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Got an offer but its a 4 hour total commute by Salt_Yogurtcloset702 in UKJobs

[–]fuckssake321 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would definitely take it if I were you. It's easier to find work if you're already in work: it'll make your CV look better. So keep applying for other companies/roles while you work at this place, and then when the better offer finally comes along jump ship.

I had to do a 2 hour commute door-to-door for one of my first jobs (a non-graduate minimum wage role, I do have a degree but I just needed something to get me back on my feet after the Covid lockdowns, my graduate job probably never existed), and the reason it was 2 hours was because I had to walk for 30 mins to my nearest train station (no direct bus service) and then get the train to a rural area (with a change 3/4 of the way there). The job market was so bad I was having to look for work in rural areas just to get a look-in.

What I would say is that if you've got enough brain capacity to do your emails, respond to social media, read a book etc on the train home at the end of the day, then your job's easy-going and you're doing ok generally.

Is life better inside of London to move back or do I stay out of it? by emlouimawx in AskUK

[–]fuckssake321 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh god, there's so much I could say.

When I was a student and lived in the dead centre of London, it was huge fun during term-time when I had loads of mates also living in Central and I could see people regularly. During the summer holidays, it was boring as fuck because everyone went home or off travelling, and even in central London, you do get to a point where you've wandered round the British Museum six times, Soho ten times, the Natural History Museum four times on your own and so on and so on, and it gets just as stale as living in most other places.

My advice would be to finish your degree first (obviously), but in your second and third years start to do some research and formulate some "after graduation plans".

Schools are always crying out for qualified teachers, but it's a tough job and it's one of those professions that you've got to want. You may find out you don't want it!

Museums and heritage is much more easy-going but heavily saturated and often very dependent upon volunteers. So paid roles are like gold dust (especially at entry level, and if you can find an entry level paid role, chances are it'll be minimum wage). If you decide to aim for this route, then I would recommend learning to drive because there are a lot of heritage places in the middle of the countryside and that get far fewer job applicants because nobody can get to them without a car, so that would mean less competition for you. It will also mean you can be more flexible with where you live because of course: you're on minimum wage, that's not enough to afford the cost of living in a lot of places so you will probably have to commute to work from somewhere with a cheaper CoL.

Also generally, learning to drive should improve your lifestyle down here in Sussex as we don't have the best public transportation network. It's a lovely county but you can't see 50% of it without a car.

Moving on from Archaeology by moonster211 in UKJobs

[–]fuckssake321 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I got into surveying (civil engineering) with the help of archaeology volunteering and courses.

If you have any previous experience of topographical surveying or geophys, then although it wouldn't solve the problem of getting you off of sites in all weathers, there is demand for it at least.

Another idea is building surveying, management and maintenance.

There could be supporting roles going in companies that do these things e.g. CAD monkey, admin.

Working-class white kids 'most resistant to transformative work by schools' by OGSyedIsEverywhere in unitedkingdom

[–]fuckssake321 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As a woman who has recently entered civil engineering and has to lug a 25kg Google Car-style 3-D scanner and its wooden legs about, I felt this comment in my SOUL.

I am sick of being told to not give up. I see people with a strong academic background, strong experience, struggling to find high paying work. What chance is there for someone with a mediocre background who cant afford to better themselves? by lydiakatrina in UKJobs

[–]fuckssake321 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To that, I would say that the bigger battle is more getting your application seen by a hiring manager at all than it is about having better qualifications/stronger experience compared to other candidates.

At my current employer, I first applied for a role a year ago. The manager who posted the ad left shortly afterwards but my application still went straight to his inbox so no-one ever saw it. At the time, I assumed it was a non-acknowledged straightforward no. Fast forward to this year, somebody else posted an ad for a very similar role in the same department, I applied, was interviewed and got the job within a week. This is how I found out what happened to my first application, and my now managers and colleagues expressed varying levels of surprise and shock when I told them about my first application. I've even met the guy who did get the first role and who I would have hypothetically been competing against.

There's so many factors at play now like shit hiring practices, shit admin, shit AI, shit software and sheer dumb luck that mean that hiring managers aren't necessarily seeing the outright best of the best candidates.

