Why desperate is the new creative in job hunting

 One young man who deserves kudos for his initiative and chutzpah in job hunting methods is Tom Gockelen-Kozlowski (photo: Guardian).

“Tom who?”

Exactly. Because no one knew who he was, this 22-year-old graduate put a suit on, stuffed his pockets with business cards and decided to spend over a week doorstepping every single national newspaper in hopes of being offered a job.

Tom: “knock knock”
Tom does not have NCTJ qualifications and, instead of starting his job hunt among local and regional newspapers, he took the reverse route and knocked straight on the doors of the nationals.

Reckless? Naive? Plain stupid? Maybe. His actions certainly defied the traditional career path for journalists.

The problem is people tend to dislike nonconformists. His account in The Guardian provoked criticism and contempt in several readers one of whom even posted a blog especially to express how “jaw-droppingly arrogant” he thought Tom was and how he would never get a job in journalism that way.

But was it really arrogance that motivated him? Or was it his dare-to-dream attitude that made us feel uncomfortable because some of us have lost the capacity for it ?

Surely Tom was aware of the chances of having doors slammed in his face. Yet he had to try his luck, the alternative being to stay at home and agonise whether he’d have been successful had he done what he did. Can you blame him for that?

And the results? Well, he’s still unemployed.  

Tom G-K may not have got himself a job as an immediate outcome of his stunt, but the experience certainly boosted his confidence, made him talked about in media circles and got people reading his blog. He is already a huge step ahead of others who haven’t dared.  And aren’t those positive qualities to look for in a budding journalist’s CV?

Paxman says so
In fact, at the ‘Is Journalism in Crisis’ conference at Coventry University in October, Jeremy Paxman advised  graduates to do exactly that: “go knock on doors” As reported here on Journalism.co.uk, the veteran journalist said:

“I’m always being approached by people who want to get into this business and I always try and put them off. I do so in the certain knowledge that if they are put off from the job they shouldn’t be doing it.”

Gary: “hire me”
It is not only the relatively inexperienced and young  who have been taking unusual avenues into job hunting.

 Gary Sullivan (photo: Guardian), a 51-year-old veteran design and print professional, who was made redundant, took to the streets with a billboard that read “Hire me” and flyers with his CV and website address printed, as reported by The Guardian.

Gary says he could have easily got a job two years ago, but now he would be lucky if he even got an interview:

“At first I went down all the usual routes, sending letters and applying for jobs online but I wasn’t getting anywhere and I got to the stage where I thought I have to do something else. “

A creative thinker in a creative industry. Lucky will be the employer who offers him a job.

Thinking laterally
According to the Office for the National Statistics (ONS):

• At the end of September 2009, there were 2.46 million people  out of work in the UK, a 0.1 percentage point increase on the previous quarter’s rate to 7.8%.
• The number of existing vacancies between August and October was 428,000, the lowest figures on record.

Unemployment has become a such a high hurdle to overcome, jobseekers are resorting to unusual methods to get themselves noticed ahead of the competition.

Those who denounce them as being arrogant, over-confident or attention-seeking, will most likely be the lucky few with stable jobs and guaranteed paycheques at the end of the month.

The current recession is like no other, an indomitable wild beast. Desperate times require courage and perseverance but they also call for the ability to be resourceful, inventive and, above all, positive.  

Tom Gockelen-Kozlowski and Gary Sullivan’s stories prove, if anything, that a good sense of humour can go a long way in keeping jobseekers laughing at themselves.

Loving the word no
John Kehoe, author of Mind Power into the 21st century, says we must learn to love the word “no”. Every time we hear a no, we are one step closer to a yes, he says.

“The more “no’s” you hear, the more “yes’s” are bound to happen. Love the word ‘no’; it’s the sound of success in motion. When you’re not hearing it, you’re in deep trouble.”

Could there be more encouraging words than those for desperate jobseekers?

Now excuse us while we go chase our dreams.

Related Links:

• There’s nothing wrong with aiming high – a blog inspired by Tom by @rosieniven: http://rosieniven.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/theres-nothing-wrong-with-aiming-high/#more-298
• How to become a journalist by Guardian travel writer Benji Lanyado, whom Tom impressed: http://benjilanyado.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/how-to-become-a-journalist-beta/
• Tom G-K’s blog: http://atleasti.wordpress.com/2009/10/
• Gary Sullivan’s website & CV: http://www.gary-sullivan.moonfruit.com/

Week 26: off the dole and onto…Tarot cards?

