Looking For A Job Shop

Looking For A Job Shop

Now open..lots of best sellers !!!

Looking for a job when you are over 50: Make Money from Home..New Page !!!

Looking for a job when you are over 50: Make Money from Home: This page is going to have links to programmes which I am a member of and through which you can earn a little money or points for rewards, u...

Your Christmas job search

Companies can obviously get a bit distracted at Christmas time with deadlines to meet and partying, and so recruitment can go a bit quiet, although don't think think there are no jobs available so its not worth bothering. Quite often managers want to place staff in post ready for the new year. Like the periods leading up to and immediately after the simmer holidays it can be a good time for your job search.

This means you should use some time to help re-focus on your own career search, getting in a very strong position to get in there immediately when the new year arrives. Continue to send your CV, to possible employers, its a quiet time and they may even have more time to read it than usual.

• Evaluate your CV..does it need any work or updating ? Take advantage of recruitment sites linked to free CV reviews, and post that CV to as many boards as possible. Check where your CV is already posted and take it off, then repost as this keeps it nearer the top of the pile. You might have posted your CV on a site a couple of years ago and not looked since to see if it is being read. The more updating, reviewing and evaluating you give your basic CV the better., remember it is a generic CV to then be adapted for each post you apply for.

• Research and have a good read of interview advice..be prepared !!!

• Explore....

Rather than just applying by sending off your CV to advertised jobs, take advantage of things being a bit quieter and research companies. Google businesses in your area, I believe Yell is also a good business listings. I followed my own suggestion and Googled business directories in Mitcham, which led me to businesses where I can make speculative enquiries about vacancies. However, what I also saw were people offering their own services e.g. cleaning etc. and other jobs they can do to make money as a business. If you have services you can use to make money, take advantage of free business listings to advertise yourself.

• Master the art of Social networking

You are probably on Facebook already, but there is so much more to it than sending daft posts to mates and updating everything you do and everywhere you go. Facebook can and indeed does have a business side...search the groups and pages for people looking for a job, CV reviews etc...If you do not have a LinkedIn profile...go to the site and get started..do not be afraid of LinkedIn many employers now go straight to a candidates LinkedIn profile on seeing their CV, and you need to be there..Google Employment social networking sites too for other useful suggestions.

• Circulate..Take advantage of Christmas parties to let people know that you are looking for a job. Many of these may be fantastic social networking chances

• Benefit from the Christmas break

Get yourself into a good, strong, organised and job ready place, look up courses, including online free ones if money is tight and you cannot afford college courses, see what is free online. Find a system to record your job applications, a simple spreadsheet will do....and..

Enjoy the break !!!!

It’s a Networking Time of Year!

It’s a Networking Time of Year!

Christmas time is wonderful! Time to reflect, enjoy the hustle & bustle, take in the decorations and lights… and especially if you’re in a job search… to Network!

Communication Careers Corner: Another reason to keep up your job search during t...

Communication Careers Corner: Another reason to keep up your job search during t...: Click here , courtesy of jobsearch.about.com.

Three interviews for the same job...but no job...or a little update

Well, the blog has been very quiet of late, and even as a novice blogger I know that it is not to be advised....readers appreciate regular updates on a blog and I know that I have gathered many loyal and encouraging followers, for which I thank you all for encouraging my fledgling project....However, to use the words of a Job centre adviser when I was trying hard , without success, to persuade and explain to her that in view of my health, but very much taking into account the potential of the blog and my writing and marketing abilities I should be helped to access available grants and schemes and become self employed....'You are on Job seekers allowance and you have to do as you are told !' i.e..Look for a job.

Of course there are grants and enterprise schemes to help people to become self employed but the same adviser admitted to me that the DWP in effect pay lip service to it. They have to..the grants , help and support are there, so they can hardly deny it and they advertise and write about it in Jobcentreplus literature, but it is not the government who are providing the money for new enterprise. The grants and schemes are funded by external providers who do not want to part with the money, therefore Jobcentreplus advisor’s are made to deter people who want to apply. It is not difficult for them to find grounds on which to deter an applicant, in my case the Job centre know that I am dependent on mortgage interest relief, and that the little I receive since the coalition cut the rate at which it is paid, makes quite a difference to any chance I may have of holding on to my home., although there is a big shortfall in the rate of mortgage interest relief and the rate of my actual mortgage. Mortgage Interest relief is only paid if you are on a means tested benefit, in my case Job seekers Allowance (JSA). and the other benefit, which employed people on low wages and the self employed can claim , Working Tax credits are not means tested benefits. Therefore the Job centre have grounds in their opinion for denying me access to help to become self employed, and I have to admit their argument has some weight. In order to be able to apply for many grants and self employment schemes you have to complete an income and expenditure sheet, to prove that you can afford to become self employed, i.e..you cannot fund your venture entirely out of schemes and grants and I am dependent on JSA, so I have to obey its rules and look for a job, because I need the JSA and mortgage interest relief....and should I start to earn any money from the blog, it would not be at least at the start, enough to replace my benefits and the mortgage interest relief. The moral of this situation might be that although you assume that it is right to tell the DWP your financial details, hoping of course to get any extra help you can, it may be advisable not to give them too many details..I cannot get help to become self employed, because the DWP know my financial situation and are using it.

