How long was your job search?

[Pleasehireme]

I have recently been made redundant from a large corporate company and I, perhaps naively, envisioned securing a new job would be fairly straight forward.

It’s been around a month of attending interviews with no success, even the interviews I thought I had nailed. I hoped redundancy would be an opportunity to move onto something better but at this point I feel like I’d accept anything!

So what’s normal? How long was your job search?

Mine has varied from a few days to several (3+) months.
It's a brutal process in my view for anyone except those with the skin of a Rhino or superstar skills. I wish you every good wish as it's just horrible.

To be quite honest in the past, I've always found jobs quite quickly and got them quite easily too.

What didn't help though, was when I was job hunting when I was being bullied at work, I think this came through in interviews (not sure if I had that many or if it was just with recruitments agencies).

What I did have to really pick up on and skill myself up on was that I was a legal secretary and I'd been given job interview advice by a small boutique recruitment agency owner and her lackey in the agency. However, they weren't that good at helping me, or not that I thought. They did have a list of questions you could be asked and STAR Q&As and other useful tips, which I still use. The owner just often talked straight over/through me (could speak for England!) and therefore I didn't get roles they sent me for, though I did get a second place consolation prize in few of them.

Then I interviewed for a role at a huge corporate worldwide company, wasn't sure about my chances, but yes, I got a first interview with them and a second one and was offered a job. My then NDN/friend was a teacher and what helped massively is she went through with me, backwards and forwards, all about their values, culture and anything else really important and interviewed me herself. It was amazing, she could've taught interviewing techniques! But she also pointed out (teaching skills, natch) what other things I needed to look out for or what they'd ask me. It was way better than anything the first agency had suggested to me to do.

I think roughly your job search can be anything from a couple of months to 6 months or even longer. My SIL's DB, he's been job hunting for a permanent role for a good few years and last/this year finally landed a perm role. I would say, if you're not getting jobs offered to you say after a certain time frame then rethink your interview method, you might need to tweak it a bit or outside eyes can offer better advice to you.

I was made redundant in September 2020 and started work on April 1st 2021. Seven months. But I was 58 and work in IT. It was always going to be a bit of a battle.

I had accepted a job with the DWP, the month before in desperation, but the day I started, I was offered my current role on a permanent contract and twice the money so I made my excuses and left after 1 day.

Stick with it. You'll get there.

DH had one interview in 4 months (he got the job) but it’s about £50k below his pay grade. No other companies offered him an interview and we only had about three months’ worth of money.

I work part time with no option to increase my hours. My take-home is the same as our mortgage payment.

I think it depends on your industry, your skills and experience, and what sort of role you're looking for (as well as salary expectations).

It took me 2 months for a senior role at a time when companies within my industry (tech space) were making quite a lot of redundancies. At another time I could've probably been hired sooner. I also was more amenable to being hired quickly (which probably came across in interviews) due to being pregnant at the time, otherwise I'd have been more choosey (took a 3k annual salary pay cut which pre-pregnancy I wouldn't have done!)

I think the more senior you are, the longer you can expect the employment gap to be as you'd realistically be looking for something on par or better than what you previously had and there are fewer roles available. I think companies are also more forgiving of longer gaps for senior leadership roles as a result.

If you're quite junior/mid level, then the employment gap is likely to be shorter (as long as there's job vacancies in your industry). There's generally more jobs going and the requirements less stringent.

For me, I've never really gotten anywhere with applying for jobs - my last 2 roles I've landed through headhunters rather than applications. Might be worth checking that your LinkedIn etc. is as good as it can possibly be to attract more recruiters to your page

For the first time in myofe I'm not getting jobs at interview. Been looking since Jan. The successful applicants have all apparently just come from the exact same role. Am getting very cynical.

Thank you for all the responses. Sounds like I better buckle in for a few more months of interviews..

I’m seeking a mid-level position and my skillset is transferable to various industries, which is why I thought securing a new role would be a breeze. Any time in the past I’ve been job hunting I’ve landed a role within weeks, so it’s hard not to take it personally.

I’ve taken each interview seriously and researched the companies inside out. Two of the interviews went nothing short of perfect with feedback on the spot at how impressed they have been. Only to receive a rejection email the following week ☹️.

I am starting to wonder if it’s my salary expectations, perhaps they have found a suitable candidate that was willing to take much less. My problem is I don’t want to undersell myself to secure a position and find myself unhappy and on the hunt again in 6 months.. sigh.