Folks,
Whats been rumoured for a long time has partially been announced - my project is 'changing'. What this means to my job is still not clear
(although I have my own opinion & hence this post). I'm supposed to find out in the next 2 weeks.....
It occurred to me that others may be in this position and others may have lost their jobs recently. I was hoping people could post helpful hints and
tips to make life easier. Not - spend more time in the garage but things like "claim this benefit" or "tell the council that"
perhaps even a "make sure you don't tell this organisation".
So .... what do peeps suggest (and please be serious - at the moment this is quite a serious time for me, its the first time I've faced this in
15 years employment).
claim for job seekers straight away! don't leave it 4 months like i did
I can't help with redundancy but I have been unemployed recently.
Make sure you ring up the jobcentre and sign on to job seekers allowance ASAP if/when the worst happens. The complete process to claim your money can
take a while but it gets back dated to that initial phone call so theres no point umming and arring about it!
Also take advantage of what they have on offer. TBH I have no idea how able people aren't capable of finding jobs with them with all the training
etc they offer.
I dont know what you do- it may be easy for you to get another job, but jobseekers will take at least some of the financial strain during the
transition
my missus was recently unemployed, and the Job centre made her laugh.
she currently has 3 degrees and A Phd, the nice lady at the job centre said "they may struggle to find her work"
but in all seriousness start ASAP, and make sure you don't have more than £6k in savings
What's the problem with savings? What impact does it have?
I'm here, been here a while, it's a dark depressing place.
OK, so it depends on your circumstances, but yes, call the job centre right away the minute you lose your job. This is imperative, otherwise you have
to explain why you didn't.
If you're in rented accomodation, have debts, a drug habit, a couple of estranged wives and kids, you can probably expect some considerable help
from Gordon. The various departments will help at the Job Centre.
If you've displayed the ability to work and pay tax for a while, or have had a career, have savings, had a working wife and generally paid Gordon
a great deal of money during your adult life... you'll get £60 a week for 3 months, a further 3 months at £60 week with some paperwork, and then
nothing.
Commit yourself to feelings of depression, suicidal thoughts and a spiral of despair, getting a few hundred speculative applications off may help, a
few rejection letters may come back from courteous firms.
If your employer has gone to the wall, the Receivers have walked in and ushered you out, you can start the process of claiming some of Gordon's
help (provided very begrudgingly) for State redundancy (it isn't much). The Receivers will be of some help here, the State isn't.
If you're offered some sweetening voluntary redundancy deal, take it.
Eventually, the Building Society (Gordon owned) will take your house from you, you'll still have the working wife, so they'll want the
balance due and you'll have to rent.
You may eventually get where I am now, looking at the bike in the garage and thinking f%%% this... warm sunny countries....
quote:
Originally posted by MikeR
What's the problem with savings? What impact does it have?
Does anyone know what happens when one of the two is making more than 25K a year?
If it was me in that situation and I have been in the past quite a few times. I’d say act now and join very agency in your area (sounds like you
should have done so quite a while back too, rather than wait to late)
Do update your CV and go on the web and check out sites that have advice on how to do it CV well, most people haven’t a clue tbh (this from my sister
and her boyfriend who are agency recruiters)
Don’t fixate on just one type of job, try and look around at other possibilities. For example I’ve done – van driver, truck driver, bus driver,
technician, asbuilder, designer, parcel sorter, operations planner, testing supervisor, draffy to name a few, all off these roles I can move right
back into if needs be.
Most important is to have money coming in and the bills being paid.
[Edited on 4/12/09 by Mr Whippy]
If you get any redundancy pay, take out of the bank, tell social you have spent it, on a car or something otherwise your claim for JSA will be seriously delayed. If you have savings of more than £3000 or ISA's or life insurance don't tell them or they make you cash them in and spend the money. I know they did with me, tell your mortgage company and apply for housing benefit, even if you own your own home, they may help with interest charges,
quote:
Originally posted by marcjagman
If you get any redundancy pay, take out of the bank, tell social you have spent it, on a car or something otherwise your claim for JSA will be seriously delayed. If you have savings of more than £3000 or ISA's or life insurance don't tell them or they make you cash them in and spend the money. I know they did with me, tell your mortgage company and apply for housing benefit, even if you own your own home, they may help with interest charges,
Have you thought of becomming self-employed? I got made redundant at the end of august, as I had my dashboard project almost complete I decided to
get it ready for market, otherwise I will get stuck in a job again.
You will be entitled to reduanancy, and lieu of notice if not given enough notice, via the reduanacy service scheme.
Cap is £350 per week.
Darren
Forgot to say: If you want to get another job quicker, register your cv with monster etc, and setup automated searches to be sent via e-mail.
[Edited on 4/12/09 by turbodisplay]
quote:
Originally posted by marcjagman
If you get any redundancy pay, take out of the bank, tell social you have spent it, on a car or something otherwise your claim for JSA will be seriously delayed. If you have savings of more than £3000 or ISA's or life insurance don't tell them or they make you cash them in and spend the money. I know they did with me, tell your mortgage company and apply for housing benefit, even if you own your own home, they may help with interest charges,
Tbh waiting on the job centre to find you work is a total waste of time and only used by folk who are not interested in getting a job.
If you have access to the web, you then have access to far more opportunity’s than if you spent the whole day checking just the job centre. All
agency’s are available over the web (monster got me the job I’m in at the moment) spend your time not on the car forum but going through every one of
the agency’s sending them your CV at the same time.
