Bloody Job Centre Plus

s162216

s162216

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Samuel
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Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but I'm beginning to get seriously annoyed with my local Job Centre Plus (JCP).

I recently started claiming income based job seekers allowance as I can't get any sort of job no matter how hard I try. I graduated with a First class degree in Pharmacology last July, and ever since I've been trying to get a scientific position, but a lack of lab based experience outside of university is making it very difficult to get even a very basic entry level position. The opposite problem is that if I try to get a basic position just requiring GCSE's or A-levels I get rejected as 'overqualified'!

I recently started claiming mostly because I don't have much savings, and I want to try to accumulate some funds in order to move when I do get a job - which will very likely be nowhere near where I live with my parents. I'm not entirely happy about it as I almost see it as 'failure', but its a means to an end. I've tried getting a generic shop, office etc job just to tide me over until I get a science related job, but Bedford is like a jobs blackhole, and its difficult for me to go further as I don't drive, and I/my parents live in a somewhat out of the way area which is not served very well by public transport (and for most jobs the travel costs would mean I would barely make anything).

Anyway enough background information, last time I went to the JCP they had given me two appointments for the day (typically being 4 hours apart), but they then claimed to know nothing about the first appointment despite it being written by them in my book. Luckily my advisor saw me there and then, but they then booked me another appointment with them at 09:20 today...

...and they then claimed that I was booked in for 14:30 when I turned up (a little early)! I had to show her the appointment that she had written into my book as their system showed 14:30. For gods sake can't they even get the appointments correctly recorded?

I was then informed that I've got to come in weekly until mid August, despite their guidance online saying it should be every 2 weeks for the first 6 months - its not very cheap for me to come in, and its bloody annoying as surely I could be doing much more productive work looking for a job at home rather than waiting around at the JCP and spending quite a length of time travelling to/from them?

Sadly it seems to just be another case of hearing one thing and getting another. At the initial presentation they said about them funding training etc to increase chances of gaining employment. I discovered a phlebotomy course that was on the approved DWP training list (having that skill will likely help in getting a clinical trial assistant type position), but despite this I was bluntly told that they would not fund the £250 to do the course and if I wanted to do it I would have to pay for it.

Sorry about the rant, I'm just getting increasingly fustrated as I'm doing like they ask and am actively searching for work (very hard as I really want a job because I like doing work), but they just don't seem to have any sort of organisation or clearness themselves!

Sam.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre3 using Forums
 
Are you signed up to prospects.ac.uk mailing list and job search site?

JCP are useless for anyone with proper qualifications. They can barely spell first class degree never mind understand that is a gateway to a high end job not one for a baboon.

Check out internship opportunities.

Join linkedin. Network with old uni buddies.

Find any lab that is local to you and badger them for work experience.

Lab tech in a university is another potential source of work.

Any there any voluntary jobs that need lab experience?

Have you thought about postgrad research positions? With a first class degree you will find it a lot easier to get those. Possibly not your first choice but it might do for earning money while you wait to find something you want to do more.
 
srichards said:
Are you signed up to prospects.ac.uk mailing list and job search site?

JCP are useless for anyone with proper qualifications. They can barely spell first class degree never mind understand that is a gateway to a high end job not one for a baboon.

Check out internship opportunities.

Join linkedin. Network with old uni buddies.

Find any lab that is local to you and badger them for work experience.

Lab tech in a university is another potential source of work.

Any there any voluntary jobs that need lab experience?

Have you thought about postgrad research positions? With a first class degree you will find it a lot easier to get those. Possibly not your first choice but it might do for earning money while you wait to find something you want to do more.
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I've tried getting voluntary experience in labs, but Bedford has hardly anything like that. All of the ones in the surrounding area that I've tried have either not responded or said they don't allow voluntary work. Internships for biosciences are near non-existent sadly.

I've tried applying for university lab tech positions, but been turned down at every opportunity. I can't even really volunteer as my local uni (Bedfordshire) does all their science on their other campus in Luton. It might be possible for me to get there for all I know though so I am taking a look at ways of getting there.

I'm on Linkedin and have connected with people I know who are also on it. Unfortunately I have pretty much no contacts in the biosciences sector as none of my family are in science, and all of my past lecturers have either always been in academia or not worked in industry for many years.

