[ForKicks]

A lot of grad schemes don't require experience in that field and general experience such as working in a shop is very easy to get if you want to do it.

[ForKicks]

(Original post by Aisha~~)
I managed perfectly fine at 17. Finished first year of college and walked into a full-time office job two weeks later. It's really not as difficult as people make it out to be, provided you're motivated and well informed.

I think full time proper jobs may be difficult to get, but not part-time, temp, or minimum wage jobs! I have had many retail, manual labour, and restaurant jobs over the past 4 years and got every one of them first time (as well as others I declined). I really don't understand why people complain about part-time work not existing..

[original_username]

Firms outsource recruitment to agencies. Agencies use a sort of google search function with the job title of the role they are recruiting for. No chance of getting a job in this type of situation without prior experience.

[That Bearded Man]

The unfortunate story for students these days I've decent cafe experience but would love to work in a pub, experience is everything.

[LaurenD]

I'm 16 and as soon as I hit my birthday I applied to every single place going (and my town's fairly big). I reckon I must have applied to... maybe 50 odd places? Only a handful actually got back to me to say sorry or whatever, and I had 3 interviews. The first said they liked me but I wasn't flexible enough (6th form and that), the second... I never found out. They never got back to me after the interview. And the third went really well, and I'm pleased to say I'm still there now However it was originally a saturday only temp job for Christmas and they kept me on.
It's so frustrating being young and trying to get a job nowadays. I'd worked in a charity shop for 6 months in Year 10, as part of the DofE scheme, which I think may have helped me but my friends at work who also got the job at the same time as me had no experience whatsoever.
I also think it's so rude that these employers don't at least email you to say you haven't got the job - it costs them nothing!!

[Elissabeth]

(Original post by DanielMonopoly)
Lol So I was talking to my friend in the gym the other day who I hadn't seen for a long time; My university work is a b***h lol.

So I asked him what he had been doing lately and he went on to tell me about how he's been looking for work but nobody is giving young people without any experience even an interview let alone a job. His exact words where - "Getting a job without any experience is a myth mate lol". So I asked him why he hadn't gotten a part time job like myself at a younger age (17), his answer, he didn't need the money, which is a fair and honest in my opinion.

He went on to tell me about how all employers want are people with experience and how the current recruitment system doesn't help those without any experience get in the door etc.

Now my questions to you guys are the following:

Do you feel that young people who have no experience in work simply because they haven't needed a job before don't have a chance against others who have had the experience?

What do you think of the current recruitment process, the whole apply online deal? Is that system used to filter out people without any experience?

Should there be a number designated job roles for people without any experience in retail/leisure/customer service establishments ?

How well can a CV really represent you as a person?

My opinion as a 20 year old man, I feel all establishments who can offer young people work should have a walk in policy that allows people to come to where ever and gain an interview. I feel like a CV doesn't really represent you as much as you can represent yourself. It should be about the person applying for the role and what they can bring to establishment in terms of skills, ideas and how well they can represent the company.

Basically make the playing field even, so everyone who wants the oppotunity can go for it lol

What about the two weeks work experience that most people do at school?

Surely that counts for something?

Doing it by interview wouldn't be fair either, IMO. Because lets face it, a lot of interviews are down to people's ability to bull****. Anybody can say how good they are, but it doesn't mean jack.

It would also mean people who get very nervous and are naturally very shy wouldn't get much chance.

In regards to the rest of what you are saying, I agree they should eliminate nepotism, but I don't know how they could.

I hardly think experience is that important anyway, for very basic jobs. Wetherspoons and places employ people without experience. And KFC. Also, easier to become an xmas temp without experience.

[Elissabeth]

(Original post by That Bearded Man)
The unfortunate story for students these days I've decent cafe experience but would love to work in a pub, experience is everything.

Try Wetherspoons?

[Elissabeth]

(Original post by threeportdrift)
Two things are evident from your post - first you are confusing experience and work experience and second you are not writing your CV properly.

Experience and work experience are two different things, and for basic retail, waiting jobs employers are often only looking for experience, not work experience. A shop assistant or waiter holds a lot of power in their hands, they can annoy customers so they don't come back, lose money on the tills, leave out of date food on sale etc. Employers are always going to take the job applicant who seems to have the most relevant skills set, it would be a nonsense to do otherwise. So what the successful applicant has to do is to give evidence of having relevant skills.

