Only took a year!

I was made redundant from a good job in IT with a bank back in Oct 2012. Applied for about 100 jobs in that time and been interviewed for 6!
No luck, so I've bitten the bullet knowing redundancy money is starting to dry up and taken a job in a call centre.
Pros - it's close to home, can commute by bus and a pass is just £10 a week. People seem ok.
Cons - salary is less than half what I was on (but better than nothing)

so will continue to keep looking and hopefully this will be just a shortterm stop gap.

For those of you in the London area....if you need to phone up Thames Water about your bill you might get through to me!

TM~ How frustrated you must feel! I hope this new position opens the way for you to return to your former career. I'm a Thames Water customer but hopefully I won't need to phone you. Good luck!

Congratulations, TykeMan. 

Perhaps while you're working at the call centre you can work your way into the IT department (...or use your IT background to implement ways to streamline the process for customers?)  Worth investigating for sure.  This may not be your ideal role, but it will at least fill the gap on your CV and show that you're employable!

This is sort of where I am now.  I'm going to be made redundant from my job in February, but have found a contract role to keep me going in the meantime.  It's not perfect, but it's still somewhat relevant, and I plan to use my time there to find a permanent job elsewhere.

Best of luck to you

Congratulations, TykeMan. 

Perhaps while you're working at the call centre you can work your way into the IT department (...or use your IT background to implement ways to streamline the process for customers?)  Worth investigating for sure.  This may not be your ideal role, but it will at least fill the gap on your CV and show that you're employable!

Best of luck to you

If nothing else, it is an income until something IT-related comes up again.  Because you will most likely be working with a computer, you'll have some experience with current programs. 

After 9/11/01, I had no permanent job for 3 years.  I took temp when it was offered.  When revising my resume, I listed the agencies I worked through, to fill the gap so prospective employers knew I had a work ethic and current experience. 

Congrats on finding something!  And they always say it's easier to find a job while you're working than it is when you're unemployed.

Congrats, Tykeman!  I'm sure this is just the start of bigger and better things in 2014.

Thanks folks.


Interesting what some said about improving process - I spotted 3 errors on the first day, one is absolutely unbelievable, shows very bad testing.

We've sat with people who are on the phones whilst we are training to see what sort of calls they get, on one occasion we were wanting to see payments and when I sat down and opened my notepad and I said I needed to see payments system she said "why? is there something wrong with it?", she thought I was from Thames Water IT dept looking into an issue!

Interesting what some said about improving process - I spotted 3 errors on the first day, one is absolutely unbelievable, shows very bad testing.

I'm a Thames Water customer, and really struggled to get anything done through them when I moved house. You don't want to know how many times I've tried to set up an online account, for their website to come back and tell me that the customer reference code on all my letters isn't valid.  Luckily we're only billed annually.

I truly hope you are able to prove your skill and value to your supervisors and move into an area more relevant to your background, because as you point out there are likely many more improvements to be made!   The most difficult part of it might be bringing up the errors you've noticed and being given the time/resources to fix these glitches, since being recognised for your efforts is key to your progression with the company (if that's what you're interested in).

Congratulations on the new job Tykeman!  I too hope it opens up new doors for you in the coming new year 

Congratulations, TykeMan!  I know it's not your ideal job, but I hope it leads you back to IT work.

Congratulations on your job!

Congrats on the new job! My husband is also in IT.. He lives in London and lost a job back in August 2012. His usual IT job was working for law firms, but he switched to a media company shortly after. If you're open to an IT position with media and willing to travel, I believe his company is looking to expand in certain areas of the company. I'll double check with him, but if you would like more info- feel free to pm me.

Hope this is a stepping stone to more opportunities for you, TM! 

Hi Tykeman,

Very sorry to hear about your job loss, believe me I know just how that feels! When I lost my job last year in the summer it affected the starting proceedings for our spouse visa and delayed things. My wife LittleMissSarcasm just replied to you on your post here, so if in any small way I can help your situation feel free to ask.

The company I work for is an agency PSD group and they supply contractors to the media company I work for News UK, but News tend to hire people through a larger agency called Harvey Nash and they have some great companies to work for on their books including Dow Jones and Harper Collins publishers. I would suggest if you have a good standard of Desktop Support skills and you know how to use SCCM deployment, can do roll outs, mainly break/fixes and know your DVI from a VGA you'll fit in just fine.

Here's a couple of contact links I used to get started which I hope can help you, give them a call or just send off your C.V. and most of all best of luck buddy!

http://www.harveynash.com/uk/index.asp
http://www.psdgroup.com/home.aspx

Thanks for that info BanterLad. Sorry for the delay in responding.
I'm basically old school cobol, cics, db2 which is why I'm finding it hard getting back in .