As I mentioned early – and I mean EARLY!!! 1.47 am!! My Lordy!! – on Wednesday morning, I had a job interview the other day. I'm guessing by now that you've reached the conclusion, unless I made a point of texting you about it, that I didn't get the job. Yep. One more to add to the list of people who don't want me *sniff*. The job was for a food company in Elsham. Basically they spend their days chopping up Onions and Potatoes into various shapes and forms and shipping them off to other companies to use in whatever foods they use potatoes and onions in. If successful, I wouldn't have been spending my days, knife in hand, peeling potatoes and chopping them into messes. I'd have been working in the Accounts department doing, erm, accounts. By the sounds of it I would have been mainly responsible for the Sales Ledger and the weekly payroll (of about 20 folk), but I also got the impression I would have been needed to cover for other accounts things. Not a problem – I'd done it before I can do it again!! Lol!!
I left about an hour early, unnecessarily it turned out. I needed to get to the Job Centre to fill out a Travel to Interview form which basically pays me travel for anything over 4 miles. I had to ask Worse-than-useless-bint, but at least she just got on with it this time. I filled it in at the Job Centre and handed it back before heading back out to the car at a fair old pace. While I was getting in the car I saw one of the guys from work and had a quick chat. Just glad I didn't look a state – not that I would want to pull him, he's not my type, there I was all dressed up in my interview clothes not looking desperate.
I'm not sure what to make of the interview though. Cue the groans from the audience. What I mean to say is the interviewers were nice enough. I was interviewed by the Financial Controller and the Office Manager, but it seemed that aside from getting an impression of me they had very little idea as to the particulars of remuneration – that's a couple of big words for this time of day especially a Saturday. They'd seen the salary level that Sewell Moorhouse had put on my CV, and said they needed to discuss this with the MD – fair 'nuff, and they had to check whether I'd be granted study leave for my AAT on Mondays. Then I asked about any benefit package, i.e. Health insurance, pension, that kind of thing, and they said they didn't know …… filled me with confidence don'tcha think. The interview lasted all of 15 minutes and seemed promising, and they said they'd get back to Bev as soon as possible.
Bev called me at about 3pm to tell me that she'd heard from the guy, and he'd said that I didn't have enough relevant experience. She hastened to add that that was the only negative thing he had to say so that cheered me up some – I'm not a total loss then. Suffice it to say that, despite my disappointment, I renewed my efforts Wednesday afternoon to apply for jobs – found about four or five which I've sent applications off for. Thankfully no more awkward questions on application forms – speaking of which, I never got around to finishing that application for the council – I just couldn't think of what to put under the heading of 'Knowledge', although thinking about it now, the nature of that job involved home visits to demented, scary, unstable, thick or possibly violent people and you know what a nervous wreck I can be sometimes. Nope. When I thought about it some, as much as I would love to earn £17k a year, the stress may have killed me!! Lol!!
Saturday 20 October 2007
Friday 19 October 2007
Further Adventures In Job Hunting: What Is The Problem??
I told Kerry that my next blog would be a happier affair but a) I haven't had any inspiration, and b) I've been getting more and more irritated with my lack of employment. I've actually been quite down about it lately and I'm not sure why it's going so badly.
I worked out my response percentage the other day. Now, I'm not talking just the number of jobs I've been offered interviews for, but the amount of general correspondence and such that I've received. It works out that in the few months I've been unemployed I've applied for 23 jobs in Accounts and other areas and had a grand total of 2 interviews, 1 confirmation and 1 "Sorry, we had such a great response that we've already started the selection process." (Note that this letter came out PRIOR to the closing date). The rest haven't bothered to get back to me even to say Yay or Nay to whether they've received my application.
It's got to the point where I'm beginning to wonder why I'm even bothering. I'm now so low that I'm getting to the point where I'm on the brink of giving up all together. I mean, what is it?? Am I under-qualified? Am I over-qualified? Am I setting my sights to high? Am I applying for the wrong jobs even though I'm going for stuff with the same title as I've already had, or jobs that I have a bit of experience in? Is the fact that I state on my CV that I've done a bit of everything with regard to accounts and that Spencer actually did me a disservice by shuffling me from pillar to post? Is the fact that I would require 1 afternoon a week off to continue my AAT putting people off? I just have no clue. Answers on a postcard please ……
My feeling of self-worth has been further damaged by my experience of signing on this morning. You remember the worse-than-useless bint I ended up speaking to the last time?? Well I had the pleasure of seeing her again today and spent the session feeling worthless. It wasn't so much anything she said as the air she had about her and the way she spoke to me. I got the distinct impression that she was treating me like something she'd stepped in. I want to be able to see Marion again. She's got a few braincells. She asked me what I was doing to get work, all of which is on my record anyway, and then started going on about the agreement I signed when I first went in. One of the things it says is that I'm to phone two employers a week. Now this is where I sound like a snob, but that's all well and good if you're illiterate, or looking for factory or shop work -- they're always looking for people. But the jobs I'm looking at and am qualified for need planning y'know? They're not jobs that people hand out willy-nilly because there're all kinds of confidentiality issues and a certain skill set. So she's really pissed me off. It's almost like she thinks that me checking all the websites, which incidentally have vacancies from all kinds of companies, means I'm slacking. Does it?? So I don't physically pick up a phone and make a nuisance of myself, but it's still contact with employers and there's no box on the form which say apply for 'x' number of jobs a week. I could spend the rest of my life just phoning people about job availability, never take a single one of them and still be holding up my end of the agreement, but I wasn't built that way. I know jobs in my 'specialty' area are thin on the ground at the mo' but I'm still looking. I'm even moving outside of accounts to find a job. I think I've applied for pretty much everything going, and it pisses me off that she's treating me like I've been on the dole for years, not bothered to do anything and that it's all my fault. I'd be happy to be back at work -- if I had my way I'd still be sticking it out at Spencer -- oh there's another tale there, but we'll get to that later -- and searching on the side, but it didn't work out like that.
