Natalia moved from Ukraine to the UK in August 2022 following the war outbreak there. As a multilingual trained journalist with many years’ experience working in senior PR Management roles she had a great many skills to offer but was struggling to find work in Hull. She needed to gain work in order to get her own place to live after her sponsorship accommodation arrangements were coming to an end. She’d left all her family behind and didn’t know anybody here. She joined our Community Job Club at Costello Stadium in January, which we were able to run thanks to funding from Round One of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Levelling Up Fund distributed by Hull City Council. Armed with a much better CV and new-found confidence in her spoken English, gained from interacting in the group, Natalia started finding and applying for more suitable jobs and was successful in gaining part-time employment with a translation and interpreting company. She started performing so well at interviews that she went on to gain a full-time position as an ASC Administrator where she has now been happily working since April. Natalia rated the overall service she received as 10 out of 10 and said "Everyone was so friendly, wanting to help and support like friends. I felt like it didn’t matter that I was from Ukraine, I am the same as everyone else. It was great to meet different people. The whole experience gave me more confidence in myself". Natalia is happily working full-time now in a job she is loving and hopes to continue building her career. We wish her all the best for her future here in the UK. Liz originally contacted us following a recommendation by a friend. She had recently left a job due to her confidence and mental health being adversely affected by the increasingly toxic work environment. Liz’s confidence had been consistently chipped away at and she really had no idea what sort of job she could do, what to look for or even how to search. Liz joined a face-to-face Community Job Club in January that we were running from our offices at the Mercure Hotel in Willerby. Together we identified that her CV wasn't the best representation of her skills and found an admin course that she could do online to increase the options available to her. The group setting was perfect for Liz, as she could quickly see that she wasn't alone in feeling a bit lost, isolated and low. The group became very close and supported each other, meeting up regularly between sessions. Armed with a much better CV and new-found confidence, Liz applied for a job that came up with us at Humber Job Hub in March. She performed so well at interview that she was offered and accepted the role which she started in April. This job was not like anything she had done before but she is definitely making it her own and using her own personal experiences and friendly manner to encourage others to benefit from our employment and wellbeing coaching services. Liz rated the overall service she received as 5 out of 5 and said "It was fantastic. I enjoyed it, it was all so helpful. I particularly enjoyed the interview practice questions and the breathing exercises". Liz has been in the Project Promoter position here now for 7 months and says "My confidence has grown and grown since taking on this position. I am supported and helped with every aspect of the job, which has had a positive effect on me and the work I am doing with the team. I feel as time has gone on, I am more confident in myself and what I am capable of. I find myself suggesting ideas at team meetings and feel excited about my future with Humber Job Hub. I’m still amazed at how different I am now and how far I have come since getting in touch with Humber Job Hub. This has helped me in my role as I feel very passionate about getting out there and promoting how good we are at what we do. To be able to give the opportunities I had with Humber Job Hub to the people I go out and meet is a favourite part of my job." Rita had moved here from Hungary with her family a few years ago and had been working in factories while completing her Degree in Bioveterinary Science. She had been happily working in her dream job since graduating but was unexpectedly made redundant in February, due to the project she had been working on being closed down. Rita came to us on a recommendation to help her find work. She was in, what can only be described as, panic mode. Applying to anything and everything in a desperate attempt to be earning money again. Her confidence was extremely low and she felt pretty hopeless about the opportunities available to her in the area. Together, we identified that she may need to register with an agency so she could temporarily earn while she was looking for the right job, something that she did. She then identified some local companies that she would like to work for and approached them with a new CV which represented her skills and the type of work she wanted to do. Her self-confidence grew and she contributed much to the group sessions which helped others in the sessions as well as herself. She felt more able to perform better in interview situations since she learned how to handle mental blocks as well as her nerves during the course. Rita had connections through her degree course who were encouraging her to apply for another dream job, doing what she was trained to do, albeit out of the area. She passed on her new CV and was invited for interview a couple of months later. In May, she was offered and happily accepted a role with a new team in York where she was able to share the travel and work in a lab, using her Bioveterinary skills and experience. Rita rated the overall service she received as 5 out of 5 and said "I am usually a positive person but I needed the reminder to always think positively and breathe. I felt well-prepared in how to answer interview questions and that I know now what they want to hear. I enjoyed all the advice on job boards and the positive environment". Rita has been happily working now in her new lab position for 6 months. Joanne contacted us in June through Facebook to ask for help with her CV and confidence in finding work. She had been actively seeking work during the pandemic while juggling being a lone parent and home-schooling, as well as her responsibilities as a volunteer Brownie Guide leader. Joanne wanted a job that fitted in with her children and other responsibilities, ideally working with children in an educational environment, but had very little confidence that she would find anything suitable. Joanne joined our face-to-face Community Job Club in July, the first group we had been able to do in person since Covid-19. Together we identified that her CV wasn't the best representation of her skills or what she wanted to do. She felt she was looking for something unattainable, that there weren't enough opportunities in the area and that she lacked the confidence in herself and her abilities to represent herself well enough in interviews. Having identified that her ideal role would be as a teaching assistant in a school, she gained the tools and skills to be able to find and apply for relevant roles and her confidence grew through the group interaction and support she received and took part in. Armed with a much better CV and improved confidence, Joanne applied for a local job in a nursery that she found through our members Facebook group. She was invited for an informal chat straight away on the strength of that CV and invited for a further interview following that. Even then, Joanne felt that the position was "probably too perfect to be true" but she confidently attended and was offered