The Unemployment Stage

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They rang me a couple of hours before the interview and asked if I could reschedule. Apparently the company had double booked. I must admit this doesn't exactly reflect well on their organisation skills. Anyway, the meeting has been rescheduled to Thursday afternoon.

That sucks....

I hope you're continuing to pursue other angles.

I decided it wasn't for me. Fortunately, the manager was understanding. It turned out to be an in-person sales promoting merchandise to other companies position and I can't see myself as much of sales woman. Frankly it sounds socially exhausting. Usually you're not supposed to turn down a position during an interview, however considering the unorthodox nature of the meeting (not being given any details about the listing beforehand) I think in this particular case it was acceptable to do so.

He asked me directly if it was an area I was interested in or if I found it too far removed from my degree. I decided to be honest about it. He said that was fair enough and wished me luck on my job search. I know I'm never going to find my ideal job, but I don't want to go into direct sales. Graphic Design, UI, SEO, branding decisions, working on a visual narrative...I understand that. Standing in front of someone trying to convince them to buy things? Not so much.

Oh well. Hopefully I will attend more interviews in the future and find something. It's difficult to know how things will go.

Maybe you've dodged a bullet.....

I'm sorry your job search has been such a grind.

Skill tests sure can be stressful. Certain listings sometimes ask people to fill in tests to submit with the rest of their application. So far I've had to take three.

The first was critical thinking and logic. Annoyingly, it did not tell me what my result was after completing the test. However, I applied for another job today that required the same test and this time it simply asked if I wanted to share my previous result instead of doing the test again (you can only redo tests after six months anyway). It was nice to see that I had scored highly proficient, I was worried that I might've flunked on that one. Some of the questions were tricky. Plus they were timed, so not really enough time to Google the answers even if I wanted to.

As for the second test, they were fairly standard hypothetical questions. How you would deal with members of the public type scenarios. I don't think I did too badly on that one, but I don't know for sure.

However, the third test is a concern. That was by far the trickiest. Attention to detail. I had to read tables and figure out which worker had the most clocked-in hours. Then I had to read a whole bunch of numbers and letters then match the product codes and find the ones with errors in them. Whilst being timed. I did take care to reread and to avoid line-skipping, so hopefully I didn't make any regrettable mistakes.

On another note, I've started another design project. I've decided to go for more gradients this time to add some more variety to my portfolio. Usually I design in flat colour but it's worth having something a bit different in there to show that I can be versatile in my work.

I sense you will do fine on these tests.

I wish you would get an actual INTERVIEW......job searching in this Internet Age is a real pain in the you-know-what.

It certainly is. Something which irks me is the amount of mislabelled jobs. For instance, a listing for a Graphic designer but the description is actually looking for a 3D concept artist (technical drawing, digital 3D modelling, 3D animation). Certain places expect you to do it all, which isn't particularly fair. I know that the requirement section is more of a Wishlist but some places take the Mickey. One listing I looked at wanted a graphic designer who would also double as a delivery driver.

There's some unusual jargon out there. A term I came across recently was a "T-shaped person". Turns out this means someone who is knowledgeable / skilled in particular areas and can work well with others. Along with T-shaped people, there are X and I shaped people. Frankly it all seems a bit daft.

I know a company I applied to recently viewed my CV, since I received a notification about it, but I've no idea if I'll hear from them. Lately I've taken to applying to a job everyday. I'm still working on my new project on the side as well. Hopefully I'll start getting some interviews soon. A shame I don't get rejections telling me the reason they are rejecting me. Is there an issue with my CV? Could it be that a lot of companies are still using outdated AI systems and they struggle to read the PDF format or are otherwise faulty? Maybe I have a couple too many bullet points on there and it's discarding the document automatically? I know I've put it through an AI bot once before, but it's possible if the companies I'm applying to are using older systems then I could be running into issues as a result. Perhaps I ought to try creating a word document version and use that for a while and see if there's a difference. It won't necessarily be confirmation since there's a lot possible factors at play, but it could be worth a shot. Granted, it might not even be my CV, the rejections (or, more commonly, the ghosting) could be entirely unrelated. I suspect a lot of the time they simply find someone and don't bother sending out rejections.

Some people like to rag on my generation for supposedly having a skill-gap, but I suspect this isn't actually the case. Whilst it's true that a significant amount of us missed out on the chance to do a placement year (due to COVID, a lot of businesses were struggling and didn't want to take on students as a result), in areas such as design you can teach yourself to an extent. However, it can be an issue when you have entry level jobs wanting experience but you can't get experience because you need experience to get the experience. The classic loop.