Ideally I'd like to get into Drug Discovery, and am in the process of applying for an MRes in Drug Discovery at Strathclyde University. Downside is that I'll have to borrow £10,000 via a professional development loan to cover the course fees and some of my living costs. Although during the course the loan doesn't accumulate interest or require repayments, a month after it finishes I'll have to be paying ~£210 a month for the next 5 years. I will admit that it does worry me borrowing that amount as I'll have to get a job before finishing to be able to pay it, but then again the bank may turn me down for the loan so I'll be unable to do the course. At the moment though it seems the only way forward which has at least a chance of success.

I've tried the funded PhD route, but again a lack of experience has made me unsuccessful so far. I very nearly got onto a studentship, but they selected the other candidate after the interview as he had a years experience in the area.

Sorry if this sounds like a depressing list of reasons as to why I cannot get a job, its just so demoralising when you get so many rejections and every opportunity that comes up ends up being a false start.

Thanks,

Sam.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre3 using Forums
 
Do you have any friends that aren't in Bedford where you could sofa surf or rent a spare room?

These days it's basically a numbers game. Just keep applying as eventually you have to get an interview and by default you have to be the better candidate at some point!

Also look abroad. If there are no UK opportunities then maybe other countries might just take you so you can get the experience that would start you off back home?
 
Sam, try looking into some of the funded Doctoral Training Centres (they sometimes go by DTA or CDT) dotted around the country, they are all funded and with a 1st class degree you won't struggle to get in. A big part of their attraction is that they educate you in the useful skills you will need for research or a professional environment, several have compulsory placements which they help you organise.
 
See if you are looking for a crap job, take your uni degree off your CV and just go with your part time jobs you had whilst there. No-one wants an over qualified candidate as they are never likely to stay in the position long, and no boss wants someone smarter than them below them, particularly in low end jobs.
 
You're not alone. My ex boss' son whom I worked with left uni with excellent Engineering qualifications, but spent years hunting for an engineering job, and he was travelling all across the country for interviews and such, eventually getting a job at a laser company not far from yourself. He said it was the fact he'd been working in sales with me that got him the job more than his qualifications.

Likewise I have a very good friend who finished school the same time as me, went off to Uni doing Automotive Engineering. She has yet to get a job in anything like that, and she is looking across Europe for work!
 
srichards said:
Do you have any friends that aren't in Bedford where you could sofa surf or rent a spare room?

These days it's basically a numbers game. Just keep applying as eventually you have to get an interview and by default you have to be the better candidate at some point!

Also look abroad. If there are no UK opportunities then maybe other countries might just take you so you can get the experience that would start you off back home?
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Not really, I've never really been one to make many friends (I've always been the sort of person who has just a few really good ones), but nobody I know lives anywhere that would be useful to me e.g Cambridge as it has a large science presence. I've applied for at least 65 jobs since last July, and had 4 interviews (the last one on Wednesday last week), but each time I've been not selected as there have been other more experienced candidates. I have worked with my university career centre (I can access it up to 3 years after graduation) and got my CV etc really well rounded so it's not that which is holding me back - unless you count the lack of practical lab experience on it!

Going abroad would be very difficult for me, in the EU I might be O.K, but anywhere outside is a no go for me. Unfortunately I have a primary immunodeficiency condition which requires me to have intravenous gamma globulin infusions every 3 weeks to give me an at least somewhat near normal immune system, but IVIG is incredibly expensive (as it's from blood plasma) and I cost the NHS ~£1050 every 3 weeks (but is actually a saving compared to me if I had to spend time in hospital with serious infections). I am the admin of a patient support forum (see http://primaryimmuno.proboards.com/ if anyone's interested), and from that I know that in some countries such as the USA it can be financially crippling to have such infusions (I've known people who have to pay $4000+ an infusion, and thats with insurance!).

robhooley167 said:
Sam, try looking into some of the funded Doctoral Training Centres (they sometimes go by DTA or CDT) dotted around the country, they are all funded and with a 1st class degree you won't struggle to get in. A big part of their attraction is that they educate you in the useful skills you will need for research or a professional environment, several have compulsory placements which they help you organise.
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Thanks for the suggestion Rob, I had previously looked into the DTC's, but found that a lot of them focus on specific areas that I to be honest have no interest or knowledge of so at the time I didn't really look into it much further. Now that you've reminded me about them I'll take another more in depth look as I might find something.