However, Santander, along with many other mortgage lenders ,have increased my mortgage interest rate, as indeed it has been increased for many. The DWP write periodically when you are on benefits to ask if there has been e.g., any changes to your housing costs, and to advise the DWP if this is the case. I telephoned them when advised by Santander of the increase and was told, 'You can send us the information by all means but you don't get anymore money. Mortgage Interest relief is paid at a standard rate and all you can do do is to talk to your lender'. I managed to come to an arrangement ( I think that lenders have been made to tow the line a little and are not able to proceed to eviction quite as quickly as they did, although the recent decision by lenders to increase the mortgage rate has cost many their homes ), but the arrangement ends in January, by which time I must have a job or enough freelance work to cover and to give up my benefits....It is a race against

time now to get a job.

I have previously mentioned that I had been eager to and tried to get a job in telephone charity fund-raising. With a heart condition, high blood pressure, and joint , mobility and sight problems,a key factor is to find a job that physically I can manage, and I guess it could be said I am in a better position than many, as since Ian Duncan Smiths regime got a grasp on the benefits eligibility of the sick and disabled, along with ATOS, the terminally ill and those in a coma are declared fit for work. In Icy winter conditions I am housebound, and there are not many jobs where your boss will give time off for icy weather. Going to work in snow and ice even the wrong type of snow.. is a British hazard..Since I must do as I am told and get a job, telephone charity fund-raising appeals ( not that I can be fussy) and seems ideal and well suited to my skills.

I had applied many, many times to the agencies who advertised these vacancies, but my applications had not got no further than the agency phoning to say my application would be passed to the company. which is how these vacancies are handled i.e. via an agency. The first stage was a telephone interview with the agency, having got through that, I had to be on hold and available at short notice for the next stage interview with the company itself. which was another telephone interview, and then again waiting on hold, to hear if I had got through it and would be asked to attend a face to face interview . The news of the success or not of each stage interview was never advised by the recruiting agency until about 5pm each day. I got to this stage, the final interview, which was a group interview , with another group to follow of twelve, so we were given the impression that decisions would be made promptly as they were eager to get the interview sessions over and the interview process largely was based on group role play. I was unsurprised to hear that at this last stage I was not selected. Very few of the other candidates were over 35, and they all came from sales and marketing backgrounds, the telephone charity fund-raising job is largely target based..and the other background that appealed to the interviewer was the considerable number of actors and actresses between jobs who had got to this stage of the interviews, since the role requires convincing reading from a script . Most of the applicants came from marketing and sales backgrounds including mortgages and estate agencies, both careers which have a strong target element. All of this was going on while I was desperate to be free to go to the law centre and get help and advice about my mortgage and housing options, should I as is most likely not have a job in January. Of course, the recruiting agency were also desperate to reach a target and were putting strong pressure on me to wait around and be willing to follow through the recruitment process...telling me that IF I got the job my mortgage worries would all be over...well yes, but in effect this interview went on for a week and was all to no avail..and I suspect this is increasingly common in interview processes

Of course I was desperate to be free to seek advice about my mortgage , but had I not followed through the interview process, and the job centre/DWP known I had not concentrated on the possible chance of a job, I would have lost my benefits. This I think is a situation that proves the point of a blog post I wrote about the advantages of paying benefits at a higher rate than cutting them as people are then less likely to be spending their time sorting out debt issues and in a better position for concentrating on job applications.

Meanwhile the mortgage interest relief comes to an end altogether in June when I will have been on JSA for two years. The two year claim rule was of course introduced by the coalition, but you still get it indefinitely if you qualify for ESA ( sickness benefit). The Work programme are now advising that I should speak to my GP and ask for certificates and claim ESA as they feel this would be best for .me.. My GP was earlier this year writing certificates saying he felt I should not be working, and the job centre refused to let me claim ESA, stating that the moment my work capability assessment came up I would be put back on JSA, as they consider me highly employable. I had a review for my blood pressure and also had to see the GP for a shoulder problem that may be linked to my arthritis or a frozen shoulder, and as soon as Christmas is over I have to go for an x ray, on seeing the GP,he now refuses to write a certificate saying that he knows it will be to no avail and he feels unable to be of any support in ESA claims....I am aware that in fact G P’s have been instructed by the DWP NOT to issue medical certificates.