What Does It Take To Get A Job?

[Sten Sture]

You could always move to Lithu and get a cushy job with Vemco or work for Saras as a nanny.



Are you following up your applications with phone calls?

[Saras]

He doesn't know jack 'bout electronic engineering. And I don't fancy a midget nanny

[Provost Harrison]

Following up my application with phonecalls? I have definitely never come across that being a standard practice before...

[Sten Sture]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
...standard practice before...

very standard here, but so is tipping the barkeep, so... ??? anyone from the empire know?

(our nanny is hot - )

[Bereta_Eder]

our nanny is hot?

[Ecthy]

their nanny is hot, paiktis.

[Saras]

Well, my wife is hotter

[Provost Harrison]

My right hand is the hottest

[Saras]

That cannot be verified independently

[Provost Harrison]

Wanna bet?

[Saras]

Print THIS on your resume

[Sten Sture]

LoL @ PH (edit)

Originally posted by Saras
Well, my wife is hotter

well, yeah... but she's family so that doesn't count!


PH if you were hot you could get a job as a nanny, but that prolly doesn't help you much.

Forza Hull

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by rah
I got an interview out of every 2 or 3 resumes sent. (of course, I haven't looked since the economy tanked.)

Definitely a different world now. When i first moved to HK the economy was booming and I landed a job 36 hours after I got off the plane. With the economy in the dumps, I haven't found anything after six months of searching.

The worst thing is sending off resumes, doing follow-up calls and then not even getting an interview.

Luckily, I can do freelance work to pay the bills. Otherwise I'd be really screwed.

[MikeH]

Originally posted by OneFootInTheGrave


You overclocker

what do you do by the way, have any jobs down there in Reading

I'm a Lotus Domino Developer.

There are loads and loads of IT jobs in Reading. All the major US companies have UK or European HQs here. Oracle, MicroShaft, Sun + all the coms companies like WorldCom, Energis etc. Only problem is that a lot of the US based firms have recruitment freezes because the US bits aren't doing very well even though the UK/European arms are still doing well.

And there are a lot of support companies for them and smaller IT firms, I work for a very small one.

There are also a load of Insurance companies here, main one being Prudential.

'cause there are a lot of mid-high income youngish people around here there's also a high demand for service workers.

You can still get a job in a couple of days if you really want one, couple of weeks if you want something specific. Only unemployed people I know down here these days are students or people who want to be. Used to be a lot harder to find jobs.

Of course that's why the cost of living is so high.

[MikeH]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison


What do you think I do...I am well versed on this kind of stuff too, tweaked CVs (although they are all pretty much the same kind of area of job so this isn't a big issue) and the covering letters are written for each, well maybe using paragrahs from previously written covering letters at templates. Most of the applications I have made are via application form which require statements, but these are tailored to the specific job...so still twiddling my thumbs...

Well something must be going wrong. 1 interview per 12 to 25 applications shows that they are dismissing your CV/application too often for some reason.

We've been building a database for managing job applications for the last year or so, I've had a lot of exposure to the people who are doing the hiring to make sure the system will work for them.

Before we put our system in to make it more intelligent they basically get a big stack of CVs and glance through them throwing a load of them onto a reject pile based on anything from qualifications to it looking badly produced or unprofessional. You need to make sure that your CV doesn't get onto that auto reject pile and then once you pass that hurdle make sure that it is one of the ones they look at for an early interview. Which means your CV has to be good enough to stand out above 80% of the other CVs out there.

When I was applying I was lucky enough to be able to ask a friend of my mothers who works in the industry and does some recruitment to look over my CV and suggest changes which was very useful. Plus I found out from them exactly what they were looking for in candidates and worked on putting that across in interviews.

If you don't know anyone like that (anyone from uni courses gone into the industry that might be able to help?) you could try contacting someone at one of the companies and see if they'd help? It can't hurt and at you have a chance of making a contact and they'd see you were keen and proactive.

Before interviews I'd write out a page of questions about the company. Use as many as possible in suitable situations in the interview, and add ones if something came up in the interview. I approached the interview with the attitude that I knew they'd want me once they'd seen me (in a self confident way not in an arrogant way) and I needed to find out if the company was right for me. The more you ask them questions the more they are answering and the less they can ask you.