If you claim jobseeker’s allowance based on national insurance contributions, your eligibility for the dole is for 182 days, or roughly six months. Mine ran out last month, so a fortnight ago I was summoned by the JobCentre Plus to the so-called “week 26 review meeting” , where a personal adviser is meant to draw up “a three-step action plan” to improve your chances of finding work.

What amuses me about JobCentres – and God knows there is very little to be cheerful about them – are the colourful personalities of the advisers you come across; if you are lucky, that is. There is nothing else to smile about.

Rehab?
My week 26 appointment was with a tall and lanky male adviser with long hair and a bushy moustache, who looked to me like a modern version of a hippie from the swinging 60s. I remember thinking he’d look good in a flowery Hawiian shirt and bell bottoms.

I always try to see the funny side to every situation, so I was secretly delighted.

My “beatnik” adviser turned out to be no dopey-head tough, but a straight talker who wasted no time in exposing his personal views on three-step action plans for jobseekers. He said:

“The fact is there is only one action possible for a person in your situation; and that is for you to look for a job and find one.”

I immediately took a liking to him. 

The reason most people find visits to the JobCentre degrading is that unemployment is treated as if it was a anti-social addiction, such as alcoholism, which needs to be treated “in steps”.

Does it not suffice that we spend day in and day out doing nothing else but looking for work, applying for work, thinking about work? In the view of the JobCentre, if after six months on the dole, you are still unemployed, you are doing something wrong that needs to be fixed, never mind the recession.

Terminally unemployed
At week 26 in my…condition, I am now classified as a “stage three customer”, a term with a distinctly morbid ring to it, as in “stage three cancer” or “terminal patient”. And, as a terminal jobseeker, my adviser tells me I am entitled to certain additional types of support, which I take it as being the JobCentre’s equivalent of palliative care.

Certain local colleges offer free crash courses to “help you get back to the workplace and support you with continued training once you are in a job”. Would I like to learn new skills, which could “open doors to a new career”?

All very well, until you read the small print on the training courses actually offered: health and safety in the workplace, food safety in catering, door supervisor (for bouncers??), first aid and…erm…. Tarot card reading.

I am not ungrateful, mind. I would love to learn Tarot card reading, and would appreciate being able to predict when I am likely to find a job. But how a Tarot certificate on my CV would enhance my chances of employment I am still struggling to comprehend.

But that’s only because I have the small mind of a bourgeois woman and am reluctant to accept fortunetelling as a career in its own right…

The best remedy
In order not to lose your sanity, you must learn to laugh at the foibles of the JobCentre. What little advice and support they have to hand out is not applicable to anyone with any level of decent education, let alone a degree. (Read graduate Kate McCann’s experience with the JobCentre Plus under Related Links below)

The truth is: on this crusade to claw back into the job market, you are a lone knight and your own imagination and resourcefulness are the only weapons that can save you from defeat by your own despair.

Everyone needs a card up their sleeve. Whether it will be the Tarot kind or not is up to you to decide.

Indeed, some jobseekers have found very imaginative, and amusing, ways of looking for work, without resorting to help from the JobCentre. Find out more by reading my next post…

* Related links of interest:

– Out on our own (Guardian): graduate Kate McCann on how JobCentre Plus is letting graduates down
– Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) report on UK labour market

HR rejection letters need not break hearts

Last week I received the first rejection letter ever that nearly drove me to tears…for its friendliness.

I never thought it possible to feel validated in a message that is basically telling you you are not going to get what you want.  It made me reflect on basic HR practices that can make a world of difference in how you feel towards a company or organisation you aspired to work for.

It had been a very tough few weeks struggling to meet a number of application and article deadlines in between going away for a family funeral. I had been pushing myself to the limit of my mental resilience and feeling particularly fragile. 

Sometimes a small rejection message like that can be the last straw that breaks the camel’s back. No wonder mental problems caused by job losses and financial woes are on the rise in Sussex, as reported in The Argus.

Job hunting can be soul-destroying at the best of times. For every winner in the job search race there are dozens, often hundreds of losers. And with every additional loss and dent in one’s confidence, the race becomes harder to win.

Luckie’s luck
In July, US journalist Mark S Luckie explained in his “10,000 words” blog ‘Why being unemployed is the best thing to ever happened to me.‘  His positive outlook is admirable, but, if you ask me, that is an overstatement. 

Being out of work does free one up to hone old skills, learn new ones, catch up on unfinished projects and so on – I am certainly grateful for the free time I have now.

But when your existence is reduced to filling in one application form after another week after week, followed by nothing but rejection after rejection, you turn into that bloodied boxer in the ring being punched around like a rag doll, with no strength left to resist the next blow.

