What am I doing wrong here?!

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Hi all,

After having a annual review (my first at my current job) and getting a grade 1 (The best I can get), I have decided I am going to desperately try and get out of my current employment, quite simply for more money...!!

So, I have applied for 11 jobs on Reed, all of which I have the relevant skills for, some of which are in London (50 miles away!! I am that desperate, as I have a local train station and will travel), and yet I have had 0, yep 0 responses to them...!

Do not get me wrong, I am not expecting job offers from all of them, but not even a reply from 1?! I have experience and certs... any ideas?!

 

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Are Reed a recruitment agency?

If so, did you apply for these jobs through them, or directly to the avertising companies?

I have heard in the past that some recruitment agencies have a habit of advertising jobs which don't really exist just to get you onto their books.

Best of luck in the job search though.

 

Another common thing "head hunting" companies do is run false ads just to get you to submit a resume so they can put you in their resume pool. Don't get discouraged.

 

try these blokes i havent used them though..

www.cwjobs.co.uk

good luck!

 

Hi,

Thanks for the responses, by Reed, I meant www.reed.co.uk.

Also I have applied for a few jobs on cwjobs, but thanks for the suggestion all the same!

The "head hunting" thing, I had no idea about, and I think that may be the reason as to why I have seen several identical ads posted on www.reed.co.uk, even though every time they have had like 100+ applicants!!

I guess I shall just have to keep trying! Thanks for the replies, they keep me motivated!

 

The only thing you are doing wrong is starting to give up hope, my friend. I'm on record here as saying that I'm no great fan of agencies, but they can occasionally come good. However. Reed, I believe very much fall into the category of "get your CV, then send any old tosh to you" just so they can then say "we provided xxx number of opportunities to you last year".

Don't give up, try other agencies and beyond, Plug away - it will come. I personally got 2 rejections today - trust me, I'll live with it, simply by adding them to the pile and carrying on looking.

HTH

 

I have to say I am getting bit worried here.
If someone like Jellyman has trouble getting work then what chance does poor old Boyce have? Maybe I should change to:



Joking aside it has crossed my mind over the last few weeks that it would be easier for say a web programmer to build a work portfolio for "self work" than someone like me who really would like to go down the networking road.

 

I understand completely. The last interview I had I walked out knowing I had aced the interview. I really thought I had that job. I had never done that well in an interview and not gotten the job. Did I get the job? Nope. Got the same old rejection letter.

Today I called back and talked to one of the guys that interviewed me and asked how I had rated in their pool of candidates because I am having such a hard time doing to two things.

1. Getting to interviews in the first place.
2. Getting a job when I do get the interview.

He told me that it came down to me and one other guy out of a pool of around 50 applicants. He said they had already chosen the other guy until I interviewed, as I was the last one to interview. After the interview he said they had to sit down and reevaluate their decision, but it came down to the fact that the other guy had worked in their particular setting before and had some Apple knowledge that I didn't have.

I was beaten out by experience, plain and simple. To tell the truth I don't know how to get around this obstacle. It's like beating your head against a stone wall. All you get is bloodied and a headache. First runner up doesn't pay a dang thing.

 

Again, someone with your certs.
Best of luck pal you deserve it.

 

Hey all,

Well well, this is turning out to be quite a thread! If I am honest, I am beginning to wonder if it is me giving up hope too early, or maybe I am in the grey area of IT employment.

What I mean by this is that a lot of IT jobs are either for complete beginners (Not being offensive by this but I mean first jobbers), or complete out and out experts with MCSE's and experience of Exchange etc etc (Which I do not have ... YET!), but there seems to be nowhere for me!! (I hear violins...!)

But where do I go from here, it is difficult as I want to leave, before I get new projects to start at my current employment... its a tough call I guess, just wondered what others have done!

 

I'd just stick it out for now and work on getting your certifications by going the self-taught route. It's the cheapest, and from what I've seen all the so-called training institutions I've seen here leave it up to you to study things out yourself anyway. They might or might not answer your questions, but you still have to do the hands-on stuff in a lab to have real skills from a cert anway, so why pay these guys exhorbitant rates when you'll basically have to teach yourself anyway?

Once you have some certified knowledge, along with the experience you'll be getting daily in your present job it will open a lot more doors for you. Or it should anyway. I definitely wouldn't leave without another job already lined up. But, if you've got the money to live on for a year or two, as it might take that long to find a job, go for it. You might be one of the lucky ones and get a job without spending a whole lot of time looking.

Just my opinion. But you asked for it. It's what I would do in your shoes, but I'm an old fart, not a young buck.

