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? 😣

You did say further afield.

You didn't say a 'different industry'

You may have thought it, but it's usually wise to take a moment to check yourself, otherwise you look like a bit of a tit.

i realise unclear

but i meant industry

@Mrsttcno1 Thanks hun! That's sound advice. I'll get in touch with restaurants and bars although I dont know if they would need someone since it's still relatively quiet but its worth a try! X

It’s definitely worth a try @Tulvander ! Even during quieter periods you may well find they still need mid week staff! I think it has already been mentioned but civil service jobs would be good for you to look at, the only downside being that recruitment typically takes a LONG time from application to actually starting the job (we are talking months not weeks), so while that would be a good plan for the long term something temporary in the short term would tide you over and take the pressure off until then! X

You say your CV reflects that you don’t have much admin experience- have you looked at changing your CV so it’s skills-based instead of chronologically listing all your jobs? Have a Google but this will allow you to highlight transferable skills much more than just work history which often helps if you want to side-step.

Have you thought of rewriting your hospitality cv to give you a second ‘admin’ cv ? Whilst you can’t change job titles you can describe your job in more generic terms, taking out industry term and focusing more on the skills ? So for instance rather than ‘worked selling X, Y and Z in a busy retail environment ’ to ‘Responsible for selling multiple products, record keeping and arranging staff rotas’ .

How about temporary agency work in an office ?

Is there anyone you know who works with Excel .. you could probably learn the basics in a few hours. The local charity shop or library will probably have loads of ‘learn Excel’ books.

Good Luck!

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.

OP, do you realise if you are eligible for UC you'll likely be better off, childcare wise, than using tax free childcare? UC will pay you up to 85% of the fees.

Eta : You do need to be working I think, but don't let the full cost of the childcare put you off a job offer or application - it's always easier to get a job if you've already got one, so a low paid stopgap where you still get UC might be worthwhile?

https://www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/universal-credit

@Silverblue1985 @Snowflake760 I think that's probably a good idea. I will need to find someone who can help me make it more desirable for an admin role as I wouldn't really know where to begin. Thanks guys!

McDonalds. They’re the most flexible employer around and they have the best training programme in the world.

Could you cover household expenses if you had no childcare costs? You could study remotely/distance learning or whatever

Are there any temping agencies you can sign up to? Quicker route into work for now and a few more skills to add to the CV.

I also agree with making a separate admin focused CV. Go through the roles you have done and really think about the transferable skills. Stock ordering, diary management, rotas, picking up different systems, adding things to websites etc. I bet there's a lot. Apply with these as the focus for the more 9-5 office based roles.

You need to look long term when you child goes to school. Seasonal hospitality work will be tough to find childcare for in the holidays no doubt.

if you have GCSE in English and maths and some transferable skills (good organisation, outlook/word/basic excel, good communicator) sign on with temp agencies or look at admin or technician roles at your local council. Temp agencies are a good stepping stone for many.

many local councils run apprenticeship programmes too.

@GrannyAchingsShepherdsHut I don't think I stayed with it long enough to find out. I applied for UC back in June 2023 as one of my colleagues was convinced that it will help us tremendously compared to using tax free childcare. We were somewhat on a similar boat but she was renting privately (we're in a council flat) and she had two kids rather than one (her youngest attends nursery twice a week). Her husband and my husband's wage were pretty much the same so I thought it was worth the shot. But after waiting 5 weeks, the first payment came and it amounted to £0.00. My husband and I panicked as it meant we were going to pay the full amount of the nursery fees so we immediately went back to tax free childcare after paying the full amount to our dismay.

What sort of roles did you have in hospitality? I'd think about breaking them down into core skills and achievements so you can refocus your CV. Customer service skills, admin tasks (think organising/prioritising if on reception, reservations, housekeeping; analysis skills if you had to solve problems about where to allocate rooms using data from hotel systems or move staff about depending on demand; finance stuff if you had to do wages or balance transactions against data). I moved from hotels to civil service admin without too much trouble - if you think outside the box a bit you'll find something that suits. Totally appreciate it's a crap time when you're worried about money though. Best of luck.

Everyone picking apart what @spearthatbroc said. She has explained and apologised and Tbf I knew exactly what she meant.

Yes they both need to be in employment.

Focus on

• how well you organise things
• reliability, punctuality
• self-starter/common sense
• problem solving ,spotting things and getting in with them
• excel and word skills
• fitting in well with teams
• being flexible - do what needs to be done
• maturity
• tenure - you've got a stable work history - mention that you are looking for a more regular all-year role

Use examples for any qualities you say you have.

Do a short summary up front
'Highly organised, practical,and hands-on worker who is looking to work as part of an established, hard-working team"

Then do your roles on order, latest first and pick out the relevant skills and examples that relate to office type work. Eg organising stuff, and people. The paperwork elements you handled, the transferable skills.

As with all CV writing, grit your teeth and imagine that you are writing the CV for your best and most lovely fried who you know is bloody wonderful and would be an asset wherever they worked. Women are bloody dreadful at downplaying themselves on paper, and men quite the opposite. Blow your own trumpet,whilst not being an arrogant arse.

Good luck

i would be pouring effort in to prepping for this interview Op as this could work very well and offer opportunity of training

I read it exactly as you had intended but can appreciate why it was misconstrued.

You’ve had some great advice here. I really wish you all the best. You deserve it.

What about a carer role?

Appreciate you’re probably not in the same area as me but we are always looking for carers. All the care homes I know how vacancies as well. You don’t need previous experience and as a mum I’m sure you have all the kind, patience skills required.

TA. They are leaving in droves, so schools will hire with no experience and no training beyond 'I have known a lot of children'. Bonus is that that often also means you won't be used as whole class cover...

Have you tried breakfast waiting staff? Unless your dh does breakfast shift all the time it might work. You would have to do early start and then swap with your dh so he could do lunch and dinner service.

I've done this and my colleague's dh was a chef and this is how they worked it out. Meant both could work full time including weekends if needed

If your course is online and self driven then your provider may welcome you completing early. Ask them. We would!
Also look in the National Apprenticeship Service- there's so many and it's a great way to change career!
Temping agencies for reception and admin would allow you to build your CV in that area.
Good luck!

Go and register with every employment agency in your area, lots of job vacancies go straight to agencies and never get advertised publicly. Also the agency will be able to argue your case for not working weekends and the days when your husband is at work.

If you apply for any local authority jobs, you will not start anytime soon. They won't let you start until they have all your references and security checks in and they can be incredibly slow at it. I had an interview in January and didn't start until March. Then I missed payroll cut off so didn't get paid for two months. You'll be better looking in the private sector for quicker employment.

If you want to work in Tourism, the season doesn't start until Easter. Nobody is going to take anyone on at the moment. Try again in March when everything starts opening up again and they need temporary staff for the summer season.

There is a lot of competition for jobs at the moment as retailers will be letting the seasonal staff that they took on for Christmas go around now.

Have you thought about taking your child out of nursery for six months, this will save you some money? You'll get your free funding when they turn three. Wouldn't you be entitled 30 hours if you and your husband both work? That would allow you to work more hours, perhaps full time Mon-Fri.