400 APPLICATIONS – AND ONLY FOUR REPLIES
A young jobseeker has described the 11 and a half months he has spent looking for work as “hell.” During that time, he says he applied for over 400 jobs but received only four replies – and got one interview.
Bob Jewer, 19, dropped out of his college course – but his story will chime with the many thousands of university graduates struggling to find work. Despite having 11 GCSEs and 3 AS levels, he has been turned down for jobs at KFC and McDonalds, as an Asda cashier and a barman. He told the Daily Mail:
“It’s the fact that I don’t know when it’s going to end. When I became unemployed in January, if I was told then that by May I would have a job, I could have got through those five months because I knew when it would end. But I don’t know when this is going to end, it’s like the past year I’ve done nothing and I’ve got nowhere, my life’s been on hold.”
Bob says he was forced to abandon a college course after the government scrapped the Education Maintenance Allowance because he couldn’t afford the bus fare. He has since moved in with his mum – and says the hardest part about job-hunting is the wall of silence from recruiters:
“I don’t think people realise that it’s not as if you apply for a job then after a week you get a letter for X, Y or Z saying you didn’t this job because of this, they don’t reply. ‘I don’t think they realise that people are going through a really hard time looking for work. They just think that this person isn’t suitable, so we don’t need to speak to them.”
“Living on Job Seekers’ Allowance of £53.45 a week is very difficult. I was living with my brother, but I’ve had to move back in with my mum and dad because I couldn’t afford it. I want to work, I want to pay tax, I want to feel as though I am contributing to a strong, cohesive British society.
“I find it almost slanderous that the mass media in this country has portrayed me, and the one million young unemployed people as feckless, work-shy and downright lazy.”
Graduate Fog knows that job-hunting can be really tough. If you’re struggling, visit our Advice section for tips on How to handle rejection and How to stay motivated.
*DO YOU FEEL BOB’S PAIN?
How many jobs have you applied for – and how many recruiters have replied? Should recruiters reply to all applicants, not just the successful ones? If you’ve found a job, what advice to you have for those still struggling to find work?
1st class degree
5 month internship
2 self starting chartity projects
15 charity interviews
100+ applications
= no job
and then I decided looking for jobs wasn’t worth it and became self employed. If anyone is in this horrible situation, consider changing course and adjusting your expectations, because it really beats you down after a while. I feel more positive about everything now I’m not applying for jobs and being rejected anymore.
The fact that the Government scrapped the Educational Maintenance Allowance is a red herring…in the sense that those committed to College Study would have gone anyway, irrespective of the EMA, with the EMA representing another another waste of money which Gordon Brown didn’t have in the first place. In any event, both for youth and adults, Colleges still offer support to those on benefits who want to participate within part time training.
It can be soul destroying for anyone to be unemployed for any period of time – but whereas the economic situation is dire, the jobs situation is not helped by the likes of youth who buy into the proposition that “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Will Set You Free”) and accept unpaid internships, thereby occupying a job which some job seeker would welcome the chance to do, or the unemployed who, through the Work Programme may have to work for an employer for nothing for four weeks. Some Interns even exhibit symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome.
Sadly, the permeation of a Slave Based Economy within the UK, where on the one hand an employer may save themselves about £20K-30K per annum through recruiting staff via one scheme or another without paying anything to society (such as salary, tax, National Insurance) is not going help the current unemployment situation…. nor the fact that each job which is occupied by an Intern or Work Programme Unemployed Candidate is costing the state about £15K per annum per job, and will be financed by the Bank of Mam and Dad to the tune of about £15K per annum (if a youth NEET not on benefits) or by the State to the tune of another £15K per annum if the candidate is in receipt of Job Related Benefits (say Job Seekers Allowance of £3K per annum PLUS Business Cost of £12K per annum). Each job which is occupied by an intern (for example) effectively costs the State about £60K per annum.