Something else that is seriously getting on my wick is the complete lack of contact from some agencies that shall remain nameless. I've been applying for jobs advertised by this particular agency off my own back – yay me >_> – but they're jobs that my contact at the agency should be telling me about and putting me up for. I'm also hearing nothing back from them, so either the Scunthorpe office aren't sending my applications over to Grimsby, or she's poo-poohing them because she thinks they're speculative enquiries and they're not the salary level I originally said I was looking at – they're not that far off in all honesty. To add insult to injury, whilst at the Job Centre this morning Worse-than-useless-bint ran me off a job placed by my very own contact, in my job area, and in my locality (4 miles down the road in fact!!) that she has never approached me with. I don't even know if she's doing anything for me at her end because I haven't heard from her since our first contact. I swear she's trying to place me in temping work for £6.50 an hour – that's what she was pushing for when I went in. That form she made me sign, but nothing's come of that either.
Back to the Spencer thing. A fortnight ago when I went into the Job Centre I spotted a job placed by a company which sounded very similar to Spencer. Worse-than-useless-bint spotted that one this morning and asked me if I wanted the details of it and lo and behold, when the name of the company popped up on-screen it was Spencer. I'm sure she rolled her eyes when I said "No. They're my previous employers. They didn't want me a couple of months back so I doubt they'll want me now" even though they wouldn't need to train me up so much. ;) They're after a Purchase Ledger person …… it's funny that 2 months ago they didn't need me, but you couldn't PAY me to go back there no matter how desperate I am. I went through too much there to even consider going back. It would be under a different manager who seems fair (and whom Vicky and friends rarely had a good word to say about), but the politics of the place and the attitude towards me there just did my head in. The purchase ledger department were a bit more forgiving, but the bitchiness was still there – not towards me as far as I know, but I suppose with an office full of women it's bound to happen. But no. I couldn't go back. I always took the piss (in a nice way of course) out of the returning workers, but always swore that once I was out, I'd stay out. Besides, my history with them would very possibly put them off anyway. And I think I'm still sore that I worked my arse off for them without as much as a thank you but that's by-the-by.
On the plus side, after bemoaning my inability to go shopping Jo has offered me her job so I can buy shoes but it'd backfire for her then!! ;) She's a girl after my own heart so I'd be able to shop, but she'd be buggered!! ;)
Really truthfully I'm trying to think of a fun blog. Kerry recommended an examination of musicians 'talents' but I think that's one where you'd have to have heard the conversation to get the gist. No doubt, for those in attendance on Saturday, it will come up in conversation – and I've got a new one that was a product of frivolity – or just simple foot-in-mouth -- in my Sage class last night.
In the meantime, I think I'm going to finish my latest application form (I've got to that annoying question you get in all Council application forms where you have to be creative with your answers), have another look for gainful employment, do my homework whilst bitching about Boycie having eaten my relatively new mouse I got for my laptop and now having to use one of those shitty mini mice that shoot all over the page without warning while I wait for the new one to turn up, in turn bitching about Royal Mail strikes because I have a couple of things on order that I could do with, and a very important cheque on it's way out, and additionally trying not to visit Myspace/Facebook/P&P/Richie-s/Youtube etc.* That's it -- I'm totally buggered!! ;)
* Delete as applicable
H.
xx
I worked out my response percentage the other day. Now, I'm not talking just the number of jobs I've been offered interviews for, but the amount of general correspondence and such that I've received. It works out that in the few months I've been unemployed I've applied for 23 jobs in Accounts and other areas and had a grand total of 2 interviews, 1 confirmation and 1 "Sorry, we had such a great response that we've already started the selection process." (Note that this letter came out PRIOR to the closing date). The rest haven't bothered to get back to me even to say Yay or Nay to whether they've received my application.
