Job hunting, lack of opportunities - or am I the problem?

Sometimes the jobs market is kinda terrible and it is that hard to get a job especially for base level jobs. Can only really speculate and help you eliminate possibilities that could result in you struggling. These tips may apply, these may not apply:

1: You're talking yourself out of a job. A very common mistake. Going into an interview, saying things you can't do, downplaying the things you can do, trying too hard to be overly honest and saying too much. Meanwhile the next candidate who may have the exact same skills as you comes in, talks about their experience, their time at uni, what they can do, when faced with a "can you do xyz" that he can't do, talks about how eager he is to learn to do that. See if you can arrange mock interviews (there are various agencies around that'll help on that as part of government schemes)

2: you've got too focused on a particular set of job titles that you're missing out on entire careers that would be open to you. Easy to get focused on a set of keywords, easy to ignore other keywords because you've made assumptions about the skills needed for them. In my industry we're always struggling for QA and our place even started training QAs because there are no experienced ones around (there's the assumption that it's a very technical job when really, most people moderately competent with computers and websites can pick it up). Try to get lists of jobs with minimal filters on, read some job descriptions that you've otherwise passed over in the past at look at the role and skills needed.

3: fake it till you make it. HR loves huge laundry lists of required skills (and programs in IT) . There's a knack to recognising which skills are core to the job (for example, it requires you to be fluent in German) , which you have a basic knowledge of and can improve and which you don't have any real idea of but are such a minor part of the job that you could just use google to help you if/when you need to do it.

4: you're unknowingly putting something in your CV or bringing up in conversation that is a massive red flag, sometimes companies will see a red flag and it'll be why they turned you down, often something they'll be reluctant to tell you about. Could be as simple as typos in your CV, could be more serious in that you've been a bit too honest in the reason for you leaving the previous job and they're worried about the prospect of drama if they hire you (don't tell them why you quit unless prompted and definitely don't tell them it was office politics, even if directly asked). If you were only at that place for a few months that could also be a negative and you'd have to consider dropping it from your CV. Get someone else to read your CV who you would trust to give you truths family and close friends wouldn't

Lastly, general tips for if you're at the stage where you want any job: try temping and contract work (great for your CV and also there's a prospect of a temp job becoming a full time one). Night work at supermarkets is also often hard for them to fill and is easy

If you've not had any luck in a year and a half, that suggests to me that maybe you could benefit from a change of approach or mindset. A couple of things off the top of my head which you could potentially do to improve your chances...
- Make sure you tailor your CV and cover letter to every job you apply for - it's time consuming but it gets results.
- Take online courses to improve your skill set and knowledge base.
- If you're told after interview that others have been more suitable, ask for any pointers on what you could have done differently, is it a lack of experience/confidence etc? Feedback like this is invaluable in helping you to know where you can improve
- Volunteer in your spare time to gain experience.

Out of interest, what does your CV say about how you left your previous job, are you asked about it at interviews and if so how do you reply ?.

Whether it is legally supposed to have any relevance or not in the decision making process, being realistic it is something any prospective employer will have in the forefront of their minds. When I worked in the public sector I once had a bullying boss who ordered me to do something that I felt was unreasonable and a waste of resources and I emailed her back querying the order and explaining my reasoning. I got a single line response "you will do what I tell you to do and won't question me" so I politely declined to carry out the instruction. Got suspended, ended up at an internal hearing which concluded with me effectively getting paid off to leave.

At subsequent job interviews it was clear that other public sector employers saw me as a potential trouble-maker, whereas private sector companies were impressed at how I'd stood up for myself/risked my entire career on a matter of principle and they realised I'd be an asset to their business (which involved dealing with the public sector, often in scenarios of disagreement etc.).

So I think you need to recognise that your recent job history will, rightly or wrongly, deter some potential employers (but they'll never say it is because of that), but if you learn to present it in the right manner others could see it as a positive.

Saying all that I've run my own business now for 6 years and both the thought of ever returning to work for someone else, or having someone else work for me, makes me shudder !.

Perhaps not a long term solution but have you considered advertising as an Computing Specialist on the Nextdoor App? You could offer to troubleshoot, teach how to use Zoom, set up PCs or install Anti Virus software for local people in your area. Put your qualifications at the top of your profile. Plenty of older people who know nothing about computers and would appreciate someone who can call to their home to look at a problem. Nextdoor is my first port of call if I need a handyman.

