I've now been unemployed for almost 2 months since my redundancy, and I'm now realising how much I'd underestimated how hard the search for a new job would be. The last time I was in this position was a whole decade ago, and times have certainly changed since I was last in the job market, so to speak.
Last time, it was relatively easy. Sign on with the Job Centre, then sign up with an agency or two. Then take on a bit of temp work and wait until the next permanent job comes along. This took me about a month, then I was sorted out for the next ten years or so, and was pretty painless. OK, so I did end up being really bored in my last job, and longing to do something different, but at least I was being paid!
Therefore, I started out this time assuming things would be the same. How wrong could I be! I started with the Job Centre (see my previous post on the subject). The advisor at the time told me I had really good skills and experience, and she couldn't see me being out of work for very long. That was reassuring. She even made a note on my file that for the next 3 months, I would be able to turn down any job that didn't pay as well as my last. I thought then that the job hunt was going to be easy, and I may well end up with a much better job than before.
Next, I decided to try the agencies. The first one I went to were happy to sign me up. Again they told me how easy it would be to get me a job, and how impressed they were with my CV. Also the results of my typing test proved well above average. Now confident in my abilities, I decided to try some more agencies. This was where I hit my first snag, although I didn't realise at the time how much of a problem this would prove to be.
The second agency were again impressed with my credentials, however in order to register with them they needed what I didn't have - ID. I had no passport or driving licence, and the only other thing they would accept was a birth certificate. I hadn't seen mine in years!
I assumed this was an iscolated incident, the exception rather than the rule, so I continued applying for any suitable job I could find. However, this was where the second snag occured. There seem to be so few suitable jobs out there at the moment, and most of them seem to pay very little, while expecting so much from potential employees. I've spoken to so many agencies now, and whilst they all want to offer me work, they simply have nothing available! The woman at one agency I spoke to told me that the only thing on offer was 1 week's work and even she was on a temporary contract!
During my search, I have been asked several more times for my birth certificate, and even though I had managed to locate the short version of mine (for the purpose of my upcoming wedding), I was told that this wasn't good enough! This has now led me to pay to order a copy, in order to stand a chance of being employed. Employers these days seem to require so much proof that I am eligible to work in the UK, even though I can prove that I've done so for the past 20 years with no problems! The world's gone mad!
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