Applying for a job

ownknee

Ok, I admit I have tried everything to get a job, short of dancing around a lap dance pole...
I went today to a pharmaceutical company to take an aptitude test. If I am lucky enough i will get called to an interview. This doen't bother me so much.
I applied for a job of a 'production line manufacturer person'.
What has really annoyed me is that part of the aptitude test required a good grasp on maths. Now I am not going to pretend that that I am a genius, or at least good at maths. I am crap at maths when I have to complete silly questions in a short space of time that will have no bearing on how I work as an individual.
Now I have done aptitude tests in the past & to my surprise have passed the entire test with a good rating.
What is really getting at me is that I know I can do any job. I know I'm going to be great at any job.
My problem is that I can't get a job. My CV is great, I have relevant work experience in a lot of fields & I am willing (& wanting) to try different roles.
What is bothering me is that I have applied for an insane number of jobs & a ridiculous amount have replied back to me.
Someone please, please give me a sign or a nice story that will keep me on track.
I'm at the end of my tether here. I've tried it all & i've failed.

Ellechim

Hiya.

I've help recruit for one of the big pharmas; basic requirement is to pass numeracy, literacy and cognitive reasoning tests: they use it as a requirement to screen candidates - just because you have x or y qualifications is not enough. If you failed any of those you were out of the picture straight away, regardless of how you did in interview, etc....

I'm job hunting too: the recruitment process has really become more complex than a year ago: so companies are using all sorts of screening methods. I have a friend currently going for a reasonably senior position in a bank at the moment: she has had an interview with HR, three interviews with three different senior managers and will have to do a presentation to five senior managers if she gets to the next stage and after that they may also bring her in to do a role play. This role is advertised with about four agencies on Irish Jobs, and for the presentation stage she has been told she is competing with five other people. A year ago she would have a job offer by now.

Don't lose heart, stick with it. Keep looking at your CV and your applications to see how you can make your application stand out: companies are having huge response to job ads.

I went for a role recently and had to do a numeracy test, there was an initial interview with HR and the person currently in the role, then an interview with the head of the Irish business, a numeracy/reasoning test, and if I'd gone further I would have had to go to their head office on the continent and meet with several senior people.........

If you find you have any kind of test coming up make sure you are as prepared as you possibly can be and if you have to do an aptitude test (which I think are going to become even more common) make sure you get 100% by doing tons of practice - from an employors point of view if you're not working at the moment you have no excuse not to be over prepared.

It is very disheartening. You need to find something to do that's productive while you're looking - give yourself some sense of achievement - train for a marathon, set up your own website, get a qualification, build/make something.........don't spend all day every day surfing job sites, allocate yourself a specific proportion of time each day to do job hunting. make sure you do something useful with yourself every day.....

Best of luck, you will find another job, you will just have to work harder at it than you have done before and it will take longer than you have experienced before..........but it will happen.

Mrs OBumble

Ellechim wrote: »

.....
Best of luck, you will find another job, you will just have to work harder at it than you have done before and it will take longer than you have experienced before..........but it will happen.

Some very, very good advice there.

All I'd add is:

- Remember that this isn't about YOU, it's about the hundreds, thousands even, of other people out there looking for a job. Employers are getting hundreds of applications from people who could all do the job.

- Remember that this will pass. And in ten years time, when someone looks at your CV and says "I see you were out of work for months", you can say "yes, remember when the world had that huge economic crisis?", and all will be well.