Where to move on to ?

[kerry davies]

Here we go then, time to get real about kids being "too choosy."

In the OP's home town there are 5,000 "youth" actually signing on and twice that number in the hidden unemployed.

 

1,040,000 young people are "officially" unemployed and rising, 400,000 are on "apprenticeships" at Asda, McDonalds etc. and 400,000 are either in or headed for Work Programme. The total number of "economically inactive" persons is over nine million while only 29,000,000 are in work of some kind including the millions of restricted or contract hours and part-time jobs. Thanks largely to B&Q we had a 900% rise in people over 60 on "apprenticeships" last year. WTF?

 

Changes to pensions like Ynot has faced mean that people will work longer thus creating a 5-15 year hiatus when jobs that would have become available do not. (Even more glad I got out Tony.) TomG is lucky since Waitrose and Sainsbury's refuse to take the government sponsored free labour of the Work Programme.

 

If ANY young person can get ANY job they are doing well and should be grateful for their luck because this current "recession" is actually worse than the Great Depression and we have never seen times like these since the 1850's.

[Just Some Bloke]

One other thing - there are a few spelling errors and some missing punctuation in your post. For all I know, you probably check your e-mails very carefully, but these kinds of mistakes can put a potential employer off. Just get someone to read over what you write before sending it - it sounds like such a small thing but it really can make a big difference.

 

I have to agree with GridGirl that you should definitely get someone to check all your letters or emails before you send them. Personally I like to think of myself as having good grammar and spelling (SPaG, if you like) and I am someone lots of people turn to for proof-reading before they send stuff out and yet I always get someone else to do the same for me just in case there's anything I've missed.

 

An example: as an employer I would want my staff to be able to spell the name of the company they work for. The fact that an applicant can't even spell the name of the qualification they've just gained would worry me to the point that they may not get an interview (there's no 'H' on the end of 'BTEC').

 

 

It just seems that too many people these days are too choosy (dare I say too snobby?) to take what they might see as lesser employment because they want something 'better'...

 

Indeed, another example: we had a graduate email us last year to see if we could offer her any intern work (free to us). We offered her the ability to work as a Production Assistant on rehearsals for a touring Shakespeare for 4 weeks. She would be working with the Director and Stage Manager doing all kind of jobs including photocopying, taking notes, running lines with cast etc. She agreed and joned us. After 2 days she complained that each day she'd been asked to wash the coffee cups at the end of the day and that she felt this wasn't appropriate for someone with a degree. We explained that the ASM was happy to do it, the SM was happy to do it, the PM was happy to do it, the Director was happy to do it and the Producer was happy to do it but she still felt we weren't treating her appropriately. In the end we had to give her as much work at a desk as possible just to keep her away from all the other staff who didn't want to work with her because of her attitude. The director said he'd rather not have her "help". She will have the rehearsals on her cv but there's no way she'll get a reference from any of us.

[ramdram]

You have to laff or cry I suppose. This young woman who holds a degree manages to actually land a job and get to work first hand with true pros...who attempt to show her that doing the manual washing up of the crocks is not a demeaning issue at all...and she still doesn't get it.

 

We used to use this sort of thing as a test for all the new blokes. The SME (shift manager) would make a cuppa and collect and wash up. Then someone else would do it...then the new bod would asked to make the brew. The brighter ones cottoned on in an instant and all would be smiles. Naturally the quality of this first brew would be discussed in huge detail in front of the bloke and advice given...

 

Once or twice we got blokes who stated that as a qualified engineer making the tea was beneath them. Generally they would then get more than their fare share of the onerous boring tasks...and shunted around the shifts and eventually down to maints where they usually got wise or resigned.

 

So advice to those who do get a job...your wonderful degree (to you) is merely the key to the door. Now you have to learn how to get on with folk.