ST4 said:
See if you are looking for a crap job, take your uni degree off your CV and just go with your part time jobs you had whilst there. No-one wants an over qualified candidate as they are never likely to stay in the position long, and no boss wants someone smarter than them below them, particularly in low end jobs.
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Unfortunately taking off my degree leaves me with my (rather bad - BCD) A-levels (I never really liked A-level study as it was too "rigid" and gave no scope for anything outside of what was in the textbook) and somewhat good GCSE's. I never managed to get a part time job whilst I was at university (= having to be extremely careful with money unlike most people I knew!) as no matter how many I applied for I never seemed to get anywhere, but I do have a good amount of voluntary type work on my CV. The thing that always annoys me so much is that the one time I actually got a job, it fell through - it was working in the student shop in my 1st year, after the interview they called me to say I had got one of the positions and they would call me within a week to arrange the induction. A week passes... no call so I went to the shop and spoke with the manager who said all the inductions had taken place last week and they didn't know anything about me! I tried to speak with the person who did the interview, but they were never there and eventually I gave up trying. My suspicious mind thinks that they hired too many so they simply "forgot" about me.

Alan Clogwyn said:
You're not alone. My ex boss' son whom I worked with left uni with excellent Engineering qualifications, but spent years hunting for an engineering job, and he was travelling all across the country for interviews and such, eventually getting a job at a laser company not far from yourself. He said it was the fact he'd been working in sales with me that got him the job more than his qualifications.

Likewise I have a very good friend who finished school the same time as me, went off to Uni doing Automotive Engineering. She has yet to get a job in anything like that, and she is looking across Europe for work!
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Name of the game it seems sadly for anyone who wants a scientific/technical/engineering type position. I don't think that a lot of universities realise how much work experience is really needed in order to get a position after graduation, and it really makes me angry when you see David Willets claiming that the UK is crying out for scientists and more people need to study science. There are plenty of people who could do those positions, but because of a lack of entry level positions few graduates actually manage to make a career in science as they fall over at the first hurdle.

Sorry for the somewhat long post, and thanks for everyone's contributions,

Sam
 
BCD A levels aren't bad. You need 5 GCSE's for a job in a call centre/shop/supermarket - nothing more. A levels is again a sign of overqualification but a lot stay at school beyond 16. Practice interview techniques and be prepared to punch below your weight for a good while whilst you hunt for a position befitting your studies.

Lose the degree unless you are applying for a technical job or graduate position. It shows no relevance unless you are pitching for a graduate position or technical role and inverse snobbery will count against you.
 
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good luck - can understand your pain and frustration... I too am a graduate albeit from the 90's and was made redundant from Aviva back in 2009 (which i wasn't fussed about.)

I signed on - purely as thought, "paid into it for years, might as well take something back whilst looking..."

Took my CV with all quals on it, and employment history (yes, I know that is the purpose of a CV) - but undergrad with postgrad experience, professional quals coming out of ears blah blah blah... they assumed my ideal job (and to fit a vacancy) was a "Car Valeter"

I got up, went to the window and said "See that Black(ish) car down there, yes the one with mud all over it, that's mine. Do you still think i am good at cleaning cars?"

Also another time, got there early for the first appointment of the day, but as receptionist was off sick, never got called for my "interview/chat"... the list of crappy excuses they offered, each of which was batted back threefold....

Keep perservering.. it will work out fine in the end...
 
With unemployment currently over two million, there is no shame in not having a job - especially if you are doing all you can to get one.

You should claim whatever you can without guilt as that is what it is there for.

There are some who might not agree with me but I'm sure if their circumstances changed for the worse, they to would be thankful for support.

I am very lucky as so far, I have only been unemployed once - for three months back in 1984. At that time, unemployment was even higher than it is now but the attitude of the Job Centre staff was terrible. Almost to the point of asking "why don't you have a job?" as if there was full employment and everyone could get work just by asking.


