Qualifications urine boiler

[Alfa_75_Steve]

Apparently, and probably because of the current screwed up government policy of getting school-leavers off the unemployment figures and handing them a piece of paper for getting a useless qualification from some 'metropolitan university', I'm now under-qualified to sell Kingsmill bread to supermarket managers.

Nevermind the fact that I have nearly 3 years of field sales experience in the sector and 15 years of supermarket management experience behind me - I fall at the first hurdle as I don't have some kind of 'social sciences' degree from Wolverhampton 'University' (formerly college for people who failed their A-levels.....)

I'm getting slightly concerned, as that's 3 very basic field sales roles I've failed to get interviews for today - all based on the expectation that you need to have a degree to do the job.

Maybe I should buy one - I get several emails a day offering them to me.

[deevlash]

kingsmill bread is st anyway.

[Alfa_75_Steve]

deevlash said:

kingsmill bread is st anyway.

Well, yes, but I need a job....

Selling is selling - if you know the market, it doesn't matter what the product is.

[odyssey2200]

I know I shouldn't laugh but I have had 8 months of that sort of st.
The latest one seems to be employment agencies that won't put you forward for a job unless you are actually doing the same job NOW.

So if you have 10 years of doing it but changed 4 years ago, you can't now do it.

If it is any consolation I have been made redundant 7 times in 18 years and you will find something.

It just takes a bit of time and you have to overcome all the artificial obstacles that people will put in your way.

Consider it some sort of personal test to prove that you are good enough and you will get there!

[hman]

so you need a degree to be a salesman?

I mean its not a very technical job is it.

Perhaps try another industry, bakers are clearly bonkers.

[Healey73]

Hi Steve. Is this Allied Bakeries? I have a couple of friends who have applied for jobs with them over the last week, they seem to be advertising eveywhere on totaljobs and reed I think. One of my friends has worked in the bakery sector for the last 13 years and has done very well but wanted to come back to Norfolk and saw a job advertised, he applied and was told no thanks, even though his CV read like their dream candidate, the second friend worked for many years in the bakery buying sections of both Tesco and Sainsbury's, she was told no also!

She told me that this job keeps cropping up online every other day as a new job, seems a bit strange so I wouldnt take it to heart. Good luck in your search.

[Alfa_75_Steve]

hman said:

so you need a degree to be a salesman?

I mean its not a very technical job is it.

Perhaps try another industry, bakers are clearly bonkers.

It appears to be a standard criteria these days.

This may well be the case for someone who is under, say, 25 - no real experience and de-valued school qualifications.

However, I'm in my mid-30s. Got my qualifications from a very decent school when they were worth something, did 2 years at University, but found that I preferred working in retail, so got out and took up a trainee manager role with a major food retailer.

<checks website>

Hmmmm, the last rejection came via an agency - if I go direct to the company they ask you to click a box that asks if you're 'educated to degree / HND standard' - maybe I should be a bit economical with the truth, without really telling a lie, on that one, just to get my CV on the desk of someone who knows what they're doing.

[BigLepton]

Try applying to smaller companies who don't have Employment Prevention Officers (HR) where you can actually sell yourself to the people who run the business, not the people who think they run the business.

FWIW I am reluctant to employ sales people with degrees these days because the recent few I have seen seem to think their degree precludes them from picking the phone up to cold-call or knocking on doors as if their certificate will magically attract prospects to them.

Oh, and ring up companies you want to work for on spec - I'm always more interested in candidates who have sought me out personally and know about my company rather than dead CV's from consultants.

Good luck.

[hman]

BigLepton said:

Try applying to smaller companies who don't have Employment Prevention Officers (HR) where you can actually sell yourself to the people who run the business, not the people who think they run the business.

FWIW I am reluctant to employ sales people with degrees these days because the recent few I have seen seem to think their degree precludes them from picking the phone up to cold-call or knocking on doors as if their certificate will magically attract prospects to them.

Oh, and ring up companies you want to work for on spec - I'm always more interested in candidates who have sought me out personally and know about my company rather than dead CV's from consultants.

Good luck.

This man speaks the truth.

I dont have a degree, however I was a fire industry company director by the age of 29.

Rather than wasting 3 years earnings getting in to debt at uni I went to work in the fire industry, and learnt on the job.

Problem is I am a little fooked if I want to change industries now....

All the salesguys I employed who had degrees suffered from the afflictions detailed in Big leptons post.

[Monki]

chap I know with 30+years of engineering experience was recently turned down for an engineering job (same job, different company) because he did not have an NVQ.

World is going mad!