Yet I know it's possible. My friend (the one who was dealing with job centres) managed to get onto a paid internship. I just hope I can get some interviews soon.

Frankly if there's one area that makes me a tad jealous of older generations, it's the fact that walking into somewhere and asking for an application form used to be an option.

Your're ten years younger than me. You have atleast have youthful energy going for you. I'm sure you will find something... cliche: "you've got your whole life ahead of you." You're very intelligent, (atleast you appear that way to me.) I'm sure you'll do well. Eventually.

Huh. This is the first time I've received a rejection with a "but, I think you should apply to this instead". Apparently they went with someone more experienced for their internship, but want me to apply for their training program. The first part is answering a couple of basic questions (the fact they've mentioned a lack of word limit makes me think they want lengthy responses). Now, if I'm successful in this stage, I'll have an interview. Which, if I'm successful in that, I'd take a four week course (unpaid) where I'd have to compete against other candidates.

A couple of us would be selected to progress onto a month long training program. However, there's an entrance fee. If I'm selected to move forward onto the training program, I'd have to pay them a small fee which apparently helps fund the training program...but I call nonsense on that, you're a big company and can't afford to train your own employees? Sure, I can afford it, but that's a lot of potential hoops. Then, finally, I'd be a "high priority" hire and have the chance to get a permanent paid position at the company.

...Makes me wonder how high their standards are for interns. Could it be worth applying? I know I lack business experience, but that's supposed to be the point of an internship! Surely someone will take me on?



Perhaps I should try to go into retail. I'd have to look into how to restructure my CV and how to write a cover letter for such a position. Maybe it's worth going to see the careers advice lot from my University if they've finished striking by now.

On second thought, I don't think I'll apply to the training program.

You're not supposed to pay THEM to train YOU. Probably a ripoff.

In my opinion, applying for a conventional clerical job would probably be better than applying for a retail job.

I have seen people in conventional clerical jobs show off their skills, and get promoted quickly. No guarantees, of course---but I've seen it happen.

I've been doing some research into a company that reached out to me today. They want to know if I'm interested in being interviewed for a Junior UX / UI position. It appears to be a legitimate company. So I'm planning to reply and to see how it goes.

I had an informal meeting today with the recruiters that reached out to me about this company. They've shortlisted my cv and hopefully I'll hear back from the company itself soon regarding an interview.

Best of luck.

All right, so I have the worst news, the bad news, the good news and the even better news. Personally I like to start with the bad and end with the good to cut the sting a little. So, let's begin in the pit of despair and work our way up.

The worst news is that I've been struggling lately. I haven't been taking good care of myself and I've been stressing out. All this stress isn't good for me - I've been making myself ill. I need to learn to relax. So, starting tomorrow, I'm going to take better care of myself.

Now, the bad news is that I didn't get the junior UX / UI position. Which is a shame because it would've been a good opportunity. The feedback I received was that I came across as a very genuine and kind person, albeit slightly nervous, but that they had more experienced candidates with stronger portfolios so they didn't want to go any further with my application. Of course.

So, what gives? Well, I asked around and the feedback I received was that I had too much text in my portfolio. It seems obvious now. The issue is the order of my presentation. People are probably clicking off the page before they get to my interactive prototypes, which is a shame because they're pretty good. So, I need to put my designs at the start and move my explanation sections down the page. That way people are more likely to stick around and actually see my work.

Finally, the best news is that my sister wants me to promote her business. She wants me to create a short advert. It should take me about a week to plan, film and edit. Having that on my CV would be great. Plus it'd be good for my sister as well, as it should hopefully get the word out and bring more customers to the business.

Now, where do I go from here? I think that my main priority should be working on my mental and physical health. Lately it's been slipping. My next priority should be tweaking my portfolio and working on the advert. As for applications, they might need to temporarily go on the backburner for a couple of days as I work on my projects. Then I can go back to applying (and hopefully with more success). I'm going through a bit of rough patch at the moment, but I'm hoping I can turn my life around and find some stability.

There was a slightly annoying situation recently where I received an invite to an interview. Unfortunately, I clicked on the link to select a time slot but there was a message saying there were none left. So I emailed back about it, but he suddenly went out of office until next week. I tried contacting a couple of his colleagues (that he had listed as contacts in the out-of-office automated reply) but I haven't heard from them so far. So, I guess I should wait for a response. Looks like I won't be hearing anything until next week, if there really are no slots and the slots were all taken in a matter of two hours (time I received the email VS my response time) then I don't like my chances. However, it's possible that if they haven't found anyone by the end of the week then they might give me an opportunity to schedule an interview.

Of course I'm still applying to other positions. I usually try to stick to at least one application a day.