If i remember correctly you were early 20s when you asked about resigning last year, you should be able to easily get a job in McDonald's temporarily until you find something you want to do permanently.
Both my children work at McDonald's whilst at college/uni and both got jobs easily including my son with no prior experience not even work experience at school due to covid.
They also pay very generously to under 21s, my sons just turned 18 and getting £3.10 over millnimum wage plus a free meal each day ( wouldn't advise eating it every day though )
They pay my 20 year old daughter over £11 per hour which is more than most employers, due to increasing costs many enployers have just put staff on minimum wage due to the big 9.7% minimum wage increase (edited)

It's just like fishing; keep casting your line and one day you will catch something.

Try this civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr…cgi

My advice for IT jobs is to check on linkedin. Many will be looking for experienced staff but there are other roles on there too. My advice is to apply for many roles that you could potentially do, and hope one or two come back to you. Don't just apply for one or two because the chances of those specific ones coming back are a lot slimmer.

Well whatever you do, don't go to university and get a masters degree in mechanical engineering with straight A's ... I've been jobless 3 years now since graduating.


On a less self pitying note, do you put your old job on your CV?
They may be giving you bad references spitefully in which case you need to remove them - no experience is better than bad references.


Noone is going to give you a straight answer about what's going wrong because noone wants the aggro. Your interviewers won't admit anything and neither will your old company. They will fob you off with placations because they don't want you coming back and there's no value in it.


Get a friend to pose as someone wanting to hire you and to call your old company to request a reference and see if there is an issue. (edited)

The IT sector can at times be it's own worst enemy.

Complain about a lack of workers, yet refuse to (re)train or take individuals with transferable skills.

Do you have any IT experience? If not, have you thought about doing some voluntary IT work for local charities so you can put this on your CV?

As an aside, I'm sure there was a recent thread on here regarding IT jobs which had a lot of useful info in it - maybe worth doing a search.

My comment hereunder is in response to the last paragraph of your original comment which I quote here for context : "After my interview with UC, that if I go and make money elsewhere I need to be registered as self employment, and then my benefits would be stopped - makes me think the system is completely against me"
Actually you could seriously consider self employment. There is a lot of help out there in terms of grants etc but mainly you can claim Working Tax Credit. I realise that total monies wouldn't match UC but it would do a hell of good for your self esteem etc. My advice would be to keep your earnings at a very modest level, certainly below Income Tax personal allowance threshold if you know what I mean.
Rather than me going on, explore self employment opportunities with UC people as to what help is available in your area. (edited)

The job centre can refer you to the national career service. You can phone them independently instead of waiting for a rereferral from the job centre. They can do a free CV review, they send job vacancies too.
Are you employing the STAR method in interviews? (look this up).
With job adverts if you have a name, follow up your application, so your application is not lost and the recruiter remembers you.
Apply to recruitment agencies again follow up recruiters.

Also consider doing another Level 3 course, in tech like Cyber Security for example or a boot camp in tech. Go for the government funded ones, there are loads. There are options to study in the evenings or full time. The national career service can help you with this. These courses are often linked to employers.

Good Luck.

Let us know how you get on. (edited)

I changed careers 4.5 years ago and was on ESA/JSA for a few months and know it can be hard being rejected over and over. Eventually I took up a job in a call centre and it took a year but was able to get a position in a different department (planning). Since joining I've been able to increase my salary by about 50% and moved into higher level roles most years coming with more holiday etc. Some see the initial job as a bit dead end but there's lots of opportunities for progression in other teams. We have our own it department, planning, projects, hr amount others.

If you're interest in IT, there is loads of free training on microsofts website. they actually have good thorough videos and training that could be of great help! Not sure what your previous experience is, but like the link below

learn.microsoft.com/en-…es/

also i wouldn't wait for job adverts to pop up, go find managed service providers near you, these tend to have high recruitment drives in IT sector and applying to them directly rather than going via recruiting agencies already puts you at the top of the list cos then they dont have to pay any finders fees.

asktheheadhunter.com/ might give you some new ideas to try.

When you get to interview are you limiting what you are willing to work or are you saying willing to work any shift any day etc.

