Touch Typing

[ancelotti]

You're really a girl aren't you! Does your boss get you to sit on his knee.

I'd sit on your knee anytime. <3

[Dragontao]

 

Erm, well, ah, no you're all right. Wouldn't want to deprive you boss now would I.

Besides which, you might rethink that if you saw me lol.

 

[harv]

Well I reckon that you're all making up these results or typing with two or three fingers and cheating lol

Am seeing my doctor tomorrow so will get her to have a look at my Dupuytren's, don't think I'm too far away from having surgery as an option. Don't want to leave it too late like my Dad did because the only surgery that he got offered wasn't correctional - they basically said they wanted to amputate 6 of his fingers

He can only use his thumb and pointy finger on each hand and the other three are curled up into his palms and are VERY painful.

[harv]

Whoops! Turns out my appointment wasn't today it's tomorrow

That's one of the side effects of my depression, I tend to get my dates mixed up

[Dragontao]

Don't get your dates mixed up, they get very upset when you call them by the wrong name.

[chelseachelsea]

Whoops!  I tend to get my dates mixed up

So, that's why I received my Christmas Card, on March 25th...

[harv]

Lol

Here's a bit of trivia. If you leave predictive text on by mistake and try and type the first L in Lol it says 'Kill'

[jman]

Yup, well said drags. I haven't been in a Job Center for a good few years but whenever I've been unemployed they've NEVER been instrumental in my finding a job. I always go through agencies and get plenty of interviews and opportunities that way. And I was almost always the only white English person in there, including the staff. I've also found that being a white Englishman has gotten me more than my fair share of grief from black Africans working there for some reason. But of course black people can't be racist...

Unfortunately people that are working for their local councils that do a decent job aren't there for long, every now and then you getpsomeone that's willing to bend over backwards to help you out but then I guess they get better offers from elsewhere and then are inevitably replaced by someone who goes out of their way to make things difficult for you.

I got a job through a job centre once.. it was a shit manual labour job, but it was a job I snapped up, because being unemployed for 13 weeks was more than enough for me.. If your going to a job centre and are going to be picky about the job you choose, then they wont be instrumental in finding you a job.. if there is any fault to be blamed there, it isn't with the job centre I'm afraid. 

You always said you could easily stroll into a job with Sony with help from your mate... the fact he got made redundant makes me think he has absolutely zero power in getting anyone a job, he couldn't even save his own one lol.

[Dragontao]

I got a job through a job centre once.. it was a shit manual labour job, but it was a job I snapped up, because being unemployed for 13 weeks was more than enough for me.. If your going to a job centre and are going to be picky about the job you choose, then they wont be instrumental in finding you a job.. if there is any fault to be blamed there, it isn't with the job centre I'm afraid. 

That's not what I'm talking about JMAN. Their staff tell you to apply for jobs that you won't get. Such as when they say "here apply for this job" and I say "I don't have the essential criteria/experience for that job". They say "apply for it anyway". I say "the application will be sifted out straight away". This is a real example. Speak to many HR departments who are inundated with applications. They have a hard enough time weeding out those who are bullshitting on their apps, so any who clearly don't have the essential criteria will be chucked out in the first tranche.

Many employers get fed up with the job centre getting candidates to apply for jobs who are clearly not right for the post. That is a fact. I have spoken to a fair few employers about it. Many departments where I work now don't like having anything to do with the job centre because of it. On numerous occasions they have taken people on who are a waste of space and clearly only there to enable them to continue the farce of pretending to be looking for a job and being willing to work. It is why very few employers advertise quality jobs with the job centre, despite the fact it would be cheaper than using an agency or advertising elsewhere. They get enough applications to sift through without the job centre wasting their time.

The system makes it worse for people who are unemployed because a fair few employers think that if people are sent by the job centre they are applying because they have to, not because they want to.
That is not what employers want. They know full well that someone overqualified is likely to be looking to move on to a better/better paid job as soon as they can.

The job centre/Department of Works and Pensions are the same and total hypocrites about it. I got a job I found at the job centre as I was willing to take any job while I was looking for something better. It was with the Department of Works and Pensions (if they hadn't given it to me, next time they started moaning I'd have said "well if you didn't want to employ me, why should anyone else"). It was shit money. Less than national minimum wage for my age as it turned out when, after I'd left, they sent me a grovelling letter of apology (marvellous the DWP breaking the law like that eh!). Not surprisingly it wasn't my intention to stay there (apart from the fact it was a shit job and totally soul destroying).

