• 15 Posts
  • 171 Comments
Joined 3 years ago
Cake day: June 14th, 2023
  • JohnSmith@feddit.uktoAsk UK@feddit.uk•Need to start job hunting after 20 years...any tips?
    0·
    6 days ago

    I’ve been mostly the hiring manager, so I’ll comment from that perspective. Last time I was job hunting was over 20 years ago and before that almost another 20 years prior. I know very little about being a candidate.

    People who know you referring you is by far the most efficient channel. Candidates referred by people I trust almost invariably jump the queue. Use that to the maximum. This is how I’ve found my new jobs, save for the first one and one mid career.

    Tailor your CV for each application. It is a lot of work, but it will increase the probability of getting an interview, which is the only purpose of a CV for you. Ensure you highlight experience that matches the role, picking key words from the job ad. I would recommend using plain English and ensuring all sentences are easy to read. Clunky text will easily send your CV to the no pile. For love of god, make sure there are no typos.

    Prepare yourself for rejections and ghosting. The problem is not you. Every recruitment process has its flaws and good candidates get rejected regularly. Some of it is incompetence and some just random bad luck. Also, you have no way of knowing what is being used to filter CVs and prioritise candidates. A candidate who gets an interview will already have been very lucky, avoiding accidental rejection and somehow matching the filtering and prioritisation criteria.

    When you get an interview make sure you prepare well. I’ll highlight a couple of things I think are important. Pick four or five relevant examples from your career you want to talk about and plan ahead what key things you want to say. The examples will give you a great starting point to answer even tricky questions. You will likely be able to make a bridge from a question to one of your prepared examples and therefore will immediately know how to proceed. This reduces the risk of getting stumped and gives you confidence.

    A good format in answering questions is explaining situation you are talking about, what you did and what was the outcome because of your actions. Situation - your actions - outcome. Try to be fairly succinct allowing the interviewer to ask about details that are relevant for them.

    If you have gaps in your CV plan what you will say about them. There is nothing wrong in taking a beak, needing a rest, being unemployed, being ill, etc.

    Prepare a few questions you want to ask. If you are not curious to learn anything that easily comes across as you not caring. If they don’t give you time to ask questions it’s probably a place you’ll want to walk away from.

    Final point I’ll make is that there is nothing wrong in being nervous in an interview. It is not a normal situation and most people will have at least some nerves. I’d probably be super nervous if I was to interview for a job. I would probably simply tell the interviewer that I’m nervous because it’s been a long time. A good interviewer will help you ease into the interview.

    Best of luck!

  • JohnSmith@feddit.uktoAsk UK@feddit.uk•Actions to take preempting redundancy
    0·
    29 days ago

    Sorry to hear that, not a nice place to be suspecting a chop after Christmas.

    Nighed already mentioned reading through your contract, which is very important. You should also learn about your statutory rights in case of redundancy. In the UK after two years of employment your rights increase. Your statutory redundancy pay is also dependent on the length of service. As I’m not an employment lawyer I will not write specifics here is case I get some of it wrong. You better find out yourself.

    Beyond the legal minimum, some companies offer enhancements on top to “soften the blow”. There might be enhanced redundancy pay on the table, support in finding a new job, training etc.

    The company cannot just announce redundancies. They are required by law to consult about the redundancies, seeking measures to avoid them or mitigate their impact. If they do not consult in good faith with the affected people they are breaching the law leaving them open to compensation claims.

    Each individual in scope should expect to have at least two consultation meetings. First meeting is to explain rationale why the individual role is at risk and offer the individual an opportunity to ask questions and make proposals to avoid the redundancy. Nighed mentioned “support clown” which I think refers to a support person one can take to redundancy consultation meetings. Second and any subsequent individual consultation meetings are to answer questions and proposals, and to make new ones if something new comes up.

    A way to be awkward, should one wish to be, would be to have several questions and proposals to avoid redundancy in back pocket and drip-feed them over several individual consultation meetings to prolong the process and make it uncomfortable for the people managing the process as possible. All consultation meetings must be minuted in writing, by the way.

    A redundancy becomes effective only once the individual consultation has concluded, and all questions have been answered and proposals considered. This is the point from which the notice period in the employment contract starts ticking.

    Some things might be negotiable during the consultation. Examples would be whether one needs to work their notice period or can people get paid in lieu of the notice period. The points to try and negotiate about should be about avoiding the redundancies or mitigating their impact.

    You might want to think what to ask and what to propose should it come to a redundancy consultation. For example, you might want to propose that they must pay for extra training and job seeking support. They must consider all questions and proposals and provide meaningful and reasoned answers.

    But importantly, I’m not an expert, just somebody who’s been through that shitshow a few times.

    Good luck!