It is official, I am bored now.

[Jayneflakes]

I have now been unemployed for too long. I lost my job due to redundancy in March and have now nearly passed through May with no luck as yet. I have been asked to attend some interviews, but frankly the jobs in my locality are not great and I am competing with a lot of cheap labour in the form of kids.

At my last interview I was so hugely over qualified, I had to play it down and just say that I was looking for a change in career. What is really annoying though is the refusal to reply to applications by employers.

Recently I have taken to writing to viable employers and sending them my CV, this had got me one reply so far and that was hardly polite. It consisted of a note that read "No vacancies at the moment." That was it, they did not even bother to say that they would keep my CV on file.

I have had my CV looked at by the monkeys at the Job center and the only critique they could offer was and I quote "that looks like a great CV, but I am no expert!" I could do a better job than that monkey, how do I get his job?

Anyway, I am bored of not working, I have no drive or passion and no money to buy toys with. I am facing financial difficulties and yet find it hard to care when I phone up the people involved and they seem even more disinterested than I am.

Most recently was a filthy red letter from the Council Tax Office, who claim that I have failed to pay my bill. This despite them having just had a £96 monthly installment. Where has it gone I hear you ask? Oh they lost it and decided that I had not paid. My Bank can find it removed from my account, but that is barely enough evidence for Weston Town hall. Oh by the way, being on Job Seekers means that I earn too much to qualify for any form of help with my bill, so must pay full amount.

I applied for another four jobs this morning and six last Friday, everything from sales tart in a call center to care assistant. I have valuable skills and a huge amount of dedication. Why can I not find work? Is it really so hard out there?

I am bored of it all now, I just want a nice job, with enough to push against that I can enjoy the challenge of it. It does not have to be a great job, I can't deal with dying children or terminally sick people, so that level of care work is out of the question, but anything else is fair game.

Man, this country is knackered...

I know how you feel, Got made redundant mid feb and its slim pickings job wise...

I'm either overexperienced or short on the required skills for anything in IT, or if I go for anything outside of IT I don't hear anything...

tis crapola

[Bri w]

Sorry to hear you're not sorted with a job.

Have you thought of doing any voluntary work, maybe in one of the fields that interest you job wise. It would give you a feel for the job, and may even give you an 'in' into any permanent job that comes up. Might also stop you going stir crazy.

Good luck,

Bri

I`ve been looking for a job for around a year now. I don`t tend to get bored as I am looking after a small family business until I do get a proper job, but I am ****ed off and very fed up being "stuck" where I am.

All my official qualifications are in one narrow field of work, and although I can do quite a few things, have no bits of paper to back that up. I had 2 interviews with a company not so long ago, and was pretty much promised the job, waited 3 weeks to be told " ah, no, we`ve offered the position to someone else".

On a brighter note, I do have another job interview on Thursday, but I tend to get so stressed out that I muck them up

And yeah, this country is knackered......

My dad has been out of work since August. He has been to various interviews, and has been turned down for the various resaons:

"too skilled" "under skilled" "Over qualified" "Under qualifed" "too experienced" "not experienced enough"

And because he has been unemployed for 6months he has had his jobseekers allowance stopped.

My dad is 58 this year. My dad has a mortgage to pay and bills. The stress has been so great for him he GAVE UP smoking...

Good luck in you job hunt, I hope something turns up for you soon.

My Bro has started a job today after 18 months of unemployment.

He was a software QA engineer. He's now working for Thames Water- checking if properties are vacant or not.

The pay is rubbish and way lower than what he was on- but still better than the dole and now there's something to get up in the morning for!

Though, on a postive note, he's going to lose a lot of weight doing the job!

And my dad's on the verge of being unemployed- he's been Tuped over with about 6 weeks of extra work. That's it. At 61, it's not easy staying at the same level in a business.


So- chin up! Hope you get a job soon.

At least you are trying to get a job and that's a start. Took my other half some time to find work after being made redundant.

She also tried sending CV's on spec to companies in her industry. Evenually one paid off, she was told 'we would like you, but next year when we can afford you'. My response was 'they are fobbing you off'. Then they contacted her again in the new year and asked when she could start, proving me completely wrong.

Its really tough, I know it really got my missus down after a few months, but its a number game to a certain extent; contact loads of recruitment agencies (although a lot are idiots), send loads of CVs off and one will come off. Its really dispiriting but every no, or even worse a lack of response, is one step closer to a job.

Keep going and all the best of luck.

ooh its crap not having a job - when I wasn't working I applied for anything and everything. Have you thought about re-training? Or doing something you enjoy?
Last year I bravely (or stupidly - as my fella thought) packed my job in to go back to college in Sept.. Not an easy thing to do being a single parent with bills etc to pay but wasn't really happy just plodding along in my job and not doing what i wanted to do...(even though i liked where i worked)

But now I am at college 3 days a week and I have just started working for myself in the last 2 months, just working 2 days a week. I am not super well off but Im better off than getting benefits etc and more to the point I am doing what I love, with the prospects of taking my work in a different direction when I finish my course in another year..

Good luck in what ever you do - think positive (know its hard at times) but theres always something round the next corner of thru the next door - even if you have to boot it down to get there lol

[startrek.steve]

Hey Janey,
why not join the army?
theres work overseas I believe!

Steve

I sort-of understand your position. I left (hence the sort-of!) myjob as a chef at the start of the year, because I was always stressed, didn't get anything from the work, and was getting on everyone's nerves. I had been looking for work for about a year prior, but only having qualifications as a chef and not wanting to do it anymore made that difficult. I was out of work for a month or so, applying for jobs every day. Eventually I got a temporary position in a muesli factory, which wasn't so bad at first, but I have now been moved from nights to afternoons, and my pay went down to 5.80 an hour! Not even 200pw after the taxman's had his fist in! Still, is work, and I don't leave tied in a knot and white-knuckled anymore.

All I can say is keep trying, and keep busy out of work. Try agencies - it's not great, no security at all, but it is better than the dole.

I don't understand this "over-qualified" thing at all! Presumably it's a nice way of saying "No". It would be more helpful to hear the real reasons people don't get selected, my cynical side says "i don't like your face" is one of the more common reasons!

I hope you don't get too disheartened, and don't have to give up doing things you're interested in for the sake of survival. Keep looking!

Meanwile have a pink kitten.