Why is it so hard to get a job?!?!?! RANT

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_gingercat@reddit

I’m hearing that for retail jobs, they’re less keen to take people with more/higher qualifications as they don’t see them staying long term. Maybe this applies to you?

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No_Doubt_About_That@reddit

Alternatively given the job market isn’t exactly healthy at the moment the likes of those who would be classed as overqualified would probably end up staying for longer than anticipated

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This is true, but the idea is that it’s a stopgap job for someone who is overqualified. Even in the current job market, if they’re presented with someone qualified and overqualified, they’ll feel more inclined to take the qualified as they’re more likely to stay in the job for the next 10 years, vs the next 2 years.

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No-Drink-8544@reddit

What a load of bollocks.

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pajamakitten@reddit

It is very much the case. Hiring new staff takes time and money, so employers do not want to risk hiring someone who could leave after a few weeks.

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desertterminator@reddit

Yeah this is a huge consideration. There’s no point taking on someone with a decent CV because they’re going to move onto something they should actually be doing, so for grunt work you want the less ambitious.

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Fantastic-Hippo97@reddit

Yep I've heard this as well. They look at it as overqualified and more likely to leave long term, whereas someone who meets it or is underqualified can grow there over time

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OriginalMandem@reddit

Try sending a few CVs out using a pen name or anglicised version of your actual name, see if it makes a difference. I've found my effnik surname has hindered me in SW England more than it has in London, I anglicised my middle name and it definitely helped up to a point, my main issue now is that literally everything in my area that doesn't require mega qualifications barely pays over NMW.

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Gedadahear@reddit

Your determination is more useful than your GCSE’s to an employer: an A* student is good on paper but they might be lazy as fuck… not useful at all to an employer. Bend the truth if u come to a job interview. Eg. Last job? You were volunteering… or helping out your aunt or mums friend with her business for the last two years but she retired and closed her business… i was sales cashier or something… do NOT say you been unneployed for the last two years… or been looking for a job… Now you need a job, can start asap. Also consider a good answer for the important thing: “Why do you want to work here?” Dont say cuz i need a job/ i need money. Find something that can tell the employer why you would be an asset rather than a liability. Eg. If you like movies… and u apply for a job at the cinema. “I am very knowledgeable when it comes to movies”… “i am always up to date with the newst films and always see the first showing, if any movie goer where to ask me something …” you see where i am going with this?….

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R3ddit300@reddit

Your mistake is in thinking experience and qualifications are all they care about. If you're getting to the interview stage, perhaps it's the way you come across in the interview. If you don't get any interviews, perhaps it's a problem with your applications.

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No-Drink-8544@reddit

What kind of problem with applications would you say people have? What if they just suck at writing CVs?

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R3ddit300@reddit

That's exactly what I had in mind.

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Thread-Hunter@reddit

Exactly. No one really cares about gcses now anyway. You need good soft skills and emotional intelligence etc.

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CrowApprehensive204@reddit

I'd say 70% comes from who you know, rather than experience and education. Retail is an awful job anyway, uou aren't missing out

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emotional-empath@reddit

Ask for feedback on your interviews. For retail, your availability is valued highly. Someone who is available to work any day of the week will look more attractive over someone with a restrictive availability.

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LouClittler@reddit

There are absolutely tons of jobs out there for people who are willing to work. The care sector is on its knees and reliant on agency staff to meet minimum staffing levels. Retail and warehousing rely on agencies, again because they can't get the staff. Jobs where you get to sit behind a desk, send emails and fill in forms are more difficult to find because almost every fucker would rather be doing that.

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AskUK-ModTeam@reddit

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OverTheCandlestik@reddit

Trust me GCSE’s count for absolutely nothing, no employer is ever going to pay attention to GCSE’s, your educational prowess counts for nothing if your working in Primark. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/may2025#:~:text=The%20UK%20employment%20rate%20for,in%20January%20to%20March%202025. Have a read some interesting stats.

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OldenDays21@reddit

i disagree

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pajamakitten@reddit

They might matter for your first job at 16/18, not so much after that. Personal skills and work experience matter much more after that.

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Wild_Cauliflower_970@reddit

For a job like retail, you're doubly right. The ability to do the job is largely whether you can talk to people, use common sense and be reliable. They just won't care about your ability to write persuasively or multiply fractions (even if those things happen to come up in the role). Bizarrely, I have four degrees (one undergraduate and three postgraduate) and I had to list all my GCSEs on my last job application (despite the job requiring, by law, a postgraduate degree).

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TokyoMegatronics@reddit

remove any work experience older then 5 years (if you have worked a lot of jobs), make sure you have no employment gaps, no jobs of only a year unless you have a valid reason (temp work) and make sure you only have like 1 instance of this. remove degrees if not needed for the job, if you're pregnant or neurodivergent or have any physical or mental health conditions then don't ever mention it anywhere ever if it impacts work. worked in recruitment, they wouldn't touch anyone that went uni, was higher than entry level experience, job gaps, irrelevant experience etc etc

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DrHenryWu@reddit

Job situation is pretty bad. Many firms cutting jobs and hiring plans for the year have been dismantled [PAYE data](https://i.ibb.co/d0vdDK5J/20250513-215423.jpg) trending downwards last few months and I believe this is prior to any national insurance increases. Plus the number of NEETS growing to unprecedented levels. Not looking good

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ResponsibilityOld372@reddit

Having done interviews, 30% comes from right answers and 70% comes from vibe and whether I like you.

