I’m still job-hunting and I applied for this job over the weekend. I rang the agent this morning and she told me that she had received two thousand applications.
Two thousand. For a pair of ordinary jobs.
I despair. How the blue blazes is someone to succeed against that competition?
(Well, I reckon I improved my chances mightily by actually speaking to her.)
But I reckon Brown & co deserve a nice cheer as we roast them slowly over a pit of hot coals.
Damn you Brown, Blair, Clinton, Bush, and all the other politicians who got us into this mess.
Tell me about it. I don’t even know how many applications and CVs I’ve sent out since November…hell, since October when I first knew I was being made redundant. Since then I’ve had a few interviews, some calls, and plenty of ding letters. Mostly ding letters.
But hope springs eternal in the human heart and I’m applying for yet more today…
How about a walrus trainer? You rarely see any of them looking for work.
Quartz don’t get discouraged. There were 1500 applicants for three jobs when I was hired in the early '90s. A great many of those applicants you’re competing with will make spelling mistakes on their CV, chew gum during an interview, etc. The odds aren’t necessarily as bad as they seem. Just make sure you’re not one of the ones making those little mistakes. Best of luck.
As for empathy, this thread provides a nice ilustration of the impotence of empathy. Instead of saying “Aw poor baby” I actually give hi$ a suggestion fore how to better himself. Emnpathy would just leav him where he is instead of encouraging hikm to move forward.
Also, it’s much more humane to treat others as human beings that have control over their lives instead of as impotent creatures subject to the whims of fate.
Yes, because no one ever gets fucked over by circumstances they can’t control. We ARE subject to the whims of fate and our options of dealing with that can at times be limited. Especially right now when those whims are hurting everybody.
No, what you offered was a platitude wrapped in a bromide. “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, lad! Go west, young man!”
Are we to take it that you support massive government spending to support job training, and to support those being trained? Or have you a list of skilled and valuable jobs that don’t require much in the way of training? Typewriter repair, maybe?
An example: way, way back when, I worked (briefly) as a trainer for the Wang corporation. You may remember, they produced a stand-alone word processor machine. Not a computer with wp software, a separate machine, didn’t do anything else. Going great guns for a while there, even had their own building south of town. Big ass penile tower with the giant word “WANG” on top, cracked me up every time I went there.
A few months later, MicroSoft and Corel had totally eaten their lunch with WordPerfect and Word. Wiped out, gone, gone to the place the candle flame goes when you blow it out.
Point being to ask: what skill set would you suggest someone pursue? And who do you suggest pay for this training, since the unemployed are, well, unemployed?
However, there is a crumb of comfort to take from the fact that the vast majority of applicants for jobs are simply not qualified or otherwise suitable, as so many people are going down the ‘apply for anything’ route. To put some perspective on it, I went for a job not long ago, and the two of us interviewed out of the twelve* applicants were apparently the only two meeting the minimum criteria. Compare that to four years ago, when the three interviewees for my present job were the only applicants at all.
Yes, I did go for Rand Rover’s option, but quite apart from the dickishness of presenting it to someone in Quartz’s position, such fields generally have far fewer jobs available, evening things out.
No, a helpful poster, genuinely keen to see Quartz better himself, would have (a) phrased their post in a manner which didn’t imply that Quartz is an idiot who would never have considered your bleedin’ obvious advice had you not been so magnanimous as to provide it, (b) would have supplemented his suggestion with a list of potential careers in sectors not overburdened with competition, and (c) would have suggested a manner in which he could pay for this training when he doesn’t have a fucking job.
Here’s an example:
“Hey Quartz, I’m sure you’ve already considered branching out into another sector, but here is an interesting article about how demand for technology jobs is set to soar over the next few years. The training isn’t free, but this website offers different courses with flexible payment options. I’ve not researched it very rigorously but I thought I’d throw it out there on the offchance you might find it useful. Best of luck in your search!”
This is, of course, assuming Quartz doesn’t work in technology already.
It also provides a nice illustration of the importance of tact in day-to-day conversation. I’m also currently unemployed and even though your advice wasn’t addressed to me I still found your post very irritating. There was nothing objectively wrong with the advice you provided, but your tone was obnoxious, hard-nosed, and dickish. You’re not an idiot, so I can only assume this presentation was intentional. Are you really surprised by people’s reactions?
ETA - I missed 'luci’s post on the preview. What he said.
Reposting the OP, so maybe we can stop feeding the troll
The situation in the UK is getting pretty dire. My brother’s pretty skilled IT guy and has been out of work for a year. All you can do is keep applying for jobs and try to keep your hopes up.
It gets frustrating, but what I keep telling myself is that it’s partly a numbers game…that if I keep applying for jobs you’re qualified for, my resume is bound to get someone’s attention somewhere.
Either that, or start an actual numbers game, but that has its own drawbacks.
Best of luck.