applied for office assistant roles that only require you to work Mon -Fri but none of them have gotten back to me apart from one who called me for an informal chat. I don’t have a lot of experience with admin and that reflects on my CV and that’s probably why I’m not getting any response as they have other more suitable candidates but I still try to apply and sound good on the phone when/if they call.
as for my husband looking for a similar job that offers more flexibility, we have discussed this but the jobs that we have seen advertised does not even equate to half of what he earns annually. The ones that do would see him working crazy hours.

Perhaps remove child from nursery and use the time to retrain etc

@spearthatbroc Please look at your first message before responding. ''and you should look further afield...''

If you're just going to correct my supposed mistakes, I'd appreciate that you dont bother commenting

No you didn't!

@Mumof1andacat I have but I have not received any responses from them since applying.

@Vettrianofan I applied for a business admin apprentice role at our local college and I've even applied for a receptionist role in the university at the end of last month but I have received no reply. :( There was a dispensing assistant in our local pharmacy but only one day a week.

How are your MS Office skills? Work on improving them as much as possible in odd time while job hunting and refine a specific "office admin" cv, bigging up all the admin-related bits of your experience.

@spearthatbroc Perhaps re-read your first post before being snippy ...

@Barrenfieldoffucks I have considered it. I've even considered taking a part time course in college to help improve my CV but they are expensive to pay for at the moment. Im currently taking a free Level 2 Principles of Business Administration online course to help add to my CV but it will be another 2 months until I can complete it. However, taking my son out of nursery will not give me the chance to retrain as I will be fully committed to looking him. Furthermore, my husband's income alone cannot cover all our monthly expenses. Im hoping that for the moment, I can get some help from UC but it really depends on how much we can get.

@IlsSortLaPlupartAuNuitMostly Im an expert when using Microsoft Documents but Excel needs polishing up. Iv'e bought a free tutorial to help me learn more advanced techniques and I do have the option to take a part time course in college but for a fee.

Can you register with a childcare agency? They often have temporary roles that you could do on the days your son is in childcare?

@Jojobees Would I need to be qualified for that? I don't think I have a DBS certificate and I don't have qualifications other than being a mum. I was lucky enough to get an interview for a nursery practitioner job that didn't require a qualification but only wanted the application to show a genuine interest in child development. 😅

i was talking about industry rather than distance
apologies if unclear

did they give feedback as to why unsuccessful?

You’ve had some good advice so far, you’ll find it really difficult now to find any kind of job really that is genuinely just Mon-Fri, lots of office jobs even now involve some weekend work, usually 1 weekend in 4 or something similar, but it means you’d be sifted out immediately if you say you aren’t available for weekend work at all.

In the short term, I’d honestly recommend applying for anything local such as McDonalds if there is one, fast food restaurants, they tend to be able to be a bit more flexible because lots of students apply there so they usually have lots of weekend staff available but nobody to do Mon-Fri (as students are at college etc then), so that may work in your favour. I know a couple of my mum friends have done that. Also bar/restaurant work, same principle, lots of students applying there so plenty of people who are free to work weekends but nobody to work Mon-Fri. I worked in a pub while at uni and we were always trying to hire week day staff.

You need to just apply for anything for now really, it doesn’t have to be your dream job or where you want to be for the next 10 years, but it will provide you with an income in the interim while you look for your ideal job! X

I have no one to look after my son on weekends and Im not willing to pay for a nanny to come look after him whilst I go to work because I won't be breaking even would you be breaking even over all? Or is it just the weekend you wouldn't be?

@spearthatbroc Do you mean for the nursery practitioner role? I'm afraid that interview wont be until next week. As for the jobs I have applied for who said that i was unsuccessful, they didn't state why other than they have found better suited candidates.