Finding job in South England

Hi, does anyone feel it's still very difficult to find a job at the moment even though things are starting to ease and trying to get back to normal?

It feels each job is asking for the perfect candidate and even if the resume is tailored to the job description it's very hard to get any calls, not to mention if you are looking to change direction in your career.

Anyone got suggestions on how to increase chances of getting at least a first interview? Is LinkedIn the best way forward or should we use local recruitment agency? Are the UK style resume or CV differ from the US ones?

What kind of job are you looking for?  How are you changing the direction of your career?

Career change - bloody difficult in this country

Finding a job right now - bloody difficult as the market is absolutely saturated and virtually all businesses have cut staff/salaries due to the pandemic

Add the two together and it’s Mission Impossible.

In my market, hardly anything is popping up and I don’t even get a sideways glance.....

You'll definitely need to tailor your CV to the UK market. Trying to change careers without UK qualifications in that field will also be quite difficult. I'm volunteering right now in part because I'm not well enough for regular full time work, and in part because the market is just horrible. But I'm learning valuable things and helping shape a new company, so I'm grateful my partner has been OK with it.

So... Volunteering is a good way to get a foot in the door when making career changes. This country is so reliant on the voluntary sector it actually amazed me when I realised how many services are run by volunteers and shoestring budgets.

Thanks for all your response.  It just doesn't make sense with this day and age.. even if you have an advanced degree from a well-known institution outside the UK, that's still not enough, and they would rather go with someone who is born and brought up in the UK with UK education. It just feels so backwards.

You get the same results, and the feedback is either you are over-qualified or under qualified, and they don't seem to understand that it's not easy to find the perfect candidate.

What kind of job are you looking for?

This is key. There are big shortages in certain fields.  Construction for example. If you are a plasterer you can get a job anywhere in the country, truck drivers are in such short supply the government has just announced a relaxation of EU visa requirements.

My son was very successful getting an IT job when he came over a few years ago using the website need.com, although that is not just for IT jobs.