Looking for help on getting an office job

Owenkelly1234

Hi i have done a few fas courses on computers. Word, excel and all that and i have the certificates but I dunno how to go about getting a job in this field. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance

Stheno

"office job" is very broad, what specific area would you like to work in?

Admin/Sales/IT/HR/Logistics?

Owenkelly1234

Stheno wrote: »

"office job" is very broad, what specific area would you like to work in?

Admin/Sales/IT/HR/Logistics?

Sorry should of been more specific .. Id say with the background in Word and Excel probably admin

Stheno

Owenkelly1234 wrote: »

Sorry should of been more specific .. Id say with the background in Word and Excel probably admin

Firstly, have you any previous experience?
Secondly, have you done up a c.v.?

Temping might be a way to start to build up experience if you don't have any.

Owenkelly1234

Stheno wrote: »

Firstly, have you any previous experience?
Secondly, have you done up a c.v.?

Temping might be a way to start to build up experience if you don't have any.

No I haven't experience just the courses unfortunately

Stheno

Owenkelly1234 wrote: »

No I haven't experience just the courses unfortunately

Do you mind me asking your background, are you a recent school leaver or someone who has had to change career as a result of the recession?

December2012

Was job seeking part of the course? What have you already tried?

Owenkelly1234

Stheno wrote: »

Do you mind me asking your background, are you a recent school leaver or someone who has had to change career as a result of the recession?

Im 22 so not that long out of school. Got let go from the job I was in and I have always had an interest in computers so went for the course as I tought it could give me a proper career

Stheno

Owenkelly1234 wrote: »

Im 22 so not that long out of school. Got let go from the job I was in and I have always had an interest in computers so went for the course as I tought it could give me a proper career

Ok, so you've a few years experience in what?

You need to build yourself a cv that shows what you have done in the past, and what is good about you for admin

Owenkelly1234

Stheno wrote: »

Ok, so you've a few years experience in what?

You need to build yourself a cv that shows what you have done in the past, and what is good about you for admin

All my experience would be in retail

Owenkelly1234

December2012 wrote: »

Was job seeking part of the course? What have you already tried?

I tried jobs.ie but apart from that i dont know where to start really

Stheno

Owenkelly1234 wrote: »

All my experience would be in retail

So that's your covering letter, you've teamwork, dealing with cash, customer service etc.

What sort of job do you think you might like?

Owenkelly1234

Stheno wrote: »

So that's your covering letter, you've teamwork, dealing with cash, customer service etc.

What sort of job do you think you might like?

Id like to get into admin if I could and I could maybe see myself in HR

nibtrix

Owenkelly1234 wrote: »

All my experience would be in retail

Start temping, I have a long term temp in at the moment whose background is all retail, the job is half admin and half customer service. Like you he had some MS courses done and I selected him over several experienced office people as I wanted someone who was used to more physical work and had customer care skills. After 3-4 months he'll have good office experience and a good reference so will be in a much better condition to apply for longer term jobs.

Owenkelly1234

nibtrix wrote: »

Start temping, I have a long term temp in at the moment whose background is all retail, the job is half admin and half customer service. Like you he had some MS courses done and I selected him over several experienced office people as I wanted someone who was used to more physical work and had customer care skills. After 3-4 months he'll have good office experience and a good reference so will be in a much better condition to apply for longer term jobs.

Temping would be a good way to gain experience i suppose. If i was to start temping is their a website for it or do i go through an agency?

Mr. Loverman

Owenkelly1234 wrote: »

Hi i have done a few fas courses on computers. Word, excel and all that and i have the certificates

Don't say you have done "courses on computers" and have Word and Excel certificates. That makes me think you are quite uncomfortable using computers.

I'd rephrase it to something like you've been using Windows and Office for years, and you did an Excel and Word course as you wanted to be experts in these products and you'd like to work in an admin capacity.

Owenkelly1234 wrote: »

Sorry should of been more specific .. Id say with the background in Word and Excel probably admin

Honestly I'd downplay your "background in Word and Excel". These products are relatively easy to use so you don't want to make it sound like they are your skillset.

Work on your presentation (clean cut, etc.) and mannerisms. Make sure when they meet you for an interview they think this person seems nice and polite and won't cause any problems. You then give the impression you are very comfortable doing admin tasks like talking on the phone, using printers, using the internet to research things, using Excel and Word.

Actually, I recommend you do an accounts course. That is a real skill, makes you quite employable (especially for accounts receivable) and actually is pretty easy once you get your head around debit (asset, expense) and credit (income, liability).

amtc

just a point as well, in every post you've made you have quite basic spelling mistakes - get someone to check out your cv.

5uspect

Having 'an interest in computers' and learning to use some basic productivity software doesn't make you sound very attractive. They're pretty basic skills to be blunt.

You've got retail experience. This is what you should be selling.

nibtrix

5uspect wrote: »

Having 'an interest in computers' and learning to use some basic productivity software doesn't make you sound very attractive. They're pretty basic skills to be blunt.

You've got retail experience. This is what you should be selling.

Totally agree! The computer courses just mean that you'll probably be able to do admin after some training. Push the customer service side of things, there are a lot of part customer service/part admin jobs where your experience would stand to you.

Regarding agencies, there's loads in Dublin if that's where you're based - try Adecco, Reed, Hall, Hays, Sigmar. If you're not in Dublin then just do a search for local agencies. Just remember that you will probably have to settle for fairly crappy jobs at first - 2 days here, a week there etc. It's all experience though so do your best and you never know when a temp job will turn into a longer term contract.