So I've got a job interview.

FCE2007

Flared trousers and the black sand shoes they will make you wear will look rather fetching

freehub

Dunno if it went good or bad tbh, I was being marked at 2/3 out of 5 on the questions that had numbers on them, and I'm sure 1 = lowest and 5 = highest.

I was struggling to think of much, now I'm at home the stuff I should have said has come out.

I'll hear tomoz or Friday if I get it, the pay is £5.28 an hour, and it's only 7 hours a week + overtime apparently, I must have heard wrong, 7 hours is like one day, maybe he meant 7 hours working in one area, and the rest in another.

secretsqizz

freehub wrote:

Dunno if it went good or bad tbh, I was being marked at 2/3 out of 5 on the questions that had numbers on them, and I'm sure 1 = lowest and 5 = highest.

I was struggling to think of much, now I'm at home the stuff I should have said has come out.

It was for a permanent job, so if I get it, I certainly won't be going to uni, and I consider at my age a job after doing a foundation degree much more valuable than going to uni, then at least it shows I have work experience and I've got some money saved back for when I go to uni.

I'll hear tomoz or Friday if I get it, the pay is £5.28 an hour, and it's only 7 hours a week + overtime apparently, I must have heard wrong, 7 hours is like one day, maybe he meant 7 hours working in one area, and the rest in another.

if it's 7 hours a week, then they are having a laugh.. keep looking for something better, otherwise if it is a full time job, then better than nowt but what I have heard is that Halfords and the group that owns them, doesn't know its arse from elbow at the moment.

westerburk

7 hrs a week? what are you lunch cover? turn up every day for no pay.

Fuck em with there own ratchet wrenches

Ollieda

If its 7 hours a week you've probably applied for a one day a week part time job, i.e. a saturday job.

Did it not say in the job advert what the hours were?

Ben6899

7hrs a week?

Did they ask you what previous toilet cleaning experience you had? Seriously, they're very limited hours Will. I'd look for something else.

scs-racing

Theres three types of hours.

7 hours
15 hours
37.5 hours(ish)

Nearly every part time person is on a 7 hour contract and only a few people are on 15hour contracts but these are usualy previous full timers who had there hours reduced.

If you get the 7 hour contract you normal get lots of over time per week.Most people i know normally work an extra 5-8 hours a week

If you work full time you have to work 3 out of 4 weekends.

With the 7 hour contract if you work the basic hours you may well have to work 4 hours on the weekend and 3 on a week night but then they will probably get you to work more hours after you have been there a few weeks.

Just so you know there's no overtime other than if you work more than 40 hours(that or 38,cant remember) a week.You get payed the same any day of the year (inc bank hols,new years day) but you do get Christmas day off as they are closed then.

Ollieda

I'm only contracted for 5 hours a week with my part time job. Generally if I want more I just ask and there is always plenty more going around!

guinea

Will.

You are thinking of giving up studying to work in Halfords. You went to a job interview dressed like an unfortunate 70s throwback for a position you don't know anything about.

I'm not being funny, but how do you live?

Finish your studies. A qualification in something and not using it is better than 3 years of study and nothing to show for it. You'll be explaining for decades why you dropped out.

Use your next study time to work out what you do actually want from life. If it's working for Halfords, I'm sure you'll get another opportunity.

freehub

The trousers looked ok in the end, dunno why they appeared weird at first.

I've got no actual proper work experience, this is why I think it'd be better doing a year in a job rather than going to uni, into a course, that I perhaps won't like.

freehub

I didn't get it.

He said that the only reason was because of my uncertain future, whether I was going to uni or not, he said the way I turned up was good, in the interview I performed good too.

redddraggon

Go to university, work hard, graduate with a 1st, and then you'll have a better chance of getting a decent job you actually want.

Ben6899

I take it you didn't get the job. Sorry to hear that.

Just a note for the next interview... tell them you see your future with them and don't mention university.

Sometimes we have to tell white lies.

freehub

Well, the thing is, they where interviewing me for a permanent job and they have looked at my CV.

The first paragraph in my CV, under my address was as follows:

I am finishing college at Manchester in July and I am looking for employment throughout the summer holidays in the aim to be more independent with my finances, gain work experience and fund myself for university next year.

So they must have missed it as it clearly states I was expecting to go to uni.


I want to get a part time job when I get back to Manchester, but definitely won't be applying for any until I'm settled in to my course, the reason being, I do not know how I will cope in a university course.

Ollieda

now is a better time than ever to go to uni. you can ride out the "credit crunch" for the next 3 years and get a degree, even if it's a duff course you did it still shows you were able to apply a higher level of studying.

If you want work experience then go for whats known as a "sandwich course" where you do 2 years at uni, do a year in an industry placement then come back for your final year of uni, if you work hard at uni for the first 2 years you can get a good placement.....so after 4 years you'll have a degree and some good work experience. Even if you don't use it later in life it's better to "waste" those years now then get to a point in life where you want it and can't go back and do it.

Oh and if anyone says don't go to uni because its too expensive......their just stupid. Your student loans are not real debt, you pay them back based on earnings and when your on £15k plus. Not like a normal loan where you have to pay back X amount every month, pay check or no pay check. And, unless there are special circumstances, it shouldn't even show up on your credit report.

