Blobseekers Allowance

[chrysalis]

This comes down to having a series of short-term contracts on your CV. In vain can I argue that I had 15 jobs one year because I travelled the length and breadth of the country to gain experience and stay gainfully employed - all a small employer sees is 'unreliable'. Even when I point out that the same companies have hired me 7 or 8 times over my career (often at a higher grade than the last time) and clearly had no problem with my work, just that it is the nature of the industry, the CV did not go down well. I was once turned down for a 2 week stint as a receptionist in favour of a girl with no GCSEs on the basis that I 'might leave to get a better job as you are overqualified'. ITS A 2 WEEK JOB!!!! I sympathise with troll's frustration.

In terms of the questions I'd have to say that the public sector has been where I had most luck getting hired as they are more likely to value qualifications - jobs include medical receptionist (I ended up doing most of the prescriptions because 'you've been to college innit?'), PA to an NHS manager, diary administrative support officer at the JobCentrePlus (shudder), financial irregularity assessor for VirginMedia (double shudder). A lot of these were through the Hays agency who actually took time to sit and talk to me to find out my real skills and then to sell them. But it did help that I had my own car, always turned up on time and worked like a dog - even on filing end of year reports for an entire week for a conveyor belt company in Keighley! As agencies are used to folk having lots of different jobs they tend to discriminate less