First interview

LegacyUser

Until recently I was working nights and doing an intern-ship (not a government one). Earlier in the year, my contract changed and I had to work 4 nights a week instead of 3. As the job was a large distance away, and I was relying on buses, I was leaving at 7pm in the evening and not getting home until after 1pm the next day, sleeping, then getting up 5 hours later and starting again. I ended up on sick leave for a month due to exhaustion and stress. I was told by the doctor that she couldn't sign me off any longer, which is fair enough, so I made the decision and then handed in my notice in the middle of August. I was 90% sure I had another job lined up which recently fell through.

On my first visit to the dole office, I was told by the lady that I spoke to that I couldn't apply for anything while doing the intern-ship. The intern-ship was not stopping me from applying for employment as it was only 2 hours an evening once a week. This is now finished and I'm due to go in for an interview in the dole office on Thursday.

On looking at the form, I need to fill in why my employment has ceased. I am unsure whether to tell them that I left the job for no reason other than I didn't like working nights, or go into the health issues it was causing me. I'm worried that if I go into my health they will start asking for letters from the doctor (which I'm unsure I can get) and to be honest I don't want to discuss my symptoms, at one stage I was genuinely worried I was having a breakdown. I understand I may have to wait 9 weeks, but am worried that they might point blank refuse to give me anything. I'm also unsure if they will count 9 weeks from end of employment, or 9 weeks from end of intern-ship.

I have enough stamps built up, according to the woman who set up this interview.

Any advice on how I should approach this would be much appreciated.

mp22

Tell them what happened as you have outlined above.

LegacyUser

I wanted to let you know how it went in case someone else is in a similar situation.

I explained to the interviewer what happened. Without going into too much detail I told her about the health problems and showed proof that I had requested my hours stay the same, or a change in shift to allow for fewer hours, before handing in my notice. She also had proof that I had been off sick for a month in the form of my sick certs.

She was very understanding and even told me to stop being so nervous that she's there to help.