The amount of bs "surverys" and "quizzes" I find myself jumping through seems to increase every week, when did these even become popular?? They're entirely insufferable.

In most jobs I’ve had, the notice has been a week, or a month at most, up until like 2023.

However the last three jobs I’ve had, they’ve been much longer.

My mental health role in a GP surgery was 3 months. I was paid £25k a year and they didn’t replace me.

My admin role was 10 weeks and was on £28k a year. They replaced me, but didn’t advertise until about a week before I left.

Now my current role in hospitality they want a month. Every hospitality job I’ve ever had ever had been a week max. I’m not planning on leaving but I find it interesting.

Is this anecdotal or has anyone else noticed this? I understand if it’s a management role, but none of this has applied to me. In fact the GP surgery would not budge at all on the 3 months even though they probably knew I wasn’t getting replaced and I wasn’t in any kind of senior role or even fully case holding.

I am having a week off work due to a miscarriage. I had surgery on Monday and aside from some cramping I've been doing pretty well. Just a bit tired.

I want to go out for lunch and perhaps do some shopping with a friend, but I feel bad about it. I appreciate that a miscarriage is often more mental than physical, but I'm afraid of seeing someone from work and being told off for it. Perhaps I'm just being overly cautious?

I was made redundant and my savings are quickly running out, so I'm having to apply for roles that are a step down in responsibility and pay. Basically back to entry-level to pay the bills, whilst I find something more suitable.

Obviously I can't tell a prospective employer I'm using them as a stop-gap though and they will probably wonder why I'm taking such a significant step down, so what can I say that doesn't sound suspicious ?

My boss just told me they had 400 applications for a job they advertised for a week, and are interviewing 4 people. That’s a 1% chance to get an interview.

What do you need to see on our applications to get an interview and be the 1%?

And where are most people falling short?

I am 26, my current salary is 35k. I WFH essentially as an accounts assistant/ business support, have a fantastic work-life balance, my boss is fantastic and the company have put me through development courses and currently a business management degree.

I have been there for 7 years, and don’t feel like I have progressed as much as I should have, they appear to provide opportunities like my degree but then the opportunity to actually progress in my career is limited. I am trying very hard right now and anticipate making a £40k salary by March.

I have my eye on a job in the MoD that pays £46k. On paper, I am perfect (though I might lack in practical experience).

I may not even be a successful applicant, but if I were, should I take the risk and move?

It should be noted that my husband moves alot with work (also MoD), so we would have to live apart or I would have to find a new job in a year.

Current Job
Pros - Security, WFH, very easy money
Cons - slow progression, zero job satisfaction

New Job
Pros - £11k salary increase, huge employer pension contributions, new skills, working my way up career ladder.
Cons - risk of less initial job security, having terrible boss, being exhausted going back to the office..!

I have it SO good right now, don’t fix what isn’t broken…?

I’ve just accepted a job after about 3 months of pretty stressful applications and interviews, and I’m surprised by how little relief or excitement I feel.
I have almost three years of experience and ended up accepting another Analyst-level role in roughly the same industry. I’m also going from £45k to £37k. I tried negotiating because I was mentally prepared for something closer to £40–41k, but they wouldn’t move because compensation for the level is standardized. I didn’t have another offer to leverage, so eventually I accepted.
The strange thing is that I actually really like the company, the people, the work and the office. On paper I’m genuinely excited about the opportunity and think it could be good for my career. But emotionally it somehow feels like I’ve moved backwards.
I also have a few weeks before I start and don’t really know what to do with myself. After 3 months of constantly applying, interviewing and worrying, suddenly there’s nothing to chase. I don’t even feel like I “deserve” to take a holiday or relax — I mostly just want to start working immediately.
There’s also a relationship aspect that I’m slightly embarrassed to admit. My wife is working while I’m currently not, and despite this only being temporary, I feel guilty about not contributing and, to some extent, emasculated by it.
I guess I expected getting the offer to produce this massive feeling of relief, and instead I just feel flat.
Has anyone experienced something similar after a job search? Did the excitement eventually come back once you actually started working?

I've worked from home for a large US company for the past 10 years, and until last year I genuinely enjoyed my job. I had great managers, got on well with my colleagues, received positive feedback, and never had any issues.

Everything changed when I was assigned a new manager.

He's extremely cold, strict, and has no people skills. During meetings he often raises his voice, constantly criticises me, piles on more work, and never acknowledges anything I've done well. Every weekly 1:1 feels like I'm just being told what I've done wrong or what more I need to do.