Luckie eventually (in what I reckon was about nine months) got himself a job at the Centre for Investigative Reporting as a multimedia producer – an enviable position at an enviable workplace. What about the rest of us, battling on while the bills pile up, with six, seven, eight years’ worth of hard-earned savings evaporating in a matter of months?

The silent treatment
Yet the more unemployment rises, the more prospective employers seem to be cutting corners on even the simplest rules of common courtesy.

One well-known newspaper group in West Sussex, which was recruiting for sub-editors last spring, reportedly did not notify the second of the final two candidates that he had not got the job, even though they had both been put through three interviews by then.

I too had applied for the position and never got a response after the first interview. Maybe, in their opinion, candidates eliminated at first stage did not deserve a reply. But to treat a final stage candidate with what I can only regard as disdain is unacceptable by any standard.

If a company treats its candidates like that, how much respect can one expect to gain as staff?

What hurts, what doesn’t 
Rejection is painful, even when not done in a silent manner, but the process need not necessarily be so hurtful that it damages the candidates’ self-esteem. In my experience, responses that sting are:

• Silence – Hello? Do I exist?
• Impersonal stock replies – “On this occasion we regret to tell you you have not been shortlisted.”
• Impersonal stock replies signed by HR…because you are too important to sign yourself?

My latest rejector was sensitive enough to say sorry we are not going to take you for xyz reason, but you are still great and if we can help you in any way in future let us know. They acknowledged I had talent, understood the news would not be easy for me to hear, and still left the door open for me.

If I were to write a rejection letter rule book for HR staff, I’d say:  

• Make sure it is written (or at least signed by) someone the candidate actually met/talked to/sent the application to.
• Keep the tone personal, thank him for specific efforts (eg going there, taking a test, applying, calling, etc).
• Point out the positives about the application (eg impressive CV, good experience, etc) and the reason for the rejection (eg someone with more relevant experience, not enough knowledge of x) or advise him what he could do to increase his chance next time (eg more experience in x, acquire y skill, etc).
• Do not say good-bye the way Anne Robinson does in The Weakest Link.

Humane resources
All of these things may take a bit more time than if it were printed off from a standard template but, in the long run, it will speak volumes for the type of work environment and ethics the company stands for.

When times are tough, shouldn’t solidarity and empathy play an even more prominent role, as opposed to an every-man-for-himself-and-stuff-the-rest-of-the-world attitude?

If you ever had to sack a colleague or make someone redundant, you know what an unpleasant experience it is. Just because a job candidate does not yet wear the company badge, it does not mean they are not deserving of the same care and consideration.

When it comes to HR matters, a little thoughtfulness goes a long way.

10 money-saving tips Jobcentres won’t give you

When David Shorthose, a 55-year-old unemployed IT auditor, said in the Saturday Guardian’s Work supplement that his Jobcentre experience was”nothing short of a comedy script”, he hit the nail on the head. He tells the Guardian:

“You quickly have to get over the assumption that the Jobcentre is there to find you work, and get used to the fact that they are there just to process benfits.”

From my own personal experience I can say that the Jobcentre functions on an “ask or you will not be given” principle. Unless you ask very specific questions, it does not occur to them to pass on any information that might help a jobseeker not only to find work, but to survive on his meagre £64.30-a-week jobseeker’s allowance (£50.95 if you are between 16 and 24).

I have compiled below a list of 10 tips that could save you a little money along the way – most of which I came to discover by accident:

