The wonderful world of job hunting and job interviews during the recession!

[Mike_GX101]

Just posting this thread to see what your experiences are with job hunting in these difficult times where many are being made redundant and having to re-find their feet in a highly competitive market with far fewer jobs than there are people going for them. In my view job hunting has always been tough but with recession biting more and more the situation is even more unbelievably troublesome and having aspergers can make it harder still.

 

In a world where money makes everything go round but where one must scale hugely troublesome barriers to get in anywhere worth hanging on to (or where there is something to hang on to for long enough) and where daily commodities have shot up in price in spite of frozen salaries and quantitative-easing we are all in desperate need of hope and inspiration.

 

So come on in out of the cold, put your feet up, make a brew and lets talk job hunting and job interviews. Let's hear your experiences and stories - tell us about how you've overcome your barriers and lets hear about the difficulties you're having and hopefully through doing so we will all fare better and be stronger at getting the jobs we really want.

[robert7111a]

What an excellent topic Mike_GX101 and thanks for starting

 

At any point in the next year, I could be made redundant so would be very interested as to other people's experiences too. Being made redundant at my age (with a mortgage) will be absolutely castrophic for me and my family, mean the end of everything and I could regress very badly.

[A-S warrior]

thats why i belive in communism.

[Mike_GX101]

What an excellent topic Mike_GX101 and thanks for starting

 

At any point in the next year, I could be made redundant so would be very interested as to other people's experiences too. Being made redundant at my age (with a mortgage) will be absolutely castrophic for me and my family, mean the end of everything and I could regress very badly.

 

Thanks.

 

Yes redundancy is a hard reality for many these days - you go from having solid foundations to being without a ground to stand on at all in a matter of weeks given that for every year you've worked at your company you're entitled to only (yes only!!) one week extra; I thought it was a month!

 

The reality of redundancy is ever more striking and while some people claim the recession is over there seems to be a time lag happening in some parts of the country where the realities of recession are only just beginning to bite and with talk of a double dip that doesn't hold good at all!

 

I'm really worried actually with the state of things. It is alarming that so many people can be uprooted from their hard-earned jobs so quickly. What happened to those days when you could simply walk into a job and have one for life - you'd work yourself up, get countless promotions and then if you did leave the company you'd have a more even advantage? Many people don't even get that option now. It isn't what it used to be and it's sadly getting worse. And at a time when many can ill-afford it with rising costs of living too!

 

Perhaps the biggest worry today is that our money is being diluted as more and more notes and coins are circulated. So while your salary may be frozen, you are in effect getting a huge pay cut as the money you are getting is no longer as valuable as it once was making everything cost more and more - it's not just because the retailers are putting the prices up to cover their own costs, there's also this dynamic going on where the power of your money is falling too. And that's even if you have a salary...

 

Such times, such times!

[Mike_GX101]

And yet despite the times there is still this general expectation of getting on the career ladder, getting a car, a house, a family, etc etc.

 

And if you haven't got those then why not? What is wrong with you?!?

 

 

The sad truth about owning your own house is that it's unlikely to ever happen for many. With people outside London on £10-20K max a year (and then deducting annual costs one has including extortionate rent and insurance) and with the average property prices over £150K and with jobs drying up and looking less and less secure there just seems to be this constant barrage of force pushing one away from achieving that which surely, you'd think would be a given in a society such as ours and which is actually expected of us?!?

[Mike_GX101]

Just makes me want to shout really loud - AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Edited July 8, 2012 by Mike_GX101

[Aeolienne]

If you think redundancy is hard enough, try dismissal.

[robert7111a]

Yes, it's going to be hard for people made redundant who have mortgages/families etc (i.e. Generation Xers) and its going to be even harder for the younger (Generation Yers and the millienials) - many who were "promised" jobs when they graduated with their degrees. Many will stay at home until probably their late 30s!

 

And for the Aspies who don't have decent jobs...what help is there for them?

[Mike_GX101]

Yes it's true! And those people who did ICT degrees 5 years ago at high cost to themselves would have to take another just to keep pace.

 

It's a joke!

[trekster]

My 'Disability employment advisor' put me off job searching, "you have next to no chance of finding work in your situation" she told me a few years ago. My situation now worse than it was then so I am concentrating in improving volunteer opportunities until something more profitable comes up.

[robert7111a]

This is another reason for not pursuing a formal diagnosis as it could work against me on the job front

[Mike_GX101]

My 'Disability employment advisor' put me off job searching, "you have next to no chance of finding work in your situation" she told me a few years ago. My situation now worse than it was then so I am concentrating in improving volunteer opportunities until something more profitable comes up.

That's clearly not right - if you're still with her, seek out another. I would put in a complaint too because they have a duty to help you get into a job hence the job title Disability employment Advisor as apposed to "Disability Unemployment Advisor"!

 

You have every right to apply for jobs. What one person thinks is hopeless is another person's career!

Edited July 10, 2012 by Mike_GX101

[Aeolienne]

And yet despite the times there is still this general expectation of getting on the career ladder, getting a car, a house, a family, etc etc.

 

And if you haven't got those then why not? What is wrong with you?!?

 

 

The sad truth about owning your own house is that it's unlikely to ever happen for many. With people outside London on £10-20K max a year (and then deducting annual costs one has including extortionate rent and insurance) and with the average property prices over £150K and with jobs drying up and looking less and less secure there just seems to be this constant barrage of force pushing one away from achieving that which surely, you'd think would be a given in a society such as ours and which is actually expected of us?!?

Owning a property is a mixed blessing. I bought my flat in Exeter back in 2007 when I was working there, only to lose my job two years later. I was able to get a payment holiday from my mortgage provider, plus housing- and council tax benefit for the year I was on the dole, after which I accepted a job offer in Skipton and accordingly let out my flat and moved up north. Unfortunately I lost the Skipton job after five months, and this time I wasn't able to claim any benefits apart from contribution-based JSA - the mere fact of owning a property I don't live in puts me above the maximum savings threshold permitted for anything means-tested.

 

I still don't know what to do with the flat if/when I get a permanent new job. If the job is in London, the money I would get from selling the Exeter flat is unlikely to buy me anything bigger than a garage. But is there any point in contemplating property purchases before the two-year qualifying period is up?

[Sa Skimrande]

That's clearly not right - if you're still with her, seek out another. I would put in a complaint too because they have a duty to help you get into a job hence the job title Disability employment Advisor as apposed to "Disability Unemployment Advisor"!

 

You have every right to apply for jobs. What one person thinks is hopeless is another person's career!

 

They are being realistic Mike, as I have also had it, been told it is unlikely I will be employed given the AS, my age doesn't help either given the over the hill attitude to workers 40 plus, and add to that back problems and the fact I have not worked for a while and I daren't even bring the other thing into the equation as it is bad enough already as diagnosi does not help one get employed and as disability and equal opportunity laws how effective are they in reality as an employer can just state unsuitable through whatever reason totally avoiding diagnosi and disability.

 

I have actually been told by the job centre that my best bet is stay on benefits and put up with the nastiness being meted out on work shy scroungers, it is perhaps better than the alternative of say by some miracle I get a job in this recession where people are being laid off willy nilly, I am fully familiar with the last in first out principle and if what my diagnosi entails causes a problem, I will be out, I know that and the benefits do not look kindly on people who lose their job and I know I will be homeless with no money coming in for the punishment period that the DWP stipulates for people who get fired.

 

It is never all cut and dried, the system does not work as it should.