Are they personalised and do they stand out?

So many people send us blanket letters (sometimes unsigned) that they've sent to loads of people. They often contain basic errors in spelling, etc. They create an awful impression. I doubt yours are like that but I can honestly say the majority I've seen over the years are like that. What is really laughable is that when they are suited to the job because of their attention to detail and then make 6 low-grade spelling errors, get the name of your firm wrong (sometimes not updated from the the previous application), etc, etc.

What sort of thing are you looking for?

Maxwell's demise is given as 5 November. Just a day or so after, I was invited to late bonfire organised by [iMirror[/i employees where they burnt an effigy of the nasty piece of work himself. It was a good evening.

We know. You post from them all the time.

Not a waste of space necessarily. Just a company making strategic decisions to try to secure its future. They may have other research facilities around the world and want to cut duplication. They may have decided to move the company in a whole new direction before their revenues dry up from Lipitor, etc. If such companies just carry on as they've done before they go bust, however big they may seem (remember the British shipbuilders, motorbike makers, car makers, white goods manufacturers, etc) and then there's less jobs still.

There are actually a lot of manufacturing businesses out there and a lot of them are exporting their products because their expertise and quality of work is so good.

But admittedly there aren't as many as there used to be and for one simple reason - we deliberately got poorer economies to do the manufacturing work for us.

My uncle was a highly skilled engineer working with high temperature alloys, they milled turbine blades for Rolls Royce for instance and in Leeds we had a reputation for skilled engineering and finishing work, but back in the 1960s when I was a kid the words "Made in Hong Kong" or "Made in Taiwan" were always prefixed by the phrase "Shite from" instead of "Made in" because that was the generally held view and there was a pride in the engineering products that we produced and they were in demand all over the world.

Two things happened though, the "Shite" producers in the far east got their acts together and the end users in this country focused on their cheap prices rather than backing the British product - ask anyone of my vintage how Datsun cars were first spoken of and then within a few short years how they had turned it around and suddenly British Leyland cars were the laughing stock and you really wanted a Datsun for its reliability and free radio.

Its true that you can't cope with low wage rate economies but at one point in the early 1970s we, as a country, threw our hands up and declared, "aw fook it, let the asians work for rice and sell it to me cheap"

Yes.

My wife works in personel, It is adapted to every single person and company I send to with personal names and addresses.

Anything and everything so please stop telling me there are jobs because there are not.
All you are doing is making yourself sound like a clueless prize pillock.

presumably she can spell it?

there are jobs, plenty of them, just people aren't prepared to change their wage demands and change location, much better to bleat on the internet all day.

Have you tried any of the agencies ?

The company I work for can't keep up with the demand for our product from most of the large staff agencies in the UK, I know its not secure work etc etc but they seem to be booming at the moment and there is a sneaky feeling that they are sucking away all of the genuine job opportunities for temporary placements.

There are jobs, certainly in SE England. My son has worked in a supermarket for a couple of years and is due to take up a professional career in January. His girlfriend has a job. He helped get his mate a job where he currently works. I had an email from a youngish chap this morning saying he's handed in his notice and is moving to a firm closer to home.They are examples just from very direct recent personal experience.

but that is the thing, the majority of the perpetually unemployed think they should be able to get a job just around the corner from their house, on hours to suit them at a minimum of £22k a year

it's time we removed benefits for those that can work but wont, and give the money saved to those that would work but genuinelt cant.

Well that told me.
Pedantic as usual eh!

I would work for £5 an hour matey.
My wife has a full time job so how in the blue hell do we change location?
The house prices in Hull mean I can easily move wherever I want (Oh wait) and the cost of fuel means communting is so affordable

.
So yes there are plenty of jobs as long as you are willing to travel miles to get to them for £5 an hour with child care to pay for.
I can see a slight problem with those figures.
Still at least Standee got to sound in the know again!

I have the words 'Cannot guarantee work' alongside childcare costs present a slight problem though.

your family doesn't have to change location YOU CAN, I've done it numerous times, go to where the work is.

actually no, you're right, far easier to sit on the PC moaning how the world owes you a living.

So I am to go and get a job in SE England which means I need to get digs (extra cost) as my wife has a fulltime job?
Or perhaps she can quit her job so we can all move so I can work in a supermarket?

And how did your wife and children - your family life - work then?

I appreciate that family is only a sound bite these days, so I'm curious about your own experience.

Did you find that you and your wife's combined incomes could cover additional accommodation, for instance? Did your readiness to accept lower wages impact at all on your wife and children?

Frankly, that is pure bollax.

Straight out of the Daily Mail pure bollax.

Your starter for ten - your definition of "genuinely can't work" ?

How genuine would "genuinely can't" have to be if offered a £15k job in, say, Northampton, when the poster in question lives in Hull, has a home to pay for but probably can't sell right now, has a wife in a job in Hull and a child to pay childcare for especially when one of those parents will be working away in Northampton for five days a week.

I worked away from home for ten years so I'm well used to it but I was single and not a home owner then, it works for some but there is a point where you add up the sums and it really isn't a go-er - you can't call those people "Can work but won't" simply because they don't take any random job anywhere.

I dont have kids, if people were a bit more realistic when procreating we'd be a lot better off, a lot of people have kids that really can't afford them, and then expect the rest of us to bail them out.

I'm not getting drawn into this again, I did it with Damo and copped a ban for having an opinion.

There are jobs all right but unfortunately, there are between five and six times as many unemployed as there are jobs.
Obviously, the four or five who don't get each job are feckless layabouts.

I know, its not a perfect solution, but in my business I can see that agencies do some very hard selling to companies and they definitely attract opportunities that may otherwise have been full time permanent jobs.

On the other hand I do know that agency sales staff are always being pressed by their clients to send "X,Y & Z" if X,Y & Z have impressed the employer, its definitely a foot in the door.

So a couple who are working shouldn't start a family because one of them might be laid off from the job they're in at some point in the future?

Standee - that's just crass.

Right so I move.
Extra cost of digs+childcare+costs of going home on weekends before I even look at my pay packet and then you think asking for 22k is out of order.
You haven't got a clue really have you.
Also I have worked for 19 of the 20 years since I left school so clearly I am a waster and I think the world owes me a living.

You didn’t get banned for having an opinion. However you may have got banned because of the way you went about in getting across that opinion.

The management of that company is criminal. Lipitor just came off patent (although I think they have some extension) so they just lost the biggest selling drug in the world - so closing your best equipped R&D site (where they found viagra) , would not be the logical thing to immediately do.
They will never be able to re-create that place again. All those people, some with 20+ years of experience are lost, you just can't replace that. It was not easy to get a job there, they paid well and the working conditions were excellent, but you had to know what you were doing. Shocking waste, big mistake.

With respect, what is your experience? Where have you worked, what did you do and how long for?

What qualifications do you have?

A willingness to do anything and everything sounds great, but if you're not qualified or have zero experience in something, you're not likely to get a sniff.

I didn't know where you are or your circumstances. I appreciate it is difficult given that. However, my brother in law has often had to work 300 miles from home and live apart from the family over the years. In fact, recently was about 500+ miles from home during the week. That said, you need to earn sufficient to cover the costs (or get the 'er to fund them), which may not be possible in your case.