Redundant: the Find Me a Career Thread!

[funkydan]

Nice one Mr Ono! I have two interviews next week, one of which I am very excited about

[the_joker360]

Hey guys, hope everyone on this thread is managing to get through these tough times. Well done to Mr Ono and good luck to Funkydan!

I managed to pick up a temp admin office job today after being let go 5 months ago (from a games recruitment company). Ideally, this isn't what I want to be doing long term but it will keep me above water.

But the last 5 months have been quite a struggle and full of rejection. I am looking to change my career and break in to digital design/Flash design. However I never seem to get past the first stage. I have recently started networking with companies via LinkedIn and attending conferences to get my portfolio seen.

If anyone has any tips or advice, it would be much appreciated!

[Soundwave]

Well I've just got home from work following "the Talk"

Figures are way way way down on the import department & there are the mutterings of redundancy or potnetially closing the import department totally (the export department will carry the company with only 6 members of staff left)

Not nice times at work now.

Fingers crossed it wont be as bad as all that but the wheels of fate are deffinitley turning

Neil

[funkydan]

Good luck Neil, let us know how you get on.

I've just found out that tomorrow will be my last day now, as my bosses thought it would be nice for me to have the rest of the week off as I have an interview on Wednesday and they didn't think I should have to come back and do Thursday and Friday as well, how nice is that? They are good people and I will miss them

Still, it's awesome as I was just saying to the wife this morning that I didn't feel like working this whole week, and now I don't have to. I'll also get my last pay cheque and redundancy cheque tomorrow too

[Mr Ono]

I start at new place next week.

Just one more week to do "nothing", well, except for looking at schools for my eldest, school runs, cooking, blogging, etc etc. Just found out some news of my old company taking over another company. If I had still been employed I would have been working my arse off through the night as it would have been my job to integrate the businesses!

It's all worked out perfectly for me in the end.

The Lord has truly blessed me

[Soundwave]

Awesome stuff Ono & Dan
Glad things are on the up.

An update on mine today...we were all called upstairs individually for a chat & it turns out we all still have jobs BUT everybody is taking a 12% pay cut

That means I'm down around £200 a month now which leaves me in all kinds of brown stuff really.
Not such a hot start to the week really.
I'm off to Turkey for 2 weeks on Saturday so will be adding my CV to the billions on line as soon as I'm home, cant afford to take that sort of drop really so need to start looking.

Neil

[Mr Ono]

I suppose a pay cut does buy you time to look. Not sure what industry you are in but sure something will pop up.

Can't be doing much good for morale in the company if everyone is working for less.

[nightstalker100]

Reading this thread saddens me but at the same time gives me hope by the examples provided by some of the fellas here

I was recently made redundant in my job. I graduated in 2006 with a masters in renewable energy and couldnt get a job in the market, not a single company wanted to know me for some reason so i accepted tedious work in a call centre where you are just a number and not a real person who's individual and has needs.

Once in one of those places the downward spiral began, capitulation, resignation, resentment at the system, government, even my friends who have had everything fall into place for them and experiencing life, growing, marrying etc. Your very spirit can wither in these places where day in day out you do the same mindless sundry tasks and despite your best efforts you can't get out, you can't better yourself.

Anyways just under three years passed of this "sentence" and finally I secured a job at the local council working in the environment and energy and stuff. Two months later due to the borough switching back to conservative I was booted out lol. Last one in and first one out sort of thing and the worst thing is i was working through a temp agency so i had no notice period and certainly no severance pay.

I've been unemployed for 5 weeks now, had the odd interview here and there and faced the depressing reality of the job centre. Actually its not that bad being unemployed, its not so much the lack of funds as someone pointed out but rather the boredom. Betweem applying for jobs (300 and counting since post graduation) and working out i spend my days in the local library reading books. Its gothic literature at the monent - i ve just finished dracula and its re ignited my passion for the topic of the undead!

Oh and playing a s**tload of Street fighter 4 lol

One day this nightmare will pass i'm sure, its ironic - one of the old call centres i used to work for wont take me back now after i left - i cant even get a job in a place that you dont need g.c.s.e's lol.

I've said to myself if nothing concrete materialises by christmas then immigration to canada may be option under the skilled workers program - maybe someone here knows a bit about canada? I might stand a better chance over there with my qualificatons than here where unfortunately a university degree (or two!) are nothing more than very expensive lottery tickets.

Heads up chaps to all those who find themselves in hard times!

[Herbalizer]

good luck. My Dad is a project manager in renewable energy for the local Council and recently recruited some staff. He said the calibre of candidate was incredible. He had people who had been made redundant from 70k a year jobs applying, and these were for jobs with a salary of 25k

Just goes to show how competitive the market place is now.

[Soundwave]

I suppose a pay cut does buy you time to look. Not sure what industry you are in but sure something will pop up.

Can't be doing much good for morale in the company if everyone is working for less.

Got my fingers crossed.
I'm in the Freight Forwarding industry on the import side of things.

The industry is pretty stagnant at the mo as people importing have dropped right off due to the poor currency at the moment, exports are going strong but importing is way down.

Sorry to hear about your situation as well Nightstalker, hopefully something will come up for you soon.
Emigrating would be awesome though...I've been looking into it too but I'm struggling to find a way out myself

Anyway keep your chins up boys we'll all come good in the end

[gunrock]

...then immigration to canada may be option under the skilled workers program - maybe someone here knows a bit about canada? I might stand a better chance over there with my qualificatons than here where unfortunately a university degree (or two!) are nothing more than very expensive lottery tickets.

NTSC-UK'ers in Canada

[funkydan]

Good luck to all who are struggling with redundancy as well as myself. Things are looking promising: I am actually quite interested in the PPP Healthcare personal adviser (phone monkey) position and have a second interview with them next week (I got 100% on their phone screening interview! ). There is room for a career in other areas of the company after a year or two on the phones, good salary prospects, shift work which would be handy with the new baby due imminently and an ideal start date in late November. It's also local to me which would mean no commute, and I am rapidly going off the idea of a 3 hour daily commute. It would be a small pay cut. I would be up to my curent salary again in 6-12 months I think. But I will mention in the interview next week, that I would be taking a pay cut if I was to take the job and see if there is anything they can do to help - I have nothing to lose by asking I don't think.

That said, I have an interview with Thomas Telford Publishers in London tomorrow and I shall give it my all and see how it goes! Fingers crossed, although I think I would prefer the job closer to home if I could nail that. We shall see....

[Mr Ono]

Nice one Dan.

Looks promising.

[funkydan]

Cheers Mr Ono

[funkydan]

Good luck to all who are struggling with redundancy as well as myself. Things are looking promising: I am actually quite interested in the PPP Healthcare personal adviser (phone monkey) position and have a second interview with them next week (I got 100% on their phone screening interview! ). There is room for a career in other areas of the company after a year or two on the phones, good salary prospects, shift work which would be handy with the new baby due imminently and an ideal start date in late November. It's also local to me which would mean no commute, and I am rapidly going off the idea of a 3 hour daily commute. It would be a small pay cut. I would be up to my curent salary again in 6-12 months I think. But I will mention in the interview next week, that I would be taking a pay cut if I was to take the job and see if there is anything they can do to help - I have nothing to lose by asking I don't think.

That said, I have an interview with Thomas Telford Publishers in London tomorrow and I shall give it my all and see how it goes! Fingers crossed, although I think I would prefer the job closer to home if I could nail that. We shall see....

I was offered and accepted the AXA PPP Healthcare job today - f*ck yeah!