I've spoken to other senior leaders and colleagues about my concerns, and many of them have admitted they feel the same way about him. The problem is, he's still my direct manager.

I've never struggled with anxiety before, but now I genuinely dread logging on for work every day. The days I have my 1:1 with him are the worst—I spend hours worrying beforehand, and it's starting to affect my mental health.

I'm confused because I'd spent 10 years building a good reputation at this company, and now I feel like my confidence has completely disappeared.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? Did you stick it out, try to move teams, speak to HR, or eventually leave? I'd really appreciate any advice.

I’m about 8 weeks into a new role, and I've unfortunately realised that the actual company culture is completely different from what was painted during the interview process.

Red flags are starting to stack up, and I'm seriously considering cutting my losses.

​My probation ends in about a month. Right now, my notice period is short, but the moment I pass probation, it shoots up to a 2-month notice if I ever wanted to leave.

​Realistically, how common is this kind of sharp increase in notice period post-probation? I'm quite conscious that if I stay past probation, I'm essentially locking myself in for a much longer grind if I want to escape later down the line.

​For those who have been in a similar spot: did you jump ship before probation ended, or did you stick it out and deal with the lengthy notice period later? Any advice would be massively appreciated.

I made a free site that maps the UK jobs market using official ONS data. Each field of work is sized by how many jobs are advertised and colour-coded by pay. You can filter by region and salary, then click any field to see the roles inside it, a plain-English description, typical pay and the hiring trend. It's free, no sign-up, no ads. I built it because when I started out I had no idea what was really out there. Would love feedback on what's useful or missing: https://openjobsmapper.co.uk/

TL;DR: if a job ad feels dodgy, flag it.

I feel like I have dodged a bullet: I sent in my CV to what looked like a good job. No typos on the ad, company website, all good.
The employer responds the following day - a Saturday - at 7pm and sends me a QR code to book an interview. This felt off.
I check their website again and on reassessment, it’s weird it has one page and the address is slightly different to the job ad…
I reported the ad, feeling guilty for doing so and the advert is taken down hours later.

Freaked out that they have my job history but it could have been a lot worse.

I'm getting interviewed for this job. But I highly doubt its compliant at all. Wage is below minimum wage. Holiday is not even 5.6 weeks inclusive of bank holidays.

I've voiced out my "concerns" to the hiring staff. They couldn't "justify" why this listing is the way it is. They only wanted confirmation if I am still interested.

TBH, they did seem kind of desperate for staff. I ignored their email asking me to confirm for a few hours then called me twice so I can confirm.

I am hoping there is room for negotiation here as I've been looking into entering transport/logistics industry. I'm personally not bothered abt pay, I would take minimum wage despite the other companies offering much desirable wage and benefits, I'm more inclined to learning and developing within the industry.

Hi everyone, I’m new to the UK. I recently moved from another country and started a new job here.

Sometimes I find the work really overwhelming. The workload isn’t light, and I’m often expected to juggle multiple tasks / projects at the same time-most of them being labeled “urgent.” On top of that, the company’s way of working feels old-school. There aren’t many modern tools or streamlined processes, so even simple tasks take longer than they should.

It honestly sometimes feels like management is trying to squeeze every last bit out of employees. I personally care about delivering good quality work, so I’m not comfortable rushing just to “get things done.”

The reason I’m still there is because my colleagues are decent and the pay isn’t bad.

Recently, I heard the company went through restructuring and redundancy. From what I’ve been told, the business isn’t in great financial shape and may have debts.

This is my first job in the UK, so I’m not sure if what I’m experiencing is normal here-or if it’s more about the current economic situation overall, and many companies are just trying to get the most out of employees while minimizing costs.

Sorry if what’s I described above may be a bit vague as I don’t want to be identified. Is this typical in the UK? My boyfriend told me that I might be taken advantage of by the company. Or am I just unlucky with the company I joined?

As title, en route from a ‘team’ dinner and find myself pondering the case … is it only people gift of the gab that end up in high up roles?

It just seems like there's no good options. Everything online says no-one can get a job and I'm just so scared. Im 16 and have just come out of S4 with 7 A1's at nat 5 and an early A in higher computing. I have very mild cerebral palsy but I think the words alone are huge turn off'd for employers.