Steve.
 
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ST4 said:
BCD A levels aren't bad. You need 5 GCSE's for a job in a call centre/shop/supermarket - nothing more. A levels is again a sign of overqualification but a lot stay at school beyond 16. Practice interview techniques and be prepared to punch below your weight for a good while whilst you hunt for a position befitting your studies.

Lose the degree unless you are applying for a technical job or graduate position. It shows no relevance unless you are pitching for a graduate position or technical role and inverse snobbery will count against you.
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What? Lose the degree? That is probably one of the dumbest things I have read on here. You work hard for it, you earn it (unless some BA shyte) but don't mention it?
 
Lynton said:
What? Lose the degree? That is probably one of the dumbest things I have read on here. You work hard for it, you earn it (unless some BA shyte) but don't mention it?
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If you are being turned down for jobs because listing the degree makes you overqualified, what possible good can it do to keep it on the CV for those types of jobs?


Steve.
 
Ok, should I be interviewing and saw a glaring gap of approx 3 yrs on a CV.. "So, what were you doing then?" "Erm at Uni?" "Did you pass?" "Yes" "So you've forgotton to mention it... bit of a crap embarrassing degree?" Personally I would rather people told me what they could do, and if they are happy to do x for y good, but I may also have z lined up in a few months, which they would be great at - just need a few more quals... oh and hey presto!!!
 
Lynton said:
What? Lose the degree? That is probably one of the dumbest things I have read on here. You work hard for it, you earn it (unless some BA shyte) but don't mention it?
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Yep. I had a mate with an MBA, degree looking for a job to tide him over. He got nowhere, removed the degree and he found getting work easier, a lot easier.

Accademic qualifications can count against you as they know they won't keep the person for long and they'll grow dissatisfied, then there is the sort of recruiter "I don't have a degree, never did me any harm" sorts. Take it off the CV, the work will be eaiser to find. He had part time work, you leave that on but leave degrees off. He's not looking for a career, just a day job to tide him over to get him off JSA.
 
There's always teaching if you get desperate!

Do you declare your condition or wait until later in the process? If you've previously been upfront then i would leave it out unless specifically asked. If you find not mentioning it leads to a sudden upturn in interviews then you know he real reason and can get further advice on how to deal with the discrimination if its a protected condition under the equalities act.
 
Lynton said:
What? Lose the degree? That is probably one of the dumbest things I have read on here. You work hard for it, you earn it (unless some BA shyte) but don't mention it?
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What makes BA Shyte??
 
srichards said:
There's always teaching if you get desperate!

Do you declare your condition or wait until later in the process? If you've previously been upfront then i would leave it out unless specifically asked. If you find not mentioning it leads to a sudden upturn in interviews then you know he real reason and can get further advice on how to deal with the discrimination if its a protected condition under the equalities act.
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My mum's a teacher (at the age of 43 she decided she wanted to be a teacher and ended up doing an education degree and now ~7 years later she's been teaching the Y1 class at a Lower School for the past 3-4 years, and been constantly ranked as an outstanding teacher by various assessors, including Ofsted), and seeing what she has to do TBH puts me off doing teaching. Plus I don't think I would be suited to it (my mum doesn't think I would either). Some of my friends in my graduating class are going in that direction though, simply because they are desperate.

I never declare the condition, I would only say about it if I was to accept an actual offer of employment. It is a bit unfortunate though as I run the patient support forum I mentioned above, and help with the charity Primary Immunodeficiency UK on their patient representative panel, but I don't really feel that I can mention about either without questions probably being asked and I really wouldn't want to be turned down for a position just because of that.
ST4 said:
Yep. I had a mate with an MBA, degree looking for a job to tide him over. He got nowhere, removed the degree and he found getting work easier, a lot easier.