If you still want to work at Halfords then when you get to uni find a local one and get a part time job to fit round your studies. Prove yourself as a good worker and then after uni you could have a degree, industry placement and a proven track record at halfords and if you wanted to stay with them it shouldn't be too hard to wangle yourself onto a management scheme or something similar.


Your uni might even have a good cycling team you could join and get yourself noticed as a cyclist!

Ollieda

right well all the time i was typing that message you posted your bit which ruled my message pointless lol!!!

If your just looking at part time work in selby to tie you over till september and when uni starts, might I suggest getting a job where you have to deal with customers who are going to cause problems, i.e. working as a waiter or a steward at a racecourse or something like that. It will give you good customer service experience and plenty to talk about in an interview when you get to uni and look for work.

freehub

I'm in the Manchester Wheelers.

The course I am doing is a BSC in BIT (Business Information Technology), I am starting in the second year, the reason being I cannot afford to pay the tuition fees and accommodation in the first year without a student loan, and I'm unable to get a student loan in the first year.

It is a sarnie course, so I'll get placement in my second year, don't know if I will or won't like, I want to work to get a good grade in my first year so that I can get help finding a placement for the second year.

rick_chasey

Ollieda wrote:

Oh and if anyone says don't go to uni because its too expensive......their just stupid. Your student loans are not real debt, you pay them back based on earnings and when your on £15k plus. Not like a normal loan where you have to pay back X amount every month, pay check or no pay check. And, unless there are special circumstances, it shouldn't even show up on your credit report.

It is real debt when they use a ridiculously exagerated way of meauring inflation.

From August this year interest on all student loans rises to 2.5%, which is pretty obscene given the circumstances.

In total my debt increased by almost a thousand pounds just through interest by the time I left university.

Ben6899

Will,

1. I don't agree with going to uni to do a duff course just for the sake of it, but that is just my opinion and I have to respect others'.

2. Take out the bit in your CV about looking for a job to tie you over and help you fund university; that's none of your prospective employer's business. If/when you leave for university a year down the line just tell them you've decided on a change of direction.

Ollieda

Your course doesn't seem like a duff one atall, how come you couldn't get a student loan for the first year. seems a bit odd.

I take it as you've done stuff in college the uni have excepted that it is equivelant to the first year of studies. You shouldn't find the other years too bad then, they will be a step up but not massively.

My point about the uni cycle club is that British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) is a closed scene championships and can only be entered into by uni and college students....it doesn't effect normal crit and TT stuff so you could be in the wheelers and uni team with no problems. Unless the uni team have the money spare they are probably just affliated with a local club in order to do local crits and TTs therefore when they did that stuff you could just race as a wheeler. As for the BUCS stuff, if you are a good cyclist then it's alot easier to get yourself noticed in the BUCS scene than it is on the national scene purely due to the less amount of riders, of course if you want to go elite someday you still have to work your way through the cats.

Rick, i'm not sure when you finished uni but under the new system you only pay 9% of what you earn over £15k. 2% interest for what is esentially an unsecured loan.....seems very good considering normally these can be in excess of 15%. No minimum monthly payment if you're not earning above £15k, no late payment fees, no bailifs on your doorstep if your not paying and no effect to your credit rating.....doesn't seem like normal debt to me. Not sure where you got the 2% interest rate from though, mine is currently at 0% and its going up in septmeber to either BoE base rate + 1 or last March's RPI (4.4%) depends which is lower and at the moment with BoE at 0.5% it could mean that come september, if all is still the same, the rate will only be 1.5%, if you started uni before 98 then your rate should actually be negative! and going up to 4.4% in september.

Of course all of this can change come September with the new gov.....just have to wait and see!

Pokerface

Your CV should document your work experience and skills. Not outline your hopes and dreams.

Kill the opening paragraph - it's not needed.

freehub

If I went for a permanent job to quit like 1 - 2 months later, would the company not be unhappy of me, think I'm a lier, and give me a bad reference?

The reason I cannot get finance for the first year (which I would have preferred to go in), is because, unbeknown to me, SFE (Student Finance England), do not finance students for more than 4 years, and my foundation degree was 2 years.

I don't know if on a placement year, students would usually get any sort of finance from SFE, but if they can, I won't be able to.

Pokerface

If, when you quit, you tell them that you are quitting to go back to school and tell them you lied all along - then maybe they won't want to give you a good reference.

If, when you quit, you tell them the job wasn't right for you or something along those lines, then they will probably give you a decent reference. Assuming you do a good job while there.

People take jobs and quit them shortly after all the time for a variety of reasons. Don't tell them you are a student planning on going back to school and they won't be the wiser. Or do tell them but risk not getting the job.


It's a tough market out there and you have to do whatever you can to get work sometimes.

Kingtut87

Company's very rarely give out bad references - if the do they leave themselves open to defamation lawsuits. The worst they would do is confirm you worked there and not say anything else about you. Good or bad.

