jobcentreplus

[Harrison]

For agencies, you do need to keep reminding them you are there. I used to go into the main agency I worked for on a Friday afternoon to grab work for the following week. And if they hadn't given me anything for that day I would be in their office at 9am to see what they had.

If you want to try agency work. Take your CV, and any references you have, into the offices and ask to join their agency. They will make you fill out some forms and give you a short informal interview. Then will go through their current agency work they have available to see if there is something you can do. Also, don't stick to just one agency. Try to register with a few and do the rounds of them all weekly to get work if they have any.

Working for agencies can often open doors to actual jobs, as you get to show employers how you work on the job and can then ask them if they have any vacancies.

Royal Mail handle their own agency workers now as far as I know. And call them up when they need the extra staff due to illness, holiday relief or high post volume projections. If you are interested I will try to get you the contact details for the main casual HR recruiting office. It won't hurt to try.

Also keep a look out on the Royal Mail website as jobs are posted on their daily. I had a quick look for you but there didn't seem anything in your area at the moment.

I do however know that Royal Mail will be restructuring their shifts from next month, and will be changing the weekend hours and looking for new people to work Sunday 6am to 12pm, so that might be something to keep an eye out for. It will obviously be offered internally first, but I don't expect they will get 60 people to cover the shift requirements, so will them start looking outside.

[Stephen Coates]

That would be good if you could get the number for casual work from Royal Mail . I gather you are still working for them then?

[Puni/Void]

Good luck on your quest for a job, Steve. Hope you'll find something in the near future.

A good idea, like mentioned by others, is to sign up with job agencies like Reed, Select Appointments, Adecco and Manpower. I'm pretty sure you'll find work pretty fast through one of them. This will give you the opportunity to gain valuable experience and fill your pockets. You'll also get the chance to test different occupations, which I believe is important.

It's also a good way to get a foot inside a company. I got my fulltime job this way. First I worked for about six months through the agency, and after finishing the contract, I was offered a position in the company.

Good luck, Steve!