General / Off-Topic Applying For Jobs Is Annoying...

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
So I've been trying to find a new job for yonks. I currently work as a delivery driver for Tesco.com.
It's long hours and low paid. Brilliant!

Anyhoo, my brother works for Network Rail, and he's a supervisor. He reckons I'd make an excellent signaller, so recommended I apply for signalling roles around the west midlands.
That was 2 years ago.

I've been applying for jobs non stop, and I've only managed to get 1 interview. Lol
They have a signalling assessment test you need to complete in order to be a signaller, I was one of the highest scoring in the group.
Yet I didn't get one of the 10 jobs, out of 20 applicants.
(And you say RNG in Elite is cruel. Lol)

Anyhoo, I've kept applying, but I never get to the interview stage anymore.

When applying online, you also need a pass a small 40 question test in 8 minutes.
The first time I did this, I struggled to even finish the 40 questions, yet I passed.
I've done this test about 10 times, and it never changes, and last time I applied for a job, I'm certain I got 40/40 with time to spare.

This morning I received an email saying "I failed to meet the benchmark criteria"...lol

What's worse is, I didn't get the job as a signaller, because I lacked signalling experience.

So in order to get a job as a signaller at Network Rail, you need to do better than 40/40 on a test, and already be a signaller at Network Rail.
And my brother is of no help, because all hiring is done via a hiring centre he doesn't work at. Lol

Time to look elsewhere...

Air Traffic Controller sounds good. Lol

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
 

Arry

Arry
It seems that with the job market place, agencies and often companies; they find a reason to say no and that is it. No matter how you improve or what ever positions you apply for. B&Q for example; applied for a warehouse managers job. Got an interview; but my long distant past, prevented me getting any further. Now I can apply for the floor sweepers job and still get an instant rejection.

Changing email address, can make a difference; but other factors tend to set-off, the automatic rejection systems in place.
 
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Necronaught

Necronaught
Get into nursing or mental health support work. Long hours mediocre pay, nursing is physically tough but support work is a doddle. You get paid for assisting people. Take them to the pub, cinema etc. Just an idea :)
 

Asp Explorer

Asp Explorer
If anyone has any PL/1 or COBOL, JCL, Autoflow or sheet shunting experience - there are heaps of places crying out for devs with real production experience in the American Midwest.
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
jasonbarron said:
The one where getting a job is easier and individual prosperity is greater.
Click to expand...

The problem is that it isn't always easy to be allowed to go to a country where jobs are more readily available.

Asp Explorer said:
If anyone has any PL/1 or COBOL, JCL, Autoflow or sheet shunting experience - there are heaps of places crying out for devs with real production experience in the American Midwest.
Click to expand...

I have none of those skills, but I can turn the flimsiest ideas into a great powerpoint presentation. Will that get me anything? :p
 

Asp Explorer

Asp Explorer
sleutelbos said:
I have none of those skills, but I can turn the flimsiest ideas into a great powerpoint presentation. Will that get me anything? :p
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, powerpoint doesn't transition too well to z/OS and it's textual UI :(

Sad thing is - so many people turn up for scopes that could lead to interviews - and there is so much "Oh - I thought DOS was dead?" or "I see your webpage has crashed" to exacerbate the problem.

The people who did this kind of thing for a living are now retiring in droves - and good for them! Thing is - there are very few replacement people even able to look at and comprehend the code, let alone qualified enough to issue it to production.

Peeps might think "So what? Old systems die - web2.0 4 eva!" but please understand, this is what actually makes the insurance and financial industries actually operate.
 

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
Sometimes I think I should mention that as a child, I played a lot of Transport Tycoon Deluxe.

This makes me more qualified than most of the staff they already have.

I doubt they'll see it that way though. :p

I'd love to move to America. It's one of my dreams in life.

As for trying to make money off something I enjoy and are good at, I can build PCs, and diagnose and repair them pretty well, but PC repair is slowly dying.

I'm also good at playing video games, but I have no personality, so blogging or streaming or whatever isn't worth it. Lol

I really just want a job that's mentally challenging.
Driving a Tesco van is actually pretty mind numbing. Lol

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
 

Zak Gordon

Zak Gordon
Also keep in mind the almost zero protection you have as an employee in the USA. Giving up everything here to just find yourself likewise unemployed in a few months in the USA, with less rights to access unemployment help, might not be for everyone.

If you want to consider moving abroad, and have other language skills, it might be a 'safer' move to look at the EU zone? Closer to home if it does not work out etc, and you could start in Ireland if the language barrier is an issue?

But in general i agree that 'slaving' around for even a positive reply to a job opportunity is soul destroying. I would echo what Zeeman suggested, look at what you would love to be doing, then focus on ways to make that happen.
 

StiTch

StiTch
jasonbarron said:
Move to America.
Click to expand...

Always had you down as a boss of sarcasm ;)

I'd take joblessness over having to wear a tag saying "please don't save my life, I can't afford it" any day.

But then I have a job. Strange really - I spent ages trying to get into the IT sector, and now I work at the UK's HQ for one of the biggest companies in the world and we're practically begging for people to work here.
 

verminstar

Banned
verminstar
Finding a job is nigh on impossible when ye have a criminal record...I reconcile this with the reality that they just gave me all the reason I need to keep breaking the law to make money. Its almost like they encourage it by refusing to give me a job so I stopped looking a long time ago...its a futile and soul destroying reality if ye think about it.

As it turned out, such a thing was the making of me and I built up my own business as me own boss and made a helluva lot more money than I would have done sweeping the streets. Not all of it was strictly legal but then society doesnt really give people like me any choice...either ye live in poverty legally or live like a normal human being by whatever means ye can find while discarding any morals ye might be clinging onto ^
 
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