the position, which she started in September. She recently said "I'm absolutely loving my new job, thank you. Settled in well and using all my skills." We knew she would do it, she just needed to believe in herself as much as we did. Joanne rated the overall service she received from the Humber Job Hub team as 5 out of 5 and said "I enjoyed everything, particularly hearing another point of view, and I didn't feel pressured or judged. My confidence has improved somewhat but I will continue working on it." Mark had worked for the same company as a Business Analyst for over 10 years when he was made redundant in March. He came to us as he was just entering his 6th month of being unemployed on 1st September. After initially hoping he would just walk straight into another job, Mark’s confidence had been knocked and he felt a bit “lost” really. He had received confusing and conflicting advice about his CV, didn’t know how best to get across his skills and "stand out" to an employer. Although Mark was getting interviews, he wasn’t progressing past the 1st interview stage and felt he wasn’t presenting his best self. Mark joined our first Fast Track Remote Community Job Club in September 2020, which was born out of the Covid-19 restrictions which meant we could not meet in person. Throughout his time with Humber Job Hub, we recommended CV changes that focussed on his skills and qualities as well as making it stand out more to potential employers, also making these changes on job site profiles including LinkedIn. We talked about the type of work he was looking for and different avenues for finding it ie: temporary employment through agencies and identified the areas of finding employment that he needed help with. Mark had the opportunity to practice interview skills with group and individual activities via Zoom workshops. He feels he now has the tools and skills to be able to update his CV and personal profile on the job boards. He has had an interview since taking part in the course interview sessions and felt that he performed well and much more confidently as a result of the workshops attended. Mark rated his wellbeing and self-esteem as a 5 out of 10 at the beginning of the course but, following completion, felt he had a much more positive perspective on his situation and this had increased to a 9. The group sessions, even though they were on Zoom, made Mark feel less isolated – to know that other people were having very similar experiences in finding work and being able to share them. They also helped him structure his week and gave him a reason to get out of bed. He rated the overall service he received as 5 out of 5 and has already recommended us to a friend. The excellent news that has come out of Mark’s experience is that he has gained a new temporary role that will give him experience of working with a new company, opportunity to learn new skills as well as building on his self-confidence and general wellbeing. Mark endeavours to do well in his temporary role and use it as a learning tool to improve his job opportunities going forward. We wish him well for the future. Anna moved to England in 2002 and had been a stay-at-home Mum for 15 years while her children grew up. During this time, she managed her own self-employed online sales business but decided, once the children had grown up, to pursue an admin/accounts role. However, due to having no luck finding a suitable admin position, in early 2020 Anna took on a zero-hour contract as a visiting carer. Not long after starting, the Covid-19 Pandemic hit and she was advised to shield and no longer work in that field. The main barriers Anna felt she faced in gaining employment were that there were not enough opportunities in the area along with a lack of direction and ability to see where her transferable skills could lead her. Her CV wasn’t the best representation of her skills. She was lacking confidence in herself and her skills, particularly her written English. On top of this, she didn't really understand the current job market, having been out of it for many years and was concerned about representing herself well enough at interviews. During her time on the Fast Track Remote Community Job Club, we discussed the type of work she was looking for and whether any further training was appropriate, recommended CV changes that represented her better and transferring these to her job board profiles too. As well as identifying the areas of finding employment that she needed help with, we practiced interview skills with groups and individual Zoom activities enabling her take advantage of the group support and encouragement. Anna also attended the confidence workshops and took up an ESOL skills assessment with our experienced English teacher to identify and improve any weaknesses in her language skills. Anna now has a new and clear career direction in accounting and feels she has the tools and skills to be able to update her CV and personal profile on the job boards. Her self-confidence has improved and she contributed much to the group sessions, which helped others in the sessions as well as herself. She feels that she will perform better in interview situations since she learned how to handle mental blocks as well as her nerves during the course interview and confidence sessions. Anna rated the overall service she received as 5 out of 5 and said "The course has been a really fantastic experience for me". Anna has already enrolled on and started an Accounting course and, last we heard, she had just started working as a Ward Clerk in the NHS. She is very happy and we wish her all the best with her new career. The inspiration for setting the Community Job Club up came from Richard, an individual we had known for a couple of years who tirelessly applied for jobs week in week out but kept getting knocked back time after time. Other than receiving benefits, he wasn’t getting the support he needed and was struggling to get anywhere. We could see that all this had a devastating effect on him, despite the fact that he tried to remain positive throughout. We wanted to help Richard, so we invited him in to find out exactly what those struggles were and it quickly became apparent that we could offer some valuable support. So, our Community Job Club and our idea of a personal Job Coach was born. Our aim - to create and help people update their own CV, tailored to the specific jobs they were wanting and get them interview-ready. We showed Richard how to target job searches so that they were finding the right type of jobs in the right area. He found that once he had the right CV and was applying for the right kind of jobs, he was getting invited to interviews. We advised on how to conduct and present himself at interviews, how to go about following up interviews and even sending out effective speculative applications to companies he wanted to work at. We identified that he also required some additional training in his chosen field and so we found, and paid for, a suitable online course he could do to boost his chances. To cut a long story short, Richard is now working in exactly the right job for him with an employer that appreciates him. The most amazing thing is that all this happened within a couple of months, after a couple of very stressful and unsuccessful years. Need more proof that you should join us?
Here’s Natalia's story – May 2023
Here’s Liz's story – December 2022
Here’s Rita's story – April 2022
Here’s Joanne's story – November 2021
Here’s Mark's story – November 2020
Anna's story – November 2020
Richard's story, one of our first Job Club members – October 2019
So, we're ready to help you – are you?