Why is it so hard to find work! Not even in accounts but ANYTHING!
Aside from applying for jobs such as cafe staff etc I've written to lots of Accountants offering to work voluntary, applied for an apprentice accountant position for 2.60 an hour (I'm 28 with 2 children!), applied for as many accounts job as I possibly can and nothing.
I'm so desperate for experience. I even tried setting up Bookkeeping from home but I'm not very confident and I found the client overpowering me.
My main problem is Sage and confidence. Although I've got some experience with Sage its not enough and I constantly need to be shown. I'm going to start a Sage course next year to overcome this.
In interviews I find myself saying yes I can do this yes I can do that but then I think to myself can I? If it came down to it and I got the job would I be able to do that without anyone showing me.
I have about 12 months accounts experience in all but it was all manual on excel.
Any tips or advice? I feel like such a failure all the time and whnever I pick my accounting books up I get an instant headache and put it back down. Sorry I'm rambling.
http://www.book-keepers.org.uk/t50605012/volunteering/ Would be a good idea, it should build your confidence in a setting with relatively low pressure.
There will be lots of small companies looking for someone such as yourself (and myself), who have relatively small amounts of experience, but will need someone to keep simple to moderate books as well as other ad hoc duties, sales, merchandising, working on advertising anything administrative. This will in turn provide you with further experience that will ultimately increase your confidence.
Some people can throw themselves at something and succeed (my brother), other people (me and maybe you) take longer to build the foundations, maybe we just need firmer foundations to spring from.
Keep plugging away and you will find what you want, in the meantime do some voluntary work and see where it leads.
I've looked and applied for work without getting anything bar constant knock backs. The job I'm in at the moment I love (apart from the odd niggley bits and bats), but it came out of no-where, and certainly didn't appear from the outside to be a job I would be happy in.
Just had a look. I tried contacting Do-it.org on numerous occasions last year and received no reply from them. When I complained they sent me out a letter with a number to ring and when I did the number didn't exist! I find them very ignorant.
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
just seen your post Kay - sorry to hear - I do have Sage online Training at £48 however under your circumstance I would like to help you out a little - drop me an email if your interested and I will go through things with you. training@completebookkeeping.co.uk
its a fantastic offer - the package is a show and do online - (no need to buy sage) - its marketing on other sites at £399 - admittedly they have there and then online support however I do have email support - reponse within 24 hours.
Email me and we can go from there. Good luck if you have found something else though - things have to turn around soon.
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Donna Curling - Complete Book-Keeping Ltd (CBKLtd) - 07939 101900
The voluntary job I recently started was found on Do-it.org. Sounds like you are using them as a kind of agency; maybe that's what they are, I don't know, but I see it more like just a way of finding vacancies (along with Directgov and other such places) so didn't expect much else from them. The application was done online, so I didn't have to phone anybody; all that happened was that they passed on my details to the charity and they then contacted me directly.
So perhaps going into all the charity shops and asking them if they (or any other branch of theirs) has any vacancies might be a plan. Also, the charity I am with has a website, and it transpired that the position I am now in was advertised on there as well, so alot of that visiting of charity shops could probably be done online.
But I agree, it's a nightmare finding something. I offer myself as a work trial option on my paid-position applications and so far that has never been mentioned by any employer, so certainly the job centre seems to think it's a much better scheme than it actually transpires to be, but perhaps it's worth a look. All it takes is one employer to give you the chance, and the extra paragraph on the covering letter is no big deal at all.
However, volunteering is certainly worthwhile for job-seeking. Quite apart from doing something useful for someone else while looking for a job, I have had more responses from job adverts I have applied for since I started this voluntary job, even though none of them have in the end gone any further. As ever, being in a job helps in finding a job. Also, the last paid job I had came from a voluntary position, where the company liked what I was doing for them enough so found the money to pay me rather than have me leave to go to a paid job elsewhere, so that's always another route in.
Not even in accounts but ANYTHING! 
