The Isle of Wight’s first Lloyds No1 Bar opened on Friday, November 13 creating more than 30 new jobs.
JD Wetherspoon, the Pub operator has refurbished the former Chicago Rock Cafe and called it The William Coppin.
30 jobs have already been filled and further applications are still being considered.
Every week we hear about employers turning away hundreds, if not thousands of applicants for each role they have. Registering with job boards and applying to well publicised adverts is fine, but it has never been more important to be able to access the hidden job market.
It makes sense to step back and double check your job hunting activity. This may require tackling uncomfortable truths but will lead you to understand how to access the elusive hidden job market.
1. First and foremost, don’t follow the herd. Only applying for advertised positions is a safe way of prolong your unemployment agony. Look for organisations that are swimming against the tide, or niche sectors that are doing well.
2. Get out there. Meet recruitment consultants, go to events and seminars, meet friends and ex-colleagues ALL face to face – it’s no good poking them on facebook, or tweeting them, giving a status update of how much tv you’re watching just won’t do it! A job search conducted sitting at a screen will always be low energy and normally produce poor results. Jobsites can occupy your time, but unless you have a technical specialism, or have access to regionally specific roles like you find on this site, you are unlikely to get results more than 5% of the time due to sheer volumes. Success in the hidden job market comes when someone remembers you when you’re not in the room so make an impression by meeting people in person.
3. Once you get the attention of a recruitment consultant they offer an invaluable service: put you forward for jobs, tell you about unadvertised vacancies, advise you on your CV and interviews. And guess what – it’s all for free. How to get the attention of a good, relevant recruitment consultant? Do your research, make your approach targeted, call direct and follow up with your details on email. Most of all, meet face to face and work hard to impress. Too many job-seekers fail at this hurdle due to a sloppy approach, yes they make money from placing you in a role, but they only send their best (in their opinion most likely to get the job) candidates.
4. Make direct approaches to employers. If you want a job in marketing, call up the marketing manager or director. You’ll be surprised how few people bother to do this and if you’re looking to stand out, what easier way? You’ll look pro-active, confident and keen. Whatever technique you use, make sure you are targeted. The cardinal sin of a generic CV / covering letter will not suffice.
5. Whether talking to a recruitment consultant, employer, ex-colleague or friend make sure you can describe what you want to do and what you have to offer. You need to be targeted and specific – an open to all options approach is unlikely to work.
Score your activity against each check point above. If you are delivering on at least 3 of the above, then I’ve every belief you are making enough luck for yourself so that you’ll get your break soon.
The Bank of England have again held the base rate at 0.50%, as they strive to steer the UK economy out of recession with the help of the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
Last month the FSA took an initial step towards this by announcing new proposals that included a ban on Self-Cert Mortgages.
Self-certification mortgages, also dubbed liar loans, accounted for one third of new loans in 2007, or about GBP100 billion of the GBP300 billion loans granted that year.
The FSA argue that mortgages that don’t require any proof of income have been abused during the property boom with many people borrowing more than they could afford to repay. This theory has been backed up by the collapse of Bradford & Bingley and the sale of HBOS to LloydsTSB, both HBOS and B&B were among the biggest self-cert lenders.
Additionally, Platform, one of the few remaining self-cert providers, has announced that it will withdraw from the self-cert market at the end of this week.
David Tweedy, managing director, at Platform, says: “The FSA Mortgage Market review paper has shown that continuing to offer self certification mortgages in its current format is unfeasible and after careful deliberation of the paper, Platform has now taken the decision to withdraw from the self certification market.”
Self Certification Mortgages were designed for workers who have trouble proving their income in a conventional manner such as contractors, freelancers, self employed, and company directors.
Many contractors and freelance workers will now be concerned on how they go about securing a mortgage that takes all of their income into consideration once the expensive self-cert option has been removed.
Reading on the Guardian Money forum many contractors are worried about the proposed ban “Banning self-certification might make nice headlines, but where does that leave those of us who are contractors or self employed?” said Lookingbusy
“I’d love to meet one of these people who borrowed irresponsibly on a self-cert mortgage. I’ve had two self-certs in the past and both times I had to provide detailed accounts and bank statements, pretty much what the FSA says it’s now going to insist on. I also paid a whopping rate of interest,” said Zephirine. “Recent trends in business practice mean vast numbers of people – who would previously have been in long-term employment – now work on short contracts or are classed as self-employed. Mortgage lending has to take account of this.”
Firstly Contractors need to realise that self-cert mortgages were never the only option, in fact Self-Cert’s are an unnecessary and expensive route for a contractor to take.
Any credible contractor specific mortgage broker would never advise a contract worker to take the Self-Cert route. As long as you have a valid contract in place with an end client they should be able to work with senior underwriters to secure you a mortgage based on your contract rate, thereby taking all of your income into consideration.
Specialist contractor mortgage brokers are able to secure mortgages with high street lenders and at high street rates, giving you access to the same whole of market mortgages that are available to borrowers who are able to prove their income in the traditional way.
This article has been published with permission of Contractor Mortgages Made Easy - www.contractormortgagesuk.com
Contractor Mortgages Made Easy are a whole of market mortgage broker who specialise in securing bespoke mortgages for contractors
Tesco Bank is to create 1,000 new jobs in Newcastle. The bank has agreed to establish a customer service centre in the city. Recruitment will start early in 2010 with the first 500 roles.
The new jobs will manage customer sales and service for Tesco Bank’s home and motor insurance customers.
Tesco continues to bring good news to the troubled job industry.
A massive joint venture in the nuclear sector could create 11,000 jobs in the UK’s energy industry.
The joint venture between EON and RWE npower would create 800 permanent jobs and 10,000 temporary jobs during the construction phase over a period of 15 years.
