Support thread for job hunters...anyone else losing their mind?!

[Wiggle975]

As the title says, is anyone else worn out, and starting to lose their mind through job applications and interviews?

I am exhausted and starting to get very fed up with it all. The wasting of time.

Interview today went well. For once I got the impression that my age worked in my favour.

Now for the waiting... Trying not to get my hopes up, but I know they are expanding and having difficulty recruiting and I tick all their boxes.

I think the advent of hybrid/ wfh hasn't helped as the candidate pools are bigger, used to be whoever could get to that location as a daily commute so less to choose from.

At least I am out of my misery now with this latest job, if they had liked me from the last interview it would have been a further meet with head honcho, more stress, and they were still recruiting at screening stage so I could easily have been pipped by a more recent candidate. I'm away on holiday next week so glad I can forget it now and not have that stress. The whole recruitment process was a bit disjointed tbh, with the first 2 stages being outsourced to a hr consultant hence why I got so far along only to get a 'won't fit' reject at late stage.

Like dating, it's best to meet the hiring manager early on before you get too invested.

I hope you have better luck than I did @Definitelylivedin

I have an application to do today, a job which I missed the closing date for that readvertised, so for once the fussy employer thing may be in my favor

Rainbows, omg, they sound crazy to have not taken you!

In hindsight I didn't do loads of prep on the industry, will remember for future. They kept asking why I wanted to work in their ( niche, most people wouldn't be aware of) industry like I've just been hanging around all my life waiting for an opportunity to work there, as opposed to being an out of work HR person who's applied for anything HR paying anything decent. I work in any industry sector except public! But i guess I need to blag it up better next time.
Hard when it's potentially a waste of time doing loads of prep on an industry/ sector you may never hear of again. At least prepping competency answers you can use in future interviews.

This is such a good thread! Thank you, OP.

I somehow managed to go back to my old company after a career break of 4 years. But it hasn't worked for me. I did enjoy seeing the old faces and being myself from the beginning, but I found having to deal with the same routine and same organisational issues after so many years is tiring and demotivating. As I just joined back in, no a lot going on either. I found going through a day of 8 hours is becoming unbearable.

Started seriously looking for a different job, maybe a different industry. But it's absolutely not easy. I've been putting CV out nearly for a month or two, not a call!

No choice. Just have to keep trying!

I understand. Multiple times I have had enough of my role, but I end up going back to it for the money.

I am now doing a lot to boost my inner happiness at the moment. Exercise, yoga and healthy eating. It making it easier to manage the things that bug me about my role.

Keep going with the job hunting 😁

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@Wiggle975 To be honest, I've been trying to quit from the same company since a decade ago and I'm still here! 😆 Just sounds like a failure even to myself!

After the first month, I tried to shift my focus to tackling any issue as a personal development - it doesn't matter if I can't change the course of everything, but I will try and see how much I could improve things. But it's so hard when people around have no intention to work together for the bigger good. Very deflating tbh.

I think I will just have to settle on the idea that I will need to go through my days being less "useful" and focus more on spending time reading online material about how to improve my role when I have free time at work. Hope this could make me feel a little less restless and control the sense of being stuck/wasting time.

Will keep looking...until life happens!

Another rejection email today for a role I matched point for point in terms of experience and I was quite shocked I didn't get a look in as it's quite niche in the private medical admin. You've got to laugh. This is a role that was advertised back in March and now re-advertised.

Pretty much every role I looked at and even applied for back then has been re advertised since! I'm seeing the same roles on Indeed this time areound.
Has anyone else noticed this?

My interview on Friday went well. But it's a tiny, struggling company. Pay is awful, but the team seem lovely. The manager wants to arrange for me to have a chat with the MD next week which buys me a little bit of time to think about it.

I too am seeing a lot of roles re advertised which makes little sense to me in such a supposedly tight market.

As for not even getting shortlisted, not sure if I mentioned my friend's tale - she applied for a role on the recruitment portal of an organisation, meanwhile realised she knew someone there who managed to get her CV in front of the hiring manager who liked her and invited her to interview. Meanwhile her application was rejected by whoever/whatever was doing the screening. But the hiring manager liked her so much he offered her the job! So you can in fact be the perfect candidate but not make it through screening. So lucky for her she managed to find a way past it.

There is only one job currently advertised in my field / area that it's worth me putting my hat in the ring for. Barely worth it - 10k pay cut, 12 month contract so not even perm and not an industry sector I particularly want to build my career in. But needs must and it would be ok if I got it and better than staying unemployed. It's actually a readvertised role too - I missed the closing date last time. Theoretically I should get an interview as they said they would offer to people with a disability meeting the essential criteria which I'm fairly sure I do.

I didn't get the job😟They gave it to a man with "more experience"

Oh well.

Got my first interview in 13 years and did it yesterday after a few hours preparation. Then woke up in the middle of the night sweating and feeling ashamed: I lose my cool and near paniquing at one point when being questioned about a skill gap! 😂

I'm not sure if I can get anywhere, because if people want an exact match, I will never get a chance...

