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.

Because the covering letter or application personal statement has to align with the required skills and experience they want. I'm applying for senior management roles such as Director, COO, CEO so each application is unique. However maybe I'm doing it all wrong, it certainly seems that way atm!

@NineToFiveish I'm taking a similar approach to you. I use chat gpt to help me write a supporting letter, but rewrite it. I'm also approaching it as a numbers game - don't know if this is the right approach or not as only been seriously looking for just over a week. I work in finance so probably similar in terms of the types of companies we are applying to.

How soon do you find people get back to you to invite you for interview? I had 3 who contacted me within 24 hours, but then one changed their mine for some reason I don't know about.

I've still got 16 I'm waiting to hear back from. Would you say anything older than this week is likely to be unsuccessful?

You need to use ChatGPT. Not to make it entirely for you, but to help with the basic content that you can edit. It's an absolute game changer if you use the right prompts.

It depends on too many factors to say, really. Some places don't progress anyone to the next stage until they've officially closed applications, others have the different hiring phases running concurrently.

There's hope for us. I've been offered a role I interviewed for yesterday.

Good luck to everyone 🙏🏾

Congratulations!

Congratulations! Well done.

I've got an interview tomorrow, would be ecstatic if I could have some good news for the weekend too 🤞

Thank you!
I was feeling so demoralised that I'd applied for some jobs this morning before the school run.
I was also contacted twice on LinkedIn today so, perhaps now April is nearing, maybe there's some more mojo in the job market.

I refined my CV a little a few weeks ago if that helps anyone. I stripped it back to be punchier and stripped out some repetitive elements. Just in case that's helpful for anyone.

Do keep at it even though it feels relentless.

Well done!

I'm still hunting, and having a down day today.
I had an interview today, and initially thought it went well, have been going over it in my mind(lots), and have now decided not.

I do have a final/second interview next week, elsewhere, but unsure how people might be going for it.

I think an early night tonight,.see if sleep helps mindset!

Wishing you all good luck for the week ahead 🤞🧘‍♂️✨

Took your advice and used AI today for my letter. Fingers xed!

Starting to look up here. I had a telephone interview yesterday which went really well, and the job is more interesting than I initially thought, with more planning and budget elements. And as it is linked with retail I thought it would involve working Saturday but it is Monday - Friday which is much better for me.

I also had a session with and advisor which was really useful. She told me to stop selling myself short and gave me some great advice for my CV. Just tweaks but they push me for more senior roles. She also gave me the heads up on a job that I have all the qualifications for and so far only has 2 applicants. So I've applied.

Sounds great @Definitelylivedin good luck.
There's definitely more out there. Sods law that I've now been contacted three times by recruiters over the last few days. Habit meant I still threw my hat in the ring just in case the other role offer falls through.

My 18 year old DS is struggling. He has good GCSEs- 5s to 7s and quite a bit of work history for his age but he doesn't even get interviews for most minimum wage/temporary/zero hours type jobs. It's really disheartening. He is applying for trades/engineering apprenticeships too but needs something in the meantime. The only thing he won't apply for is care work, which I agree which as I don't think you should be in that profession unless you have the right temperament.

@Wooloohooloo has he tried temping agencies. They don't deal just with admin work, they do labouring, delivery work, warehouse work etc. He needs to find one or two and ring them regularly.

I've got a job too!

Went for an interview today, and I was the last candidate. No second interview so was amazed to get an offer through a couple of hours later - which I've accepted. Really liked the people who interviewed me.

I have actually had a lot more interest from recruiters in the last 2 days as well. A couple did say that it's not just me saying employers are taking an age to get back to them. He says other candidates as well as recruiters are saying the same thing and they're hoping it speeds up in April after the financial year end.

Ahh well done, @Fallenangelofthenorth !

I had a 2nd stage interview today that went very well I believe. We shall see.

And tomorrow is a 3rd stage interview for a different role, with a presentation. I'll be glad when all this is behind me and hopefully an offer will come out of one of them! 🤞

@NineToFiveish Good luck for your interviews too!

Thank you! I initially felt it went well but I'm replaying it over and over in my mind and second guessing every answer/choice, over-analysing every comment the interviewers made, etc. It's going to be a long weekend of waiting.

Amazing news @Fallenangelofthenorth

Pleased for you.

No joy here. Not even really finding roles to apply for. Recruiters being flaky as usual. I'd far rather be told that they weren't putting me forward or the client wasn't interested than just vanishing. Can't even express my annoyance at them as you never know when you might need these people in future.

It's not helping that others are now stressing about me not working either. I'm not sure what extra effort I can be putting in if the roles don't exist to apply for?

You might see an uptick soon, with new budgets coming into play in April. A lot of places will have roles ready to open up, just need the go-ahead from budget approval etc.

I'm sorry, it's really tough. Would freelancing or short term contracts be an option?

I'm already a contractor, so mainly looking at short term contacts anyway. Most of my work tends to be project based so if companies aren't starting new projects it's slim pickings.

Still finding the job situation dire too. I have made it through to final interview several times in the last few weeks, only to be told that budget has been pushed out due to projects not being signed as expected. No good vacancies at all this week. Getting desperate now, would be really happy to do temp/contract work but no luck with those and even local temp agencies won’t return my calls

Me too. Managed to land some work until July, the work's pretty far below my skill set but the pay is decent so I'm just thinking to enjoy letting someone else do all the hard thinking for once.

Can I join in ? Everyone keeps telling me it's April things pick up but I haven't seen any picking up yet ?