Lots of competition for office jobs

[Jessica Berry]

I just thought I would let people know there is a lot of competition for office jobs at the moment.

 

I went to see an agency today and 90 people had applied for the job I went to see about, she was seeing 6 people and then only putting 3 people forward.

 

The agency said they had advertised 2 receptionist positions, one position had attracted 180 applicants and the other 193 applicants!

 

Someone else was telling me they had applied to the ATO (tax office) for an admin school leavers position and they had 300 applications.

 

You really need to make sure your resume stands out from the crowd when they are receiving these kind of numbers for jobs!

[romana03]

Wow. That's... rather scary.

[Jessica Berry]

Wow. That's... rather scary.

 

 

I know! Previously people I had spoke to were quoting 80 - 100 applications for office jobs but that figure seems to have doubled now!

 

I have 2 Aussie friends that are out of work and looking for office positions and they are saying the same, it is a hard market at the moment.

 

Yet, my partner who works in IT got a new job straight away.

 

I think it depends on the industry, there is obviously an over supply of admin people looking for work.

[Louise EP]

I found a temp PA job really quickly in banking through seek.com (agency QPL)...I think it was all about timing for me since I was immediately available. I had an interview and was lucky to start the job within days.

[Moosh]

Yes Jessica is right, it is very tough out there at the moment. It took me 2 months to find a job and as the saying goes jobs are like buses, none come along for ages and then you get offered 4 in the same week!! I got 2 phone calls today but I had to turn the interviews down because I have one now. Where I'm working in the City, we need a Cost Control person so if anyone has project experience in cost control, please send me a PM.

[Diane]

I think a lot of it is probably down to all the media coverage about rising costs, rising taxes, rising cost of living etc etc. Your average family is starting to wonder where they are going to find extra money, and admin type jobs that don't require any specific qualification are obviously going to be the first port of call to a family looking for a second (or third!) income.

 

It also means employers can afford to be so much more fussy about who they employ, so I'd stress again to new people coming over to keep an open mind about where to settle longterm - in a tough job market, you don't want to narrow your options any more than you absolutely have to!

[Toni]

We had an office job going a little while ago and had about 80 applications but there were only about 20 people who had admin skills at all and about 5 that were specific to what we needed so it is always worth getting someone to tailor your application to a job that is being advertised.

[Guest BurgessFamily]

Both the IT positions my company advertised recently had a very high number of applicants - we had to have a cut-off.

 

That said, some of the CVs had big holes in the employment history, riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes, with the worst offenders not even making sense.

 

If you are applying for a job, it's useful not to throw a CV together without any real thought. It can be quite easy to sort CVs by presentation.

[Guest lisa&russ]

Oh dear - this confirms my worst fears! We are hoping to be over soon and although o/h has a job lined up I don't. I have a tax/admin/office management background - I am really worried about how long it will take me to get a job!

[Jessica Berry]

I spoke to a friend last night and he said a part-time receptionist job he knew about attracted 200 applicants.

 

In the last 7 days there have been a total of 10 adverts on seek for agencies wanting people to register for office temp work. This is probably because the new financial year will start soon and also employers may be looking to employ people on a temp basis in the current financial market.

 

The agency I went to see about a permanent position required me to do Word, Excel, PowerPoint and typing tests. Usually all the agencies will ask you to do these tests before they will take you on, so you need to make sure your skill levels are good. The agency I was at yesterday was telling a lady who had just completed the tests, but her scores were obviously not good enough to go away and practice and then come back again to be tested.

[Jessica Berry]

Both the IT positions my company advertised recently had a very high number of applicants - we had to have a cut-off.

 

That said, some of the CVs had big holes in the employment history, riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes, with the worst offenders not even making sense.

 

If you are applying for a job, it's useful not to throw a CV together without any real thought. It can be quite easy to sort CVs by presentation.

 

 

I think we have both commented on other postings regarding resumes.

 

As a trainer in Resume and Cover Letter Writing skills it still amazes me some of the resumes people send out. Your resume is designed to get you an interview and when you are up against 200 other people, it is very easy for an employer to discard a resume.

 

Generally people are not prepared to pay/invest in the skills, experience and knowledge of someone like me to help them, when that investment will get them an interview and hopefully a job that will earn them thousands of dollars.

[Moosh]

We are having trouble filling a Cost Control position and I know another project engineering consultancy firm also with a Cost Control vacancy and they are having to recruit from overseas because no one applied for the job! When I questioned it thinking my boss must mean that the applications weren't good enough, my boss repeated that no applications were received. Very weird. It's only a gloried Accounts job managing budgets and spreadsheets!

[Jessica Berry]

We are having trouble filling a Cost Control position and I know another project engineering consultancy firm also with a Cost Control vacancy and they are having to recruit from overseas because no one applied for the job! When I questioned it thinking my boss must mean that the applications weren't good enough, my boss repeated that no applications were received. Very weird. It's only a gloried Accounts job managing budgets and spreadsheets!

 

 

Similar situation when my partners old IT job and a colleague’s IT job at the same level were advertised. They were advertised last month in the job paper and on seek and only attracted 9 applicants for one job and 14 applicants for the other job and the presentation/standard of covering letters and resumes was pretty poor. These are both permanent steady jobs, offering excellent family friendly/work/life balance with a salary of up to $70k which is reasonable pay for the positions and yet they hardly attracted any interest. Other jobs advertised around a year ago in the team had attracted 70-90 applicants.

[Jessica Berry]

I had an interview lined up for Tuesday (it is between 2 of us) and the HR Manager is on the interview panel and she is flying in from Melbourne. The interview was postponed till Wednesday because of the volcanic ash and flights being cancelled, then it was postponed till Thursday, now it is planned for next week - I never thought my future would depend on Chile's volcanic ash clouds!!!

[suzer]

We are having trouble filling a Cost Control position and I know another project engineering consultancy firm also with a Cost Control vacancy and they are having to recruit from overseas because no one applied for the job! When I questioned it thinking my boss must mean that the applications weren't good enough, my boss repeated that no applications were received. Very weird. It's only a gloried Accounts job managing budgets and spreadsheets!

 

Sounds like a perfect job for my sis-in-law...you should send me a link.

[Jessica Berry]

I am not sure if it is the same now in the UK, but here it seems the days when a company rings a temp agency up and says send me someone for a couple of weeks and they just turn up seem to be over, you really have to jump through hoops.

An agency was telling me they had a 4 week temp admin assignment and the company wanted candidates to attend a panel interview and do a 10 minute presentation for 4 weeks temp work - the agency said it is getting ridiculous.

 

My friend has just got 3 weeks admin work through an agency, but she had to go for an interview at the company with 3 women and then do 2 word processing exercises before she was offered the job - just for 3 weeks work!!

[trevorpayne]

At least 9-10 jobs advertised are not being given to cheap imported labour.

[Jessica Berry]

A recruitment agency rang me at 1.07pm and I rang back exactly 20 minutes later - too late they had given the work to someone else, you have to be quick, these agencies show no mercy!!!