I've lost my confidence

[mackerel]

I've been out of the job market for 6 years having lots of children and have just applied for a couple of jobs - one of which is I'm professionally qualified to do and one which is an unqualified post but for which I met every specification - and more. I've just found out that I've not been shortlisted for the unqualified post and I'm devastated. It was quite an interesting job with term time hours. I've asked for feedback because I'm not sure why I haven't even had an interview. I'm quite happy to accept I might not have got the job, but to not get an interview? I'm now really worried I might not get an interview for the other post. I've never not been shortlisted before and it's knocked me for six.

Sorry to hear this. It's a numbers game in the jobs market at the moment mackerel, please try as hard as you can not to take it personally. When we are recruiting at the moment there are literally tens of qualified people that we can't interview. I can imagine that something with term time hours would have had an awful lot of interested applicants, and, in any case, for all you know they had an internal candidate in mind. You are doing the right thing to ask for feedback, I hope that is useful to you. Please don't be devastated after just one knock back.

thanks Domesticslattern. I'm feeling a bit better this morning after a good glass of wine last night and a stern talking to myself. I am wondering about the internal candidate thing - it's a big problem in this area when you're job hunting if it isn't you! Also, I wonder do you think it's possible to be over qualified for a job? I'm really not being arrogant because i can see my weaknesses and why I might not have got the job for a few reasons, but I was talking to two friends last night and both were interviewed for different jobs and told they were too qualified. I would have just liked the opportunity to have an interview.

I agree with DomesticSlattern - but you could try posting your cover letter here (like on the thread below) and see if the helpful people could give some hints on how to improve it.

Sometimes people look at a CV and say 'oh, they're too good for the job, they'll stay a couple of months and then leave for somewhere better paying' - and it does happen (just happened to my DH, with a new employee who swore he was happy with the salary and conditions)

do not get disheartened looking for a term time job.

eg, my sister wanted to do a teaching assistant type post in a primary school.

she has a degree( in art).

to get a teaching support job she had to do an nvq course, arrange a placement in a school and it took about a year. none of these were requirements in the job advert- but they were what all the other candidates were offering.

eventually she landed a great job as an Art tech in a high school. she did this by going along to an open day and handing her cv to the head of art, saying how impressed she was with the school.

this might not apply directly to you but it is a similar situation- she was over-qualified- but all employers look for some evidence that you really want to do the job- so some voluntary work and basic qual specific to what you want to do might be a thought

Thanks for the ideas ladies. I'm a qualified social worker and the role was for pastoral support. Hopefully I'll be luckier with the social work application.