I'm struggling with agency work. Any advice would be welcomed.

[Ms Macbeth]

Six years of solid work experience represent transferrable skills and therefore employability, don't despair!

 

I'd agree with Ms Macbeth that the Council's recruitment process is actually really fair. I used to work in education for the Council and witnessed interviews for lots of vacancies. All of them were done by the book and the people who got through to interview were not necessarily the ones with the highest level of qualifications or the most experience, they were the rare applicants who actually bothered to address all of the points of the person specification in their supporting statement. Filling in one of the application forms can take a good 4 hours or something, but doing it properly gives you a really good chance of an interview.

 

If you see a job you'd like but don't think you're quite qualified, apply anyway. If there's a point on the person specification that you don't meet, acknowledge that and emphasise that you're willing to do training on the job. What's more, if you do get a job with the Council, they'll put you through qualifications to bring your CV up to spec. My former manager got put through an NVQ Level 4 in Business Administration.

 

As for how to get started, try Reed Employment. They're the agency that got me an initial temporary contract with the Council. From there, once I'd become familiar with how the organisation worked and decided what I was interested in, I applied for longer-term jobs and eventually got one. Reed are a decent organisation as well; they were never demeaning towards me whilst I was temping with them. If you don't have any luck there, try the following websites:

 

http://www.sheffield.ac.uk

http://www.shu.ac.uk

http://www.vas.org.uk

 

These are for the two universities and a voluntary sector organisation called Voluntary Action Sheffield. They advertise lots of vacancies and not all of them ask for a degree or even A levels. Best of luck to everybody and feel free to PM me if you'd like any jobs advice. I'm not a recruitment person or anything, just someone who once struggled for work.

 

Lots of really good points in this post, and I'm glad someone else has the same view about council recruitment. I've highlighted one point that is key to getting an interview. If anyone is thinking of applying to the council, or the NHS etc - its vitally important to get the application right.