Accademic qualifications can count against you as they know they won't keep the person for long and they'll grow dissatisfied, then there is the sort of recruiter "I don't have a degree, never did me any harm" sorts. Take it off the CV, the work will be eaiser to find. He had part time work, you leave that on but leave degrees off. He's not looking for a career, just a day job to tide him over to get him off JSA.
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Until now I've actually applied for hardly any non-science based positions, mainly because it seems like Bedford is just an employment blackzone (e.g every other branch in the UK will be advertising positions... but not Bedford!). I do look around for just suitable simple jobs, but they rarely turn up, or if they do they start/end ridiculously early/late (e.g 06:00/23:00) which is way before I could get into Bedford as the buses don't start running until 06:30 where I live, and they stop at 21:30. There are jobs further afield, but the same problems apply sadly, and most are part time so I would hardly make any money once I had paid for the travel.

I do model my CV for each job, but only having limited previous employment (newspaper delivery, voluntary work) does make it somewhat difficult to make myself sound like the "ideal person". Even when it comes to extremely basic science positions (GCSE/A-level type - I've applied for a lot of them and gotten nowhere) a lot still ask for lab experience so I can't really delete my degree as that provides my only real lab experience.

tijuana taxi said:
You mentioned Cambridge, X5 bus every half hour from Bedford
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I take the X5 to Cambridge evry 3 weeks when I go to Addenbrookes, it is a fortune though being £10.35 for a day return + the £6 for me to get into Bedford from home + £4 for a day tickety in Cambridge. I might start trying to see if the University of Cambridge will let me do some voluntary work (I doubt it though based on my past efforts elsewhere). I suppose one advantage of JSA is that at least they will pay the travel expenses when doing work experience type activities.

Sam.
 
s162216 said:
My mum's a teacher (at the age of 43 she decided she wanted to be a teacher and ended up doing an education degree and now ~7 years later she's been teaching the Y1 class at a Lower School for the past 3-4 years, and been constantly ranked as an outstanding teacher by various assessors, including Ofsted), and seeing what she has to do TBH puts me off doing teaching. Plus I don't think I would be suited to it (my mum doesn't think I would either). Some of my friends in my graduating class are going in that direction though, simply because they are desperate.

I never declare the condition, I would only say about it if I was to accept an actual offer of employment. It is a bit unfortunate though as I run the patient support forum I mentioned above, and help with the charity Primary Immunodeficiency UK on their patient representative panel, but I don't really feel that I can mention about either without questions probably being asked and I really wouldn't want to be turned down for a position just because of that.


Until now I've actually applied for hardly any non-science based positions, mainly because it seems like Bedford is just an employment blackzone (e.g every other branch in the UK will be advertising positions... but not Bedford!). I do look around for just suitable simple jobs, but they rarely turn up, or if they do they start/end ridiculously early/late (e.g 06:00/23:00) which is way before I could get into Bedford as the buses don't start running until 06:30 where I live, and they stop at 21:30. There are jobs further afield, but the same problems apply sadly, and most are part time so I would hardly make any money once I had paid for the travel.

I do model my CV for each job, but only having limited previous employment (newspaper delivery, voluntary work) does make it somewhat difficult to make myself sound like the "ideal person". Even when it comes to extremely basic science positions (GCSE/A-level type - I've applied for a lot of them and gotten nowhere) a lot still ask for lab experience so I can't really delete my degree as that provides my only real lab experience.



I take the X5 to Cambridge evry 3 weeks when I go to Addenbrookes, it is a fortune though being £10.35 for a day return + the £6 for me to get into Bedford from home + £4 for a day tickety in Cambridge. I might start trying to see if the University of Cambridge will let me do some voluntary work (I doubt it though based on my past efforts elsewhere). I suppose one advantage of JSA is that at least they will pay the travel expenses when doing work experience type activities.

Sam.
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Make multiple CV's. One for graduate science job, one for non graduate science job (play down degree) one for ordinary crap job.

Even a PT job between say 8am - 8pm or night shift in a call centre or something. Keep at it fella, you have to.
 
Fares you quoted are considerably cheaper if you get weekly tickets. All Stagecoach routes and think they are called megariders, if you are earning fares are just part and parcel of life
 
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ST4 said:
Make multiple CV's. One for graduate science job, one for non graduate science job (play down degree) one for ordinary crap job.
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You should be reviewing your CV for every job, and not just at the level of detail you include but also the basic structure and organisation of the document - ask yourself if your educational qualifications, vocational qualifications or work experience are most suitable for the application and putting that one first.

