job hunting

ok so I graduated in a degree in physics and got a reasonable 2:1.

I graduated in july 2012. I have been job hunting since graduation for either part time work or a full time job.

I have had so many interviews, most of which i have spent lots of my time writing, studying and researching for. Yet every single job is rejecting me.

I am 24 and have spent 5 years of my life studying to get where i am to try get a job and nothing.

nothing but £20k+ of debt and living on job seekers. Exactly what i wanted to aviod by doing a F***ing degree.

i have even applied for alot of MOD jobs where I have had experience working yet NOTHING!

I pass every test I do and yet still get a rejection letter. If a company is going to reject my application why ask me for a full interview where i have to spend alot of spare time preping for it. I am more then sure there are aware what is in a physics degree and what experience i have is on my CV. But no they have to dragg me in and ask me questions about something i havent studied, although i do alot of back ground research i cant know everything!!! when i have a degree in physics.

I have filled many folders of notes for different job roles and still nothing, i dont make half hearted attempt i spend days ion the library. I have gotten to the end of my patients because i have just 5 years of my life for a crapy degree when i was better off working at the bottom of a company and working my way up. not only would i have a nice comfortable job by now but would have more then -£20k

one question that annoys me the most in an interview is why dont i have a job, the answer is BECAUSE NONE OF YOU C***s WILL GIVE ME THE CHANCE TO WORK. even for the small crappy jobs i am getting no where like weather spoons etc.


rant over



its cold today. 70mph on the bike is like sitting in a blast chiller

[Fallout]

My sympathies mate. I hope you find something soon.

How do your interviews go? How you come across as a person is half the battle. Too nervous and you're unemployable. Too cocky and you're unemployable. You need to come across as hard working, confident, a good team player, and also good at listening and understanding. You could be all those things, but it may not be coming across.

I'm just stabbing in the dark to try and come up with some advice. It's definitely tough out there. Perhaps it'd be worth ringing up some of the more recent jobs you've been rejected from and asking to get some balls out honest feedback on what went wrong, especially if you think you were qualified.

Companys (usually) only take on one person per position they need to fill but they rarely only interview one person per position.

Some of the questions you aren't supposed to know the answer, its how you deal with not knowing that counts.

I wish I was 24 again. I'm 41 and have been out of work for 15 months now. No formal qualifications and no trade to fall back on. Where I live at in Northern Ireland there isn't at lot of work about, most places are closing down. I have applied for loads of **** jobs and most times I don't even get a reply. I live in hope that someday my luck will change before I loose everything, home included. All I can say is keep the head up, something will turn up.

Spank has it on the money here. My stock response for something I don't know the answer to is "Being honest with you, I'm unfamiliar with x, however I'm very intuitive and capable of learning on my feet. For instance..." and reel off an example of when you've used your initiative to learn something new or had to pick something up fast.

I find that interviewers react well to telling them about real world situations that you've been in before, hence the buzz around competency based interviews.

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by kiggles

one question that annoys me the most in an interview is why dont i have a job, the answer is BECAUSE NONE OF YOU C***s WILL GIVE ME THE CHANCE TO WORK. even for the small crappy jobs i am getting no where like weather spoons etc.

TA Officer, perhaps Royal Signals or REME given your degree subject. That would give you a recognised employment record after a couple of years which employers could judge you by. Quite well paid as well and could lead on to other things.

Pete

you need to adjust your CV for a bar job, make it look like less of a few month stopgap by playing down your more academic achievements

[Balky001]

Do you ever follow up the rejection askiing what you could do to improve your chances next time? Most HR departments are useless but some can be very helpful in discussing their own internal score rating systems and what you werre strong or weak on. Most never get asked so they might be surprised but I have done it in the past. Sometimes the info is useless but if something comes up regulalrly that's holding you back it might be worth knowing. Don't get stroppy if they wont tell you though just in case another position comes up (always asked to be kept in mind too). Unfortunately it is a horrible selling job these days to get any sort of job.

I feel your pain. I was in EXACTLY the same situation 5 years ago. (same degree, same lack of experience). My problem was getting the interviews though. Got one interview and got the job, but had sent out hundreds of CVs to get that interview. My suggestions below are stolen shamelessly from a very good book on the subject.

You may have already done this, but can I suggest looking at it from the point of view of an employer. You have not done anything wrong to get rejected, but there are hundreds of people out there with good degrees going for these jobs, some will have work experience, some won't.

When preparing for an interview think what your unique selling point is. Make sure its just one, and that it is one that is going to make the interviewer/hirer (not necessarily the company) look good/their job easier.

Next think of the sort of questions that they will ask, and your stock of answers to these (the time I did X and Y blah blah). These will show all your backup skills (numeric, hard working all those things which everyone has).

Now how do all these responses back up your prime selling point. Every single response should back up your prime selling point, and therefore ultimately make the person with the power to hire look good.

Also have some questions. Written down even, taking in a few notes is no bad thing. Consider at the end of the interview and they ask "Do you have any questions for us" which is better; "No, I have asked all the questions I wanted to ask already" (this is the same response if you had no questions or just want any job), Or taking out a small note pad, quickly looking through and "I've made a few notes of things to make sure I ask, and I think we have covered them." (You are organised, prepared and interested in the company)

Sorry if this is a bit of a ramble or a teach-grandma-to-suck-eggs post, but hope it helps.

You didn't do a significant amount of Computer programming in your degree did you?