There are some brilliant points on here. As an employer the main thoughts that run through my head is 1. Will they fit into my companies way of doing things and the people working for me and 2. What will this person do for my business. It's a shame that I have been interviewing for a while now and can not find the right person The reason for this is that I have,on the face of it,some quality applicants come through my door. great cV,good figures etc but they could not satisfy the two points I made earlier. I mention this is to say to you don't be intimidated by others. Look into the company you are applying for. Understand the culture of how they operate and demonstrate this in your interviews. This will give you a great advantage over others as you have shown the firm you really want the job. As others have mentioned.....STAND OUT
Just to add to that, and the point about seasonal work leading to more.
As I'm a student at the moment I applied for a casual summer/xmas job about 18 months ago. My cover letter didn't give a single reason why I wanted the job, the whole thing was pitched as why the company should hire me for the position. It mde it stand out from somebody saying "oh I'm wonderful and I've done this that and the other" to have someone saying "this is what you're looking for, it's what I offer, and most of the other applicants won't offer this". In my case for example the seasonal nature meant it fitted around my university, so in the letter I said that unlike other people who would potentially leave when the hours dried up I would be busy with uni, which meant that rather than retraining people 6 months later as they'd left for regular work they would have a worker that could do them for 3 years as a minimum. There were a few other things I picked up on from the advert as well which allowed me to make similar comments. It allows you to show you want the job (otherwise you wouldn't have looked at it in so much detail) without coming across as desperate or as the same as everybody else.
EDIT: Just remembered, one of the other things was using the reputations of the companies I'd worked for and twisting the way I revealed things. Rather than saying "I'm a hard worker" as everyone does, I pointed out that I'd had 3 promotions in 18 months for one company, and the other company I worked for (for 4 years) was Aldi who are known for making their staff do a lot of work, so that was evidence of my work ethic. It also meant they'd seen my willingness to develop in a job, and they'd seen that having only worked for 2 companies I wasn't going to be jumping ship all the time, all without me having to say it. I also played on my family life being important, it was why I moved to Scotland, and it was why I was having a career change, so despite being single and pretty young it should a desire for stability (preferable to a 19 year old piss head).
Oh, I don't know how much difference it makes, but the other thing I try to do is avoid asking about the money for it until I've been offered the job. If the advert doesn't say what the pay is I just assume minimum wage (which of you're unemployed is better than you're on) and then anything better is a bonus. The only time I asked before being given the job was when I first moved to Scotland. I was going from a full-time management position to a part-time staff contract, I'd said I didn't mind starting at the bottom again, but I did need to make sure that I was going to be able to afford to live on the money so we were working out how many hours I needed to do to make sure it was agreeable to both sides. The guys that have been involved in recruitment will have a better idea, but I feel as though asking would just make it too obvious you were there for the money. I know that's daft because pretty much everybody works for the money, but I just don't think highlighting at that stage it is a good move. Like I say, I don't know if that's fair, but I know I've only ever had one interview where I haven't ended up getting the job, and that was my first interview whilst I was still at school and I wouldn't agree to working Saturday afternoons because of football. (I never see the point of having a job to get the money to do what I want to do if having the job stops me being able to do it, needing to pay bills is a different matter, but I didn't have that worry back then)
For development into more, I'd target quite small companies that are looking to grow because they don't want to bring in inexperienced people to be in charge of experienced staff. I did the first Xmas season for us which was virtually nothing for me as a new starter, so really I started last summer. By the end of the summer I'd been made one of the senior staff, and just from working well for them I was offered regular time in the warehouse. Then at the start of this month I started as the warehouse manager despite still being at uni and only having 2 days a week I can work (and it's only 1 day when I've been to Hull for the weekend games). Once it hits the summer I'll be full-time in the role until September (one of the other staff is making up the hours work wise for me til then), and once I've finished my degree next year it means I've got a guaranteed job whilst I look for an accounting position.
Can you give some more info matt how old, married any qualifications etc. because my advice is get to college and Uni. Hard work will get you places sometimes or just 40 years of back breaking labour.
I worked hard in dead end jobs and got nowt to show for it. Went to Uni and found a lot of em didn't like hard work there, I did. So now it's really well paid jobs without the bad back
Adding to that. The advantage with studying at the moment is, providing you're doing a course that qualifies for student funding you have a guaranteed level of income for a number of years (I notice OP was getting stressed about the money for paying bills and stuff), and depending on your earlier results at school it's easier to get accepted on a course doing something than it is to find a job. The reason I'm studying now is that I wanted a career change and finding a job in the market was proving ridiculous (9 months and not a single interview as every where could hold out for people with relevent experience or for graduates with related degrees). By going on a degree course I got myself 4 years (Scottish system takes an extra year) with guaranteed student loans etc coming in to pay all my bills. It allows me to get the extra skills whilst constantly looking for suitable work, either as a means to my eventual career, or as a safety net for when I finish my degree (or if I like it and it pays enough to do instead). It gave me a lot of freedom to do as I pleased. 1st Year I didn't bother working as I wanted a year off, then 2nd year I applied for the job I talked about above because it met my needs entirely in terms of giving me some work without me having to give anything up (I don't actually need the money, I could comfortably live off the student money for another year or so if I wanted). I know there's the stigma of student debt, but it's all bollocks, it's not a debt because it doesn't function as a debt. You're basically agreeing that if after your course you earn a lot of money then you'll pay some extra tax, and if you were on £25k you'd be paying £30 a month extra from take home pay of well over £1k, you're not going to notice it. (note, my course is to become an accountant, this isn't some casual student who couldn't care less attitude, it's me having looked at the actual numbers and decided it's basically irrelevent). I know I live in Scotland so my fees are paid rather than added to the loan, but that doesn't bias my views. Being in Scotland also means that I have to pay back when I'm earning £15k rather than £21k (plus inflationary increases on both), and I said when the protests about the changes down there were happening that I'd rather have it on your new terms than either the Scottish terms or the old English terms.