I'm trying to find a new job because of insane levels of pressure in my current one. I work in the Civil Service and I've been applying for roles in other departments but everything is so competitive at the moment I'm not even getting interviews. I know when we advertise roles we're getting hundreds of applicants so this is probably what's happening elsewhere.
I'm now thinking of casting my net wider, but my issue really is references. I've been with the CS for 8 years and they don't really "do" references in the way some companies seem to want them, i.e., they want a named person who can talk about whether you personally are any good or not, whereas the CS just sends something from HR confirming you worked there and when. The job before that I only did for six months and left because I was being bullied by the manager. The one before that, the company has closed down. So now we're talking about the job before that, which is more than 10 years ago now and I don't think any of the same people who I worked with are still there. Even if they were, their opinions about my work are not very current!
When I see a request for "Two references, one from your current or most recent line manager" I don't even bother applying because I have no idea who I would put, but I do want to start looking at non-CS roles, so I need a strategy for dealing with these sorts of things. I can't be unusual in my circumstances - what would others do?