Second Post

I have been applying for jobs with no success and I can't help but take this personally.  I know I shouldn't. The job market is crowded and there are few jobs for so many people. Who has any good tips? Do you think the rejection may be affecting my application and interview process too?

My advice would be to make sure you research the company and role you're applying for properly and reflect what you know in your application. Because of the current climate people are applying for a lot more jobs and the attention to detail on their covering letters and application answers is really bad. Avoid copying and pasting answers that you've use in old applications and write new answers for each one. Believe it or not there are a lot of jobs out there and a lot of companies are still recruiting and have even upped the amount of people they're taking on. Make yourself stand out from the crowd...

Dont take it personally mate. To be honest i think its who you know, not what you know. I have a civil engineering degree and have been applying for jobs for the last 3 years with no success, yet have friends who left uni last year and have snapped jobs up immediately as they had family/friends etc who already work for these companies. I think the UK is the worst place for this, as it still uses the 'old boy network'.

Totally agree, most people have a contact or know someone who gets them into a job. And once you are there everyone looks after their own and jobs only go to people within the company. Things have gotten worse in the current climate with companies closing  in even more with employees paranoid about losing their jobs.

It is dispiriting and a little unfair but you just need to keep applying and knocking on those doors. Keep pro-active though and try and hadd something to your CV for ever application, be it through experoence or new skils you have learnt, that way you are self-improving. Employers will liek the fact you are alwasy looking to better yourslef rather than sending in th esame CV everytime.

I know it is easier said than done but good luck!

Yes it's a horridly tough jobs market and psyching yourself up to try to beat the odds ain't easy.

Would strongly recommend you put as much of your job search effort into networking as you can.  What you do is to speak to family, friends, university tutors etd to track down as much information as you can get about your target jobs market and vacancies.  How did your friends get the jobs they did, what recruitment agencies can they recommend from their own experience, what do they know about their present employer's recruitment intentions over the next 12 months and so on?

Second suggestion is about helping you to keep yourself going through this nightmare.  Start a "fun" leisure pursuit that gives you some feeling of personal progress as you practise it - eg learn a musical instrument or yoga, join a speakers club, take up running ....  You need to feel you've taken back some control over your own life and you're not simply teh victim of others' decisions to invite you for interview or not.

I agree that keeping yourslef busy is a great idea. Then if you wake up on a Monday morning to a rejection letter or email, your day is still filled with plenty of other things, rather than just wallowing in pity. Try and get a balance between job hunting, increasing your skills/networking etc.. with leisure activities to keep your mind fresh. It isn't easy but keeping your diary full will help.

I agree that keeping yourslef busy is a great idea. Then if you wake up on a Monday morning to a rejection letter or email, your day is still filled with plenty of other things, rather than just wallowing in pity. Try and get a balance between job hunting, increasing your skills/networking etc.. with leisure activities to keep your mind fresh. It isn't easy but keeping your diary full will help.

I couldn't agree with bsforrester80 more, you defintely need to keep yourself busy.

I've found that making sure I get some decent exercise in each day is a good way of keeping my brain clear! It's difficult to dust yourself off and start again once you've been knocked back but if you get into a rut and stay there, you'll never find the job you're looking for.

J, it's very difficult and alot of people are going through it. All I can say is that the best aproach to take is try to learn from the rejection and get as much feedback as possible and understand why you were turned down. What skills didn't you have and how can you get them? What didn't the employer see in you that they saw in someone else? try to push HR to give you detailed feedback if you got to interview stage or assessment centre. You need to take away learning to build an action plan for how you can get that next job and stay positive!!! More tips here if you're interested http://graduatecareertips.co.uk/2011/07/05/applying-for-jobs-and-taking-rejection/