Kate Bohdanowicz

A friend of mine has just applied for a job with a leading mental health charity. She hasn’t had a response. A few years ago, I went for a job with the same charity. The application form was the size of a book and they wouldn’t accept submissions via email. I remember I spent £6 sending it recorded delivery and then waited in anticipation. I heard nothing. At the time I was desperate to leave my job and I tell you, being ignored by this charity did nothing for my mental health. 

I am now a happy freelancer but the workload fluctuates so every now and again I apply for jobs that are flexible and suit my remit. Most of the time I hear nothing – not even an acknowledgement.

Over the summer I applied for one and within 10 minutes I was told I had been moved on to the next stage. I was given a brief. It involved writing 1,500 words to house style and conducting a phone interview. My deadline was three days hence, at 1pm. Strict! So I put paid work to one side and got on with it.

I filed on time and waited and waited and after three weeks of nothing contacted them to ask for feedback. A few hours later a standard email pinged through to say the position had been filled.

It’s a jungle out there. I KNOW THAT. Someone very close to me has been applying for jobs for three years. Rarely does he get a response. A journalist friend with decades of experience reporting from all over the world, applied for a charity job in his field that required some international travel. He didn’t even make the shortlist. Really? Who is applying for these jobs if his experience doesn’t even merit an interview?  

The newspaper I used to write for is having (yet another) redundancy drive. Once the volunteers have gone, it looks like the survivors will be plucked off one by one. Their vast experience and talents should count for something when it comes to job hunting. I hope it does although they need to prepare themselves for a bit of a bumpy ride.