Has anybody actually received a reply from an employer yet?

If so, have you framed it?

As an extremely angry jobhunter, who has sent out countless CVs and has had NOTHING back from any of these ignorant employers, I was just wondering.

I've just got one! Didn't get an interview but at least they had the decency to write back!! Seems to be a dying art these days.

Have you tried Primark? I think they are taking on.

Same here mate. with the invention of the internet and email.You think they find time to replay to you

Like you I've only had a few responses to the countless CVs I've sent. Had an interview with West Wallasey the other week, didn't get the job and when they wrote to tell me it had the wrong persons name on it. Class!

Good job you never got the job at weat wallasey.I used to work for them.Had a interveiw for a cleaning job my interveiw time was 600pm and there where two others after me. I was told the cleaning job had gone but they say that there was a job wood lining the vans. So i took the job.then a week after i got talking to the guy who had a interview after me got the cleaning job.So I quit my job there and then cause i do not like firm boss's who lie to you

You are wasting your time sending out unsolicited CVs. Do you have any comprehension of how many are in the post at any given hour ?
We occasionally get them at our office and they go straight into the shredder.

I have never met *anyone* who ever got a job this way. You're far better off going to an agency. They are pimps of course and take a cut of your wages but it's in their interest to find work for you.

Good luck to you. It sounds like you're trying hard.

Jobneeded67 didn't actually say that he'd sent these 'unsolicited'. I've sent out over 100 in answer to job adverts and have only had around 10 responses, so I understand why he's feeling so down hearted.

You don't give much hope to people looking for work by saying that anybody who's taken the initiative to send an unsolicited CV is wasting their time as they go unread, straight to the shredder.

I sincerely hope that you never find yourself out of work, it'd be worse for you because you obviously know first hand how short sighted and high handed some employers can be.

I get really annoyed that employers don't have the decency to write to let you know you have been unsuccessful. My employer always writes to let people know they have been unsuccessful with a job, always acknowledges speculative CV's, and keeps them on file "should a suitable vacancy occur"

We are clearly a dying breed which is a shame.

Hi Chris58. Read your comment with interest. It is very reassuring to know that at least there are still SOME employers out there who reply to CVs and let everybody know whether or not they have been successful. If a lot more employers adapted this considerate and sensitive attitude, there would be a lot less misery and anger among us jobseekers.

I share great empathy with you, Zubee. It must be horrible and so depressing sending out all those CVs and only getting a handful of replies. You just wonder to yourself will things EVER pick up. It is disgusting the way this country has gone in relation to lack of jobs and hundreds chasing each vacancy.

They have to advertise by law (or should), but in most cases, that I know of, the jobs are already spoken for before they interview! Could even be to someone who has been doing temporary work in the same position. Maybe that's the route to take.

i second this

voluntary work is how to get your foot in the door, why would they employ someone they don't know when they have a person there doing the job to the level they require, that's how i got my start in the NHS, started voluntarily working at learndirect for the reference, then got a part time job (25 hours a week as a 'clerical assistant' ie less than a receptionist) in the NHS, the contract ended (it was only a 6 month contract) i asked if i could stay on voluntarily, they agreed and from there i'm now 2 years later a medical-secretary with enough experience to either apply for more positions both within, above and below my wage band when the NHS has it's next re-shuffle in January...

I have applied for loads of jobs by cv and sending them by email and have never had a reply. It is so frustrating.
I do have an interview for a job on Friday which was an application form not a CV.

Good luck with the interview Sparky.

That's almost amusing as I spent most of the 1980s out of work and things were much harder then. In the late 90s I applied for a post at Liverpool University (where I'd done postgrad work) and didn't get a reply (as per usual). At this point I destroyed all of my CVs and made it personal policy that I don't send off anything until someone speaks to me and invites me for a chat.

Sparky, I share great empathy with you here. I don't need to mention again how many employers haven't even bothered to reply to my CVs. Quite disgusting, and very, very depressing.

I wish you well in your job search.

