Applying for a new job...terror!

[Mr Mystery]

Hey dudes.

So, in these austere times, I recently found myself bored at work. Not bored from the never ending deluge of work, but bored of the same old same old, and having my position made effectively dead-end didn't help.

Answer? Go look for a new job. And man have I picked a fight! I'm looking at working for the Financial Ombudsmen Service, aka those who keep the banks and other greedy sods in line. It involves starting more or less at the bottom, but on a much, much better wage, and with infinitely greater room for career progression. So overall a stronger position, and more or less a step upwards.

But my god it was terrifying writing the letter! Normally, I'm a pretty verbose guy, and have little trouble thrashing out a wordy email or letter. But this time? Total mind blank.

Still, it's done, and transmitted to my friend who works for them for approval.

Anyone else find this sort of thing completely terrifying?

[Uncle Nutsy]

Not really.

Last interview I went into, I strode in and gave them exactly what they would see if I was working there. Straight, blunt and to-the-point.

[Wolfshade]

"Fear is the mindkiller"

[Psychosplodge]

The letters the hardest point, if you pass that honesty and bluntness seems to work...

But I know where you're coming from, I want to move on but my industry is quite small, and if I tried no doubt my boss would hear of it...

[Wolfshade]

I know what that is like, specialising yourself into a dead end :(

[SotonShades]

Very much understand where you are coming from. I'm applying for about 6-20 jobs a day at the moment. Admittedly I have nothing to lose, being unemployed at the moment, but it was still a scary handing in my notice at my old job not having anywhere to go to. I've all but given up customising my CV for each (it is fairly well written in general for the industry I'm applying to) but doing the cover letter for each is, if not quite vital, very important. Made all the more interesting when the recruitment Agencies don't name the company on the job description so you have to make a best guess at showing yourself to be a good fit for their company as well as being academically suited and experienced enough for the role.

I recently completed an application to Red Bull Racing. For me, working in a Formula 1 team would be mind blowing, so the Application form had to be perfect. You could only download it after getting in the 80th percentile on an online test, but the end result was a blank piece of paper. it didn't have to be a perfect application, but it did have to be perfectly me. That properly screwed with my head lol. Still, got to the last 5% of candidates, so It msut have been pretty good. Not quite enough to progress to the next stage, but still...

[Wolfshade]

Soton have you seen Monster are advertising to be Marussia social media driver for Silverstone?

[SotonShades]

I had not. I shall look when I get back in front of a computer. Cheers for the spot

[lobster-overlord]

i walked in to an interview yesterday that turned out to be a job offer site unseen. i wish the were all that easy. today was ok. my interview was with a former manager from a previos work and that went wekll too.

iwish you the best in looking for a change

[Denzark]

I last went for a job interview 11 years ago. Since then they have sent me to Northern Ireland, the Falkland Islands, Germany, Holland, Iraq, and Afghanistan twice.

If thats what happens at all interviews I can't recommend them!

[Mr Mystery]

WOOT!

Inside Woman handed in my application yesterday lunchtime, and today I have confirmation that they're interested.

They emailed me saying there's a screening telephone interview, and gave me some topics to research in preparation. SAid research is now largely done, just need to look into the history of the FOS itself.

My job may be about to become a career.

[SotonShades]

Good luck man. Fingers crossed for you. In similarly good news, I've been told that the last Engineering job I interview for, who turned me down because I was overqualified, put me forward to their parent company's Technical Development Program. Apparently I am overqualified for that too, so they put me forward totheir parent company's Management Development Program and I'm under consideration for that. Hopefully should hear if they want me for it at some point in the next working week.

[Wolfshade]

Good news everyone :D

[Psychosplodge]

Good luck with that, but surely to manage effectively you need some hand son experience near the bottom?

[SotonShades]

Good luck with that, but surely to manage effectively you need some hand son experience near the bottom?

That's what she said.



Sorry, couldn't resist. Bad Shades.

Yeh it's tru, but I do have proven experience as an effective manager in various clubs and societies, from gaming to sports to technical theatre, as well as handling a lot of management tasks in various jobs I've had in retail, hotels and local government, not to mention within groups projects at university. I know it's not quite the same as proper industrial experience, nut it is an internationally recognised development scheme and part of it's aim is to develop the skills you need as an engineering manager to compensate for lack of general experience.

At least, that's the plan. When I started at uni, we were told that as graduates from our course at our uni we were all but garaunteed jobs because so many companies went out of their way to employ us. For the first two years it was true, with aerospace, automotive and race team recruiters regularly on campus trying to get hold of the 4th yr students. Shame the economic crisis hit about that time and screwed that up lol.

[Psychosplodge]

I don't blame, I would have done the same lol

Yeah I remember the same lies being fed us at sixth form/uni lol, the top 10% seemed to walk into jobs, the rest in my experience are doing stuff they could have probably done anyway. Out the people on my course I knew socially I'm the only one working in a relevant field, and I didn't finish...