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One trick I learned this year, when trying to get a new job at the wrong side of 50, is that you get much more interest in your CV if you remove everything but the last couple of jobs. In 8 months I applied for approximately 150 jobs without getting a single interview, despite knowing I could do most of them standing on my head. A friend advised me to cut my CV back and within a matter of weeks I had been interview by 3 separate companies and landed my current job.
Sometimes less really is more. Getting to interview is the key and if your vast experience is scaring people off then it needs to go.
Just a thought, would voluntary work be any good for you to get you back into the workplace? If it doesn't mess up your finances it could be a springboard.
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If we can't get a job, we must make ourselves a job and it seems a lot of older folk are doing just that. I'd always wanted to be a professional photographer and here was the chance. Only snag is that thousands of others are thinking the same way!
Oh I've tried that too believe me! I have spent what little money I have trying to get my own little business going and it was a disaster, it makes me sick to think of what I could have done with that money instead, bought my kids decent shoes, decent food, but no, I wanted to try and make work for myself and now I'm even worse off than I was, I now have NO money at all, nothing and it is very hard to start a business without so much as a penny to invest into it.
The problem with voluntary work is that due to being a single parent with no friends or family to help me out, childcare is a HUGE issue, for me to be able to afford child care I've got to do a job that is going to pay enough to make it worth while, I can't pay for child care if I do voluntary work.
Believe me I have looked at every possible avenue, but what it boils down to is I have no qualifications, I have no work experience, I've been a stay at home mum for 16 years, I am now a single mother with no support or childcare and I'm getting into the 'older' age group. What employer is going to look at that and snap me up?
Or of course you could just say that I don't want to work and would rather sit on my fat lazy arse claiming £67.50 a week Widowed Parents benefit (that's for me and THREE children by the way), who wouldn't want that amazing lifestyle eh?
Blimey, we've gone right off topic on this one, but sorry, I will rant and rave if anyone comes out with stupid blanket statements like that.
Quote: I wanted to try and make work for myself and now I'm even worse off than I was,
So sorry to hear that - you do make some lovely things.
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Believe me I have looked at every possible avenue, but what it boils down to is I have no qualifications, I have no work experience, I've been a stay at home mum for 16 years, I am now a single mother with no support or childcare and I'm getting into the 'older' age group. What employer is going to look at that and snap me up?
Don't take this the wrong way, but you are underselling yourself by some huge way there.
No work experience? That would suggest that have been sat on your "fat lazy arse". My money is on you running a home on a limited budget - and that takes a very special skill. I would suggest a visit to jobcentre plus and ask them to point you in the right direction for skills training to provide a bridge for your transferable skills, and then look at assistance for an internship or something like that.
The only thing that is holding you back is confidence
Quote: Yet another of the grand but untrue fact. Most of the jobs that imigrants do are the jobs that lots of our own UK residents refuse to do because they would prefer to sit on their fat arse and do nothing and claim benefits
What a load of crap.
When I was out of work I would apply for anything and every thing, I eventually got offered a job, great I thought until the told me it would be cash in hand with no tax or national insurance to pay, I then turned it down, they quickly filled that position with somebody else.
Quote: Oh I've tried that too believe me! I have spent what little money I have trying to get my own little business going and it was a disaster, it makes me sick to think of what I could have done with that money instead, bought my kids decent shoes, decent food, but no, I wanted to try and make work for myself and now I'm even worse off than I was, I now have NO money at all, nothing and it is very hard to start a business without so much as a penny to invest into it.
Don't mean to be rude or anything... but have you tried stock photography?
If you have lots of time, but no money, look for conceptual shots of objects around your house and/or in your local area, and then upload then to stock sites like Alamy.
It will take a lot of time and effort before you start seeing a return... but as you already have a camera, there is no further expense.
I know from personal experience that many east Europeans get employed here because their maths and general education are better and they are more motivated to work.
A Pole I met in Ireland recently had bought two houses in Poland by working day and night in a Dublin hotel. I asked him if he'd stay in Ireland and he said no, not because he didn't like it but because property prices were so high you had to work hard just to cover your rent. His accommodation came with the job and pretty basic it was but he sent all his money home so that by the time he was 40 he could go back to Poland and his family and live ok.
A young AP stringer I worked with in Bucharest was working 6 months for AP and then University for six months. They have a system there where you can pay as you go. It's very flexible and recognises the need to earn money to pay for your education.
English youngsters seem more ready to accept their lot and more easily demoralised than their eastern European counterparts. Maybe they are brought up to expect so much that the reality of work disappoints them.
Either way, I find it hard to dislike someone who has the get up and go to move to another country to pursue a better life. You could blame our rules for letting them in but surely there should not be personal resentment against such people.
Quote: A Pole I met in Ireland recently had bought two houses in Poland by working day and night in a Dublin hotel
Nobody works these sort of hours,even in hotels.
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