It's got to the point where I'm beginning to wonder why I'm even bothering. I'm now so low that I'm getting to the point where I'm on the brink of giving up all together. I mean, what is it?? Am I under-qualified? Am I over-qualified? Am I setting my sights to high? Am I applying for the wrong jobs even though I'm going for stuff with the same title as I've already had, or jobs that I have a bit of experience in? Is the fact that I state on my CV that I've done a bit of everything with regard to accounts and that Spencer actually did me a disservice by shuffling me from pillar to post? Is the fact that I would require 1 afternoon a week off to continue my AAT putting people off? I just have no clue. Answers on a postcard please ……
My feeling of self-worth has been further damaged by my experience of signing on this morning. You remember the worse-than-useless bint I ended up speaking to the last time?? Well I had the pleasure of seeing her again today and spent the session feeling worthless. It wasn't so much anything she said as the air she had about her and the way she spoke to me. I got the distinct impression that she was treating me like something she'd stepped in. I want to be able to see Marion again. She's got a few braincells. She asked me what I was doing to get work, all of which is on my record anyway, and then started going on about the agreement I signed when I first went in. One of the things it says is that I'm to phone two employers a week. Now this is where I sound like a snob, but that's all well and good if you're illiterate, or looking for factory or shop work -- they're always looking for people. But the jobs I'm looking at and am qualified for need planning y'know? They're not jobs that people hand out willy-nilly because there're all kinds of confidentiality issues and a certain skill set. So she's really pissed me off. It's almost like she thinks that me checking all the websites, which incidentally have vacancies from all kinds of companies, means I'm slacking. Does it?? So I don't physically pick up a phone and make a nuisance of myself, but it's still contact with employers and there's no box on the form which say apply for 'x' number of jobs a week. I could spend the rest of my life just phoning people about job availability, never take a single one of them and still be holding up my end of the agreement, but I wasn't built that way. I know jobs in my 'specialty' area are thin on the ground at the mo' but I'm still looking. I'm even moving outside of accounts to find a job. I think I've applied for pretty much everything going, and it pisses me off that she's treating me like I've been on the dole for years, not bothered to do anything and that it's all my fault. I'd be happy to be back at work -- if I had my way I'd still be sticking it out at Spencer -- oh there's another tale there, but we'll get to that later -- and searching on the side, but it didn't work out like that.
Something else that is seriously getting on my wick is the complete lack of contact from some agencies that shall remain nameless. I've been applying for jobs advertised by this particular agency off my own back – yay me >_> – but they're jobs that my contact at the agency should be telling me about and putting me up for. I'm also hearing nothing back from them, so either the Scunthorpe office aren't sending my applications over to Grimsby, or she's poo-poohing them because she thinks they're speculative enquiries and they're not the salary level I originally said I was looking at – they're not that far off in all honesty. To add insult to injury, whilst at the Job Centre this morning Worse-than-useless-bint ran me off a job placed by my very own contact, in my job area, and in my locality (4 miles down the road in fact!!) that she has never approached me with. I don't even know if she's doing anything for me at her end because I haven't heard from her since our first contact. I swear she's trying to place me in temping work for £6.50 an hour – that's what she was pushing for when I went in. That form she made me sign, but nothing's come of that either.
Back to the Spencer thing. A fortnight ago when I went into the Job Centre I spotted a job placed by a company which sounded very similar to Spencer. Worse-than-useless-bint spotted that one this morning and asked me if I wanted the details of it and lo and behold, when the name of the company popped up on-screen it was Spencer. I'm sure she rolled her eyes when I said "No. They're my previous employers. They didn't want me a couple of months back so I doubt they'll want me now" even though they wouldn't need to train me up so much. ;) They're after a Purchase Ledger person …… it's funny that 2 months ago they didn't need me, but you couldn't PAY me to go back there no matter how desperate I am. I went through too much there to even consider going back. It would be under a different manager who seems fair (and whom Vicky and friends rarely had a good word to say about), but the politics of the place and the attitude towards me there just did my head in. The purchase ledger department were a bit more forgiving, but the bitchiness was still there – not towards me as far as I know, but I suppose with an office full of women it's bound to happen. But no. I couldn't go back. I always took the piss (in a nice way of course) out of the returning workers, but always swore that once I was out, I'd stay out. Besides, my history with them would very possibly put them off anyway. And I think I'm still sore that I worked my arse off for them without as much as a thank you but that's by-the-by.
On the plus side, after bemoaning my inability to go shopping Jo has offered me her job so I can buy shoes but it'd backfire for her then!! ;) She's a girl after my own heart so I'd be able to shop, but she'd be buggered!! ;)
Really truthfully I'm trying to think of a fun blog. Kerry recommended an examination of musicians 'talents' but I think that's one where you'd have to have heard the conversation to get the gist. No doubt, for those in attendance on Saturday, it will come up in conversation – and I've got a new one that was a product of frivolity – or just simple foot-in-mouth -- in my Sage class last night.
In the meantime, I think I'm going to finish my latest application form (I've got to that annoying question you get in all Council application forms where you have to be creative with your answers), have another look for gainful employment, do my homework whilst bitching about Boycie having eaten my relatively new mouse I got for my laptop and now having to use one of those shitty mini mice that shoot all over the page without warning while I wait for the new one to turn up, in turn bitching about Royal Mail strikes because I have a couple of things on order that I could do with, and a very important cheque on it's way out, and additionally trying not to visit Myspace/Facebook/P&P/Richie-s/Youtube etc.* That's it -- I'm totally buggered!! ;)
* Delete as applicable
H.
xx
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