I run CV Clinics a couple of times a month and yesterday was invited to a Job Centre (location won’t be named to spare blushes, but it is in Wales) to help some people with their CVs.
You may know that I offer professional CV writing on a commercial basis so this was a way of giving back a little and also exploring opportunities within the Public Sector in Wales.
I went with a client (who can facilitate funding through various Government funded schemes to help people newly or recently made redundant) so admittedly, we went with a view to exploring commercial opportunities as well as offering people genuine help.
Arriving well in time for our scheduled appointment, chaos ensued. We had agreed to help ten to twenty of their “serious” clients, i.e. those who genuinely wanted to get a job and were facing obstacles.
Apart from having to wait, being passed from person to person several times on arrival, having to go up and down four flights of stairs more than once, the person who was supposed to meet us failing to appear, we finally were confronted with about 20 Job Centre Clients, most of whom were there against their will and clearly not knowing what to expect.
Of course I did my best but the whole session was nothing short of a disaster. Not because we weren’t prepared, we were, but the people there simply did not know why we were there, many had no CV at all (even though we arranged previously for the Job centre to arrange for them to bring one with them so we could get them right.
I’ll help anyone and the people who attended were in the main, co-operative and wanted to be helped. What I cannot comprehend is that hard pushed public services were being offered something that genuinely could help them and they couldn’t have cared less.
Do I want to help? Of course. Will I bother again? Certainly not. It wasn’t the fault of the attendees, it certainly was the fault of the people who run the Job Centre, clueless is not putting too fine a point on it.
Author: Glenn Hughes
I’m a professional CV writer who also writes website content, LinkedIn profiles, helps people with bespoke job applications and more. I’ve been writing for the internet since 2009 and have many published articles.
No Comment