Whatever you do, don't stick slavishly to the Job Centre mk1 CV template - it's crap.

My best tip for preparing your CV for a job application..

.. always remember that the first person that reads your CV does not want to give you the job..
.. they want to get the stack of 200 applications down to a shortlist of five in the shortest time possible, and their goal is to reject 195 applications before the kettle boils. Do not make it easy for them. They will reject you for any and every possible reason.
 
Lynton said:
Ok, should I be interviewing and saw a glaring gap of approx 3 yrs on a CV.. "So, what were you doing then?" "Erm at Uni?" "Did you pass?" "Yes" "So you've forgotton to mention it... bit of a crap embarrassing degree?" Personally I would rather people told me what they could do, and if they are happy to do x for y good, but I may also have z lined up in a few months, which they would be great at - just need a few more quals... oh and hey presto!!!
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Quite agree.
Most of the companies/agencies which I deal with, will want an in depth account of your qualifications and COMPLETE five year job history, with all gaps in work accounted for. If you lie, then the company checking on you will inform the potential employer, and not only will you not get the job, but it will hinder your future employment chances.
I often wonder if they apply these standards to people from abroad - a bit pointless wondering about that actually.
 
JCP are, generally, a complete waste of time and are there as a "hurdle" to actually refuse you benefit. A few years ago I had some political issues at a previous job and being a senior manager I was "forced" to resign. Now as I have insurance on my mortgage I had to sign on, as after 6 month (if it lasted that long) the insurance would cut in and cover the mortgage for up to 12 months (that would be a total of 18 months).

Like you, they screwed up their appointments and one day they didn't bother to read the booklet where I had listed all the calls & interviews I had done. I was really annoyed, asked to see a supervisor and I explained that as I had taken the time to fill the booklet out, I expected my "advisor" (God, he was only just out of nappies himself) to read it, and anyway, how can he sign it off without viewing it ?

I got labelled as a troublemaker and I was then asked to come in 2 times a week. I took it to my MP who set up a meeting with the Manager, himself and I. I ended up receiving a letter of apology. As an experienced IT Sales professional of 20 years, I was always going to find a job before they were anyway. I signed on for about 3 months before I picked up a job with an old boss of mine. But I feel your pain !!!
 
Well I decided to bite the bullet and apply to do the "MRes in Drug Discovery" at Strathclyde University this October. For all I know I might not even get a place, or Barclays may turn down my application for the professional development loan, but at least it'll give me a step forward if I do it, and increase my chances of getting onto a PhD studentship afterwards or into a pharmaceutical style job as it will give me lab experience being mainly research based. Because I don't know if I'll get onto it I'll just continue applying for jobs until I know for definite that I've got the loan or not. Besides if I do get offered a lab based job then nothing says that I can't withdraw my application and apply to do it next year for instance.

Thanks,

Sam.
 
viv1969 said:
What makes BA Shyte??
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+1

I will put his ignorant comment down to a lack of understanding.

Unless he has a handful of BAs under his belt to base his statement on, his opinion is irrelevant.
 
s162216 said:
Well I decided to bite the bullet and apply to do the "MRes in Drug Discovery" at Strathclyde University this October.
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Sam, if your current location is poor for getting jobs in this field make sure that wherever you do the MRes is in a hot-spot for the type of work you want to get with it. And once you get there, work the scene hard and get LinkedIn working to the max.
 
Good luck, as others have said, it can be a numbers game.

I have family members in the rnd sector (mass spec, NMR etc, probably different to you? But still science) and they say the amount of applications they are getting v the number of jobs is just ridiculous.

You have a good qualification though, so just persevere and it will pay off soon enough!
 
Alastair said:
Sam, if your current location is poor for getting jobs in this field make sure that wherever you do the MRes is in a hot-spot for the type of work you want to get with it. And once you get there, work the scene hard and get LinkedIn working to the max.
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I'm going to do my upmost best to try to get as involved as possible if I get onto the MRes as I've always wanted a research career, and I'm quite prepared to sacrifice a few things (like a most of a social life) if I'm going to do the best I can, and get the result at the end. The greatest advantage that I see from it is that I'll at least get proper lab experience (the sort that employers want - experiences in undergraduate lab sessions seem to count for nothing which TBH is probably fair as I wouldn't call myself as "experienced" with PCR for instance as I only got to do it about once a year at university), and I'm the sort of person who goes all out once I get an objective locked in my head.

