Just been made redundant

[limescale]

Lone parent.
One months notice.
Should get 2 months redundancy.
I work for a Hong Kong company, so I’m under their laws.
Need to find a new job. Sharp.
I have a 16 yo at home (26 yo as well).
My divorce 9 years ago wiped out savings. I do not have a big buffer to fall back on.
😢😢

Sorry to hear this, I’ve been made redundant 4 times in my working career. Do take a look online calculator to see if you can get any benefits, you will certainly be entitled to jobseekers and if you don’t have very much in the way of savings, you could be entitled to more.

I hate employers who evade responsibility like this. You would not have met the tests to be self employed regardless of what HK think l.

I wish you all the best. I was sacked this year (not redundant) and it is shite!

Are you using AI to help you? Might be worth running your cv/application through Gemini or GPT. Or generally using it as a sounding board for interview questions, upskilling or scenario planning.

I was made redundant last year after 28 years in my job. I was devastated. I’m not a single income household, but I earn over 3 times what my husband does.

I received a call from an agent via linked in, I accepted a 12 month contract which has become permanent. I’m now 56 and was concerned about getting another job.

Thanks all. Yes, I'm pretty sure it was AI screened. I've had some others with almost immediate rejections.

I am using AI to assist with the first drafts of my tailored cv and cover letters.
Assist being the key word, some of what it spits out makes me wince!

@AuditAngel I am 55 next month.

Assist being the key word, some of what it spits out makes me wince!

Tell me about it. I think that's the best approach if using it. Some places will screen out applications that were AI generated.

Does your ex pay maintenance? Can you ask him for more?

He pays the absolute minimum...or should I say he pays the blood I got out of the stone.
With that info I guess I don't need to answer the second! I asked DS1 not to tell him (DS2 has no relationship with him) as he'll probably sneer.

Sigh....it's wearying.
I withdrew from the position which required relocation. I am not in a position to move.

For the one I got the almost immediate rejection for, I contacted the person with whom I'd had an informal chat with. She very kindly talked to the hiring manager. The position is advertised in the US but on the platforms it's been posted it says applicants from the UK would be considered. Turns out it was my UK location that AI didn't like. Anyway, I now have a screening call for possible contractor positions similar to the one I applied for.

Today has draining. I need to organise my job tracking. Some positions are rolling, some are posted in a million different places (and not removed when filled). I spent a long time applying for a position I already applied for and cannot see any way to apply again (with a far better cv and covering letter).

Another had a shitty uploading platform which didn't allow me to submit. I tried different browsers and via my phone. I suspect the post has been filled but the position not removed.

I had one last week with similar upload problems but thankfully was able to make contact with an actual human who has processed my application.

I can't stop crying today.
I don't know why today is any different to all the other days, but I'm a mess.
I'm so worn out with it. Spend a day carefully applying for a job.
Maybe get a reply, maybe get a rejection.
Repeat.

When my money has gone, that's it - I will have to take whatever is out there (mainly minimum wage stuff), which won't allow me to support my house and child.

I know no one can do anything. I have many friends, but when I'm low I retreat into myself. Some hugs from strangers on the internet would be appreciated.

Just sending you a virtual hug. It must be a very worrying time for you and I hope something good pops up soon

Big hug coming from here. It’s so hard isn’t it because jobs are so tied up with our self worth.

I’ve never been made redundant although DH has but I have left jobs with no job to go to and moved abroad with no job. We found the way through was to firmly believe something would turn up. It might not be exactly what we wanted but it would have benefits of its own. I have also taken temporary work just to get by.

I also ‘reached out’ - once I sent three speculative cvs out to local organisations who weren’t advertising and got two job offers. Just landed at the right time.

Have faith - a favourite family saying we have is ‘all things must pass’.

Thank you both.
I've had 2 rejections today. At least they had the courtesy to respond.

I called Samaritans - not cos I am in crisis, but because they allow you to talk, cry, offload and reset w/o offering solutions and with no judgement.

I am in no frame of mind to apply for jobs today.

So sorry that things are still tough for you. You’re doing your best and this period in your life won’t last, just have to keep muddling through as best as you can.
Have you looked at claiming universal credit yet? You can do a benefits calculator online to check eligibility.
Not sure if this was suggested previously but have you reached out to old work colleagues, managers etc from previous jobs to see if they know of anything?
Please don’t lose hope. Things can change so quickly, you just won’t know it’s coming until it does…

Thank you. I am not eligible for UC but can look into JSA.