Then write a list of all the ones you’ve joined which you should phone (too check up on the situation) all at least once a week to keep you in the top
of their minds when a position does come up.
[Edited on 4/12/09 by Mr Whippy]
quote:
Originally posted by motorcycle_mayhem
Eventually, the Building Society (Gordon owned) will take your house from you, you'll still have the working wife, so they'll want the balance due and you'll have to rent.
no experiance myself, but has happened to close family members. most important thing is cash flow, keep money coming in somehow, even if you take a simple course - say an NPLQ to be a lifeguard, thats £7-8 an hour and plenty of flexible hours to work in the leisure centre. but take all the advice you can, use it, and if it doesnt work what they hey.
Is your mortgage up for renewal any time soon?
Mine was, and as unemployed I knew I wasn't going to get a renewal very easily!
Fortunately, the broker couldn't find a better deal for us than if we just stuck with what we'd default to with our current mortgage
provider.... so we stayed.
But it'd have been a problem is not!
So bear that in mind.
Get your CV done ASAP. Send it out to friends/business people you know to check it's good.
When it's good, send it to everyone you can think of that might have something. Old work colleagues who've moved on, people in other
departments at your current place (I'm assuming it's a big enough place you wouldn't know about other internal vacancies), people you
know at your old companies.
This is all in addition to getting it round to agencies and recruiters.
Hope that helps, I'm doing all this now as I'm a bit keen to find a job at the moment!
Good luck,
James
Is your mortgage up for renewal any time soon?
Mine was, and as unemployed I knew I wasn't going to get a renewal very easily!
Fortunately, the broker couldn't find a better deal for us than if we just stuck with what we'd default to with our current mortgage
provider.... so we stayed.
But it'd have been a problem is not!
So bear that in mind.
Get your CV done ASAP. Send it out to friends/business people you know to check it's good. I did a first draft recently and hurriedly sent it off
as it was the closing date for a job I'd just spotted... the amount of schoolboy errors in it was ridiculous! Things which others would have
spotted. Or I might even have spotted if I'd printed it! :-o
When it's good, send it to everyone you can think of that might have something. Old work colleagues who've moved on, people in other
departments at your current place (I'm assuming it's a big enough place you wouldn't know about other internal vacancies), people you
know at your old companies.
This is all in addition to getting it round to agencies and recruiters.
Hope that helps, I'm doing all this now as I'm a bit keen to find a job at the moment!
Good luck,
James
[Edited on 4/12/09 by James]
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
If it was me in that situation and I have been in the past quite a few times. I’d say act now and join very agency in your area (sounds like you should have done so quite a while back too, rather than wait to late)
Do update your CV and go on the web and check out sites that have advice on how to do it CV well, most people haven’t a clue tbh (this from my sister and her boyfriend who are agency recruiters)
Don’t fixate on just one type of job, try and look around at other possibilities. For example I’ve done – van driver, truck driver, bus driver, technician, asbuilder, designer, parcel sorter, operations planner, testing supervisor, draffy to name a few, all off these roles I can move right back into if needs be.
Most important is to have money coming in and the bills being paid.
I resigned from my VERY cr*p job about a month ago - don't be afraid of the jobcentre, if you treat them like human beings they tend to
respond much better because I suspect they're so used to muppets and abuse! They don't have a clue in terms of getting you a job if
you've got a degree and years of experience but although £64 is nothing it's worth having at the end of the day - and after all you have
been paying national insurance for what 15 years?........
The savings thing has changed - it's £16K I think now... we've got about £10K, I declared it and wrote a nice letter giving the (true)
reasons why I resigned and I've just had a letter saying I'll get the full £64 a week from the day I registered the claim.
I intend being on benefits for as little time as is humanly possible I have to say because I HATE signing on and I know I'm pretty good at what I
do - but it's stupid to be too proud in times of need! People make a career out of living on benefits from the National Insurance we pay so if
you need it for a couple of months.....
quote:
Originally posted by turbodisplay
Have you thought of becomming self-employed?
Lots of good advice given.
Dont be afraid to have more than one CV dress them up or down
When thinking about your experience in work, make sure you take a mental walk through of what you have actually done (its surprising how we forget
some of the most important things)
If you say your going to call make sure you call.
Even when unsuccessful phone to thank them for the opportunity who knows what will happen in the probationary period.
Dont send out applications on mass select your potential employers wisely (theres nothing worse for an employer when he contacts you regarding an
interview to hear "Hmmm who is it mmmm what is it you do oh I forgot about that application "
Always use a good quality paper not the £1.99 stuff from Morrisons. It lokks good and it feels good.
If you have goodneat/ handwriting, then handwrite the letter you cant get more personal than that.
If speculatively contacting employers Ascertain the name of the Manager before putting anything in the post
Get rid of any stupid email addresses
Remove any silly answer phone messages from your phone.
Treat every incoming call as a potential interview.
Sorry if I harped on. Been involved with Jobseekers for the past 11 years and still passionate Its my job.
First thing, don't panic, it's happened to me twice, not nice but not the end of the world.
Pbura's networking advice is good, you will have met a lot of people at work over the years, get in touch with them, let them know you're on
the market, that's how I got my current job (after the same company had already rejected my CV), an ex collegue who was working there dropped my
CV onto someone's desk, this time it got read, two week later I started (almost 8 years ago now). Don't be shy, make the calls.
Good luck, it will get better, trust me.
quote:
Originally posted by blakep82
claim for job seekers straight away! don't leave it 4 months like i did