So I was already applying for other jobs. Second day there I got offered an interview for a job which paid three times as much for 4 days a week. Asked for time off for an interview and the manager said "if you're going to look for other jobs, you can either leave or we'll sack you". I basically told her she could poke her job then and proceded to tell her what a complete and utter bunch of hypocritical morons they are. If she'd been a bloke I'd have probably punched her. Did she really think that, with 2 degrees and a load of other qualifications I was really going to stay there on less than minimum wage for any period of time just because I fed them the bullshit they wanted to hear at an interview. That is what most other employers don't want to happen.

They are happy to foist people onto other employers, just to improve their stats. Don't like it when it happens to them. The system iteself is poor. It doesn't help the unemployed who genuinely want to work and is actuallly counter-productive for many.

While I was unemployed, I was doing voluntary work. They threatened to stop jobseekers allowance because of it (probably because the Government weren't getting kick backs from Supermarket bosses for free shelf stackers). Yet the reference I got from that voluntary work got me a job because it was relevant to what I wanted to do.

The system is failing and clearly needs a major review and revamp.

They'd be better off getting properly trainined staff, with an understanding of HR, and an understanding and empathy with what employers are looking for. If they did that, they'd get better quality jobs advertised with them, gain faith from more employers, be better at matching people with jobs and, very importantly, it would make it easier to weed out and deal with those who really don't want to work.

[AVFCRoss]

Job centres are a waste of space, the motivation of your average attendee to get up every friday morning is to collect their dole money and sod off with it.

I totally appreciate there are plenty of people out there who genuinely want to work, yet can't get employment for one reason or another, but I also believe that people are way too picky, and use the cushion of jobseekers as a convenience to holding back and waiting for something better to pop up.

I also believe Job centres encourage laziness, and take away the willpower from people to find work...You need to make people more pro-active and independant, in order to make them realise that they can't have others throwing CV's around for them for the rest of their life...Have sessions where people learn about the fundamentals of CV writing and interview technique...The approach of throwing it at a wall and seeing what sticks stinks of desperation and lacks direction.

When I came out of University, I barely had people even respond to my CV, let alone offer me an interview, despite the fact I have done numerous placements at Uni and varying degrees of voluntary work. Employers want solid working experience and a track record of good results...I spent about 5/6 months chucking my CV around and getting nothing in return, but I eventually decided to just go for anything...It didn't matter what is was, but I eventually got a bite, and even though it was a pretty basic admin job with a slight element of sales/customer meeting and greeting, it was experience I felt I needed, and when I decided to move on, I applied to jobs that I then felt matched my new found experience and skill set, and got a job with 3 weeks, along with 5 interviews during that same time period...I even had the luxury of being able to make a choice and turn down an offer.

The point is, I did it all for the sake of experience, and when I stopped being picky I found results...It wasn't ideal and it was quite a boring job with shite pay (Minimum wage at the time of about £6.30 and no bonuses), but it made me realise you have to take a step back before you take one forward sometimes, and now I'm doing something I enjoy which pays well (£7.50 an hour and average commission of around £350-500 per month), allows me to work with a great team and looks good on a CV, and all I really had to mine name originally wasn't too much more than most unemployed people who are still on the market.

Oppurtunities are what you make of them...They don't just fall of your doorstep...Get out the job centre and grasp the initiative...When I wasn't working I would literally wake up, get on the computer, apply for jobs and read articles on how to improve your CV and brush up on interview techniques, go to bed, and then start again the next day...There's no drive with job centres, because people are reliant on others to do things for them and just fob off the jobs that don't suit them.

It's not about lack of opportunities at all...A good mate of mine, his first ever job straight out of school was door to door selling...Really tough job, would come home from 10 hour days making next to fuck all on some occassions, but he had the will to work and drive to better himself, and he's now an assistant manager at a 3 store in Birmingham earning almost 2k after tax, because he worked his bollocks off doing shit jobs instead of deciding he couldn't be arsed and ending up back in the job centre next monday.

[jman]

Back on the subject of typing.. I made the most expensive typo last night... booked a few flights for next year.. but on one of the flights (I was doing it in a hurry I must add) I spelt my girlfriends last name incorrectly... cost me £25 to fucking change... 

[styles]

Bit late with the advice Jman but a similar error happened with me when i made an error booking a flight.  Because I phoned them straight away they could see it was a genuine mistake and changed it for free.