Dear Gilbert,

I would like to request to meet up with one of your volunteer career  coach  to review my resume and  to discuss the difficulties  encountered while seeking re-employment.

In brief, I have been jobless for more than a year and  unable to secure a job. I have been to a few interviews but always ended up unsuccessful. Nowadays, recruitment consultants who called me for those jobs that I applied online will not consider me upon  hearing my long period of unemployment.

I am  perturbed as if  this continues, my unemployment record  will lengthen not due to my capability or  inability to perform the job responsibilities listed  but because of   the fact that no one is willing to employ me for reasons beyond my understanding.

Right at this  moment, I have also make the following  observations:

 1) Why must company HR outsources  the recruitment tasks to external parties  (i.e. recruitment agencies)?

 I feel a lot of them is not professional and do not know how to match  the right candidates to  the required job profile. For example,  if there is a job opening for  ”Unix Engineer”, some consultants  will match word by word based on whatever  that is indicated on the resume -  job title,  job responsibilities, etc. For someone who is familiar with   industrial profiling, they  will know that candidates who  are experienced  in “Linux”  have  similar skillsets as a “Unix Engineer”  and these are also   transferable skills.

Gilbert – I do agree that agency consultants merely want to close a deal and lack alot of the soft skills that you have mentioned. Most of them are also rather young and may not have the necessary experience to job match properly. That is probably why I have never really encourage our guys to depend solely on recruitment agents.  You can view the vacancies listed by the agencies and get an idea what are the current industrial  vacancy trend but never depend on them to help you get employment. You will be grossly disappointed!

 2) Some recruitment consultants refuse my application due to my prolonged unemployment record and mentioned that their client (employer) will question  why this guy is jobless for so long. I am puzzled why  that happens  as most people will know the difficult  job market  since end 2008. It is as if I want to stay unemployed for so long!

Gilbert – This is a valid statement by the employment agents as if you are jobless for more than a year, employers will start to wonder whether that guy is medically fit to work or have other side  issues. It is good thus to find some part-time work to fill up that empty slot in the resume. It also shows that he  is still active working  away while looking for a more permanent job. It also reflects positively on him.

 3) There are job applications which I applied online and despite the  employer viewing  my resume 10 times, I received no calls from them. I wonder what are the concerns of the employer? (Let’s say I am confident I match  most of the job requirements listed).

Gilbert – I can’t comment here as I did not see the online job  advertisement mentioned, sorry.

I would appreciate if you could email me once the  appointment is fixed. Really appreciate your kind help and assistance.

Regds

Peter (name changed)

NB: Peter has met up with our volunteer career coach Helen.

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