What's 'almost amusing' is that you have a job now, yet you say things were much harder in the 80's. I disagree, I think they're much tougher now.

If you don't send off your CV in response to a job advert why on earth would someone 'speak to you and invite you for a chat'? If you were looking for a job now you wouldn't have a cat in hells chance.

I work from home and do not employ staff but receive cv,s weekly. I used to reply to all of them but then I started to think it was just as depressing to receive constant rejections as it is not to hear. lt helps if you provide an email or mobile number.
Good luck as a point interest would you like comments on your cv sometimes a cv is full of errors and I have considered pointing them out but don't want to cause offence

Really annoys me when people complain about not getting a response from companies when they've sent in a CV. Clearly you don't realise the sheer cost to the company that you expect them to spend for someone they aren't even going to employ. Let's break it down. Say a typical job gets 100 applicants and only 5 are wanted for an interview.

That's 95 rejection letters. That would easily take 3 hours to put each persons information in. Cost of minimum wage employee to do this - £18

Then you've got the envelopes and paper which, although wont cost much will mount up if they have to do it every time. - £5

Then you've got the stamps, so if they were to get 100 stamps as 5 would be for those people they wish to invite for an interview even second class stamps would now cost £50.

Funnily enough a lot of businesses don't have the time and/or the money to spend doing this. Just get on with it. If you're truly struggling to get even an interview then maybe you need to look at your CV or techniques rather than moaning that no-one ever gets back to you.

I know of one large company in Liverpool that does recruit people from unsolicited CVs. They don't usually advertise in places like the Echo as they would be bombarded with CVs. They usually promote people in-house and the vacancies left behind are often filled by people whose speculative CVs the HR department liked the look of.

amen to this

I take it you're both working?

1 round robin email. 1 minute to key in each address. 95 minutes. Min wage £6. Cost £9. Not a lot to ask.

And that's the attitude that businesses really want. Oh it's only a few pound. The reason I have a job is because I am of use to the company I work for. I don't ask them to waste money. I meet and exceed the bonuses that they set, as if I didn't I would be costing them money.

Plain and simple. Stop wasting your energy expecting things.

You're quite right turnip. I'm bang out of order expecting manners and courtesy. Stupid me.

okay, i shall send you 100 letters with a different email address on each one. Please reply to each within 2 days.
KThanks

Not a problem. Please deposit the £9 in my paypal account!

I hope you're not on Wiki during works time

So what you're saying is that the people sending in the CV's should pay to get a reply?

That's fair enough.

As for being on here on works time I sure am not, otherwise I wouldn't be able to work to my full potential/make the company money/make any bonus.

That's a relief turnip. Sounds like the company would implode without you.

Zubee you've clearly got me all wrong. I was trying to show empathy with Jobneeded67 in my initial post as I've been there myself many a time. The point I'm trying to make is that the unemployed have had it drilled into them that CVs are answer to all their woes. They are clearly not. Personally, I don't think that job hunting is worth the stress. The Protestant work ethic is as blatant a con as religion imo.

As for things today being harder than the 1980s; the rate of UK unemployment was 12% in 1984 compared with 8.1% in July 2012.

Once again I shall say good luck to Jobneeded67.

It was 25% where I lived when I was unemployed in the 80's. Don't let anyone kid you things are worse or as bad now as they were then, they're not.

i disagree capt, jobs are not there like they were in the past, proper jobs decent wage and conditions have gone and been replaced by purpose built units that usually take agency on minimum wage ok if you can claim tax credit etc but firms pay low knowing government made money up.
the big boys have vanished i worked at vauxhalls when you could pop in fill in form and start on monday well paid good conditions now if they want i person thousands apply.
automation saw a lot of jobs off,
many many big firms gone or slashed workforce.
i remember when you could walk around and billboards were outside advertising for staff immediate start no c.v or ref req no experience or c.r.b check neccessary

'Must have experience' are the words that piss me off the most in job adverts.
Like ffs how hard is it to clean your office or drop off 50 - 70 parcels a day.
How did the majority of people in jobs that require 'experience' get their experience in the first place? They most likely didnt have any - at all.
Makes my blood boil it does.

i warned my daughter that she prob wouldn't get any replies, shes applying for part time as has just started uni...

the first one she applied for was argos and she got the job,
morrisons also gave her an interview but said its about 6 weeks till they let you know?

none of the ohers even aknowledged her...

i agree, in this day and age a quick email doesn't take long even if to say no, sorry..

