Reply to: Depressing

[stek]

Considering how many times I've seen you use txtspk in posts you might want to avoid lobbing stones while resident in a glass house.

Dat's cos I'm down wiv da kidz!

It's a sad case of McKean's Law I'm afraid......

[TykeMerc]

'Inconsistencies' - sorry!

Considering how many times I've seen you use txtspk in posts you might want to avoid lobbing stones while resident in a glass house.

I know my spelling can be weak, but I find txtspk utterly unreadable.

[stek]

This may not be relevant to most of you, but I recently looked at a CV for a guy applying for £400 p/d PM roles. Sadly it had spelling mistakes and loads of formatting [b]inconsistancies/b]. I told him if I had received his CV, I wouldn't have interviewed him as it was too sloppy.

Might be worth looking at your CV again and double checking spelling, formatting and generally look at it with fresh eyes.

He's applied for hundreds of jobs with no interviews - I'm not saying the above applies to all of those jobs, but I guess a fair few have disregarded him for those reasons.

'Inconsistencies' - sorry!

[TykeMerc]

This may not be relevant to most of you, but I recently looked at a CV for a guy applying for £400 p/d PM roles. Sadly it had spelling mistakes and loads of formatting inconsistancies. I told him if I had received his CV, I wouldn't have interviewed him as it was too sloppy.

I've seen loads of CV's riddled with basic errors while hiring, the number of errors has increased exponentially since txtspk became fashionable. People are so used to using it in instant messages, texts and even message boards that they forget that it's total gibberish.

People who use there/their/they're in the wrong places (or more commonly there in every instance) and I've even seen several cases of U and UR even one from a "senior" BA who claimed to be a documentation expert. I've seen a fair few with no real punctuation.

I instabin CV's with basic errors as if people can't be bothered to check their CV's then odds are they will have the same sloppy attitude to the actual project work.

Back to the original post, as the others have said 50 ish applications really isn't a lot especially in the current climate. A well written CV, flexible attitude and downright persistence is essential.

[coultog]

This may not be relevant to most of you, but I recently looked at a CV for a guy applying for £400 p/d PM roles. Sadly it had spelling mistakes and loads of formatting inconsistancies. I told him if I had received his CV, I wouldn't have interviewed him as it was too sloppy.

Might be worth looking at your CV again and double checking spelling, formatting and generally look at it with fresh eyes.

He's applied for hundreds of jobs with no interviews - I'm not saying the above applies to all of those jobs, but I guess a fair few have disregarded him for those reasons.

[gingerjedi]

I started a data migration project on Monday only for it to get binned on the Wednesday... now that's depressing.

[BolshieBastard]

In a market like this, making a response to job adverts is frequently unproductive. Your best chance is when an agent contacts you.

At the end of the day, it is just a numbers game.

[Rangster]

You're not trying hard enough. And you are whining far too early.

Took me 350-400 applications and 7 months to get off the bench.

Come back when you've really worked at it.

Fair point!

[nomadd]

50+ applications, one call back and that it. Depressing.

You're not trying hard enough. And you are whining far too early.

Took me 350-400 applications and 7 months to get off the bench.

Come back when you've really worked at it.

[wantacontract]

that cheered me up....

then i remembered that 98% of those BA roles were banking ones, and I can't get my foot in the door for banking PM contracts

[DiscoStu]

I can't get over how many BA roles there are....thinking of taking a junior BA perm role for 6 months to learn the job, and then go back into contracting for BA roles...

good rates too - usually £300 plus, same as a PM some better..

Considering BA's are usually taken on right at the beginning of projects this can only bode well for everyone else

[wantacontract]

just applied to a NHS PM role that was paying something around £150.. after living and travelling expenses, I'd be better off stacking shelves and delivering pizzas locally....

[wantacontract]

I can't get over how many BA roles there are....thinking of taking a junior BA perm role for 6 months to learn the job, and then go back into contracting for BA roles...

good rates too - usually £300 plus, same as a PM some better..

[VectraMan]

I am looking for generic public sector project management work - as are thousands of other people - or work in my chosen niche sector (which I shall not reveal) which has been very thin on the ground.

Can't be that thin on the ground if you've made 500 applications. I've made 3, but in the last couple of weeks. To be honest at no point in my 4 1/2 years as a contractor have I looked at the job boards and seen lots of jobs that I could do; it's always been 3 or 4 at most. So now doesn't seem that much worse.

Maybe it's time to obtain some in demand skills.

[RichardCranium]

Haha, I did mean in getting responses/interviews even if no joy with signing one up

A handful of interviews but no offers yet.

I am looking for generic public sector project management work - as are thousands of other people - or work in my chosen niche sector (which I shall not reveal) which has been very thin on the ground.