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No-Drink-8544@reddit

Mister perfect over here.

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Maximum_Thought7903@reddit

To be fair I had my school careers advisor write me a cv for when I left school, but she made me sound like a right nob. Apparently I was “looking for a journey in the world of work”, needless to say I didn’t hear back from anyone with that. So instead of using the CV and sending it through email, the next job I found I just emailed the owner and said “alright mate, do you have any full time jobs available?” And bang, i was working by Monday.

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bzzklltn@reddit

This. Unless your applying for a more senior role, I can teach you how to do the job. What matters is whether you’ll fit in with my team and not give me a headache. I’ve been lumbered with too many of other people headache hires to have the pertinence for another.

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No_Doubt_About_That@reddit

That’s providing you don’t get screened out beforehand by any AI

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Mediocre_mum26@reddit

Best thing is to get an apprenticeship. Learn whilst you earn and hopefully get a foot in the door when it finishes.

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Travel-Barry@reddit

I genuinely think over-qualification is a thing and an actual hindrance these days. I got to the final two of a dream job last year — the interviewers were even comfortable enough telling me this and that my CV more than exceeds what they’re after in a candidate. They chose the other person.

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Incandescentmonkey@reddit

When my son was younger we used to help him complete the on line questionnaires. But our responses showed too much initiative. When my son completed alone he always got an interview. In retail jobs you can’t go into it , if the manager thinks you’re challenging their position

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Loud_Fisherman_5878@reddit

It is hard when you don’t know if you are getting ignored due to racism or not. You could try sending out identical(ish) CVs with your own name and with a very english name and see if you get a difference in responses. Not sure what you can really do with the information though as they will always claim it is due to some other tiny difference between your CVs and it might actually be worse knowing…

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Goingcrazy5987@reddit

I hear you. I have a masters and a decade of experience with global brands and I can’t get a job. It’s an absolute shit show. I’ve applied for more than 20 jobs (that I’m completely qualified for) in the past few weeks and it’s just rejection after rejection. It’s so difficult.

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Little_Werewolf6094@reddit

I want to assure you as someone who hired someone in last year and got bombarded with applicants, not everyone will be bias about ethnicity I had thousands of applicants from all around the world so ended up having to script something to check for keywords in the CV because reviewing them all was impossible CV is what sells you and I had to prioritise hitting those keywords to get a top 50 to review I can’t speak for retail but definitely get someone to check your CV

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i-love-rum@reddit

Change your CV to have less experience

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Far-Ad-6179@reddit

More companies are supporting anonymised CVs, because recruitment bias based on name is a thing. They've done studies. Tesco is an example of a company that anonymises names in CVs.

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syllo-dot-xyz@reddit

Have you considered applying to something other than retail? The job market is a bloodbath for entry-level, but that's not to say you can increase your chances by switching it up. Even reach out to old businesses you prev worked for, or ask people you worked with if they know anyone else looking for a worker and if they can vouch for you. It may seem odd at first, but people appreciate when people get out there and try to make things happen by just ASKING. If you're not on linkedin, get on linkedin, particularly if you fancy a white-collar/office position. Don't compare yourself to friends, half of getting your first job is a bit of luck as well as grinding it out past the point you feel like giving up. So it will just be dissapointing comparing, you have another few decades to work... > The only conclusion I can draw is my brown-sounding name So many retailers are managed by british asians, so I highly doubt this is a blanket conclusion worth drawing. That's not to say racism doesn't exist, I work in sales and have seen abhorrent discrimination in SOME places, and for most places I've worked at asian/black people have a "business name" to sound whiter over the phone to clients.

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TheDoctorsVinyl@reddit

Maybe your CV needs a fix up. Your qualities can be great and still come across as bad if done wrong

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cmdr_sparks@reddit

So one imp tip \* Check your CV , CV is the first thing you are selling yoir skills \* Read the job discription and make sure those requirement things are in your CV sometimes you will need to twick your experience language to match requirement on CV \* Join some recruitment agency \* Get connect to recruitment agents via linked in \* Update your linked in profile with title looking for work, youcan your contact to share your status Good Luck sharing one incident so you dont feel you are alone I work for specialist job in aviation , once i was out of work and i applied 80 places before i secure my next job

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Cold_Top_1354@reddit

Keep looking don’t give up you’ll find something then you’ll wonder why was I stressing so much

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Thread-Hunter@reddit

I don't think it's your ethnicity. The job market is generally quite tough at the moment across all sectors, not only retail. When you say retail jobs do you mean blue collar or white collar jobs? If it's the former then it's likely even more difficult.

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stuntedmonk@reddit

Um. Perhaps your skill set but why retail? Bad hours. Bad pay. Would you not be better off looking at a different sector?

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