Flexible New Deal (JSA)

[Ben Rogers]

You know NOTHING will scare off an employer that is actually in need of staff, that has to try and make a profit (espesually if they are struggling like so many at this stage of an economic cycle) than any wiff of "personal reasons".

Make sure you never mention it, ever, in interview.

I would say see if you can bring yourself to manage a trip, I don't do half as much reading since I switched to cycling, its as if I lost 10 hours of reading time a week. So my point is it doesn't have to be bad wasted time.

If you've had more gandious jobs that your currently forced to take, no one will look down on that, if you fail to take any job, many people will. You could also try and explain away your abscense in work by saying you had to re-organise much of your life in order to be able to have one on a minimum wage job. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you've been out of work for a year, its probably going to be a worse job that you get next, sorry! But it will help you move back up, where as waiting for a perfect one to arrive, isn't going to help, it might even ensure it never does.

Really get out there, do not take any excuse to not apply for a job that is on offer.

Yeah I won't mention personal reasons in an interview and haven't for any before.

I have had mainly factory work before and a trial in a computer shop so have not got much experience in work. I realise I will probably end up getting a minimum wage job which I don't enjoy to start with but with time I will gain experience and can apply for better paid jobs whilst working for a lower wage. Thanks for the advice again.

[Ben Rogers]

i'd suggest trying to get in touch with more agencies. get signed up to at least 10. you probably won't hear again from half of them, and only a third would put any job offers your way, but it means 10 times as many people are looking for work for you than you are doing

and i'd include the charity work on the CV. perhaps see if you can do some other type of charity work such as something office based, as that's where the best chances of paid work will result

it does sound good to employers if they hear you aren't just prepared to work but you are working for free, just to keep yourself busy

I'm not sure there's that many to choose from around here but I will get googling to find some more agencies, it sure is worth a try.

I already have the charity work on my CV and that's been checked over by a member of staff at my new deal centre. I was forced to do the charity work (had a placement in a PC shop to start with but the manager said he didn't want to take advantage of me working for free, so got rid of me after a day) then ended up at the BHF for 4 weeks and carried it on a day a week for something to do. Just to get me out the house more and talking to people if nothing else and to keep my mind occupied. Cheers for the help.

[Yosh]

You know NOTHING will scare off an employer that is actually in need of staff, that has to try and make a profit (espesually if they are struggling like so many at this stage of an economic cycle) than any wiff of "personal reasons".

Make sure you never mention it, ever, in interview.

I would say see if you can bring yourself to manage a trip, I don't do half as much reading since I switched to cycling, its as if I lost 10 hours of reading time a week. So my point is it doesn't have to be bad wasted time.

If you've had more gandious jobs that your currently forced to take, no one will look down on that, if you fail to take any job, many people will. You could also try and explain away your abscense in work by saying you had to re-organise much of your life in order to be able to have one on a minimum wage job. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you've been out of work for a year, its probably going to be a worse job that you get next, sorry! But it will help you move back up, where as waiting for a perfect one to arrive, isn't going to help, it might even ensure it never does.

Really get out there, do not take any excuse to not apply for a job that is on offer.

I'd say the above is one of the hardest decisions for most people, the fact that being out of work for an amount of time means they will have to take a pay cut over a previous they had worked their way up in.

I've gone for a completely different job this time around than what i would normally do, but it is a recession proof business and i've had 2 bonuses and a payrise in the last year so i am overjoyed with it.

[Kumagoro]

Rather than slag you off and then tell you how great I am, I will try and help (I didnt say it would be good).

My advice would be to lie in your CV and cover letter. When I say lie I mean tell half truths
and exaggerate, that's what overly confident people do without even knowing it.

Reference wise most places don't even bother with them especially if they are small. People move
on, businesses shut down etc so its reasonable that you cant get hold of people any more.

Personally for the last two and a half years I would say I have been self employed doing the
computer support stuff. Make it out to be more than it is they don't know and you can just talk about things
you have done, you dont have to say you have only ever changed one laptop screen etc.

Of course you have to be smart about these things and do go overboard.