So for example, if you want a job at the gym during the summer, then work out what different skills would be needed and work out how you can give evidence of having those skills. Presumably if you are sporty you go to the gym regulalry and know the equipment, have warm up/warm down routines, play a couple of other sports, coach kids in something etc. That could turn into a competitive application.

If you are looking for retail, look at when you have run a car boot, helped out selling for YE, spoken to visitors in school etc

Then second your CV needs to be tailored to each specific job. In other words, although we talk about your CV in the singular, you should actually rewrite your CV for almost every application, because the skills required by Gym Staff are not the same as the skills required by waiters or shop assistants.

You need to view job applications not only as an entry into a competition, but you've also got to work out how to make yourself competitive.

As several people have pointed out before, everyone who is employed gets a first job without previous work experience. But employers pick the best people, so the trick is to make yourself as competitive as you can.

Excellent post.

How do you think people could do this for bar work?

Because I don't imagine that it would go down well if you talked about loving drinking, lol.

[alex_hk90]

It is possible; I managed to get a (full time, graduate scheme) job without any experience. But of course having experience would have made it somewhat easier (ironically I have now got a few months experience, but I applied for this at the same time as for the job so they didn't have any effect on each other).

[alex_hk90]

(Original post by Elissabeth)
Excellent post.

How do you think people could do this for bar work?

Because I don't imagine that it would go down well if you talked about loving drinking, lol.

Stuff like customer service, getting along with people, dealing with difficult and unexpected situations, etc.

[RibenaRockstar]

(Original post by DanielMonopoly)
Not necessarily. For example, I go to a gym and on a daily bases new people sign up and have to go through an induction and the guy that does the inductions really doesn't give people the best advice and he glances over a hell of a lot of important things. Now I know for a fact that I could personally could help a lot of people with their gym needs in terms of work out plans, nutation, effective exercises etc. But simply because I haven't worked at a gym before or haven't had any training I wouldn't be given a chance getting an interview just based on my CV.

Then put this knowledge in your CV...

(Original post by Elissabeth)
Excellent post.

How do you think people could do this for bar work?

Because I don't imagine that it would go down well if you talked about loving drinking, lol.

What I suggested to a friend applying for a waiter job was to say something along the lines of having seen good and bad examples of service and learnt how much it affects the customer experience. You could also say something along the lines of keeping calm under pressure, or you've noticed what a complex task it is and are impressed by people's command of it

[Beckyweck]

I'm 20 and have yet to have a job. When I was doing A levels and such my parents said they wanted me to focus on my academic work, and because I did a lot of voluntary work already, they gave me money when I asked for it (I'm not a demanding child) rather than have me go out and work. I was contemplating getting a job this year but then so many people at uni have got jobs and they're like "uuurg I wish I didn't have to go to work because I haven't got time to do this work and that work blah blah blah" so that kinda put me off.

Hopefully a placement year counts as work because I'll be doing that 9-5 all next year and if not then I'll graduate still having never had a job!

I don't know about the current process, never looked in to it to be honest though I think my CV is fairly good. I've got a lot of stuff to show for my years even if it's not a paid job.

[threeportdrift]

(Original post by Elissabeth)

How do you think people could do this for bar work?

Because I don't imagine that it would go down well if you talked about loving drinking, lol.

First of all, job adverts and careers websites often give information on the skills required for jobs, so you can always check on there.

Second, think about the job and what skills a Manager would want to see in staff. I'd say that included sociable/friendly and able to talk to people, quick, accurate, working well/remaining calm under pressure and initiative.

Any sort of customer facing or food serving role would show this, but so would many other activities. The examples might well be scattered across a wide range of experiences and activities, and some things are hard to evidence in a CV, notable being sociable and friendly. But that's where you use your covering letter to draw together the evidence in the CV and mention your friendly, sociable approach/style etc.

