Jobseeker advice and tips for the newly unemployed

Thought that I would write this article, try and give some advice to others that I've come across during my job search. Grammar isn't my strong point sorry, so apologies for any errors.

I welcome any advice/tips from anyone. If there's more you want to add, or clarify any points, please feel free to let me know. I'm no expert. Just want to try and help others who are in more critical situations.

One thing is certain with the Covid pandemic wherever you are, the economy is suffering. More people will be losing their jobs, and stress will be rising. You will be facing more and more competition, and your prospects for finding a job seem less and less likely.

Here are some notes I made which I think you should consider when it comes to jobseeking, or general advice if you find yourself without a job/soon will be or think it may become a possibility in the current climate. I feel this could be useful to someone.

I haven't tried going into too much detail on these, more just pointers for people to research if they feel it would be useful.

Action Plan / Income Analysis

To me, I feel this is the most important thing you need look at in terms of priority before you start jobseeking.

The longer your jobsearch continues, and the less savings/income you have; the more stressed you will become. When we are stressed, we do not think logically, our decisions become irrational. This then leads to making poor choices and mistakes which cost us financially or mentally long term.

It is better to spend one day, thinking clearly and rationally before you start jobseeking, you need to thoroughly look at your finances, expenditure, and current plan of action. This will help you know your position and helps give you timescales to work against.

Since no job = no income. You are going to need to take a summary of all your expenses, your current income (if any), any potential income and then plan out how long it will last. After this, you can look at what can be sacrificed in order to help your finances last longer.

Obviously the more time the better. Try and plan for 3-6 months ahead to weather the storm. Make use of payment holidays and any reductions you can get. The more you plan, the more you can calculate it.

Some things to think of:

1. Do you have any savings?
2. Can you cut back on any outgoing expenses?
3. What are you outgoing expenses?
4. Have you planned out your finances to know when they will run out?
5. Have you made use of all potential holidays, or temporary pauses?
6. Can you sign up to anything to increase your skills and make you more appealing?
7. Can you find another source of income (eBay, Universal Credit, etc)?

You may be lucky enough that you will find a job within a week of searching. That's great, if not; don't be surprised. I personally wasn't expecting to find another job until 2021, through previous knowledge of jobseeking, the current climate and knowing the volatility of my sectors of knowledge. I know when they tend to slow down. Plus, because of the current pandemic, there is lots more competition when it comes to jobseeking. So multiple people will apply for the same roles.

As the search continues, you become more and more stressed. You need to have a plan of action read so that you can give yourself some targets, or a breakdown of information so you know your month on month financials. This will help you stay mentally strong when the going gets tough (and it will).

Curriculum Vitae / Resume

Most employers/recruiters are going to ask for a CV of some sort when applying for jobs.It's important to make sure it's up to date, the less accurate it is, the more undesireable you become. As it's not selling you to them. If you are unsure how to write a CV, there's plenty of advice available on Google, LinkedIn. You just need to search for it.

Some quick pointers:

• Re-upload your CV each week to your chosen jobsites. This is because recruiters/employers search for new uploads (which suggest new jobseekers). It tricks the system into making you look new rather than someone who's been hunting for months
• Go through your CV, make sure it's up to date, highlights your strengths and key skills
• If you have no skills writing CV. Consider looking up examples on Google for ideas. If you don't feel confident do this, ask a friend to assist you. Alternatively, you can hire a professional CV writing service to create the CV for you to help you with your search.

Networking

Make use of sites like LinkedIn for the abundance of connections it offers. There are plenty of recruiters, experts and people in the same situation as yourself who are happy to connect with you.

Networking allows you to access the hidden jobs market too by building connections.

The more people that find jobs, the faster you get into jobs. So don't think "me, me, me". If you can help someone else, do it. You feel better about yourself, and all it takes is 1 person you help to help you back. There's no point ignoring others when it comes to helping with jobs. The economy grows quicker this way. Which in turn creates more jobs.

