Top job hunting tips

If you listen to the news, you’ll hear talk of rising employment levels and all these wonderful new jobs that are out there just waiting for people to apply for, but where do you find them? In the dark and distant past it was the local papers for general jobs. For me, it was the Ayrshire Post mainly and for professional posts the Herald. These days it’s pretty much all about the internet, but looking for a job can still feel like a full time job! The obvious place to start is the JobCentre, and My World of Work has a whole section with a live feed of its jobs right there on the site, and with help to guide them through it. It can take a fair bit of time to trawl through, and there are lots of other general sites, but you’ll find quite a bit of duplication as some of the sites lift the adverts from Universal Job Match and display them within their own platforms. There are however some that are definitely worth directing your employee to – Goodmoves and Third Sector Jobs both feature lots of posts in the third sector which don’t tend to be advertised through some of the other sites and it’s a good way to narrow down the search a little. There’s still a huge variety in the types and levels of post, but you know that they are all in the sector, and you might find that your CJS employee has never considered a career like that, so well worth the conversation with them.

Goodmoves and Third Sector Jobs both feature lots of posts in the third sector which don’t tend to be advertised through some of the other sites

Within your area there will be employability provision from a number of partners and there will be jobs advertised through that, possibly with some additional funding through recruitment incentives or other schemes, and these will be advertised more locally. East Ayrshire Work Partnership is a good example of that. Many of the posts are ring-fenced for younger people, and are within the local area, so your employee has a chance of improving their odds of success. Lots of employers will use the power of social media to advertise their vacancies rather than paying fees to advertise through agencies or in print, so instead of trying to direct your CJS staff away from Facebook, why not suggest some pages to them instead?  There are also groups in your area where members post any vacancies they find – Gie’s a Job: Glasgow and Ayrshire is a great example of this with a membership of over 15,000 people. I’ve noticed jobs there that I haven’t seen anywhere else. Please remember to support your employee’s job search.