Workshop assisting residents to find jobs in Surrey again

[Lilly]

Hi everyone,
Iâ??ve read something very interesting in The Recruiter today (see link below). There is nothing that inspires me more than people working together for a cause that can better a current problem.:)
http://www.recruiter.co.uk/fusion-works-with-surrey-jobcentre-plus/1001922.article
A recruitment company in Guildford and Surrey Jobcentre Plus are providing workshops for people who have lost their jobs and will assist them with an action plan on how to get back into the groove of things. I know of so many people who have lost their jobs or have been made redundant and when youâ??re older, like my mother for example, it is really hard to get back into things. To redo your CV and sit through interviews can be extremely daunting when you havenâ??t done it for so many years. :(
I think these workshops will do a lot for those looking for jobs in Surrey (http://www.careers-jobs.eu/surrey-jobs) and help many people not only find a new position but actually get it tooâ?¦:cool:

Cheers,
Lilly

[Emily-o]

Ah this is fantastic! I hope it is open to everyone - in the past some courses have been restricted to those who have been unemployed for X amount of months. A lot of help has been given to young people who are going to be facing a lot of compeition when job searching, and I am glad someone has mentioned the older generation. I think career advice is needed by people of all ages.

My mother was faced with redundancy last year. After working with the company for 13 years she was really lost on where she could go. Thankfully her company offered career advice and she was lucky enough to relocate into the medical department. However without advice on where to go and how to adapt her CV to appeal to this other department - she would be rather lost!

Do you think individuals know where to get career advice from? Do you think people know where to go and get help?

[Lilly]

If they claim Job Seekers Allowance - then it's free.
http://www.recruiter.co.uk/fusion-works-with-surrey-jobcentre-plus/1001922.article

I'm glad your mother got sorted in the end. Being without an income and without a job really does something to you emotionally, especially if you are looking after children but even if you are older, it takes away your sense of "purpose" in a way...

You know what, I don't even think I really know where to get proper advice from...
A workshop like this is excellent but are there any good online sites that you could recommend? I think it's worth it to research this and keep it at hand..

[Lilly]

This topic of ours keeps popping into my head so I did a couple of quick searches. I think there is definitely massive of help available on the net. Like for example, I see that Monster (http://www.monster.co.uk) has a whole section on advice along with the jobs featured on their website.
They assist with interviews and developmentâ?¦
It seems many job sites (http://www.careers-jobs.eu) actually give advice and offer CV writing guidelines so this is good news.
Let me know if you find anything newâ?¦:)

[Emily-o]

Yes - there are loads of job sites on the Internet to choose from. To be honest I didn't really get along with the navigation on Monster. I am on CV-library though and that one seems easy to use. However I must say... I have never heard back from any jobs I have applied for in the past.

Do you ever hear back from job applications? Or do you think that the amount of applicants applying is just too much and the HR department don't have time to reply to everyone?

[Lilly]

No, I’m not getting much love there either. I’ll tell you the worst thing about that is that it creates hope in a way. My mother always says ‘no news is good news’…I’d rather know that I wasn’t successful and if possible maybe some positive criticism. I don’t think searching for a new job can possibly be a “nice” experience, especially if you send your CV out (again and again) but not receiving any feedback?

[Emily-o]

I know the feeling. I know that loads of people are applying and it is probably impossible for recruiters to get back to everyone and that is fair enough. It just gets rather demoralising after a while to hear nothing from anyone.

Have you ever followed up an application, called the company and asked for feedback? Do you think it would be a helpful thing to do?