Most jobs outside of office work will expect you to work weekends, unsociable hours etc.

Where I am there's loads of jobs in care, nhs, hotels etc.

Reading your introduction.
Employers are risk averse and you state you were bullied out of your previous job. Regardless of who was at fault or who was to blame this cries out that you are a problem employee. There are a multitude of ways an employee has to counteract a bullying culture and an employer will question why it was you that left.
Secondly, you are now out of work for too long. There is a long list of well qualified employees with pristine records looking employment so you need to break the chain on both points and get employed. It is always easier to find work when already in a job.

My advice - take any work you can get, work hard and get at least 6-month experience under your belt. Make friends and create good references. This is what will get you your next job.
I don't know what age range you fit into but most employers think gen z are useless and have no work ethic but at the same time they are generally desperate for employees due to loss of foreign nationals post Brex.. If you can show you can work hard you will find employment.

Another point to note is that most larger multinationals hire based on equity. This is a fact although I do not know the legality of positive discrimination but having asked my Union official who said there's not much can be done about it. This can be used to your advantage as companies actively want to employ LGBTQ employees. This is supposed to be confidential on monitoring forms but it is not. There is nothing stopping you from belonging to a minority group for the purposes of getting a job. I know various times this has worked for people.

This isn't meant in any way to be criticism, just some advice as well paid jobs are few and far between.

It is also worth reviewing whether an apprenticeship would suit you. Many of these are government subsidised and although most are garbage from an upskilling pov i.e. production operator apprenticeships, many do pay the living wage.

Also worth keeping in mind emigrating. The UK has went backwards in the past 10 years both in relation to opportunity and civil freedoms. If you don't have any ties, this could be an attractive option. (edited)

There is a lot of good advice already given so I am not going to repeat it. Have you checked if your CV is ATS compliant and a machine is not automatically rejecting it? Indeed has a guide that you may find useful, apart from having many job listings.

I am also assuming you also have someone suitable to help with practising interviews. I do not know your neighbourhood but my local library system has a programme where people help job applicants with CV writing and interviewing.

Best wishes. (edited)

I've been looking for a job for nearly a year and a half

There is the problem right there, no urgency and not fussed is how it will appear!

It's a difficult one, as it can be down to your location in the country. As an IT manager, it's alot down to attitude when sitting in front of me. Plenty of energy and smile goes a long way. Get back on 1st line and you can quickly move about, help on projects. Get someone else to review and give feedback on your CV. Do research on the company before the interview. I can appreciate that after a while you loose energy but on the day you need to find it again. If I see a candidate and they are dead behind the eyes, it's not what we want in our team. As someone else said, maybe a volunteering job until you find one. That looks good on the CV. Good luck

After my interview with UC, that if I go and make money elsewhere I need to be registered as self employment, and then my benefits would be stopped - makes me think the system is completely against me.

NO that is the system protecting the taxpayer from paying benefits to somebody who is earning X amount while being self-employed. The welfare was meant to act as a safety net and not a way of life as it has become for millions of people and for SOME they have no intention of changing. With all due respect they get enough to live on and everything for free so working a 40 hour week for an extra £50 really is pointless.

You have a L3 BTEC in IT, depending on what units you studied and the grades you got this needs to be your main focus for employment, education or training UNLESS you want to do something totally different. Cyber security is the biggest focus at the minute. University close by you could apply to or the OU run any courses? I know a few people who have done IT at degree level remotely and of course this was spurred on by COVID.

REMEMBER each year that passes the total number of people with your highest qualification increases and you become less employable as a result. The experience you have of working with the latest software is all so a factor, the longer you are out of the circle the harder it is to get back in.

At this point any employer is going to look at your age (I assume you are under 25), see an 18 month stint of benefits and think, no!

When you say 1st line, be honest, what technical queries were you investigating/resolving. The amount of CVs I see that say “Citrix specialist” for example; and in reality they were logging in to AD for passwords resets and Director to log off sessions.

My wife got made redundant whilst pregnant, now looking again but having a similar issue. Her main problem seems to be her experience and qualifications don't match, business and geology degrees but last few jobs IT.

Add in that anything not at least a quid above NMW means it costs her to work because of childcare so starting at the bottom again isn't an option, even if someone would hire a junior in their 40s