As for finding a job, the job centre website isnt as bad as it would first appear.

http://jobseekers.direct.gov.uk/home...0ccae74b&pid=1
(leave the job type etc box empty)
Put in the post code of one of the bigger places near you (for example say EX32 8BZ or barnstable) then select in the
age of vacancy box one, two or three days then search.
There should be the first time anyway a link at the bottom saying search all jobs.
It should bring up all the jobs in that area plus random ones around London and the rest of the country for some reason
so the best thing is to check everyday if you can, that way you don't miss jobs and are more likely
to come across something of interest.

So what can I find for you, how about BNP/20986

http://jobseekers.direct.gov.uk/deta...=1&j=BNP/20986

Good luck fella

[G4Z]

He is right like, people lie on CV's all the time. I thought it was good advice Kumagoro, have a thanks.

Also amsuing that the link comes upw ith unexpected error only 10 minutes after you posted that.

[Ben Rogers]

Nice one, that sounds like a great idea - just make myself sound better than I am and it might improve my chances of getting a job somewhat!

I have spoken to that woman from TQR recruitment before about soldering jobs but I will investigate this one further and find out where it's to in Barnstaple. Last time the soldering jobs advertised with TQR were in Ilfracombe which is further north.

I have knowlege of soldering having soldered a few DC jacks onto laptops but that's about it. This is mentioned on my CV.

Looking at my CV is mentions stuff I can't even remember how to do very well such as PXE booting and the remote installation service in Windows server OS'. The time I did this was about 3 years ago and I would need to google how to do it lol.

[G4Z]

Dude, I will let you into a little secret of IT support which will serve you well.

Knowing how to do everything in IT is impossible and also not important. What is important is knowing how to find out.

[TheAnimus]

Nice one, that sounds like a great idea - just make myself sound better than I am and it might improve my chances of getting a job somewhat!

You need to be very careful thou, plenty of places, even small do random sampling of background checks on CV, just don't out right lie, its really not worth it, you might not get busted until during your probation, but still....

However, for a junior dev role I asked a candidate a rather tricky question, he's response of "hmmm, something like that, must have been done before, I'd just google it" was a rather faultless argument.

[Ben Rogers]

I doubt anyone has the brain capacity to know "everything" about IT. There's just no way you could remember it all. I can just do the basics such as build a PC, repair laptops to a component level, basic web design, CMS web design, SEO with excellent results (1st out of 24.4 million for a 2 word search term on Google), networking but am not too sure upto roaming profiles kind of level this is where I'm at on the networking side of IT. My biggest weakness is programming, I have never used a C compiler or made programs other than basic ones using VB years ago and a few dodgy PHP scripts.

I don't know about BGA reflowing so I don't think I could even say I know laptop repair down to component level tbh.

[Ben Rogers]

You need to be very careful thou, plenty of places, even small do random sampling of background checks on CV, just don't out right lie, its really not worth it, you might not get busted until during your probation, but still....

However, for a junior dev role I asked a candidate a rather tricky question, he's response of "hmmm, something like that, must have been done before, I'd just google it" was a rather faultless argument.

I won't exagerate on it too much, just a tiny bit I reckon as it isn't too bad how it is on that front.

[Behemoth]

The trouble is with living down in the West COuntry (Cornwall or Devon) if you don't have a car an employer usually won't look twice at you as they know what public trasnport is down here, not so bad if you live on the door step or very close to where you will be working if you get the job, but you've had it without a car down here if your looking for work.

[Ben Rogers]

The trouble is with living down in the West COuntry (Cornwall or Devon) if you don't have a car an employer usually won't look twice at you as they know what public trasnport is down here, not so bad if you live on the door step or very close to where you will be working if you get the job, but you've had it without a car down here if your looking for work.

Definitely, a car is essential to getting a job when you live in such a rural location with infrequent bus services that sometimes don't even turn up at all.

This is the reason I feel some people think I am not even looking for a job - as previously mentioned I had a seizure which stopped me from driving for half a year and I have only recently got my licence back.