(Original post by LsDad)
Hi
Sure, I will give it you straight but you might not like my answer:-
The longer you remain unemployed the less attractive you become to an employer. If I personally read your CV if I'm honest I would think, out of work this long, are they really trying or just comfortable on benefits? Have they lost the work ethic?
If you are employed you stand a significantly stronger chance of being recruited elsewhere. That's the reality.
Employers want to think the candidate is someone that really wants to join them and add value, they don't want someone who is "just looking for a job"
There are "just jobs" everywhere, it's just you don't want to do them! This is because your on benefits, managing, and you want a job at a financial level above your benefits yet in reality if you proved to an employer you could work hard and make a difference to that business the money would ultimately follow you.
If you really want to make changes, yes review the sort of work you want to do that you could excel in, take a job in that vertical offer to do it FOC if you have to then show true passion for the work, if you are not offered a position after the free period it's on your Cv and you can say to any other emplyer, it was difficult to get a break in my desired industry but your that passionate about the industry you took the work FOC to get back in on that career path - that would impress any company
Far better to do above than applying for any old job, not doing anything, not even any charity or voluntary work, just sitting idle claiming benefits and moaning about job prospects - do something about it! It's 100% in your hands!
I think you have (no offense) ignorant experience
So my friend with a engineering degree who was rejected for cleaning and gardening jobs was because he didn't want to oh and he did a lot of volunteer work that gave him qualifications on top.
He eventually found NMW work and was treated like a slave, the entire workforce at his job complained about conditions and were told make official complaint and be fired.
"work ethic" is broad term, I have another friend who is now 32 in his entire adult life apart from 6 months when he moved home after college to a place in middle of nowhere (literally his nearest neighbour was 6 miles away and nearest town was 20 miles) he had no work. I left him sleep on my sofa and he got a job the next day after that, he worked despite suffering physical and mental breakdown due to his mother and brother dying, him having stroke and seizures and his employer refusing to let him come back and was out of work for a year before doing a 8 hour a week job.
That was down to health reasons but his mental state is now like a child he gets confused easily and slurs his speech.
Back to the ignorant comment I am from a ex mining and factory town, to say work is available shows either ignorance or if 1 job existed and 3000 unemployed you could claim work was available.
And yes that area had 3000 unemployed and 1 full time job when I checked, and no zero hour or part time work advertised at jobcentre, all 3 local factories now exclusively hire EU migrants and dropped wages from £9 a hour at its peak to NMW around the recession
Its becoming more and more a ghost town.
Kinda big headed assuming people who don't have jobs dont want to work.
I bet you would say if someone was given 4 hours a week work and zero benefits like housing benefit at all they should take it over being on benefits even if it meant they literally starved and had to walk miles to work every day.
Im on ESA and DLA by the way, because I have DISABILITIES!!!!!!
Your ignorance of health issues is shocking too even more when I mentioned part of my work history which required commitment or do you think being accepted out of thousands of applicants for radio and newspaper work meant I was lazy?! That my work was published?!
The places I lived really were hard to find work, I always remember aged 17 being rejected for glass collecting work but offered the same job for £1 a hour as a apprentice, so their own words were I wasn't good enough to do it for a normal wage but the same job word for word I was if it was far cheaper!
And I well know its easier to get interviews when employed when I applied for other jobs when I was working I was never once not given a interview.
I even rejected jobs when I was at university as the employer wanted me to do full time only.
So tell me, when people do volunteer work, have a proven employment history sometimes a decade, two or even three but lost job due to recession and out of work for a while how can they be a bad employee? I lost my last two jobs as the company went bust thats it I even got monthly letters of praise from the bosses for going 2-8 times OVER the quota per month when others couldn't even meet it. I hated that job as it was NMW and my wages were so bad I was lucky if after I paid rent, council tax, and travel I was left with £15 a week for food, utilities, save for university
And though I personally am on ESA/DLA now its only because my health deteriorated as the government refused to help me when I was in my greatest need even at one point cutting funding for a course when they came to power that gave me a job paying over 20 grand a year aimed at people with my disabilities, so its their fault I am still on benefits now.
That person that did 3 zero hour jobs to pay ends meet despite having 2 degrees and decades of work experience behind them then lost them just didn't want to work? I guess thats why they travelled 20 miles each way every day to do the "training course" the DWP sent them on and refused to pay their expenses and it involved basic numeracy and even personal hygine! So someone with 2 degrees one from a very high ranking university just didn't want to work? Oh and they also have a heart defect and have collapsed in past so despite all that they put with that.
Its more likely they were the victim of age discrimination.
What about a friend I know who loved design and video games and studied programming at university then spent a few years after graduating in temp contracts in IT then starting his own business sadly the same year as the recession and going bankrupt and been unemployed ever since?
Sometimes work is just not there, or employers know they have such a high supply of applicants, why hire someone with good qualifications and experience who may leave for a better job? Than someone who is so desperate to work they will put up with what is close to abuse.
My relatives who live near London have so much work available that one even got a payment when fired so he didn't go straight back to work, they all claim theres no such thing as work being hard to find.
On the other hand I know from experience that it depends where you live, when I lived near cities work was "easy" to find but didn't mean I wasn't rejected, other times the work wasn't there in the first place to apply in towns.
And im not young, im old enough that I could of had a child of university age, and I myself have years of work experience.
The "why should I" comment was meant to apply to everyone not myself, I volunteer in IT though the charity has zero paid staff and abuses the system I do it for my CV and for the routine but I shouldn't be forced to go there because im on benefits.
People should not be punished because they are on benefits, if work is available the person should be paid for it, and thats actual pay not their benefits as it means one less paid job about as employers know they can get free labour
IF say a job like a local tech support company became available I wouldn't mind doing unpaid part time work there to prove I can do the job as long as I got something out of it such as a qualification that can be used to prove I have the skills and ability.