Beggars Can't Be Choosers

It's not going well.

I'm still looking for a job, and still not getting very far. I don't have much chance of getting the cool jobs I'd like to do because there are more experienced people out there, I'm not geting much back from the average jobs that I've been going for, and my temping backup plan has vanished due to a complete lack of vacancies! All in all, it's pretty depressing.

As usual, throwing myself head-first into a new situation has given me a chance to look at it and question some of the ways in which things are done, and wonder what goes on the heads of the people responsible. One of my major gripes at the moment is forms. To be precice, application forms. And to be even more precise, application forms that are usually for university or public sector jobs. Up until recently I was under the impression that a CV was to inform prospective employers of your experience, skills and education. Of course, this isn't the full story which is why you have a covering letter to explain yourself and to describe why you're fantastic and why giving anyone else but you the job would be a travesty. Apparently, this isn't good enough and most of the jobs I've been applying for have applications forms to fill out. So what information do they require? Mainly your experience, skills and education, with a big section to explain yourself and why you're suitable for the job. So instead of sending off your perfectly-formatted CV, you're forced to fill in lots and lots of little (badly-designed) boxes with the same information that's already on your CV. What's worse than that is the minority of employers who only have the form as a pdf download that can't be completed on computer. That means that you have to print out the form and then fill in all the little boxes by hand. Maybe I'm so aggravated about this as I have no less than 13 different jobs on my CV and every application I do takes about an hour! Why any of these places can't figure out how to read a normal CV is a mystery. Maybe they just like the look of their own logo.

Of course, you don't have to go down the road of applying direct to employers. There's always the dark sinister path of the recruitment agency. Most people who have dealt with agencies will tell you they're a necessary evil. From the perspective of someone trying to find a job, they will be all too keen to sign you up and in many cases have you trek all the way to their office to fill in some forms and take some tests. This doesn't mean that they will help you out though, and in many cases you'll never hear from them again. If something does come up it will often be the first thing that lands on their desk regardless of whether you're suited to it or not. From the perspective of a company trying to hire someone they will promise the earth, and then send you over whatever people they're trying to find jobs for at the time. In many cases you'll find yourself waiting for them to call you and they never do. It's like having a date that you thought went well, and waiting for their call to find out they were only there for the drinks and never really fancied you in the first place! Unfortunately though, most of my previous jobs have been found through agencies so I'll just have to live with them. And in 6 months time when they start calling me to see if I'm still looking for work (to keep their records updated), I'll try not to swear at them down the phone.

All of this has naturally led to a lot of negativity on my behalf. And I've found that when confronting people with my lack of oppurtunities they often come up with the same reponse. "Beggars can't be choosers." I'll be honest and say that this annoys me a bit. It's true that I've been back nearly two months now. It's true that we're in the middle of a recession. It's also true that I didn't want to go back to what I was doing before and in what I have the most experience. But am I a beggar? Not yet. I should at least be able to apply for jobs I'm vaguely interested in, as there's no point going for a job if I'm going to hate it after a week. If I go for interesting stuff and nothing happens I'll slowly start lowering my standards. You might want Jessica Alba, but sooner or later you'll realise that you might need to lower your standards to the girl with the soverign rings who works in the Pound Shop. Have I reached Pound Shop levels yet? Nope. I'm reckon I'm probably on the job equivalent of chatting up the bird at the perfume counter in Debenhams.

So let's see what happens. Something has to come up sooner or later. Doesn't it?