Dear LPG, 

Now that we are supposedly near enough the light at the end of the coronavirus tunnel, although I still think that is just a spot in the distance, I think that many of us are seeing a glimmer of positivity in the world and in us. 

Things are slowly moving back to that ‘new normal’ we have been promised for so long and, there are a lot of aspects of the process that we pensioners are still looking at from the side-lines.  

Many of us have families and while the television tells us lots about the bigger picture, the parents and grandparents, aunts, uncles, great aunts and uncles among us have been allowed to get much closer to the lives of our younger relatives.  

I have recently watched two of mine try to move on in their working lives for varying reasons. I have heard their stories of the processes that they have undergone in order to land those new jobs, which now include video interviews which seem to be a much more relaxed way of dealing with the whole process.  One grandson even told me of a few interviews that took place in the offices of his current job during the lunch break.   Convenient but worrying if you don’t want your current employer to know about your wish to leave them.   

Back in the 1980’s when I was part of the job market, job hunting was a lot less complicated but perhaps a very different process. There were more jobs out there, or perhaps less of us looking which left us thinking that if this one does not work out there will be another.  The interview was often a one-off affair but the event resulted in a fairly swift ‘yes’ or ‘no’ follow up and I think that the torment that was the gap between the interview and the decision making process lasted for a much shorter time back then.  

My two young job-hunting candidates are both employed but are ready to move on so they have been working at finding new jobs for a while, but perhaps some young men of today are looking for a lot more in a job than I ever was.  They talk to me about promotion prospects and learning new skills while working, and interestingly enough, how many days per week they will be able to work from home.  I just wanted to be happy in my work and paid enough to be able to afford my financial  responsibilities.  

There are quite a few times when I remember sitting in a waiting room while evaluating the other candidates and my chances of being chosen over them.  At least an initial video interview spares interviewees that experience these days. 

After ten years of being a pensioner and not having to bother with all the worry or wondering about where my next meal is coming from, I look back and wonder how I ever managed to get a job in the first place.  

LS, Penge