Are you always judged by your last job?

Hi there

Until I was made redundant I was working as an Administrator, this was my second Office job (I was a project Co-ordinator before). I had a successful retail career for 7 years but essentially got fed up of staying in Hotels and therefore decided to downscale and get an Office job. I have been applying for a wide range of Admin roles for 3 months now and have had no concrete job offers (3 1st interviews 2 2nd) Ironically the only Company who wanted to take me on as an Office Manager had to withdraw the offer as a nearby unit made redundancies and they had to offer someone the choice to relocate.

To get to the point I am now thinking of applying for a job in a Supermarket, but I am wondering if it will be then be even harder to get an Office job in the future. My thinking is that we all need to eat and it is absolutely wrong to assume that just because someone works behind a checkout they do not have potential and ability. If the money was better and the hours more sociable, I would not have an issue doing it on a long term basis however I do not want to be trapped.

My concern is that most potential employers tend to pigeon hole a candidate and solely look at what you have done last. I would appreciate some thoughts and advice on this!

Hi Jobhunter.

Thank you for your question, although I am sorry to hear that you have experienced difficulties finding employment in an administrative role lately.

In answer to your question, in my experience, I have always taken all skills and experience of candidates into account when recruiting.

No doubt your potential role as at the supermarket will be customer faced, so you may gain skills in areas working with customers on a level you have not previously been exposed to before in your administrative roles.

Also, small acorns grow into big trees, so you may find plenty of opportunity for career development with a supermarket employer. If it is one of the large retailers e.g Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda, I know they have an excellent range of training and development opportunities.

I wish you all the best for the future. Do return to the forum to let us know how things progress.