It can be hard trying to get work, especially if you need to get something quickly. People that have been made redundant, had to leave a job due to relocation or have been off work for a while and need to return often need help in finding a vacancy that they are suited to.

With high competition for jobs you need to be on top of your game to be able to compete against other candidates. Experience and qualifications are often the main reasons for an employer choosing a particular candidate but even if you are not as qualified as others, you can still land that much needed job.

You CV and cover letter is the first impression you will give the potential employer so it is vital that this is correct. Not only should you ensure that all the information is accurate but also that it is written and displayed in the correct way. If in doubt view a few sample CV’s off the internet or speak to a Job Centre advisor who will be able to help you.

Very often it is easy to find helpful tips and advice for employees looking to attend an interview but as an interviewer you may also need some assistance.

When planning to carry out interviews, it is all about preparation. You will probably have already read through all the CV’s and covering letters of the applicants that are going to be attending. I would strongly recommend highlighting any points on their CV that you wish to discuss with them in detail. This may be gap in employment or extra qualifications that you want to explore further.

Make sure that you have a set of questions in which you want to ask everyone. This will give you something to compare when you are looking through all the candidates to find out who you want to invite back for a second interview or offer the job to. It may be handy to have someone else present at the interview so you can bounce ideas off each other afterwards.

Teacher agencies have received some bad press over the last few months with many of them being branded as a money grabbing and not treating the teachers on their register fairly. It has to be said, that although there are some teaching agencies out there like that (as within any industry) not all of them are, but it does confirm the importance of shopping around.

A good teaching agency will find you work that is in your selected location quickly. They often already work with a number of schools and have many staff that they send out on a daily basis to cover supply teaching jobs.

Some agencies also offer a service to find permanent teaching jobs for people and often they will even assist with the initially interview process. Most good teaching agencies will not only find their teachers work but will also offer them support in terms of legal advice and stress management advice. They sometimes even have a bank of information that you can access to find ideas for lessons or lesson materials.

If you are a supply teacher, you may find that you do not have enough work to keep you busy or make it a financially viable option for you to continue down that career path. If you are replying on one or two schools to call you when they have a short term teaching position they require someone for, then you may find that you have limited work from them.

If you want to try and fill up more of your days and get regular supply work, then why not register with a teaching recruitment agency. There are many recruitment agencies all over the UK and many of them work in different ways. Most of the agencies will not charge you a fee to register with them, or if they do the fee will be relatively small, but they then take a percentage of your earnings when they have found you a placement. This can be a great way to get regular work and build up your experience with working with children of all ages.

A CV is basically a document where you record all your qualifications and work experience. There are no strict guidelines as to how you should create a CV but many people follow a few simple rules such as keep it to one or two pages and make sure that the information given is relevant and easy to understand.

Often people don’t update their CV until they decide to switch careers or they see a job advertised that they wish to apply for. The danger in this is that it is easy to forget course, additional training or qualifications you may have gained and also it the deadline for applications is soon, you may not have the time to update your CV correctly. This could mean that you either miss out or that you make mistakes by rushing it.

I update my CV every three months, this way I know that should I need to amend it, it will only be the previous three months that I need to think about rather than years!

Office work is one of the most popular jobs especially amongst school leavers as there is often a large amount of these types of roles available and some require little or no experience. Working in an office is a great way to get a feel for a work place. You will often get to liaise with different departments and get to understand how the company works.

There is a huge variety of office roles available, for example office junior, office manager, account manager, human resources roles and IT related roles to name a few. Many people start out as an office junior and then quickly progress in to other more skilled roles as their confidence and experience levels increase.

Some people may say that office jobs are boring, but this is often not the case with some positions offering a wide range of tasks that may vary day to day.

Knowing what to wear to a job interview can be a nightmare. You need to appear formal and smartly dressed without being too over the top and making yourself feel uncomfortable. Most interviews take place in an office environment so therefore you would be expected to wear something like a suit or smart skirt / trousers and top.

You are not only dressing to impress the interviewer but also to make yourself feel confident allowing you to sell your skills and experience and reasons why you are suited to the job to the potential employer.

Make sure that you plan your outfit and get it ready in advance. Too many people have an idea of what they are going to wear but then on the morning of their interview get it out of the wardrobe to find that it has a mark on it or doesn’t fit them anymore. This can make a stressful situation even worse.

There are times throughout your life when you may need flexible part time work, maybe after having children or when you’re approaching retirement and looking to slow the pace down a little, but what sort of job would allow this?

Working in a school/nursery – either in an admin position or as a teaching assistant this could be ideal work if you want to fit in work around your children, with school holidays off and earlier finishes than a standard office working day it’s certainly worth considering.

Supermarket work – this is usual shift work so can be great if you’re looking to work outside of the normal 9 till 5 office hours. The weekend and bank holiday pay is often very good as well so if you’re looking to earn as much as you can just working over weekends then this could be ideal.

Delivering catalogues – this type of work is usually based on commissions of products that you sell through catalogue orders however most companies do offer a very basic rate just for the catalogue distribution. Great if you want to be outdoors and want to get plenty of exercise.

We’ve all done it when looking for a job, uploaded our CV to several free job websites and put in our search criteria that we are interested in.

The problem is that even if you enter very specific criteria you then get bombarded with emails daily with numerous jobs ‘specially recommended for you’ that are nothing to do with your chosen profession. The result? Deleting the emails as soon as they come in without even opening them.

Not only is this frustrating but it also means that you may miss jobs on there that you could be interested in.

Another issue on these sites is fake job adverts linking you to a company that offers a job where you have to purchase stock up front, these are often scam companies and should be reported to the site administrators.

It may be worth looking at these job sites during your search for work but certainly isn’t a great idea to pin all your hopes on this method of job hunting alone.

If you like to keep fit and active and are great at motivating people then becoming a personal trainer could be for you. As a personal trainer your aim would be to inspire your clients to get fit and healthy and help them with work out techniques, nutritional advice and exercise plans.

Most personal trainers work on a self-employed basis and either do out door training at a park or go to clients houses. Some base themselves at a gym and try to encourage people there to book some one on one sessions.

There are some gyms that employ personal trainers on a contract basis to offer there gym members as part of a membership package. This can be great as you then have a stable income each month that’s reliable rather than the uncertainty of going self-employed.

To qualify as a personal trainer you can do a college course in health and fitness, in this course you will also cover a basic level of nutrition studies which could be developed at a later date with further courses.