where has all the work gone ?

[timh]

Rewrite your CV from the ground up; remember that the longer ago it was, the more you can exaggerate.

Also, scan the job ads for skills which are in high demand that you could pick up in a few weeks of hard effort at home, pick one, and learn it. Then stick it on your CV. How about Ruby? It's a fad, but there's healthy demand and there's almost nobody with decent commercial experience.

[unemployed]

I'm really not being funny mate, but if your CV is as poorly capitalised and punctuated as your posts, I'm not surprised you're struggling...

i don`t make an effort when posting. did not expect to examined.

[unemployed]

Rewrite your CV from the ground up; remember that the longer ago it was, the more you can exaggerate.

Also, scan the job ads for skills which are in high demand that you could pick up in a few weeks of hard effort at home, pick one, and learn it. Then stick it on your CV. How about Ruby? It's a fad, but there's healthy demand and there's almost nobody with decent commercial experience.

yes i am actually doing this now. perm job has blown me out now, no interview i must be cursed.

[timh]

There's plenty of flash/flex work going around too - I'm actually contemplating employing people so I can take on all the work I'm being offered, but I don't think I'm ready to take my focus off coding quite yet. Companies are salivating for perm staff in that area at the moment, but as with most fields that could all change in 6 months.

One important question: Are you willing to relocate?

[Stan]

yes i am actually doing this now. perm job has blown me out now, no interview i must be cursed.

Not Ruby I hope.

The real problem is you aren't selling yourself properly. Even if you have poor skills in reality you should at least be able to generate interest and interviews. What are you doing, sending animal porn jpegs with your CV?

[dweezil]

I have had two annoying run-arounds from the agencies in the last two weeks.

Not phoning if there's nothing in it for them is understandable, but lies are not.

First agency: cold called me and sold me on my high probability of getting a contract. I suspect that the client never saw my CV despite the fact that this particular role demanded a very specific and rare skill set (which I have). Since the post was being advertised by about five agencies perhaps it was a phoney i.e. the contract went long ago??

Second agency: saw the ad Sunday, emailed CV Tuesday, eventually after five calls got through to the agent. Apparently they'd put forward five other candidates's CVs with more experience with this product and weren't going to put me forward: ditto, this is a rare skill set and strange that they could drum up five better candidates within two days. Was this why the recruiter didn't speak to me on Wednesday, I hazard a guess :-) ? I phoned the employer direct: apparently the last date for CVs was three weeks ago and they were already at interview stage.... so the recruiter was just CV-gathering.

Lying 100 times a day is not 'legitimate' business in my book. Most recruiters are lying sharks as far as I can tell.

[tim123]

i am not fooled by these people i know what they are.
my point is if i am not suitable for a position why not tell me now !
not bulltulip people along saying when are you available for interview etc , when they have no intention of actually sending your cv to the client.

I agree. I have never understood this in agents either, but they are all like it. As someone else said, this isn't personal.

Agents seem to get some personal satisfaction in collecting CVs from people that they can't place and in getting interviews for people who aren't likely to get the job. They know that if the throw enough mud at the wall, some will stick, perhaps they think that if they have twice as much mud twice as much will stick. Who knows?

tim

[unemployed]

Not Ruby I hope.

The real problem is you aren't selling yourself properly. Even if you have poor skills in reality you should at least be able to generate interest and interviews. What are you doing, sending animal porn jpegs with your CV?

i have sent my cv maybe 200-300 times how do you sell yourself ?

combination of companies paying crap which i wont apply for
agencies lying
jobs not even existing in the first place.

now i am looking for jobs advertised by companies directly least this way i can bypass the paper shuffle monkeys.

is a 30k job so much to ask for in london ffs ? not like you can get a decent mortgage or something anyway.

[chicane]

is a 30k job so much to ask for in london ffs ?

Yes, it is for some. Look at the cleaners, dustbin men and teachers and coppers. You assume that you're entitled to a 30k job. Salaries and hourly rates are set by market forces, not the working population.

[NoddY]

i have sent my cv maybe 200-300 times how do you sell yourself ?

combination of companies paying crap which i wont apply for
agencies lying
jobs not even existing in the first place.

now i am looking for jobs advertised by companies directly least this way i can bypass the paper shuffle monkeys.

is a 30k job so much to ask for in london ffs ? not like you can get a decent mortgage or something anyway.

You are not a person but a unit of labour. You must learn to increase the value of your labour and sell it directly onto the market. It's simple - and it's nothing personal. You've also learnt what a risky business it is selling your labour. So perhaps you ought to resell someone else's labour (an employer) or act as a gatekeeper to labour (an agent). Or perhaps next time you'll convert your labour into assets and let them work for you, rather than you work.