Job Search!

[Oaktree]

Hi guys,

This thread is for all those searching for a job. A place to share challenges as well as successes. I am currently out for the evening but I will come back and talk about my recent job application later tonight. Please feel free to tag other members. @tyme 

[AuntGlow]

Love this! @Oaktree 🫶 I will tag people as they come to mind. 

[Oaktree]

@Ruby26 @tyme @AuntGlow 

I recently applied for a job as a peer navigator. The role involves taking phone calls from people looking to access certain supports, like psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health services or even craft groups etc. Anyway I applied 2 days before the cutoff. About 5 days later I found out that I got an interview. I went to the interview this past Tuesday and I feel like I did reasonably well. They asked to check my references and also asked if I would be interested in relief work if I didn’t get the role. Of course I said yes. They said it would be 2 weeks before I heard from them. I have no idea if I will get the role but it’s my first interview since 2006 so I probably need more practice. I will let you know how it goes

[chibam]

It's hard (i.e. effectively impossible) when you simply don't have the contacts. I remember one time at a social gathering being told that you can't get a job unless you've got friends/relatives willing to get you in somewhere. That's always been my experiance.

My therapist confirmed it in so many words when she told me I had to "accept" that I was never gonna have a career (or anything else worthwhile, for that matter).

But it's more then simply knowing people; it's about being likeable enough that they'll be happy to do you a favor.

If I'm honest with myself, that's always been my real problem - I'm simply not likeable. At least, not to the types of people I tend to meet.

[Oaktree]

@chibam 

Well if that’s true then I’m stuffed! I don’t have friends or family that can give me a job

[chibam]

@Oaktree  Same.

And even among those who are fortunate enough to have such contacts, what can they do if they don't have the right contacts to get them in to the sort of worklife that they aspire to have?

I often wonder how my life could've turned out if one of my friends and/or family had been kind enough to arrange a job for me, and I find it hard to imagine that I would've had a worthwhile life, as to my knowledge, very very few of them had any links to any company that was worth working for. I think there was only one occasion when one distant acquaintance came along with a funny story from his workplace. Overwhelmingly, none of them had any apparent links to any reliably good workplaces.

So would I really have been any better off, being condemned to serve out my life sentance in a place like that?

IMHO, That's why we need a better system, like the therapy system, to get Australians in to the workplaces that will make them the most happy.

And I also think that the government needs to stop importing so many foreign workers, and prioritize giving Australian jobs to unemployed Australians, too. Sure, there are probably some jobs that are so crappy you have to look overseas before you can find someone desparate enough to take it on; but I'd be willing to wager that the vast majority of jobs being assigned to foreigners these days are of a nature that a great many unemployed Australians would be more then happy to take on.

[tyme]

I've been on a lot of interview panels, and one thing to remember is to add a cover letter as well as responses of your experiences to key selection criteria. Some use the STAR model e.g. situation, task, action, result. This model also works during interviews.

@Oaktree @Ruby26 

[Oaktree]

Hi @tyme 

I did use the STAR technique to my covering letter.

[tyme]

Superb @Oaktree . It's common to have questions in interviews about a time when things have gone well as well as time when they haven't gone well. How did you respond? What was the result?

[Ruby26]

@Oaktree that sounds like an amazing job. If the interview went well, you've got a decent chance of getting either the job or the relief job. I don't think it matters too much that you haven't done an interview in awhile if the job suits you. I hope you get the job- it sounds like a very useful way to use your lived experience.