A few weeks back, maybe longer, I reviewed a number of job sites. At the time I ranked job centre plus at 3/5, a really useful resource for job hunting.
Since then it has never stopped falling in value. As I eluded to then, it is soon to be replaced by the direct gov simple search. Since then as if to make the transition seem a good thing the job centre search has been erratic and useless.
In the past month I am yet to find a single position using it. The frustrating thing though is I have to conduct several different searches to actually work this out. It is just a broken waste of space. Some examples of its failings.
- A search asking for jobs no further than 40 miles outside Southampton, offers jobs in glasgow, east riding of yorkshire and northampton
- A keyword search of marketing returns english lecturer, kitchen fitter and cleaner
- I am yet to find a way to actually turn up marketing executive roles without use of the keyword
Since I am being forced into visiting the job centre weekly anyway I am very tempted to give up and let the job centre "find" jobs for me in itermittent weeks. Not that their own internal search function seems to be any better.
What is most distressing in all this is that Job Centre Plus is planning to replace the above with direct gov job search. A search for marketing will warrant the following choices of which you can pick 3:
e-marketing
farm sales and marketing
marketing and public relations
marketing for non profit organisations
marketing manager
selling
telesales
It would be fair to assume that this is because these are the jobs that are available, after all there are more marketing jobs in sectors other than charities and farms. Wrong. Selecting marketing and pr, marketing for non profit, and marketing manager will return 90% sales and account manager jobs, with not a single job in any of the 3 selected options. It does not even state none of the above were found, these are apparently relevant jobs.
*Sigh*
The site may be bright, its future certainly isn't.
Showing posts with label frustration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label frustration. Show all posts
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Thursday, 11 March 2010
The Job Centre- There to help?
I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the Job Centre and in particular their insistence that after 13 weeks of job searching in alternate weeks to signing on I have to sit with an advisor, look at jobs I could find myself and then leave.
You may remember I had requested that these end given their utter pointlessness. At the time the guy was very understanding and said after three weeks he would ask his superior.
The answer was of course no.
What is more the jobs he keeps showing me never actually involve even the smallest element of marketing, instead being mostly admin based. As I explained applying for a permanent admin job is just not realistic. But on Tuesday my advisor wanted to give it another go. This gave me a chance to really vent my frustration at the whole job centre process.
We have now been in an economic downturn for nearly 2 years and yet the job centre has made no attempt to adopt its practices to graduates/unemployed professionals and even experienced managers. They all get the same experience as someone with 3 kids, no education and 20 years of life. I think we really have gone to far down the equal opportunity and fairness path. Because when it comes to the job centre, we are not all equal and should therefore be treated differently. I regularly bring a list of between 6-10 jobs I have applied for. I search every few days and am also volunteering and copywriting. Being bought in to the job centre every other week to look at jobs I am not going to apply for is basically laughable.
The way that the job centre works they would sooner see me working in a low paying admin job I could have done straight out of school, rather than volunteering, gaining experience and trying to realise my potential. These things in fact gain me no extra credit, if anything they are viewed as a distraction.
If necessary i will have the same argument with the advisors each week and win. If they think that I spent £6k to study a Marketing Masters just to spend my life in a basic admin job they are sadly, sadly mistaken. If they ever actually decide they have an interest in helping me I will welcome it. Until then I will attend each Monday meeting, ready for another fight.
You may remember I had requested that these end given their utter pointlessness. At the time the guy was very understanding and said after three weeks he would ask his superior.
The answer was of course no.
What is more the jobs he keeps showing me never actually involve even the smallest element of marketing, instead being mostly admin based. As I explained applying for a permanent admin job is just not realistic. But on Tuesday my advisor wanted to give it another go. This gave me a chance to really vent my frustration at the whole job centre process.
We have now been in an economic downturn for nearly 2 years and yet the job centre has made no attempt to adopt its practices to graduates/unemployed professionals and even experienced managers. They all get the same experience as someone with 3 kids, no education and 20 years of life. I think we really have gone to far down the equal opportunity and fairness path. Because when it comes to the job centre, we are not all equal and should therefore be treated differently. I regularly bring a list of between 6-10 jobs I have applied for. I search every few days and am also volunteering and copywriting. Being bought in to the job centre every other week to look at jobs I am not going to apply for is basically laughable.
The way that the job centre works they would sooner see me working in a low paying admin job I could have done straight out of school, rather than volunteering, gaining experience and trying to realise my potential. These things in fact gain me no extra credit, if anything they are viewed as a distraction.
If necessary i will have the same argument with the advisors each week and win. If they think that I spent £6k to study a Marketing Masters just to spend my life in a basic admin job they are sadly, sadly mistaken. If they ever actually decide they have an interest in helping me I will welcome it. Until then I will attend each Monday meeting, ready for another fight.
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