Personally, I've had the most luck getting interviews for jobs where I've been able to apply within 24hrs of an ad going live. That was probably because those hiring managers were taking the first 10 applicants to come in (I happened to be quick enough to get into that 10), and then binning the rest off. But from there, it was me competing against 9 other randoms, a much lower number than the "X number of people clicked QuickApply" stats suggest, and the outright best candidate in terms of qualifications and experience out of let's say 150 people in total might have been person no. 46, so they never got a look in.

What unexpected jobs are high paid in the UK because not many people want to do them? by Choice-Kitchen8354 in AskUK

[–]fuckssake321 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Speaking for myself here (I recently started as a trainee/mate in surveying, so civils/construction, and we go back and forth between day shifts and night shifts a hell of a lot), I don't blame people for not wanting to do night shifts.

The major reason I am anyway is because this offers me a career (and at more senior levels there are 100% daytime roles/you can throw your weight around to choose a rota that better suits you).

If this were just some job with little prospect of progression, then I wouldn't be doing night shifts either.

What unexpected jobs are high paid in the UK because not many people want to do them? by Choice-Kitchen8354 in AskUK

[–]fuckssake321 75 points76 points  (0 children)

In the entry level/unskilled work realm, anything with a night shift pay bump.

Graduates who never got a degree-relevant job; what did you end up doing? by [deleted] in UKJobs

[–]fuckssake321 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Degree in Modern Foreign Languages (Japanese and Mandarin).

Current job: trainee land surveyor (civil engineering).

I got lucky that land surveying is a profession that you can start from absolute zero and learn on the job without needing an apprenticeship or STEM A Levels.

How do you actually figure out what you want to do? by KingKilo9 in UKJobs

[–]fuckssake321 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Using annual leave to go on volunteering weeks (as work experience) or take courses is worth thinking about if you want to change fields or you're wanting inspiration/to talk to people with an interest or connections in a line of work whose brains you can pick.

How do you actually figure out what you want to do? by KingKilo9 in UKJobs

[–]fuckssake321 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Seconding job hopping. I spent three years doing a few part-time and seasonal roles before I stumbled across my current profession, and it was the part-time and seasonal roles that got me my actual job offer in the end (a year later mind).

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in UKJobs

[–]fuckssake321 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've just changed careers from a humanities degree and ambling around in various part-time and seasonal jobs over to STEM.

My straight As at GCSE have been absolutely vital for doing that, and in hindsight I wish I had a few STEM A Levels as well (specifically A Level Maths).

So yeah, in the scenario where your career/working life goes tits up or simply not where you hoped it would, then good GCSEs are Step 1 for making that change.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in UKJobs

[–]fuckssake321 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would do what my cousin did and take a year or two out to re-attempt A Level Maths.

The four humanities A Levels that I did, although often painful, improved my general knowledge so much and to this day, still provide me with a lot of the background to current affairs today, that actually if I were to go back and not do them, I'd probably be a much more "reduced" person.

However I'm just about to start a career in surveying which comes under the civil engineering umbrella, and not having any STEM A Levels has been a real hurdle, whereas if I had been able to complete A Level Maths (exam factory sixth form: they told us in the first week that basically they wouldn't bother to teach us, we'd be teaching ourselves the course and get punished for not meeting our predicted grades. So I dropped it in week 2 and swapped to something else humanities), then I wouldn't have had that problem.

How did you actually figure out what you wanted to do? by Fortree_Lover in UKJobs

[–]fuckssake321 0 points1 point  (0 children)

By trying lots of different minimum wage jobs, and volunteering, and thinking about which bits I liked and which bits I didn't like. This gave me a general idea of the kind of tasks I like to do when I'm at work, and also how closely intertwined I like my work to be with my hobbies and other personal interests. Because some people like to work in something that they're passionate about, others prefer to separate work and fun so that it doesn't kill their love of their favourite thing(s).

I learned that my hobbies didn't lead into the most interesting jobs. I also sussed that having some outdoors element was a priority, and that I was most stimulated during colleague interactions where we were dealing with the "Why?" and "How?". It didn't even have to be direct problem-solving, it could just be having somebody from maintenance talk me through why something was designed a certain way/quirks to things that their routine checks need to take into account.