I'm not sure if I could even get into the second round...

I am fed up to the back teeth of Indeed. Anyone else ? Jobs I apply for where I match the criteria and after writing out a careful cover letter etc get me nowhere. No reply or a rejection email.
Also the pay is shocking for so many higher level admin roles - pretty much most are around minimum wage or a few pennies more.
Really fed up today.

Definitelylivedin I'm sorry. This has happened to me and unfortunately the place I work did this to a woman after three interviews. I wasn't involved in the interviewing.

The bloke they've hired is nice enough but very mediocre at the role.

Ragdollmother I hear you. It makes no sense to me why you'd advertise and job then not bother to interview people who show that they could do the job.

I'm on holiday for a couple of weeks from tomorrow. Best of luck to those applying, interviewing and waiting. Especially waiting.

I have an interview today for the job I'm not sure I want - but -to what extent can I just go for what I exactly want when I'm out of work? The phrase 'beggars can't be choosers' comes to mind. Yet if I take this job it may take my career in the wrong direction, or more like i'm trying to change direction/ industry sector and this would put me right back in the direction I was travelling before.

So hard to know what to do. Ah well they may not want me anyway .I'm optimistically thinking things will pick up in September so I'm loathe to accept something now if better things are on the horizon. I am doing ok for money, not desperate or anything, but I don't know if I could actually turn down an offer if it came my way when I've only had 3 interviews in 2 months (well 4, but one I definitely wouldn't have taken and nearly pulled out only it was too late. Think it showed in my very unenthusiastic answers/tone as I didn't get any further)

Very worn out! Here's a blog I found about creating a CV. I found it quite clear.
All the best.
https://blog.voceer.com/blog/how-to-create-a-cv-that-stands-out-expert-tips-from-voceer.com

Interview today went better than expected - I would take the role if offered. It's a 12 month contract so not a permanent commitment. The culture sounds a bit better than my initial impression.

This is the second time they have advertised in a month and it's for a mat cover so presumably they can't hang around and wait it out if they didn't see any one exactly right - hoping this means that a) the local candidate pool has already been depleted to a certain extent and b) they may be more willing to take a chance now.

No telling what is in people's heads though is what I've learned after many years in this game.
They said they are making a decision this afternoon so if I'm the chosen one I may even get to hear today.

Keeping positive during job hunting is hard to do but we all need to try. Going into an interview with a smile always helps.

Well no news for me yet, this is the worst situation as I'm kind of thinking surely they would have phoned the chosen one today...but there's an outside chance they were busy/ had a meeting and will make/ confirm decision tomorrow.

I keep thinking of all the things I should have said, but didn't. Missed out a really obvious answer to a situational question. And I asked about retention/ exit interview data which while relevant to my role as HR I'm now thinking is akin to asking a date why their last partner left as I was basically asking why people leave. Arrrgh!

Does the job market tend to get better again in September? :(

I believe so, as a lot of leave is taken in August so many firms may delay hiring. However they ( recruiters) said this last year and it didn't. It may mean a slight uptick in vacancies but I'm not expecting a miracle.

I feel like some employers are just trying to gather data or something? There are a few big companies in my city and they advertise the exact same role as 'new' every day in LinkedIn. Every day the same sh%t pops up. If I ignore those, there are barely any new jobs coming in, let alone any in my industry. I've got a pretty specialised data science background but can't find anything. Now I'm applying to more broader data jobs but my 'commercial awareness' isn't great (have worked in research, academia and charities mostly). I've got a recruiter screening call next week and I don't even want to do it because of the whole convoluted process. I'm not applying for senior positions, at all. Nor are they well paid. I'm applying to the civil service too. So I don't know what's worse, the overly specific civil service format, which is a whole skill in itself or the 12 round interview for a entry to mid level position circus in the private sector. I am so burned out from applying and interviewing, I might just stay in my current toxic job until things get better again (will they ever?).

@dancingunicorn5 , don't you think most of us feel stuck because of more or less similar reasons: The companies all seem to want the exact matches to what they want and somehow they always find whoever fits the description?

I feel like you, the more `i analyse, the more I feel hopeless. The world seems to work in a way expecting everyone stuck in their role and more or less the same spot... I'm actually talking myself out of feeling any hope.

I joke with DH (or do mean it): I shall set up my own company just to give myself a role in my own company designed to fill the skill gap in my cv. It doesn't matter if the company fails, as long as I could legitimately put those key words in my cv without lying... 😆

Or maybe going to a few job fairs could help? Just brainstorming..

I remember back in the 00s it was s o easy to change industry sector, I work in HR and easily went from, eg nhs to manufacturing.or local government to an airline.

Now, everything is culture fit/ sector experience and I can't imagine many private sector employers taking on someone from a council/ LG background.

Shame really as HR is all basically variations on a theme and it was a good way yo broaden my experience and bring fresh ideas to new environments.