After:
– One B.A in communications
– 2 unpaid internships, 1 paid internship, 1 volunteer position (lasting 3 years) throughout university with one AFTER I graduated
– Being active in my communications student group, attending networking events
– Sending out more than 1000 resumes over the course of a year
– Reference letters from previous employers (one working in Publicity) and professors
=
– Being offered 4 interviews, 3 which led to 2nd interviews (so clearly I impressed them enough in the first round)
– Being turned down from jobs that matched my qualifications 85% of the time
– Being turned down from Hooters (yes I was THAT desperate since I got offered a job ON THE SPOT in 2007 but turned it down)
– Being turned down from: an administrative assistant position, personal assistant position, hostess at a restaurant position, file clerk, closed caption typer, Executive Assistant, 2 nanny positions despite having YEARS of childcare experience (I was seen as someone who would leave as soon as I got a real job)
– In between that time, I ended up getting a telemarketing job only because I knew someone who recommended me to the company.
Yeah I think I sympathize…
@Eowyn: I couldn’t agree with you more. There’s this art gallery where I interned for free. After I left, they fired the Assistant Director because they “couldn’t afford to pay her”, then brought on this girl who did all the duties of the Assistant Director for free. If myself or this girl (or any other desperate student) never accepted unpaid work, then the gallery director would’ve been forced to either offer these positions as paid, or don’t offer them at all. I regret my unpaid internships. They really screw with your self worth.
Recruiters want to have their cake and eat it. They want you to give everything, tick every box (no exceptions) stay there for years and work for peanuts; they don’t want to throw jobseekers a bone anymore.
I laugh when they insist on bigging-up their job descriptions and talking like the easy jobs are rocket science (e.g Receptionist) when they know full-well that anyone with half a brain and some decent interpersonal skills could do it. But they insist on deluding themselves about people’s expectations.
if i was a person adverising a young person now i would say look what Germany, Canada, New Zealand and Australia all want get the skills and then leave this country.
I live in Canada and the job situation ain’t that great here either. It took me 11 months to find a real one, and it has taken my peers anywhere between 9 months and 2 years.
It sounds like the whole world has a youth unemployment problem
Rejected from one grad scheme because I haven’t exercised management experience. Voluntary stuff in the SU didn’t count even when it involved putting on events for hundreds of people. Obviously I’m the one being managed myself in a part time retail jobs. Might as well have ignored University and worked my up to management level from the shop floor!
I admire the dear knowledge you offer on your articles. I can bookmark your weblog and feature my children test up here generally. I’m fairly sure they’ll be informed a lot of new stuff here than anybody else!
After graduating and applying for more than 200 jobs (honestly that much) for graduate engineer jobs (and I also have a little relevant experience, one interviewer told me that was unusual for a grad role), still have no job because I dont have experience. To make matters worse the UK immigration website states that my discipline is on the skill shortage list. Im now delivering pizza’s. This country is a sick joke.
Companies will pay what they can get a away with, one of my house mates works for capgemini, they bring Indians into the country by using a company transfer, so it works like this you have a company operate in the UK and India, you are allowed to transfer staff between two countries, this should be banned or if not tax the companies that much that it is not worth there while to bring outsiders in to do the work
Currently been unemployed for 8 months so far… Check out my post on thestudentroom:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3923241&p=63099421&posted=1#post63099421
Richard. Maybe your CV is wrong. Have a recruitment consultant look at it? Also civil service jobs there is a method to answering their in(competency) questions (they use something called STAR) and rubbish like that. Look up and research the internal civil service rules and read the application pack/instructions very carefully because if you don’t follow them properly they won’t even invite you to interview. Also many engineering sectors just don’t hire when there’s a financial downturn in their sector. Google their share price if they’re a Plc and if their share price has recently fallen off a cliff they’re probably not hiring.
Hi Anthony, thanks for the reply. I could do with someone looking at my CV to be honest, though I’ve learnt that I need to change it for every role I apply to…
I actually had some success today. I uploaded my CV to REED yesterday evening and filled out the skills profile. This morning I got two emails and a phone call about consultant opportunities (one from FDM group). Is this common or have I got lucky? I’m not looking to be a recruitment consultant but at least people have actually acknowledged me.
It never seems to get get any better.