When it comes to connections, try and build a good base. Whilst Quality > Quantity, also having a number of connections helps to get you more exposure.

Generally people with a Green Circle (Open to Work) #ONO on their profile are usually happy to click connect if you send it. My suggestion would be to focus your network on people in your own area as they're the most likely people you will be talking to.

Whilst your are building the network, focus on growing it. Connect with Recruiters, as they can help you find work, and people relevant to the sectors you work in. Also search for general interests that you have. I don't think there's anything specific here, the aim is just to grow your network. The more exposure you have the better.

Eventually when your network grows, people tend to send you connections.

Make sure your profile is up to date, and reflects your work history. You have space to fill in information so use it, more information means more ways to find you during a search.

Advice

You can use sites like Money Saving Expert to get advice on almost anything. If you're spending a fortune on something like Shopping, go here. They can give you recipes or ideas to save it and reduce your outgoings further.

Financials / Bills

Seperate your bills into Priority/Non-Essential, and also make use of any payment holidays being offered by your providers/lenders. This will give you some breathing room to work with and help you out financially in the coming months.

The priority bills are the important ones, that you need to live off and can't do without, or risk landing you in further trouble if you don't pay them. These are the ones that should always be prioritised first. Examples:

1. House/Mortgage
2. Council Tax
3. Gas/Electric/Water
4. Shopping Bills
5. HPI
6. Court Fines
7. TV Licenses
8. Telephones

The Non-Esssential bills, are generally the lesser bills where you owe money to someone. Normally these are in the forms of lenders/loans and credit cards.

When it comes to bills, if you can afford to cancel it without charges, and it's not important. I'd consider cancelling it. Cancelling a telephone/internet/tv license could save you ￡60+ per month, but at the same time. You may find this a way of relaxing and destressing by catching up on films or using it for your job search. Just some thoughts, this is ultimately your own choice based on your needs.

Debts

If you have debts/credit cards. Consider working on a "pro-rata" payment system with your lenders. This pays your lenders a contribution based on what you owe as a percentage of the total amount and your debt balance. It's useful as it takes into account your available income and what you can afford. The pro-rata method treats all lenders fairly, because it gives them all a share of the money you can afford based on how much you owe each lender. The more you owe the better their share

You would also write to the lenders asking them to freeze interest/charges.

Instead of paying ￡400 per month on loans, if you only have ￡100 of disposable income, you then only pay ￡100 per month on loans. Which then saves you ￡300 each month financially until you recover. This will affect your credit rating due to not paying the full amount, but it looks better on you financially, because you're making an effort to continue with payments.

If you can't afford anything whatsoever, consider a "token payment".

Bank Accounts

If you have a loan or credit card (which at least 20-30% of the population probably do), and still owe the money. Sooner or later, without a job you're going to have problems, and your lenders will come chasing for money.

Consider this if you are going to sign onto something like Universal Credit. Creating a NEW bank account, that isn't registered against any of your lenders. This is why:

Most people tend to get loans with their existing providers due to better APR offered. The problem is, because they effectively control your bank account. They have access to all your funds. When you stop paying them, the banks can "set-off", when you don't pay them what they want.

This is a terminology used when they settle their own interests to clear your debts that you owe. This is a general right which all banks/lenders have. If you have a bank account with only ￡200 left in it. Great that ￡200 was the money you budgeted for your shopping this month, you go to withdraw the money "sorry, lack of funds".

Guess what, because you only paid ￡50 towards your bank loan, the bank set off and claimed the other ￡250. Not only is your account overdrawn, you also have charges to pay.

You're now in financial difficulty. Very stressed and the bank seemingly don't care about your mental health or what troubles it is causing you. Banks are normally meant to take things like this into consideration, you will generally find however that this is quite open to interpretation to them.

