Inspiration and motivational stories from famous Job seekers

Most Jobseekers find themselves discouraged and in need of motivation.

The Stories you find below I hope will encourage and #motivate you.

Why not share this with someone you know what is searching and having a hard time of it.

The article was featured on The Guardian

To the million jobseekers out there, I'm imagining you're on your sofa, lying on your face, lifting your head for the occasional perusal of a still-empty inbox – an understandable reaction to the crushing despair of unemployment.

It doesn't help to see dismal employment figures, commentary on why the younger generation is doomed, and absolutely nothing to make you feel better about it.

So I'd like to attempt a short-term remedy, a mixture of inspiration and schadenfreude – five down-and-out jobseekers who clawed their way to the top.

5. Ricky Gervais

Gervais was a failed pop star and an unsuccessful manager long before he was a super successful writer, director and actor. At university he couldn't afford two types of soap – he had to choose between washing his clothes or himself (in the end he did both; Daz, he informs us, is "quite a good exfoliate").

In his 30s he landed a job at the radio station XFM, where he realised he didn't understand radio and hired Stephen Merchant to "do all the boring stuff". In 1998, they were both made redundant.

Luckily, Merchant cast Gervais in a short film about a "seedy boss" for a BBC production course, which we now know as The Office. It became the most successful British sitcom ever.

4. Jim Carrey

The Canadian funnyman was a high school dropout, working as a janitor and security guard to help pay the family bills. They lost their home and were forced to live in a van. He then moved to LA to struggle on the stand-up comedy scene before going into the out-of-work-actor business.

While, yes, it sucks to get rejected with the robotic line, "Due to the high volume of applications…", at least most of us don't have to spend weeks watching the guy who got the job beam at you from the side of a hundred buses. Before Carrey got his big break on the TV sketch comedy show In Living Color, he was rejected from leading roles in Saturday Night Live, Sixteen Candles, Bachelor Party, Legend,Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Back to School and Edward Scissorhands.

But it was worth the wait. Now, aged 52, he's estimated to be worth $20mn.

3. Walt Disney

The man behind children's stories had a rough time on his way to billionaire status. When he dropped out of high school at 16 to enlist in the army during the first world war, he was rejected for being too young. At 18, he started drawing political caricatures, but they didn't catch on and he was fired by his editor because he "lacked imagination and had no good ideas".

Disney started a business with a cartoonist, and it failed, as did his second business. In fact, he went bankrupt five times before he found success with Disneyland, which was also rejected by the city of Anaheim, Orange County, because it would "only attract riffraff". At one point Disney was so skint he survived on dog food.

He also faced a lot of ridicule. His project of turning Snow White into a feature-length animation, was called "Disney's folly". He even ran out of funding during production, and had to show loan officers a rough cut to secure enough cash to finish it.

His pitch for the much-loved character of Mickey Mouse was rejected too – he was told it would never work because a giant mouse on the screen would "terrify women". Despite enduring rejection and ridicule, between 1932 and 1969 Disney won 22 Academy Awards and was nominated 59 times – more than anyone else in history.

2. JK Rowling

Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter novel at rock bottom: "I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless." She survived on benefits, sometimes going without dinner so she could feed her children.

The first manuscript was rejected by 12 publishers. The 13th publisher accepted it at the behest of the only person it seems had actually bothered to read it – the chief executive's eight-year-old daughter.

The books did rather well, and Rowling was the first female novelist to become a billionaire – although now, after a spate of charitable giving, she's back to being a humble millionaire.

1. Abraham Lincoln

In his book, Emotional Equations, Chip Conley notes how Abraham Lincoln had a rough time too, almost drowning, losing his mother when aged nine, his fiancée and sister when he was 26 – not to mention getting malaria, syphilis, smallpox, and kicked in the head by a horse.

Lincoln failed in business aged 21. Two years later he ran for state legislature, lost his job and was rejected from law school. He bounced back and started a business on borrowed money, but was bankrupt within a year.

At 28, he was defeated as a speaker of the state legislature. He ran for the US House of Representatives and lost at age 33. He tried again at age 39, and lost. Not to worry – at age 45 he ran for the US Senate and lost again. He also lost when he ran for his party's vice presidential nomination at age 47. And again at the US Senate at age 49. But at the age of 51, he became the president of the US.

So, how's your job hunt going?

It may seem like these superhumans, these titans in their field, these "absolute legends" are nothing like the young people of today, who seem to be educated to the eyeballs but lack opportunities. But if we can learn anything from their stories, it's not that success comes from sending as many CVs and cover letters as you can in a day. It's identify what you love, then bang away at it like a relentless idiot until something brilliant happens.

Pip-for Job seekers

PIP or Personal Income Protection when there is a need

When someone finds themselves in a fragile past of the economy e.g Part time work, Self Employment or zero hour contract there is a stronger possibility that they may come into contact with the Department of Work and Pensions. At this point there is little protection. There are few ways that an individual can financially protect themselves against loss of income or plan for any form of Welfare Support protection.

Why would they need any form of protection?