Pross

Rick Chasey wrote:

Ollieda wrote:

Oh and if anyone says don't go to uni because its too expensive......their just stupid. Your student loans are not real debt, you pay them back based on earnings and when your on £15k plus. Not like a normal loan where you have to pay back X amount every month, pay check or no pay check. And, unless there are special circumstances, it shouldn't even show up on your credit report.

It is real debt when they use a ridiculously exagerated way of meauring inflation.

From August this year interest on all student loans rises to 2.5%, which is pretty obscene given the circumstances.

In total my debt increased by almost a thousand pounds just through interest by the time I left university.

Is that rises to or rises by? If it is only rising to 2.5% it's hardly obscene for a loan that in many cases can take a long time to be repaid. Wish my mortgage and loan were at 2.5%. It may stop people spending 3 years of their life in Uni just because they don't know what to do with themselves.

Ollieda

freehub wrote:

If I went for a permanent job to quit like 1 - 2 months later, would the company not be unhappy of me, think I'm a lier, and give me a bad reference?

The reason I cannot get finance for the first year (which I would have preferred to go in), is because, unbeknown to me, SFE (Student Finance England), do not finance students for more than 4 years, and my foundation degree was 2 years.

I don't know if on a placement year, students would usually get any sort of finance from SFE, but if they can, I won't be able to.

As for quiting, it doesn't really matter for you as you can always leave it out of future application forms, you don't have to disclose all of your previous employment, companys want it to prove what you have been doing for the past years or as far back as possible to the time you were in full time education. As you're still in full time education you don't really need to disclose any employment historyif you dont want to as you can give reason for what you have been doing, i.e. studying. Obviously this is not the desired way as it suggests you have no experience.....or might be covering up, best to try and end things properly by saying something like suggested before "the job's not for me".

Normal rules on student loans is they will cover you for the length of your degree + 1 year. Technically your foundation degree and main degree should count as two different degrees and you should be able to get full funding for both of them. This is the case for art degrees, most of which require a foundation course, you might want to double check what the case is for your subject. General rule is that you should only have to pay your own tuition fees if you are taking extra time to do your studying beyond what is normal, i.e. re sitting modules that you keep failing.

For your placement year most unis charge reduced fees (normally around 50% or less of the £3k + tuition fee costs for the year) as they are still teaching you - sounds silly but they should normally do checks on you and it covers paperwork costs. You should be able to claim tuition fee loans for this as its part of your course, you might be able to claim maintainance loan / grant but its probably better to try and aim for a paid placement and avoid topping up the ole student loan.

redddraggon

Ollieda wrote:

Normal rules on student loans is they will cover you for the length of your degree + 1 year.

The Normal rule is that you are entitled to your current/future course length + 1 year minus the number of years already on Student finance.

So Will is right, if he a did 3 yr course he'd only get 2 years of funding.

With a placement, you won't need to get student finance because you should be doing a proper job with a proper wage, otherwise you are getting exploited.

freehub

My foundation degree was 2 years.

The BSC BIT is 4 years (sarnie)

Bikerbaboon

freehub wrote:

The trousers looked ok in the end, dunno why they appeared weird at first.

I've got no actual proper work experience, this is why I think it'd be better doing a year in a job rather than going to uni, into a course, that I perhaps won't like.

or i know its crazy you can go to uni and work a part time job... you have less debts and your CV will look fuller for the experiance.

The UK is chock full of Grads with 2.1 and 2.2 you have to find a way of haveing the 2.1 with more. I was 2.2 with part time job for the 3 years and and engineer for the radio station this on top of outdoor sports and other healthy activities.... yes and loads of drinking.
uni corses unless you are doing a core sciance or engineering degree are relativly time easy. Hell my unit class time was about 8 hours a week and that got me a BEng... Physics was sat at 24+ hours and was the longest course time.

At uni you learn alot more than whats just on the course. Think long and hard before you give up a place and if you do give it up have a good plan of what you are going to do.

sheffsimon

Ollieda wrote:

now is a better time than ever to go to uni. you can ride out the "credit crunch" for the next 3 years and get a degree, even if it's a duff course you did it still shows you were able to apply a higher level of studying.

If you want work experience then go for whats known as a "sandwich course" where you do 2 years at uni, do a year in an industry placement then come back for your final year of uni, if you work hard at uni for the first 2 years you can get a good placement.....so after 4 years you'll have a degree and some good work experience. Even if you don't use it later in life it's better to "waste" those years now then get to a point in life where you want it and can't go back and do it.

Oh and if anyone says don't go to uni because its too expensive......their just stupid. Your student loans are not real debt, you pay them back based on earnings and when your on £15k plus. Not like a normal loan where you have to pay back X amount every month, pay check or no pay check. And, unless there are special circumstances, it shouldn't even show up on your credit report.

If you still want to work at Halfords then when you get to uni find a local one and get a part time job to fit round your studies. Prove yourself as a good worker and then after uni you could have a degree, industry placement and a proven track record at halfords and if you wanted to stay with them it shouldn't be too hard to wangle yourself onto a management scheme or something similar.


Your uni might even have a good cycling team you could join and get yourself noticed as a cyclist!

No offence mate, but that is a stupid idea.