Unable to find a job even after 40+days

[light_tunnel]

Please provide your valuable inputs/suggestions/ideas to improve my job hunt. It is more than 40 days since I landed in UK and have barely got two interview calls. Moreover I am fed up of this phishing agents who got no business but waste your time and give you false hope.
I have around 6+ years of experience in Embedded/Telecom domain.
And it is very difficult to make out from the interview pattern as to what is the expectation of the interviewer. In the telephonic interview I had, there was barely any technical questions, I thought the interview went pretty well but no luck, as I have not heard anything from them. The only thing I can remember which may have affected was I mentioned there are other interviews lined up. Could that have damaged the success?
Also one more annoying thing is consultants do not provide adequate feedback after an interview process. Whether you have cleared or not, shouldn't the consultants be professional enough to let you know the feedback, when I am following up.

Summary: The whole recruitment process is driven by consultants and it is a consultant business.
Whenever there is a call from a withheld number be assured it is a fake call, as some one who does not have a identity does not have anything to offer you.

[Mesam6]

Hi,

Have some patience buddy and keep at it. It depends on the kind of vacancies coming up and the number of indivuduals with the requisite skill sets. Last but not least, luck also plays a part. One of my friend has been in the UK for about 6 months now and has given at least 2 to 3 dozen interviews but no luck.

I suggest you keep at it as 1 month is a small amount of time. Most people need at least 3-4 months, if not more, to get a decent gig lined up.

Moreover, dont just rely on recruiters. Cast your net wider by applying directly to companies, even those tangentially involved in the kind of work you do. I am sure you will uncover more vacancies.

Best of luck.

Regards,
Mesam.

[light_tunnel]

@Mesam,
Thank you for boosting my morale.
However there is a strange thing I see here, none of the organizations which most likely I can apply seem to have a Careers section at all in their websites.

[Mesam6]

That is very odd. Most companies tend to have career sections on their websites however some have this annoying tendency to have them tucked away in some obsucre corner of the site like having a link, in extremely small font, at the very bottom of the home page that somthing like "Join Us".

Some also have the careers section link in the company information or "About Us" section of the corporate website.

Just keep looking. I am sure you will be successful sooner or later.

Regards,
Mesam.

[light_tunnel]

Thanks mate..

[Mesam6]

No problem buddy.

Regards,
Mesam.

[prisat]

Please provide your valuable inputs/suggestions/ideas to improve my job hunt. It is more than 40 days since I landed in UK and have barely got two interview calls. Moreover I am fed up of this phishing agents who got no business but waste your time and give you false hope.

Summary: The whole recruitment process is driven by consultants and it is a consultant business.
Whenever there is a call from a withheld number be assured it is a fake call, as some one who does not have a identity does not have anything to offer you.

you are absolutely right on this !!!!!!!!

40 days is very very less for you to secure a job. To settle down (to get a NIC number and other settling formalities like getting room - adjusting with climate - looking job trends - looking job site vacancies - how the market is - what the recruitment process is) it would take 2-3 weeks. So be patience. I know it would be a complete frustration becos the interview process is a mere bull shit, when you see the interview process of India - But that is the way it is in UK, that has been the traditional way of carrying out interviews. Cant help, we can only curse these people.

You would have done very well in the interview but you would get a personal interview call or a job offer. It is al like that. Obviously it goes without saying that some people like HR / Interviewer will have tie up's with recruitment consultancies indirectly so as to facilitate commission process.
not all, Iam sure there there exist a informal recruitment code as it exists in India.

In short 40 days is nothing... If you have luck and skill or just highly skilled or just luck, you would land up on a job within in 40 days. Else i would say that 60 to 90 day is average and you shouldnt lose hope and confidence if you dont land up on a job within in 90 days, provided you are skilled and have good communication skills.

[kenfrapin]

I have around 6+ years of experience in Embedded/Telecom domain.

This is the most important part of your post. The Telecoms market is saturated at the moment and while there are few jobs directly advertised by Telcos, these pay very less.
Niche jobs within Telco domain has been outsourced to so many International Consulting and Service companies. To get into Telco you need to get into these Service/Consulting companies. Unfortunately, they tend to use internal resources rather than pick from the market as they have smaller projects across client bases.
Try applying directly to Consulting Companies like IBM, Accenture, Deloitte etc - 6 years is not great but if you get a role in these places it will open a lot many doors with even 1 years exp with them

It will take time so hang in there

KP

[cisco3181]

Never say that you have another interview lined up. It gives them a feeing that they are not your first choice and you may go to somewhere else even if they offer you.