Take my final year research project for instance: the project I selected became suddenly unavailable so I was forced to do a quick back-up project they threw together for me which investigated the effect of water temperature on the cardiovascular changes during the human diving reflex. I wasn't happy at first as it didn't even involve pharmacology at all, was not exactly even in my sphere of interest and I'm not exactly the best at trying to recruit people to do things (who would want to stick their head inin 5 degree water?), but I persevered and eventually ended up doing a project that went way beyond the expectations of my supervisor, gained an overall 87% grade (as agreed by two assessors) and is shortly hopefully being published in "Physiological Reports". I ended up quite enjoying it, even if it has probably made it even harder for me to find a job now as it didn't involve any practical techniques etc that can be applied to pretty much any practical job.

I'm seriously hoping that the MRes will enable me to get on a PhD studentship for the year after, or into a job with a pharmaceutical/biotech company as currently I've been denied opportunities with both due to a lack of experience, and a lot of the researchers at Strathclyde appear to have strong links with the pharmaceutical industry so I'm cautiously hopeful that it'll help get me somewhere.

I'm trying my best with Linkedin, but again I get the problem of having pretty much no contacts in the biosciences industry currently which does sort of limit me. I'm currently trying to think of everyone I know who has an involvement in science, and then seeing if their on linkedin. I did get to do a bit of "networking" with some immunology consultants (who have strong lab connections/experience) at a primary immunodeficiency patient event recently, and they strongly advised me to do further study in the area I want to get in as industry and universities are starting to coordinate with each other much closer than ever before.

ACW said:
Good luck, as others have said, it can be a numbers game.

I have family members in the rnd sector (mass spec, NMR etc, probably different to you? But still science) and they say the amount of applications they are getting v the number of jobs is just ridiculous.

You have a good qualification though, so just persevere and it will pay off soon enough!
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Thanks, I've applied for ~15 positions in the past 4 weeks alone. That may not seem like many, but about 75% of jobs I could do I can't even apply for as they demand usually a years experience to be even considered, and I do my best to make them as high quality as possible. Even if I don't get on the MRes something should eventually come up. Mass spec and NMR are used in my area, but usually not until around PhD level as their quite complex/expensive to apply to pharmacology, although I do understand their basic inner workings and what can be done with them.

Thanks,

Sam
 
You're going to have to avoid sacrificing your social life I'm afraid.. otherwise how else are you going to get a decent network on LinkedIn? - this is no time for solitude and hair shirts..

However, your social life will need to be focussed around attending every supplementary lecture, every conference, every cheesy nibbles in the lab type event and pressing the flesh, getting names and making sure they remember yours, adding those names to your LinkeIn network. Whenever there's an open day, event, lecture or presentation where prospective employers are likely to be present you need to be there. It's the only way to maximise the return on your loan.

And 15 applications in 4 weeks is about right. Trying to do more than three or four serious applications a week means you don't have enough time to find the right positions and research your applications. A good application at your level takes about a day to put together - and you need one or two days per week looking for positions, researching and filtering the ones to apply for.
 
@Alastair I was always the sort of person who went to those sort of things anyway if they were offered, if it was there then I would usually take it. Its just a shame I suppose that I didn't get involved with linkedin until last June as previously we'd all heard it mentioned about by certain people, but none of them actually explained what it it was for so most of us didn't get onto it at the time. I happened to receive an invite from one of my friends on it lasy year, and after taking a serious look at Linkedin I then realised what a missed opportunity I'd previously had so I'm now trying my best to rectify that.

Sam.
 
I got a message today from Strathclyde about the MRes, going on my past luck I was seriously expecting it to say that the course was full, or I didn't meet their requirements or something...

...luckily it was just to thank me for applying, and saying they would be in contact soon! :D

I've been working on increasing my Linkedin connections by trying to connect with people that have I've been to interviews with, lecturers I might have missed etc. In the past few hours I've managed to bring it up by 10 from 12 to 22, I know thats still not exactly a great level, but I have asked to connect with quite a few other people I know well and don't seem to ever actually login to linkedin to accept, or they ignore the connection request emails.