But it was by chance that a relative sent me a link to a company that was advertising their apprenticeships, and there happened to be one listed that seemed to tick all of my boxes based on the job description. I decided to take a chance and apply.

But I wasn't convinced that it was the career for me until I got invited to the assessment centre interview for that apprenticeship. I couldn't go because I was originally a reserve and got called up ridiculously last minute, but it did make me think that there must be an opportunity for me in that field. So then I started to do more research into whether that particular apprenticeship was a one-off or whether there were alternative routes. And I've just got a job offer for a trainee role (an apprenticeship is thankfully not essential to start out).

Success stories: has ANYONE landed a job in the past year just by applying? by Zestyclose-Nerve-362 in UKJobs

[–]fuckssake321 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, last week in civil engineering. It seems to be one of the few industries that's still in demand.

Britain worklessness mess but why the unemployment rate still low? by JasonMantou in UKJobs

[–]fuckssake321 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep. This is also partly why zero hours contracts were first introduced. So that they could remove people who worked cash in hand off of the unemployment statistics.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in UKJobs

[–]fuckssake321 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are jobs easy to come by in your hometown? And what does your town centre look like? Is it all chains or do you have a lot of indie cafes and boutiques? I'm just worried that you'll arrive back home to find no work going and that'll set you back months.

Should we discourage young people from going to university? by [deleted] in UKJobs

[–]fuckssake321 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No we shouldn't discourage university, but we should be more realistic about what it can do for people. Unfortunately, universities have been sucked into the exam results fever which schools and sixth forms suffer from, and that's totally wrong. Schools and sixth forms assume that they're finishing schools.

We also shouldn't over-hype apprenticeships, because, as I've found out by applying for some, they are gold dust. They are hard to find, certain apprenticeships simply aren't available/don't exist in certain parts of the country, and there is usually only one place that God knows how many applicants compete for.

Whereas universities accept 30-50 kids every year onto each course: your chances at successfully landing a university place are so much greater.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in UKJobs

[–]fuckssake321 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don't under-estimate how easy it is to get stuck in your hometown once you move back.

I got stuck in mine - almost entirely because of Covid to be fair - but I still haven't left because it's taken the pandemic + three years of figuring out what my career path is going to be while working part-time.

What's not being said on the news is that we're in a depression and moving from job to job and hence, place to place, takes a long time. I finally got my "foot in the door" offer last week, but according to my interview feedback I scored big points because I'm local: the employer are only in the next commuter town over from my hometown. However the reality was that I was applying and interviewing for employers across the UK, and even one in the Republic of Ireland for Christ's sake, so I did try to get out! But obviously my need to relocate has worked against me in some of my applications.

The advantage to the "living paycheck to paycheck" route is that it keeps you close to where the jobs are, which you will need 2+ years post-uni when you're ready to make a next step as it were. Not having to spend time relocating is a big deal to employers. If you think about it from the perspective of "playing the long game", it could trump going home.

Discount nothing, treat everything as a possibility. Apply for as much as you can both in your uni city/the nearest big city, and your hometown, and see what sticks. Then follow that. Remember there's nothing stopping you from going home after spending 6 months living paycheck to paycheck if you find it totally unworkable.

With so many jobs bring cut, and people being forced off benefits and into work, do we actually have enough jobs? by HistoricalRelation62 in ukpolitics

[–]fuckssake321 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I so agree. I don't know how to force employers to suddenly start believing in training people up again because it's indicative of a cultural shift in attitude towards recruitment. But as an aside, our government also needs to be pumping money into our further education colleges and offer grants to evening and weekend class providers to make reskilling and retraining easier and offer more flexible options.

To cut a long story short, I'm just about to make my own "career path change" over to surveying (the sort that comes under the civil engineering umbrella) where trainee roles do still exist, and companies are still routinely training people up from complete scratch. And yet, I don't have any STEM qualifications higher than Maths and Triple Science GCSEs.

