Day 3

I have been keeping myself busy filling in job applications and going through the stages of getting a job again. I have learned that employers recruitment processes vary and the expectations for the candidates can be different too. Basically the interviews an come in all different forms I have listed some examples of one's I have been through below:

1. Competency based - where you are asked questions to evaluate your competency for the role.

2. Panel Interview - where there is more than interviewer present and they may cross-reference you during their question time.

3. Phone Interview - which is the initial first step for some recruitment processes and gives them a chance to hear your speech, how you come across and your use of language. This tends to apply to a job that will involve using phones such as a call centro or customer advisor. 

4. Video Interview - this is an interesting and modern, digital technique of interviewing and gives the employer a window to see how you look, how you come across and speak. All you need is a laptop with a webcam and a microphone.

Preparing for interviews

In my lifetime I have had around ten interviews which is not a great amount but if I have been offered a job at the end I've always said yes. What I have learned from each interview is that if you fail to prepare you prepare to FAIL. Shortly after I finished university I was asked to go to London to work with CNN and would have been a great opportunity for my journalism career if I had done my homework and more preparation. I may have made the journey down there but i knew myself during the interview that I wasn't equipped , not with skills or education but with lack of know how and how to answer competency based questions.

• If you are asked competency based questions be confident and sell your strong points backing them up with clear examples to prove your competency. 

• If you are expected to carry out a phone interview sit in a chair like you would in a real interview with your CV in front of you or laptop with your CV pulled up and focus on your strengths and the skills that you have learned from your previous roles. 

With interviews mind and be early, give a firm and friendly handshake and look like you are ready to be hired - dress smart!

Day 2

Boredom is starting to set in, a feeling I'm not used too. I usually like to live a relatively busy life with social and volunteering activities as well as holding down a full-time job. 

So to fill my days apart from updating this e-diary I am brushing up on my interview skills reading Succeeding at Interviews in a week by Alison Straw and Mo Shapiro.  

Also being reunited with old friends Holly and Phil on This Morning which I put on the background something I have not done since I left University and the job hunt for a graduate and/or full time work began. I am fully aware of the process of updating my CV and writing countless cover letters that I feel my next calling could be to become a careers advisor. 

  

Day 1

Age: 24
Employment Status: unemployed, actively looking.

This is the first time I have found myself in this position in life, with going to the job center the main event in my day. In a workplace one day and signing on the next, typical day for many young people in Scotland.

I was fortunate enough after school to go to college and university and educate myself, graduating in 2014 with an honours degree in journalism. I have always worked since my national insurance number was issued and my parents told me I would have to work to support myself.

That's when my work ethic was born.

Its writing that what I would say I do best, hence why I am sharing my experience of my recent employment situation online through this blog.
I want to help others that are in the same boat as me and have found themselves out of work for the first or another time in their life.

I understand we now live in the age where zero-hour contracts are considered normal and temporary contracts are what some people are expected to work on. There's always that uncertainty that your contract can be terminated and you will find yourselves back at square one, job hunting and putting off future plans. That's what 2016 has been like for me, I left a good job as a Clerical Assistant to work for a private company on the basis of permanent work and was paid off after a three month probation period. If you're permanent in a job you like then you're one of the lucky ones our current economically challenged society.
However, for me and others the search for a career path or job you enjoy and wish to progress in with seems at times a thing of the past.