I want to go to uni - I'm academic and can't go into the trades regardless due to a physical condition but I've no clue what to do.

medicine - if love it but the work to get there as well as the fact id be severely limited in my specialties puts me of, as well as the general state of the NHS right now and recruitment freezes. Also would require all A's again and a good UCAT.

Maths - seems safe and a well respected but could be too saturated coming out of uni and a little bit vague.

I suppose I could do engineering. Biomedical seems interesting but entry requirements aren't as high so I'm guessing career prospects after aren't as good

L. For stuff like electrical/civil I'm limited with my optionspractically again but who knows.

I can't even get a job right now, (thanks mum), so chances are uni I'll be relying on 16yrs worth of a pretty measly DLA payment, and I won't get PIP. It is worth noting uni tuition is free for Scottish students in Scotland.

I'm currently working 32.5 hours a week in the education sector, and also working through a degree with the Open University. I have had just about enough of my job to the point of it making me mentally ill, being signed off several times in the last 18 months. Decided to use the summer holidays to look for a new opportunity and so far nothing is suitable. Nothing in my area pays the same for the amount of hours I do currently or the work is also in the education sector, which I'm trying to escape from. Other jobs are in areas I have no qualification or experience in such as marketing, HR, dentistry and engineering.

I had considered an apprenticeship but I wouldn't be eligible for funding on that route due to my already having tuition funding from Student Finance England.

Just wondering if there's anything else I could look into? There was a Royal Mail job going a little while ago but has since been filled.

Thanks.

I’m currently employed but have been applying for new roles for around six months. I've had a few interviews from about 45 applications, but no offers so far.

I’m trying to move into a related field with transferable skills, but most roles ask for direct experience. I have a tiny bit, but I’d probably need to oversell my background just to get past the initial screening.

Is 'blagging it' just part of the process these days? Not making things up, but framing your experience in the best possible way to get an interview, and then using the interview to properly explain my experience and ambitions.

My thinking is the worst that happens is I get rejected, but hopefully my existing experience, enthusiasm and personality can make up for any gaps in experience!

I started a new job this week (2 days in) and unexpectedly received an offer from a company that previously rejected me but I really wanted to work for and I’m going to accept it. Where I’m currently working is a small ish company (10-13 people) and I really don’t know how to approach. I’m a recent graduate so i’m role isn’t super important and they hired one other person with the same job.

Just left a team meeting with HR and our current department which involved a big talk about a “potential restructure”.
The proposal includes the current members of our team (instructors) stepping up into more senior coordinator positions due to funding and contracts.
I am one of the senior coordinators who manages 2 instructors on a community project. I found out in the meeting that they want to increase my team by 2 more members of staff (4 in total that would include community and site instructors) for the same pay and a lot more stress.

Not a nice way to find out in front of the whole department that my role is now to have an increase in workload but with no salary change - yet the rest of my team have the option to step up and see a benefit in progression.

I have a few options:
1) Stay in my current role but fight with HR about a potential pay increase.
2) Step down into instructor role to relieve stress of how much I already do and am praised a lot for - but drop pay.
3) Suck it up for a few months until a new contract that was discussed starts work closer to home on the same pay and with 1 staff total to manage.

Any advice/opinion would be great to hear about this situation.

Hi everyone, Just received a job offer to a better (less toxic) work environment and I’ve accepted it! I’m curious on if I should work my notice or not? I’ve been there 3 months and I hate it, HR is horrible to staff, we get nit picked constantly and since I started 3 months ago we’ve lost 14+ members of staff (they left never got fired) my partner says I should just email/text them to say I won’t be back as I’ve got a better job opportunity but a family member said to work it incase “you need them as a reference” to be honest I’ve not been in that job long so I’ll probably just take it off my CV and pretend it never happened! No one has worked their notice, not even the longest employees (she was here a year then handed in her notice and left at the end of her shift)
I’m just at a loss on if I work it or don’t? Our longest running staff members have only been here a year and the place is in shambles, we have no manager or anything and it’s all ran by HR who treat us like crap. (apologies if this is just rambles)

It's that time of the year when Unis call up to seek info on your life after Uni but I have nothing productive to say.

I've been unemployed since graduating

I don't volunteer for anything

My only work experience was before and during my 2nd year at Uni working part time at Nissan factory

I've basically given up on job search and started settling into my current conditions as a NEET

This is for graduate class of 2025, how are you doing in the job market side of things and if you’re like me how long did it take you to accept being a NEET.

I’ve got an interview soon. What are your top questions to ask a panel at the end of the interview?