Son looking for job.

[digisatman]

Hi all,

I have always been self-employed, so unable to offer much advice to my son, who is a student looking for a part-time job. He has tryed searching online and job centres, but unable to find something suitable.

He is thinking of cold-calling a few places, but unsure as to how to approach, and who to talk to.

Any advice, to sort my son out with a decent job in Glasgow? A job thats IT related, office admin or call centre etc.

Thanks,

Digi

 

[andy_k]

he is a student looking for a part time job so without knowing any more details than that and not wishing to offend you........

Any job he is offered should be suitable, unless I'm mistaken, he's not looking for a career is he?

When it comes to the time he is searching for his full time job the fact that he was willing to work at any level rather than sit around waiting for the "ideal job" would look much better on his CV.

Around here, the students work for McDonalds or Tesco - not much choice really but at least they are working

Andy

 

[pammy]

Have to agree with Andy - by all means let him look for something more in his preferred line - but at this stage any job should be suitable

Tell him to try the local supermarkets - they're great for students. Other than that he needs to simply write loads of letters enclosing his CV to all the places he thinks would offer what he classes as suitable work. He can still be doing this while working anywhere - but working and doing something means he's gaining a reference which is better than "well I'm waiting for the right job to come along"

Hope that doesn't sound too critical - it's not meant to be.

 

[Kompressor_Dude]

I'm a student (graduate next tuesday though!!!) and i had the same problem paying my way through uni. Best thing to do is go to temping agencies in the area. Mine are all labouring agencies, so i tell them which days im free and will head off and be a drivers mate or move office furniture for a day its interesting and keeps the money coming in.

I agree that the kind of positions he's looking for arent really part-time options, yet there are office admin. temping agencies around. Not sure about glasgow but Adecco, Pertemps and Manpower are the major ones round here.

Failing that follow the above advice and get printing some CV's to hand out!

Cant recommend agencies enough though: flexible, different every day and really sort your confidence out - every day you're the new guy and have to learn new things and meet new people!

 

[Dieselman]

Cant recommend agencies enough though: flexible, different every day and really sort your confidence out - every day you're the new guy and have to learn new things and meet new people!

And if you're any good you get loads of work from them.

Someone I know chose to do temp work for a while. He ended up working day and night and getting loads of perm offers from the companies he was going to.
Didn't want to go perm as it didn't siut his lifestyle.

 

[Kompressor_Dude]

Same here, lots of offers and you get to a point where you can pick what work you do and dont want

There's always the option to increase your hours (holidays) or decrease them (exams) too..... well worth looking into.

Main advice if he does go for it would be to build a rapport with the guy getting him work, a chat about the weekends football can see you working for the entire following week!

Anyway, should go to sleep really - im delivering flour for my temping-agency at 5am tomorrow morning!

 

[gina2201]

Sounds like a good idea, being so flexible.

I started out babysitting and then working on a local farm, then supermarket and riding school, whatever was going really! I would tend to agree that (almost) anything is better than nothing, just to have some previous experience. Whilst also looking for a better job/placement.

Good Luck

I'm up at 5am too, regular job though

 

[PJH]

Any advice, to sort my son out with a decent job in Glasgow? A job thats IT related, office admin or call centre etc.

Digi

Fuzzer is in Glasgow and works in Networking. Could he help you ?

 

[comports]

Hi All,

Great advice and I could not agree more. When I was 13 I got job gardening for guy round the corner from me. Not much - Sweeping leaves and crap, cutting grass and hedges but moved on from there after 2 years of every Sat morning. (and it payed me some good pocket money..!) I then went onto a temp agency and got loads of varying work. Drivers mate, plasterers mate etc etc..

It really helped when I decided on career. Even though I had no experience in the job I went for, my work to date showed the firm I was willing and happy to get off my bum and put some effort into whatever it was.

I'm now self employed (last 12 years) and can pick n choose what I do.

It's hard to start with for a youngster but good luck.

 

[television]

I am too from the old school where I did anything to get started, and it did not matter what it was.

Though I have been self employed from 1952 my sons both took off into IT and they are both self employed.

With my first job in an engineering works, I was so eager to learn, I got to use all of the machine tools that set me up for life. Just talking to my local garage where they have these work experience schemes, one lad there would not scrape off some under seal, as he said it made his arms ache

 

[stats007]

Bar work is always uselful at university - keeps you the other side of the bar for a start!

I worked for tech services and got involved with setting up bands which led to a few years in event production and touring.

 

[fuzzer]

Fuzzer is in Glasgow and works in Networking. Could he help you ?

AS much as id like to , we have no external positions at the moment

Id also say to go down the agency route for the reasons above. He needs something quite flexable.

 

[Alps]

Agree with all thats said, calling doesnt work, and actually irritates employers. Agency would be your best route!

 

[CAT220]

I've dealt with Search recruitment in Glasgow quite a few times and found them to be quite good also T mobile always seem to be looking for people...

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/personal/pages.do/corpinfo/careers/jobsearch/landing

Although as mentioned above you cant go wrong with Bar work.

Whats your son studying and what years he in? We take in IT students here over the summer. So if thats his line then let me know and i'll speak to HR.

Cheers,
C

 

[Rory]

call centre etc.

I thought call-centres were always looking for people?

 

[gina2201]

Outbound call centres maybe, not so sure about inbound so much!

 

[Kompressor_Dude]

Agreed. Prospecting by phone is likely to get you little except rejection. To employ fairly companies have to go through proper processes so the chances are slim, better finding out where the companies advertise (Uni job-shops, agencies, job centre etc.) and starting there.....

Good luck! I'm off to bed again.......... that flour was heavy

 

[ollya]

I was in the same boat and relatively new to the area so no contacts to rely on. I approached my school to get a list of all the companies that took work experience people on and did the same from the other school in the town. Within a few days of calls and interviews I had a job at £5 and hour with about 3 or 4 hours a week overtime at double time working in engineering workshop rebuilding book binding machinery. Great job and considering this was mid nineties it was good money too.

Before that I did gardening - that brought in a decent bit of packet money too. Do not ...I repeat do not...get stuck in a factory job - it sucks the life out of you...better not to do anythign and read books in the sun than do that cr*p....I did it aged 16 and got so brain dead I had a hard time at school when I went back

 

[digisatman]

thanks for all the help so far, he has applyed a few places, but they all seem to shut the door when they find out that he is at uni and starts end of sept. He doesnt want to do temp working from agencies, that call up with different jobs reguarly, looking for some kind of call centre/ office job that he can do over the summer.

Anyone have any reccomendations for employers, (in glasgow paticurly), who take on students over the summer easily?

Thanks,

 

[pammy]

I think he's being too limiting in what he's prepared to do. He needs, as do you, to decide what's important - earning some money, getting a reference and work experience or waiting for that silver platter that might never come with the job with his name on it?

If temp agencies give him the work then what's wrong with it? It might not be what he wants but how many of us are fortunate enough to be able to pick and choose the job that we want? tbh I think he needs to get his head out of the clouds and get back down to earth.