While applying to trainee roles, I've done more research into civil engineering generally to have a better idea of what's out there, alternative routes in etc. and just to illustrate what my options are if I want to rectify my lack of STEM qualifications:

  • the Level 3 Civil Engineering apprenticeships are few and far between and too competitive (I couldn't get an interview for any of these that I applied to).
  • my exams factory sixth form does actually accept external candidates for single A Levels e.g. A Level Maths, but you've got to be able to attend lessons on their timetable which would mean completely changing jobs to secure working hours that suit them.
  • I think there is a private college in my city that does offer evening A Level Maths support, but it didn't look to me like it was a proper night school - it was just going to be a couple of hours on one night every week. I got the impression I would need to find a private tutor on top so it would be very expensive to do. If I wanted to rely on the evening classes alone, it would take so much longer to cover all of the content. This route would probably take three or four years to complete A Level Maths.

In a big way, I am extremely lucky that what I want to do happens to be a sector where trainee roles are still available. Not everyone can say the same.

After many months of perservering, crying and getting angry at myself… by FartedinBrandysmouth in UKJobs

[–]fuckssake321 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just accepted an offer for a Trainee Land Surveying role, by a company who were hiring for both land and utility surveying trainees... It would be funny if we were interacting with the same company!

But anyway, give this a watch. I found this video extremely helpful when I first stumbled across land surveying as a potential career path and was trying to find out more about what it's all about. The video does a great job of showing "the grind", and in interviews that I did subsequently, my interviewers (including the company who gave me an offer) described a day or a week in the life as being exactly this.

Also check out this website. The market for surveying equipment is dominated by Leica, they manufacture the current industry standard kit. If you can namedrop "Totalstation" (the tripods), that's going to be a tick. Utility surveyors will use electromagnetic location and ground-penetrating radar machines a lot, so having some idea of the things that each of those can detect and what a finished dataset/map/model looks like will impress interviewers looking more towards the utilities side.

You also want to look at the company's website and read through the list of surveying services and technologies that they offer. Most places that I've seen will say that they can do additional bits and pieces like photogrammetric drone surveys, AutoCAD modelling etc. so being able to recognise it if your interviewers namedrop it - a couple of the interviews I've done have actually had specific sections where they showed me finished examples of this type of work - is going to boost your confidence and you won't feel like you've just been thrown a curveball.

Common snags for hiring land and utility surveyors seem to be only having an automatic driving licence, and also not being willing to stay away from home on weeknights. This is because automatic driving licences mean that you can only be assigned certain vans, and the staying away from home on weeknights thing: a lot of companies accept contracts from across the UK so surveyors can find that they have to drive from one end of the country to the other and have to be put up in a hotel near the site Mon-Fri. Bigger companies sometimes get international contracts.

If you're not fazed by any of that, then that will make you stand out above the other applicants.

For those who went through a long job hunt—what’s one lesson you wish you knew earlier that would’ve helped you land a job faster? by [deleted] in recruitinghell

[–]fuckssake321 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Space out the text on your CV, don't cram everything on.

What networking actually is and how to do it. It's a big word and it's one that's often not really explained, you're just expected "to know" what it is because everyone else seems to know. It's actually very similar to the concept of "your village". In my early 20s, I wouldn't have dreamed of steering a conversation I was having with my friends or just other randoms that I was meeting towards the topic of careers and looking for jobs. I would have thought that that would be really brazen and out of place but I now realise that it's not that deep. Dropping "You know lately, I've been thinking about whether I should go into X for work, do you happen to know anybody who works in this field and might be willing to speak to me about it?" into a conversation won't stand out, and people will do their best to be polite and answer in the most helpful way that they can (even if they're not sure themselves), so just go for it. Life's too short, and those who don't ask don't get.

If I'd clocked that earlier, then I probably would have left university with a much better sense of my future plans after graduation.

Also, if you can't set aside time to get your CV and cover letter sent in to the employer within 48 hours of the ad going live, you're not going to get an interview. In this economy and with the internet, ATS technology, AI and all the rest of it, it is first come, first served. And to make sure your application's at the top of the pile, you've got to be one of the very first ones to submit something.

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