By setting up a NEW bank account, you can bypass this problem, because then you can make sure the money paid is in your new accounts and not the existing ones. You can then setup new direct debits. The lenders won't like you, and you can probably expect letters/phone calls, but it's the best solution to help you financially as they can't take money from an account they don't own.

Make sure however that if you create a new account, it's not a bank/lender or part of the same group of companies that operate together under the same license who you are currently with. As this means they still have access to your money and can set off.

EXAMPLE: If you have a loan with Lloyds, a bank account with Halifax and credit card with Santander. Then do not create new bank accounts with them. You would sign up for someone like HSBC for example. If you had used cahoot then Santender are part of the same group and would be able to set-off your account. Go with a completely seperate bank that is linked to none of them.

That way you can control all the money, and still be in control of the outbound payments. The lenders won't be happy, they want their money, but this is about protecting your own finances. Lenders are regulated by the FCA, so by using the pro-rata system it's seen as fair towards them. Which looks better if you get taken to court by any of them.

Obviously if you get a job, then restart the payments. It helps your credit rating and gets them off your back. This advice is only meant to be for a short term solution because I don't know how long things will get back to normal with the current pandemic.

Universal Credit / Additional Income

If you're in the UK, one possible option to consider is Universal Credit.

You can use sites like Entitled To to find out how much you can claim, or what benefits you can receive.

As a note, if this is something you want to do. Start your claim immediately, it takes 5 weeks before you receive your first payment. You can receive it straight away if you need, (as an advance) but you need to pay it back out of your future payments like a loan.

Whilst not everyone is happy signing on, or enjoys the experience. It does provide a benefit in a few ways that can help you out in the long term and keep you going financially.

• If you have none, it provides you to a source of income. Even if only basic. A single person over 25 receives ￡409.89 maximum. Plus you can also claim for your Mortgage/Rent if you live in a House.
• Your national insurance is kept up to date. Which is good for retirement as it accrues.
• A lot of college courses become free at basic levels (1 + 2) as jobseekers are usually eligible for them due to no source of income and it provides opportunities to gain skills to get back into work.
• People on benefits get NHS support for free due to low income (Dental Care, Medicinal Prescriptions).
• If you're unemployed you can apply for a council tax reduction. This can be a saving of up to ￡100 per month (or more).

Please note, that when on Universal Credit, there are a couple of things to remember.

(I'm not 100% sure about these two points, just as a note for your own research).

If you have savings between ￡6,000-￡16,000. You will be expected to live off this alongside your Universal Credit income. It normally works on a reduction basis. I believe it's for every ￡250 in savings you have, you lose ￡1 from your Universal Credit allowance. So if you have less than ￡6000 you receive the full amount, anything over this and you start losing a small portion each month. Anything over ￡16k and you won't receive any Universal Credit.

Universal Credit is also different to the old "jobseekers", you are not limited by the number of hours you work. You can work for 16 hours before your earnings are deducted. After this if you work longer than 16 hours per week, then your earnings become tapered.

The taper rate is 63% for every ￡1 earnings over your limit, which is then deducted from your Universal Credit. So if you earned ￡177 more than your Universal Credit, your Universal Credit would be deducted by ￡111.51 and you would receive ￡298.38 as a payment.

> Regarding the taper rate, I'm not fully sure how this works as it didn't exist when I used to job search. Apparently the first 16 hours you work don't affect your Universal Credit earnings. So I assume the taper rate applies to any earnings made after working 16+ hours.

Mental Health

Lastly, your mental health is going to take a toll. There will be days where you are so depressed you feel like giving up, there will be days where you feel worthless. Days where you feel on top of the world. Remember to look after it

Talk to your friends, exercise, walk the dog. Whatever makes you feel happy.

If no one is available, and you feel you need the additional support. Then you can use the below links to find the source that you need for the support.

• www.mind.org.uk - mental Heath charity
• www.citizensadvise.org.uk - support to help you find a way forward
• www.Samhealth.org - Samaritans Heath service

If you want to grow your own network, feel free to connect with me. I'll be happy to connect