Sam.
 
Even if a job requires a years experience apply for it anyway. Only costs the price of a stamp or click of a button. Can your ex-lecturers help you? I know my university and others had a careers advice service after you graduated or job fairs? You must be a smart guy to get your degree hope it works out for you but keep plugging away and keep learning. The Jobcentre is the land that time and competence forgot so don't worry about that place. Start to get worried if you're there so long you get invited to the Christmas parties.
 
@s162216, make sure you look into researchgate too, can be good to get involved in some discussions on there, not just about research but there are often job postings there too.
 
UPDATE: Strathclyde have offered me a place on the "MRes in Drug Discovery", subject to me being able to provide details of funding - which I won't know until I'm able to apply for the professional development loan with Barclays. Unfortunately you can't apply more than 3 months before the course starts, and also if you've not been registered as unemployed for 3 months at the time of application then you can only use the loan to cover 80% of the course fees (which would mean I would need to find £820 from somewhere) which means the minimum date that I can apply for the loan is the 12th of August.

I've accepted the offer, but will keep looking for science based positions in the unlikely event that I'm offered one as I can withdraw/postpone my application. I'm also going to look for short term general work until October because the way I see it, even if I get a job and can only get the loan to cover 80% of the course fees, I would be able to to cover the 20% and probably quite a bit more with the amount that a job would pay.

I suppose the next hope is that Barclays approve me for the loan when I apply.

Thanks,

Sam.
 
ACW said:
+1

I will put his ignorant comment down to a lack of understanding.

Unless he has a handful of BAs under his belt to base his statement on, his opinion is irrelevant.
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Lighten up guys. there used to be (probably still is) a standing joke that those with a BSc (me) thought BA's were arty farty waste of space degrees, and those with BA's thought BScs were pointless. It was a joke! Get over it.

Also When polys were polys and Nottingham Poly became Notting Trent, those of us at Nottingham Uni would refer to ours as (the real University) and refer to NT as a poly... I guess it's a bit like those who put on their CV - degree from Oxford, but forget to mention Brooks!
 
Lynton said:
Lighten up guys. there used to be (probably still is) a standing joke that those with a BSc (me) thought BA's were arty farty waste of space degrees, and those with BA's thought BScs were pointless. It was a joke! Get over it.

Also When polys were polys and Nottingham Poly became Notting Trent, those of us at Nottingham Uni would refer to ours as (the real University) and refer to NT as a poly... I guess it's a bit like those who put on their CV - degree from Oxford, but forget to mention Brooks!
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About 20 years later the uni of Nottingham students still make/made fun of us at Trent (I did my degree there!) for that - I still remember Welcome Week at Trent very vividly as we were all on this double decker bus on one of the nights out going from Clifton Campus to one of the clubs in the centre, and quite literally everybody on the bus was yelling at the top of their lungs "WE HATE BEESTON! WE HATE BEESTON..." (and jumping up and down - me and my flatmates were on the bottom deck and the ceiling did literally start to warp at one point under all the jumping from the people on the top deck!) I can't remember how the rest of the song/chant/drunken rant went (it did include "better a poly than a toff" if I remember), but it wasn't exactly very complimentary about the uni of...
 
Lynton said:
Lighten up guys. there used to be (probably still is) a standing joke that those with a BSc (me) thought BA's were arty farty waste of space degrees, and those with BA's thought BScs were pointless. It was a joke! Get over it.

Also When polys were polys and Nottingham Poly became Notting Trent, those of us at Nottingham Uni would refer to ours as (the real University) and refer to NT as a poly... I guess it's a bit like those who put on their CV - degree from Oxford, but forget to mention Brooks!
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As I said, I have a lot of science minded people in the family (scientists and medical types) so am used to the ribbing. I always give back as good as I get - especially when they regularly come to me asking advice on one thing or another and I toy with them by suggesting they go find a lawyer with a BSc! (I'm not yet qualified anyway)

What you need Lynton, is a nice BA in people management ;)
 
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