It was like that for my son too. He even got a yes to one job but before he even started the company went bust. But glad to say that after all the waiting and heartache from all the rejections he started a job 2 weeks ago and its better then the ones he got a no from, so in the end it was worth the year long wait.

I agree with most of what you say Sunnyside. The tax credits, were/or have become the downfall for many. The companies that paid a decent wage once, when there was some competition for employees, simply altered the criteria and brought in the minimum wage. Hence the previous government were supporting the companies for years, by making up the wages. The companies had to do something with their money....and so the bonus scheme seemed to be one way of absorbing all those profits. If that isn't what happened, well where did all the company profits, in the 'oh so wonderful' previous decade, go to? The whole affair didn't work, other than keeping the umemployment figures down as most were on part time hours and short term contracts, back then too.It kept the figures rotating.
Which in turn leads to the property market falling, as long term permanemt employment is needed to get a mortgage and also a decent salary to start off with. So the making everyone equal( or trying to) has done nothing for anyone. It has just made the gap wider between 'the haves' and 'the have nots'.
Bloody politics.......
I think the eighties where not so good but, I lived in a different area for part of, and there didn't seem to be a problem there.

thats great news!

I think I have always been lucky Job wise as I have never been out of work since I have been an adult. I always found a new job before moving on. I get paid really well now as I have 6/7 years in the business I am in. But my when I applied to get in to this industry I was lucky again they wanted a blank slate they could mold and I was lucky to get it.

I have to agree with Abbot, when A job is relatively low paid and are asking for previous experience they are taking the P*ss as you cannot get experience without the chance!

i agree totally...

My son has applied for lots of jobs but also simple basic apprenticeships were the wage is £100 a week and he still doesn't get a reply. It's so soul destroying for them. There is nothing for those that want a career

Abbot, I totally agree with you about these employers wanting experience. It's the old, old story, isn't it: just how on earth can you get the experience if nobody will give you a job?

I am getting really fed up with living in this country and its scarcity of jobs. Often I have thought about emigrating.

Leylo, I can certainly share great empathy with your son. I have had the same old depressing story from these employers. I am feeling so angry and disheartened about my chances of EVER getting a job on Merseyside.

they are taking on in home bargain, i posted yesterday when i saw the ad go up whilst out shopping..did you apply there?

The problem is that employers don't want to train new workers while there is a pool of workers out there who DO have experience from having previously worked in the relevant industry. Can you blame employers? I think not.

LOOK HERE

http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/jobs/

http://merseyside.fish4jobs.co.uk/

Yeah, I know. But if there was full employment (God, I wish!), they could not afford to be so pathetically choosy and would be glad of any staff they could get.

So, what would happen then? Incompetent staff, who couldn't be bothered to do a decent job or have any incentive to learn since they know there's plenty of other work available. The end product is rubbish and nobody will buy it, so the firm goes broke... Hey, wait a minute, haven't we been here before?
Isn't it obvious that in today's employment environment, employers are going to prefer to employ people with experience? So, what do they do? Hey, I know, let's put in the advert "Experience required".

To emigrate you need SKILLS and EXPERIENCE that are in short supply in your chosen destination. Also, you probably wouldn't warrant a second look if you're unemployed in your own country.

But how the hell can you get the experience if nobody will give you a chance in the first place????

Voluntary work would probably be the easiest and quickest way to gain experience and also looks good on your CV.

You are right about voluntary work. I am applying now for such positions. Wish me well.