Run For Your Life Or How To Keep Ahead In Unemployment

I want to talk a bit more today about this thing we call the recession and it is re-shaping the way we see our lives and how we deal with others.

I should think the vast majority of us and getting fed up to the back teeth with talk about the state of the global economy and how on Earth we are going to drag ourselves out of the mire yet putting the banks and the government (seeing as it is actually their fault) aside, I find myself more and more fascinated each day on how all this madness is actually changing the way we think - not just about money, but how we see each other.

Employment is a nasty word right now - if you're lucky to still have a job, I bet you get the odd sarky comment from passers by when you freewheel past the full doors of the local Job Centre - I even bet that you aren't that popular in the newsagents, because you're not the one buying ten local newspapers at a time. If you, on the other hand, have joined the long, depressing queue of around 2 million people who have suddenly found themselves one minute in the office and the next, sitting spread eagled on the pavement outside, then you'll be changing immensely on the way your view yourself and the way you view others - especially those who are still in the building you've just unceremoniously left...

The world of finding a job will come as a massive shock to two groups of people who have found themselves recently given the boot:

1. Those who haven't been in the dole queue for the last ten years or so (if not more)


2. Those who usually job hop easily and don't ever have a problem getting interviews or finding work.

In my mind, these groups are the worst hit. We can gently put aside those who have been out of work for a long time due to health reasons etc because they aren't looking for work so therefore won't really have an acute idea as to what trying to find a job is like. Yet these two remaining groups share one great thing in common - their perception.

Imagine if the world you knew all your life (or working life) suddenly changed because someone or something moved the goal post - how would you react? You would adapt, because that's what we as humans do - we have to otherwise we would have been eaten/attacked/starved to death a long time ago, right? Right. So we change. How we change and to what benefit is another matter. Change does not always mean positive instead of negative.

So what do our two unemployed groups do to change? They change the way they have always conducted themselves to make that interview work/to find that job/to complete that application form. They have to keep up with the times because since they are all now in the same boat as a hundred other people who are far more qualified, the competition has stepped up a notch. This is why those who have easily job hopped in the past suddenly now can't and find that every interview does NOT result in a job offer as it did in the past. The others who have enjoyed one employer for God knows how many years have a good chance of getting that job, but they have no idea how to conduct themselves at an interview or don't know how to make a CV sound wonderful.

There are some pretty good website out there who can help - http://www.prospects.ac.uk/ are a good start although watch out when it comes to interviews. One mistake made frequently is not being flexible enough. Chances are the employer is looking for a full time person - you if say you can only make three or four days a week due to child commitments etc then chances are you won't get offered the job - employers are not allowed to discriminate so they will get around it by saying you didn't score enough points. Companies will still hire with age/family life/location in mind, despite the fact that two of these are discrimination's.

The only trouble is - it is damn hard for you to prove this was the case when you didn't get the offer, especially after the event....

Try also here for cv advice - http://www.cv-service.org/cvhelp.htm

Michelle Duffy 2009.