Unemployment/Careers

[PRS]

15 minutes ago, throbber said:

Well the most relevant thing I have to the job I'm applying for is the subject I am doing my honours project on, so I have mentioned that mostly in my statement and only briefly in my cv which I want to keep as just my achievements/experiences.

Look at www.prospects.ac.uk/   It's the website run jointly by U.K. University careers services. Evidencing your skills relevant to the job you are applying for is essential to being successful at the interview.  In the above website, look at "Careers Advice" then choose "options with your subject", in there you will find the transferable ones from your degree. Evidence those skills listed there that match those required by the job. Your skills can come from any part of your life, not just academeia.  Generic skills like Time management can be highlighted by meeting project deadlines, combining study with part time work etc

[throbber]

I'll be on that starting Monday PRS. Thanks very much. I think too often I have just submitted a cv for someone else to figure out where I would fit in.

[PRS]

3 minutes ago, throbber said:

I'll be on that starting Monday PRS. Thanks very much. I think too often I have just submitted a cv for someone else to figure out where I would fit in.

Your CV is your first impression.  Make sure that your personal profile at the top of the CV is targeted for that post.  Someone should know by reading your personal profile what job you are applying for.  Summarise your key points for the post.  Although it appears immediately below your contact details and first piece of "real information" on the CV but as it is summarising your key attributes it is sometimes easier to compose after you have completed the rest off the CV. Having a major achievements section immediately after this is where you show the employer your USP.  In your Education section, you are selling your degree.  If your degree is closely aligned to the job that you are applying for, then use bullet points to highlight the key subjects that the job requires.  Your school qualms should be condensed into a couple of lines and don't go for their back than your Highers.  A good starting point for preparing a CV is to take an A4 sheet landscape, mark three columns.  In the left hand column, put in the key skills/attributes that are on the job description.  In the middle column think of a situation where you have either gained or used these skills and in the third column, go into detail evidencing these.  You are more .ikely to make a targeted CV as well as preparing for the interview.  

if there isn't a section on the job description headed "desirable skills", don't be disheartened if you do not have all off these.  Job descriptions are designed with the employers ideal applicant in mind.  Like the ideal job, they probably don't exist

[BuddieInDundee]

Actually quite an interesting thread this!

Disagree with the idea going back into Hospitality is a bad choice, it's really hard work but the people you meet are great (in my experience, at least) and there's never a dull moment

[kmc dafc]

If you've nothing to tie you down to Scotland, have a look at teaching English in SE Asia. Been out in Vietnam 6 months now and it's an absolute gravy train. I only work around 15-20 hours a week and still saved a couple of K. 

[hk blues]

If you've nothing to tie you down to Scotland, have a look at teaching English in SE Asia. Been out in Vietnam 6 months now and it's an absolute gravy train. I only work around 15-20 hours a week and still saved a couple of K. 

It's certainly a lot easier than most jobs for the money. I did it for 10 years in Hong Kong - earned v.well but after a couple of years it did become mind-numbingly boring. Requires a certain lack of ambition to stick at it for any length of time so it was right up my street.

[ICTChris]

I'm going to do a course this year in my free time to expand my employment options.

Looking forward to it.

[welshbairn]

On 17/12/2016 at 23:14, kmc dafc said:

If you've nothing to tie you down to Scotland, have a look at teaching English in SE Asia. Been out in Vietnam 6 months now and it's an absolute gravy train. I only work around 15-20 hours a week and still saved a couple of K. 

Who are you teaching?

[kmc dafc]

Anyone between about 6-16, some of my mates teach adults though.

[NathanQP]

Actually quite an interesting thread this!

Disagree with the idea going back into Hospitality is a bad choice, it's really hard work but the people you meet are great (in my experience, at least) and there's never a dull moment

Depends on your situation really, if you have a degree in something, you should really go after that. Hospitality takes up a lot of your time with long unsociable hours leading to no time to job search. I took six months off, on the dole, to find the degree job I wanted instead of getting dragged back into hospitality.

[itzdrk]

This time last year I was in a bit of a state, I'd taken the huff with working in a call centre and chucked it the first day back after Christmas on a months notice with nothing lined up.  Had absolutely no idea what I should be going for with my skills so just applied for anything that wasn't a call centre, spent most of my free time through the week at interviews and got the one I'm at now (I actually had to leave the interview early and still got it) I quite like the job I do as there is a nice mutual flexibility with shifts which works both ways.   

Unfortunately as much as I quite like it im going to have to look again at some point as I can't afford a flat on what I'm getting  and I'm sick of sharing with pals at their place or flatshares or whatever.  

As much as it was kind of exciting before i probably wouldn't want to go through the apply for anything route again, where can I get some proper advice?

[Hammer Jag]

Today is my first day back after most of the festive period off. I was really unhappy in my job before the holidays, but I thought I just needed a good rest and that I'd feel refreshed and revitalised on my return. No such luck. I'm even more determined to do something else now.

The job pays well, is relatively secure and has a good pension scheme. So it would be a risk to walk away. I don't have any real responsibilities at the minute - no wife, kids or mortgage. I'm in my late 20's so I'm certainly approaching the 'now or never' stage. 

Torn between returning to full-time education or going abroad to work for a period. 

The 'TEFL' thread in the travel forum certainly provided me with a bit of food for thought.

 

[hk blues]

Today is my first day back after most of the festive period off. I was really unhappy in my job before the holidays, but I thought I just needed a good rest and that I'd feel refreshed and revitalised on my return. No such luck. I'm even more determined to do something else now.
The job pays well, is relatively secure and has a good pension scheme. So it would be a risk to walk away. I don't have any real responsibilities at the minute - no wife, kids or mortgage. I'm in my late 20's so I'm certainly approaching the 'now or never' stage. 
Torn between returning to full-time education or going abroad to work for a period. 
The 'TEFL' thread in the travel forum certainly provided me with a bit of food for thought.
 

Teaching English abroad is one of the relatively few jobs you can get without experience and/or any related qualifications.

It's a bit of a hit or miss as regards finding a job that pays well enough though, and often the hours are pretty crap.

And don't look only at the hourly rate - a lot of places will pay very very high rates but provide very very few hours. The place where I worked was paying less than half a lot of places but offering 3 times as many lessons a day. A lot of places won't offer a salary and benefits are mostly bare legal minimum - if you're lucky.

All that said, I met a lot of guys similar to yourself who were having a ball doing ESL teaching.

[johnnydun]

So, I went to this oil & gas redundancy thing at the AECC yesterday, what a pile o pish! The Police, the Army and the Navy were there like vultures picking at the bones of a rotting corpse.

I got talking to some gadge from BAE systems, his question "Have you ever worked on Jet air craft or weapons systems, like Typhoons?" No of course I fucking haven't! Oh wait maybe I did on the Brent Charlie back in April 2009? "Im sorry sir that is what we are looking for" Well why the f**k are you at an oil and gas event?

Some other bint gave me a flyer to retrain as a gas meter installer, sounds ok, "The training course is funded by the transition training scheme" that still sounds ok "the training will be 20 weeks in Glasgow" and that going to help folk in Aberdeen?

As Mixu once put it " Whats the fucking point!"

[Ya Bezzer!]

Remember when you worked for someone and you got paid with no fuss?  Now you have to deal with agencies, outsourcers, clients and umbrella payroll companies.

These days you have to go all out on your time off work to get the money YOU worked for off these fucking animals.

About one degree off homicidal right now.