The one with the perfect job…

So today I interviewed for the perfect job. It’s perfect. It is a great position, a great company, it’s something I could really excel at, and I can’t believe I got down to the top five candidates to be interviewed.

I applied through a recruitment agency, and when I got the phone call I was made to feel slightly on the back foot, because I was one of the two candidates who didn’t have professional experience in the area, and the recruiter made me feel as though they really had to push for me to have a chance.

To be fair, the recruiter went above and beyond to help me get this job, they re-designed my CV to help it fit the job, sent me several links to help me win during an interview, and helped point out what the company valued above all else.

I did a lot of research and really tried my hardest to get the job, today, it is a role that I really want. I would give several limbs and internal organs to get it, but I feel like it’s all too good to be true. Maybe I just missed something in the interview, maybe I’m going to have to face those words, once again “I’m afraid we’re looking for someone with more experience.” Whatever it is, I know it’s going to be painful.

I really gave it my all, it was, I feel one of the best interviews I have ever done, but I fear it’s going to end exactly like the perfect job interview did for Rachel in the US TV show, ‘Friends’, she gets the call, and as great as she was, and as well as the interview went, it’s a no.

I think that for the last couple of days I have just been in a little world of “what if” and “wouldn’t it be great if?” and tomorrow I think it’s going to end, and I’m going to be back to job hunting.

So I want to know, how do you handle rejection like this? I think I’m gonna need some tips!

Interview time!

Just after I wrote my last post I was offered an interview.

I attended it today, they have been interviewing for the position for two and a half months and there is more than one position available.

Throughout the interview my interviewer bought up that they’re looking for someone with experience, which brings me to this – you knew I didn’t have experience when you invited me for an interview. If you want someone with experience then why did you ask me for the interview?!

It was the best interview I’ve been through, and it feels like I really nailed every question I was asked.

But am I the candidate they’re looking for? I don’t think so.

I really needed this. I need to work to feel valuable, to get a car, to save to move out, to help support my family.

Just gave me a couple of days of false hope.

I’m gutted.

I’m getting really sick of this…

So here’s the thing.

On Friday I interviewed for a job I would be perfect for. I have just received an email saying that they will not be progressing my application.

This is my third job rejection today. Honestly. I’m sick of this. I am sick. Sick and tired of this.

Every single day I sit and I apply for every single job that I could do, and every day I am averaging two rejections, with an average of one interview per week, followed by a further rejection letter!

I am not long-term unemployed, and I am pretty sure that I am not unemployable, but all I face is rejection, after rejection, after rejection.

I like to think I am a strong person, my personal motto is “In every pothole there is hope.” (You re-arrange the letters in pothole, and you get hope.) But I don’t know how many more potholes I can take. I honestly never expected it to be this difficult. How do you keep going when everything seems so bleak? There is no definite that I will ever be employed. Everything could just end badly.

I suppose I should really end this blog post by lightening the mood, otherwise it’s just like I’m complaining a lot. Here’s the highlight: In every pothole, however deep that pothole may seem, there is always a way out. There is always hope. Or, at least, that’s what I am praying for.

Why does it matter?

The first job I applied for was an apprenticeship.

I got turned down because I am ‘overqualified’ (Even though my qualifications are relatively different to those which I would receive with this apprenticeship), and to give me the job would be ‘demeaning’.

The problems I have with this:

1) What am I going to do if I want to get into this kind of work, but can’t get the education needed, through an apprenticeship?

2) Does it matter to you, if I am overqualified? If I am happy doing that job, then why does it matter?

3) In the interview, the interviewer told me they want somebody highly educated!

4) It is more demeaning for me to spend another day unemployed, than to do a job which I am apparently overqualified for.

It is the same thing with everything. I am either overqualified or unexperienced. I spent my life getting an education because it was what I wanted, and because it would give me the skills I need, for the job I want. But I can’t get the job I want because I don’t have any experience, and I can’t get experience because I am overqualified…. So what am I meant to do?

So I went to the job centre….

So I went to the job centre today, my signing on time is 3:15, and I turned up at 3. I took my book in and the woman asked me if there was any reason I was so early. I said no, my appointment is in fifteen minutes. I was then asked to leave and stand on the street for five more minutes.

I was then sent up and after a twenty minute wait, seen by a person. This person then told me that the planner which they gave me, ought to be filled out precisely, noting in detail what I did each day in order to find work… I haven’t had to fill out a planner since I was in secondary school and never in detail like that! This, combined with the terrible, ‘look down on you’ attitude which the job centre staff hold over you, makes you feel about five years old… I am a fully grown adult! One, who, unlike my supervisor on my first visit, can actually spell seemingly difficult words, such as ‘government’!

It was, however, nice to see that they had found the slip which I have to sign every week, after having lost it last week.

I am going away at the end of the week and had to fill out a holiday form, this weeks supervisor looked at me in dismay when I told her that I hadn’t received the holiday form to fill out, and then requested that I move to a different seating area whilst I filled it out.

I also had an issue because in my first week I was forcefully “recommended” that I go to a volunteering event, which I did, and signed up to do some volunteer work, in fear of having my benefits cut, if I didn’t. So today the supervisor told me that this volunteer work could affect my benefits, so I have to fill out yet, more paper work!

So hang on… I am required to do volunteering work, otherwise this may lead to my benefits being cut, but if I do the volunteer work, my benefits are still endangered…

Where is the common sense?

Hello

So this is my opening blog. I’m going to blog straight after this, because I am in the writing frame of mind.

So, this is a little blog about my life as an unemployed, struggling graduate. I say “struggling”, because, honestly, I am struggling. I am struggling to wake up every morning and carry on with my life. Everything seems incredibly hopeless, and when I look in the mirror, I no longer recognise the person who looks back at me.

So, if you don’t mind being occasionally moaned at, PLEASE, read my blog. But even if you don’t, I am going to continue to write it because for now it is a great way to vent some of my frustration and feel actually worthy.