1. Check whether you are eligible for tax refund – if you earned less than £6035 in the previous tax year, including interest on any money you have in the bank, you are entitled to a tax rebate from the HM Revenue and Customs (the old Inland Revenue). Get your P45 or P60 out and all bank tax deduction certificates (these show how much tax the bank deducted in a tax year and should have been sent to you last April), and visit the HMRC site for further instructions or give them a call – I found them very helpful on the phone. I was overjoyed to recoup a few hundred pounds this way, and HMRC was fairly quick in processing it.
2. Get fit  with gym concessionary rates – one of the problems about being out of work is you can become even more sedentary than when you had that office job. As a result you may pile up on the pounds and lose stamina, which, particularly if you are out of work, could damage your self-esteem. If you currently go to a private gym, cancel your membership (unless you can afford it) and find your nearest local government subsidised leisure centre. These usually offer concessionary rates for certain activities and classes. Use them. And if they have pre-paid bulk buy options, get those. I only recently discovered swimming at my local pool is half the normal price if you are on the dole, and you can buy a swimcard with 11 swims for the price of 10, all at half price. This means that even if you become employed before the card is used up, you can continue to benefit from the discounted rate. You couldn’t find a better excuse to get fit. And if you cannot find a cheap leisure centre, forget the running machine and the kickboxing classes for a while and go jogging in a park – for free.
3. Use and abuse your local library – I had not used a library since my student days, ie a long long time ago, and I usually prefer to own my own books anyway. But once I got back into the habit of borrowing books from the library it became addictive. You have all the time in the world to read those books you always wanted to but was too busy for. Now is the time to start crossing out titles on that wish list. Try to read not only fiction but also thought-provoking non-fiction in areas of your interest, which might inspire you to write an article in future. Loans of books are free of charge but there is usually a fee for CDs and DVDs – which can be discounted for jobseekers. The Brighton & Hove’s Jubilee Library in East Sussex offers half price on all loan fees, including fees for reserving books. And if you can’t bear the idea of a loaned book, trawl through car boot sales and charity shops. Oxfam, for instance, is currently outselling independent bookshops. Get cultured.
4. Sign up for email alerts from MoneSavingExpert.com – if you haven’t already. This is money-saving guru Martin Lewis’ site, winner of the London Press Consumer Journalist award of the year. It offers hundreds of tips on saving money from best mortgage lenders to how to save on your energy bills and where to get discount vouchers for restaurants and shops. It will be useful to you even after you start working again.
5. The Jobcentre can cover your interview travel costs – not all of them, but those “outside your area”, a definition they seem to leave intentionally vague. I live in East Sussex and travel to interviews in Central London can be claimed back from the Jobcentre. What the Jobcentre doesn’t always explain to you is that you need to call them as soon as you have got the interview confirmed (not after the interview) to get their pre-approval on the phone. On your next sign-on day you must produce a receipt and proof that you attended the interview: a letter from the prospective employer or a printed email will do. It must contain a contact name, address and telephone number of the company so that they can call to verify that you are not telling porky pies. The fare (includes cost of petrol pro rata if you travelled by car) is then paid directly into your account after a few days.
6. You could have a work suit sponsored by the Jobcentre – it’s true, and it is paid out at the discretion of the Jobcentre adviser. If you are signed on for JSA (jobseeker’s allowance) and you find a job, you may not be able to afford a decent suit (or any “tools” you may need in your profession) to wear in your first few weeks when you haven’t received your first wage yet. The Jobcentre can help you buy one with a “small contribution”. I am sure it cannot be a Chanel or an Armani but they may not specify one from Primark either, so I would take full advantage of that one. As with the interview travel expenses, call them in advance for approval.
7. Visit a Citizen’s Advice Bureau – “Sign-on” at Jobcentres lasts about 20 seconds once you’re sitting in front of an advisor, and they are all rushed to see the next person in the queue. If you have children to support, need help with NHS costs, are worried about managing complex debts, etc you are better off paying a visit to the nearest CAB office for advice on what other financial help you are entitled to  apart from your jobseeker’s benefits.
8. Check if you are eligible for council tax discount – if you live alone, are diasbled, or share accommodation with a student, or are studying yourself, you can claim a 25% reduction in your council tax, which can be a huge relief in this recession. Call your local council and ask them what you need to do to claim the discount. This is not to be confused with council tax benefit, which, as with housing benefits, will only be paid out to you if you have less than £16,000 in savings in the bank. Bear in mind your live-in partner’s savings will be taken into consideration in that calculation.
9. Don’t call the Jobseeker Direct Line from your personal phone – use the Jobcentre’s phones. Ironically the helpline number for jobseekers to inquire about job vancies is a premium rate 0845 number, which could cost up to 40p a minute if made from a mobile phone. That is equivalent to giving with one hand and taking with another. Every Jobcentre has at least a couple of phones, which jobseekers can use free of charge. There may be a queue but persevere. Every penny counts.
10. If you do an internship do it quietly – the jobseeker’s allowance is paid to you on condition that you are actively looking and make yourself available for work at all times. Any paid part-time work you do over 16hs/week affects your benefits, but unpaid work placements will too. As I explained in my previous post, you need to write down in your ‘dole book’ SIX things you did to try and find work every fortnight, so make sure you have enough to fill in the blanks. And don’t try to change your fortnightly appointments at the Jobcentre. They are very strict about those and will get suspicious if you do it too often with a sloppy excuse. You want to gain experience but not lose your dosh. However, if you are lucky enough to be offered a paid internship that exceeds your weekly allowances, the best thing to do is come off the JSA temporarily and go back on it (called “quick recall”)as soon as the internship ends, if you think you will be unemployed for a while longer.

If you have any other tips to add that worked for you, or comments to make, please leave your two cents below.