Prior to moving to the UK in July 2019 to join my husband, I worked as an HR Assistant with the Marist Brothers of the Schools, Province of Nigeria. After I arrived UK, I research on career prospect for HR, that was how I knew of CIPD. With the advice I got from ICS Learn students' advisor and having a bachelor's degree and an experience in HR, I started my CIPD level 5 course in January 2020, and worked as a carer too.
I have been job hunting since January 2021 and was able to secure only 2 interviews which weren't successful after the second round of the interviews, with no obvious reason for the rejection ( I always ask for feedback so I can improve in my job search). I am as well keeping an eye on voluntary work in HR, but haven't even seen any.
Please I need advice and suggestions on how I can surmount this devastating stage in my career journey. I have completed my CIPD level 5 course now and upgraded to associate member of CIPD without a job.
Hello, you should search for agencies in the area you live at. I used One to One Recruitment and Bridge, they're both in York and lovely people. Good luck.
Good luck Ogochukwu, breaking into your first role at a certain level and in a new country as well can be tough. Having two interviews and getting to second stage seems promising too even though it's disappointing to not get the role. As a numbers have given advice below I'll echo some of it and build on it:
*register with some agencies and use conversations with them to practise your sales pitch - what you do, your transferable skills and experience and what you are looking for.
*look at job sites, register with them and practice searching.
*make sure you have a good, searchable Linked In profile so agencies and in-house recruiters can find you.
*check out the CIPD mentoring service. It might be you can access this to help you.
* go along to the CIPD branch events to build up your confidence to talk HR and talk about yourself.
Continue to ask for feedback and make use of the people you met on your course who can keep your spirits up and perhaps read over CVs and draft emails for you. They might be able to pick out if your style or approach needs to take account of a slightly different cultural context. I've not been to Nigeria myself so I'm not sure how we compare to workplaces there.
Keep going. Rejection is tough at any stage of our careers especially when we are doing all we can to be prepared and ready for work. Keep asking for feedback, learning and eventually you will land that new role.
Hi Ogochukwu! I was in a same situation for year or so, But then I started volunteering and after 7 months of volunteering with 3 organisations simultaneously, I got 2 jobs offers. Currently Iam working as HRBP. Please make a volunteering profile at Reachvolunteering.org.uk for me it was a game changer. All the best.
Hi Ogochukwu, I would also encourage you to network via your local CIPD branch eg join in with events and get to know other HR professionals locally if you can. Many job seekers have told us this really makes a difference. www.cipd.co.uk/.../branches
My pleasure. I come here to learn and share and it's good to know it's appreciated. All the best and feel free to reach out on Linked In if I can ever be of help personally and directly or indirectly via my network.