 

i was just wondering Jellyman_4eva im going to have about the same certs with you in a few months including the HND (which im hoping to turn into a computer networking degree next year) and i thought if you could post which jobs you were looking at right now? If you not too keen no posting them here could you pm me some links not that i want to apply just to get an idea at what someone with what we 'have' is looking at...

thanks

 

I wouldnt give up to be honest
i've had the same conversaton with hundreds of people
this isnt an industry you want to just 'give up' on, its hard enough to get into it in the first place!

there have been times when i've been out of work for 9 months, even 18 months once (alot younger, alot less experiance)

the last gap between jobs was only a month, and I had interviews with some big names during that period

ofcourse i will quit a job before finding another one if im really annoyed enough, something i dont recommend to anyone, its the wrong way to go trust me, lol

basically just stick it out, you will find once your CV lands on a bunch of desk, it starts cropping up in searches and you get called about jobs you havnt even applied for

check out http://www.jobserve.com
be clever with your search string, and see what you come up with
(heres my default one, but i have many, including custom ones for 0-day contract searches etc)
also if the results are plentiful, drop them down to 0 or 1 day old only, more likely they havnt already filled the position with a 'favourite'

 

It appears the type of industry where even the most experienced of people can be looking for work then?

 

You have to look at the history of this field of endeavor to really understand it. In '99 and 2000 the Y2K thing put tons of people to work in IT. If you had any kind of "paper" cert you could get job at high pay. Then when that rush was over, and the .com bubble burst it literally but 10's of thousands of IT people out of work. Then outsourcing hit as the next big way to "save" money on IT expenses.

So, are there a ton of experienced people out of work? Yeah. Is the industry starting to come back again? Yeah. Is it at a place where it once was? Nope. Will it ever get there again? I don't believe so. Automation of networks and outsourcing that's probably here to stay reduce the need for IT people. So, the combination makes for a very tight labor market, and many, if not most, of the entry level IT jobs have gone to India, Pakistan, China, etc....

That's the hard reality of things in IT.

 

I've been in IT for 20 years. In that time I've done a number of different things. My CV is always out with two or three agencies from time to time I get an e-mail from one of then asking if I am interested in a "opportunity" (I hate that word it is a job) or two and I'll take a look.

I'm luck as I am in a job I love but it does not stop me looking for a new challange.

 

Beware of the agency.
I've dealt with quite a few of them from both sides of the table.
Some genuinely do a good job.
Most don't.

Be aware of how these guys make their money. some are given a small fee for anyone they put forward for an interview. Most are paid a percentage of the successful applicants starting salary.

This means usually that they don't get paid unless they get you in a job. Any job. So what you want or what the employer wants isn't really what interests them.

If you get an 'interview' with an agency, all they will do is butter you up and make you feel good about yourelf. They may even give you some tests and comment on how clever you are. They will tut in disbelief when you say you can't get a job, and put you forward for all kinds of interviews.

Now the guy in HR who has been using an agency as a shortcut to doing any real work (me) keeps getting calls from this agency telling him that they've got this amazing candidate, blah blah, ideal for the job etc. It's as if they are selling you a used car.

Then you get the person in for an interview and they turn out to be a tw@t. The candidate feels like a real fool, because he's been sold this as his dream job. I've wasted an aftenoon interviewing somone who doesn't have the skills we wanted (or that the agency said he had).

Meanwhile in the agency Kevin can tick off another box to show how many interviews he's arranged. Maybe he gets a little star on his badge. I don't know.

As you continue to fail in interviews, they will resort to sending you to dodgier jobs and everytime you fail, it will be your fault.

Eventually you will either landed in a bum job, or the agency will lose interest in you.

WHATEVER YOU DO, NEVER PAY AN AGENCY ANY MONEY TO FIND YOU A JOB!

They get paid by the employer if they are genuine. If they ask for money they are either milking it from both ends or conning you. Don't even pay if they offer extras like doing your CV. It's in their interest to make you look good and shouldn't need anything extra to do it.

 

Bleak I believe the word is, bleak is the picture that you paint.

I am just staring to get worried about even trying, somebody, please say something positive!

 

Keep trying - it DOES happen !!! It just doesn't come on a plate, so don't kid yourself that it does. So carry on doing what you're doing, but make sure you know WHY you're doing it.

Anyone else want to post success stories, carry on - I know the studies got me here, at least

 

Keep plugging away. Believe me...if I can get a tech related job...I'm sure you can, too. My cell phone rang yesterday. I didn't recognize the number but it was out of state. I answered and it was a recruiter I'd worked with almost three years ago asking if I was available for work. I would have been a temp job but it was nice to know I was still in their database.

I turned them down because between my day job and freelance writing assignments (one currently active and another about to be), I just don't have the time. I get calls because I established myself as reliable and responsible. That first step getting through the door is a tough one but after that, it starts to get a little easier. Keep the faith.