I have many, many professional contacts and got in touch with them straight away. They are always very kind, supportive and encouraging even if they don't have any leads. Unfortunately Trump's decimation of NIH funding has had a massive impact on grant funding for many of the position which used to come up a lot, but everyone's on hiring freezes, or laying people off.

I am going for a walk with a friend soon and this evening am swimming in a lake in the full moon with a wonderful set of women.

One time when I was without work, I went temping, saying I was still looking for work in my usual field, and might want leave at short notice for interviews. I don't know if they'd agree to it now, although I ended up in a call centre, and I did at least give notice about not being in,which not everyone did, so I think they appreciated that...

Anyway, it got some money coming in, gave me some interesting different experience, and made me very appreciative once back on a decent salary again. And meant I didn't have to go to the Job Centre, which I found a frustrating experience, because they didn't know much about professional level jobs, as far as I could tell.

In summary- do you need to cast your net wider to get some income, while still looking for "proper" work?

I don't have much time right now but I did a super quick search for local temp jobs and came up with refuse collector and prison escort.
That is casting my net pretty much as wide as it is possible to go!

My cv will need quite some modifications.....

Sending hugs🤗

Am in the same boat OP and I recognise the swinging wildly between mad panic and calm (this is just a season).

I have another ‘conversation’ tomorrow and a first interview for something else next week. If neither of these come off I will be going down the ‘temp’ route as savings will have run out.

Keep going x

FFS - for a minimum wage p/t temporary job they ask:

"Please review these and provide specific examples in your application of how you have demonstrated these attributes in your work, education or other experience. It will assist your application if you explain the situation, what you did and what the outcomes were."

There are then 8 attributes with a scale (A-D) depending on how important that attribute is for the role. There is a link to the 'positive indicators' for each level of each attribute, with a number of bullet points. If you took it literally they want 32 specific examples. It's almost a dissertation!

This is just one part of the 'suitability for the role' section.
I slept for about 5 hours last night.
They'll probably get 1000 applicants and it's probably just a box ticking exercise as they've probably got an internal candidate in mind.

Yes, I'm grumpy.

Sounds tedious and soul destroying… without needing to sell yourself short with jobs like that, are there any other higher paying but lower level jobs you can look at applying? Even some admin/sales support type roles pay much better than basic salary in the right industry. IT & financial services industries in particular

It's not actually a bad job - it's a university library support position requiring all sorts of skills.
I am looking at all roles, I haven't seen any support roles that pay above minimum wage, but thanks.

Sorry OP I can totally understand how worried and stressed you feel. I have been there myself and it is very frightening to not know how you are going to pay your bills especially if you are single.

It sounds like you are doing everything right but I remember filling in huge applications and feeling so depressed and pointless about them.

Could you sell your car? I did this when I took redundancy from a job and just used buses for a while. It just gave me some breathing space and stopped me panicking. The other thing I did (and this may not be wise) was took out a bank loan using my current employment details without telling them of course I had been given redundancy. It was done at my own bank and online and it went through pretty much right away and got the money the next day. That also gave me a huge bit of breathing space although taking out more debt in a situation like this is obviously something you would need to ponder. I applied while I was still working there so I could enter my salary details etc without lying.

I've read a few threads on here about replacement of jobs with AI and of course with the autumn budget hanging over us many companies aren't hiring.

I wish you luck. Maybe take a couple of days off the job hunting to give yourself a break. Keep us posted.

Thank you, I really appreciate you writing as I sit here feeling alone and ranting away.
I can't do w/o my car (rural), but if it comes to the crunch I will have to sell it and get a cheaper one (it's a 10 yo Golf so nothing too fancy, but bought on finance last year).

At this stage I don't need a loan, I do have many months of wiggle room - it's just the fear that once that's gone I am really stuck.

I'm done for the day and am shortly going to speak to someone about volunteering at a place I've helped at before. That will 1) give me more of a structure to my day and 2) help with me feelings of self worth.

I've been made redundant twice. The one time something came up quite quickly, the other time I got into a lot of debt and was a mess. My self esteem was rock bottom, and I didn't want to get out of bed in a morning. I did countless interviews, and applications, and got nowhere. Eventually I got a local authority job and have worked my way up. Keep fighting the fight and hopefully you'll get a lucky break at some point.

It's horrible I know.