We only have to look at the statistics and historical background to the U.K Welfare Benefit Sanctions system administered by DWP to see that there are strong possibilities that an individual and their family could easily be sanctioned and lose income for a period of 3 months. This may be replace by some form of hardship payment.
However reality is that the revision of the Welfare Benefit Act during this parliament has not led to the provision of any support for those on the lower income employment seeker

The normal recommendation for anyone in this situation is to seek advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau. and seek food from a local Food Bank

Little provision is allowed for the planning of a volatile economy of the zero hour contract.
Our economy hasn't moved

Whether the history of PIP , the Personal protection plans it is not suprising that the Insurance companies would be wary of providing any form of plan for eventualities on the loss of work.

There are however few options for the provision of support for redundant employees.
Or the employees that are unsure whether they are working from one day to the other. DWP systems have failed to update their systems for the changing working world.

How could this be resolved

Insurance Companies

Insurance companies have a marketing opportunity here.

• The Provision of policies against the imposition of a Sanction.
• Cover during sanction periods for those that have proven history of employment.
• Provision of job search support for job seekers with proven employment history

DWP Jobcentreplus

DWP Job Matching services have opportunities to treat claimants as clients. Searching for work providing training as required on aspects of Social media job search.

To Provide an 8:00am-8pm call centre or online chat options. 

Thus far there are no services and DWP do not use Twitter as a method of communications.

Whilst Job Match has the options of making contact with their adviser 

However making contact with them regarding appointments is undertaken through a call centre.

Add caption

For many of these reasons including cut backs within the department there are some real possibilities for out sourcing some real support to job seekers that are likely to return to work in the current climate

The options could and should be extended to 0 hour contract job seekers who's employment situation no longer connects well with the fortnightly Job seeker.

Over 50 Unemployed

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• source Gov.uk
• A quarter of women and one in six men who reach state pension age have not worked since they were 55
• Almost half (47%) of all unemployed people between 50 and 64 have been out of work for a year or more, compared with 33% for those aged 18-24
• There are "positive effects" on younger staff when more people aged 55-64 are employed, research has suggested
• Those aged 50-64 have an average job tenure of 13 years, compared with seven years for those aged 25-49

Source: Department for Work and Pensions

Frightening statistics but many who find themselves out of work at this stage of their lives find it harder to re enter the labour market. Particularly if they are in lower skilled jobs as they will find that the youth may be fitter than them,have more energy or other aspects of their lives that don't fit into some business cultures.

Part 1 During the recent recession the focus has been on Youth unemployment. But the Job Centre has an issue with this group of Job seekers.
There is the anticiption that the over 50 will not have the I.T training but often this group have the skills
The other issue is that they will rely on savings to survive. followed by part 2

The Princes initiative for the over 50's has highlighted the issue on Prime
Their web site goes on to say
"Helping older people back into the labour market could also lead to a potential £88 billion boost to the UK GDP. Most importantly securing employment for older people will transform their lives and offer them the opportunity of a brighter, more secure future."

BBC-

"Unemployed over-50s will be offered "career reviews" and help using computers as part of plans to get more people in that age group into work.

The trial will also include seven "older worker champions" across the UK.

An estimated 1.2 million over-50s are unemployed and "willing to work" - and ministers said if they all found jobs it would "add £50bn to the economy".

Employment Minister Esther McVey told the BBC it was "wrong" so many skilled people were "locked out" of work.

Long-term unemployment in the wider population fell 16% in the past year - but joblessness among the over 50s fell by 3.5%.

'Challenge stereotypes'

The trial, to be launched in April, will include training in CV and interview skills, the internet and social media, as well as "career reviews" with an expert to identify skills from previous work and any training needs.

"Champions" will be appointed in seven areas of the UK, at a cost to the government of £250,000. These Job Centre staff will focus on "going out to smaller and medium-sized businesses to ensure they recognise the benefits of hiring older workers".

Ms McVey said it was about "challenging outdated stereotypes".

"The plight of unemployed older workers has gone under the radar for too long. There's something fundamentally wrong with so many skilled and experienced people finding themselves locked out of the workplace simply because of their age," she told BBC Radio 5 live.

She pointed to "record numbers" of people getting into work since 2010, adding that in the past year more than 250,000 people over 50 had found jobs.

Ms McVey said it was not a question of older workers taking the place of younger employees.

"More jobs are being created in the UK than anywhere else in Europe... We've just got to make sure that everybody is a part of that growth."

Ex Offenders-can achieve

Lets encourage, inspire and motivate them
Ex offenders often feel that they have hit the bottom rung of life and lost value
Retraining into a new field where they can find acceptance is a key way of moving forward
Check out the videos on this page that may well encourage and motivate either you or someone else.
They are U.K videos produced by the DWP



There is a future and if you have the right attitude and the right motivation then you have the opportunity to make a difference.

  Reformed Development

Kemi's brief story appears on the site as well as on the DWP video and encourages us to look at how offenders can look at the future and fresh opportunities

 

LETS'S INSPIRE AND ENCOURAGE THEM