[hiding12]

(Original post by super.teve)
When I was hiring, the biggest issues were (on top of many others):

• No cover letter, or a generic one
• Nothing mentioning the specific role they were applying for
• Boring CV telling me everything they'd done, but nothing they could bring to the company, no vision and no drive
• The layout was crap, I'm not going to sit there reading size 10 font, or trying to work out which grades are for which qualification because you can't format a table properly.
• Colour: No, it looks stupid, your pink cv offends my eyes.
• Don't tell me about looking after your disabled little sister, it might be heartless but you should do that any way, and it makes no difference to me, this isn't a health care role. Also, it might make me less inclined to consider you if you tell me you left college early to pick her up from school, especially if you're working until 7PM.
• I don't give a damn about your love for the cinema, or wine, or anything unrelated.
• Personal statement: Most people copied and pasted lines from their CV
• Incorrect tenses, it makes you look like an

idiot.

(If you go back to the second page, I offer my insight from the recruitment process - i'm nothing special and neither is the company, but I'm sure the frustrations I had are shared across the board).

If you've not got any experience use everything you can to impress...

Thanks this is actually really useful.

[hiding12]

(Original post by super.teve)
When I was hiring, the biggest issues were (on top of many others):

• No cover letter, or a generic one
• Nothing mentioning the specific role they were applying for
• Boring CV telling me everything they'd done, but nothing they could bring to the company, no vision and no drive
• The layout was crap, I'm not going to sit there reading size 10 font, or trying to work out which grades are for which qualification because you can't format a table properly.
• Colour: No, it looks stupid, your pink cv offends my eyes.
• Don't tell me about looking after your disabled little sister, it might be heartless but you should do that any way, and it makes no difference to me, this isn't a health care role. Also, it might make me less inclined to consider you if you tell me you left college early to pick her up from school, especially if you're working until 7PM.
• I don't give a damn about your love for the cinema, or wine, or anything unrelated.
• Personal statement: Most people copied and pasted lines from their CV
• Incorrect tenses, it makes you look like an

idiot.

(If you go back to the second page, I offer my insight from the recruitment process - i'm nothing special and neither is the company, but I'm sure the frustrations I had are shared across the board).

If you've not got any experience use everything you can to impress...

I think the trouble I have is I find it difficult to think 'outside the box', which some people are better at than others. I think either you're good at it or you're not?

[That Bearded Man]

(Original post by Elissabeth)
Try Wetherspoons?

Good idea - thank you

[threeportdrift]

(Original post by hiding12)
I think the trouble I have is I find it difficult to think 'outside the box', which some people are better at than others. I think either you're good at it or you're not?

You don't have to think outside the box at all. Make a list of 4-6 skills the employer is looking for. Don't guess, if it doesn't say in the job advert, then look at a careers website, they usually describe the skills and experiences needed for jobs.

Then when you have that list of skills, go through them one at a time, working out how you can give evidence of having those skills. Ideally you need at least 2, preferably 3 examples of each.

Then you fit them into their context in a chronological CV format.

The point is that the strength of a CV is measured entirely in how closely it demonstrates the skills required by the job. Although we always talk about 'my CV' a CV is neither just 'about me' nor is it singular. You need multiple CVs, written for each job you apply for, and a CV is just a reflection of a specific set of skills you have, relevant to one job.

[sil3nt_cha0s]

(Original post by threeportdrift)
You don't have to think outside the box at all. Make a list of 4-6 skills the employer is looking for. Don't guess, if it doesn't say in the job advert, then look at a careers website, they usually describe the skills and experiences needed for jobs.

Then when you have that list of skills, go through them one at a time, working out how you can give evidence of having those skills. Ideally you need at least 2, preferably 3 examples of each.

Then you fit them into their context in a chronological CV format.

The point is that the strength of a CV is measured entirely in how closely it demonstrates the skills required by the job. Although we always talk about 'my CV' a CV is neither just 'about me' nor is it singular. You need multiple CVs, written for each job you apply for, and a CV is just a reflection of a specific set of skills you have, relevant to one job.

You don't really. You can have a standard CV if you're applying for menial jobs like retail work, cleaning, working in a fast food restaurant etc.

My dad always used the same CV for every single job he has ever applied for. Same with my mum.

[threeportdrift]

(Original post by sil3nt_cha0s)
You don't really. You can have a standard CV if you're applying for menial jobs like retail work, cleaning, working in a fast food restaurant etc.

My dad always used the same CV for every single job he has ever applied for. Same with my mum.

I'll refrain from pointing out the obvious!

[sabiah]

(Original post by hiding12)
Thanks this is actually really useful.

Size 10 font not appropriate? for a cover letter and CV if read via email?