[light_tunnel]

Thank you all for your inputs.

[next step]

I agree with what everyone else has said. I have been out of work for almost 6 months and have friends who have been out for longer. And we all have UK qualifications to the Masters level with UK experience to back it up. 40 days is absolutely nothing, especially if you are coming in from abroad.

U r lucky to even get two interviews! What about those of us who haven't even got one interview! It takes time and by the looks of things, u r better than most, whether u believe it or not. So be of good cheer and keep at it. Good luck!

[girlinLondon]

I would like to share my experiences here.
Background: I was onsite at UK from an Indian company for 2.5 years since 2007. I had my Tier1 since 2009 and had my CV at all job sites possible, however got only around 3 interviews in one year. I had two offers at different time but due to personal constraints had to continue with the Indian company. I came back to India in 2010 to get married and had been here for the last 6 months. Now we are again planning to go back to the UK in March.

I started looking for a job from Jan mid and did the following things:
1. Got myself a Skype number [ hadnt saved any of my UK sims for this day ]
2. Updated my CV - this helped a lot. I realised the reason I didnt get as many interview calls is because my CV had everything but was below average in appeal.
3. I made customized cover letter for each job. This is needed as there would be thousands of applicants for each job everyday and if you use the default cover letter you hardly stand a chance of the consultant opening your CV for a look.
4. Applied no less than 10 jobs each day.

I had first round interviews with 4 companies on my Skype number while in India and when I was through at 3 of them they wanted to meet me face to face. I ensured I had all of these lined up on the same week and luckily some others turned up also on the same week. So my really cooperative husband and encouraging parents said I must go and attend all of them. I did and even though I couldnt complete all the rounds in 2 places [ they had 3 rounds ] in the one week I was there I received 3 offers and am thankful to my family for actually convincing me to go.I considered this madness till the time I went for the interviews but by mid week I was convinced all this madness would have some result in the end. Finally I had 3 offers at the end of the week. I had 2 weeks of sleepless nights in preparation as most of these had technical hands on tests and I wanted to give in my best.

My background is Testing [ Telecommunication] with 5+ years experience. Its not that all jobs were necessarily from Telecom domains but all of them were Testing ones. Also, I found a strange thing. I applied to some Telcos and other MNCs on my own and as well as later through recruitment agents and found a big difference. Own application -> rejection next week. Agent Application -> inteview calls.

From my personal experience I must say :
1. The CV is extremely important
2. Applying for each and every job that suits you [ salary and skillwise] is also extremely important
3. Customizing your CV is also as important.

[t1s2010]

Congratulations girlinLondon. It is a very information post with sincere efforts.

When asked by new members, many a times some of seniors have opined to try out the job market themselves to gauge the intensity.
Every individual is in a different situations with different profile skill set.

[light_tunnel]

Thank you very much girlinLondon for your inputs.

[rkumar]

@girlinLondon

Congratulations on the job and for your hard work and perseverance.

I have 8 years of experience in the telecom / embedded domain and am looking out for opportunities.

Have been here for the past 2 months and I would say the market is slow, maybe coz of April to April financial year etc. I am expecting things to pick up in May / June. Have been getting calls from consultants but have had only 1 interview lined up so far.

Would be very helpful if there are opportunities in your company that you could refer me to. Will send you a PM too.

Thanks,
RK.

[mulderpf]

Get your CV's out there with employment agencies. I am still questioning how many jobs posted on the job sites are real, as I probably applied to about 120 jobs since I arrived in the UK (I wrote separate cover letters for each and adapted my CV to each and every position). I went for interviews for about 12 or so different positions. Not a single one of these interviews were for one of the 120 jobs I applied for. (In fact, one of the jobs was 100% perfect as my expertise was a perfect match to the position, however, despite applying to it about 5 times and even trying to constantly phone and email the agency, not a word back!!).

I think that when agencies post jobs on the internet, they probably get so flooded that it's not worth it. I still get about 3 to 4 calls a day for potential jobs, despite removing my CV off all the websites and letting all the agencies know that I have got a job already.

[rkumar]

@mulderf

Thanks. But getting my CV to employment agencies are again through jobsites only right ? or is there another way around to find the right employment agencies ?

Also, what you mention is right. I don't seem to be getting much response to the jobs that I apply to on the jobsites, even though they are originally posted by agents for the most part.