Hi Mike, It's always difficult to get a foot on the ladder. My only advise is to keep trying. Also your previous work history needs highlighting in the right areas that you are going for, i.e. if you have specialist skills in engineering as well, highlight these points. Thanks

Hi Mike I was in your situation about 5 years ago when things didn't look as bad and I still had serious difficulty getting that first job! I did send lots of speculative CVs - what have you got to loose? At first these got me nowhere but as said above offering to shadow existing person or doing some work for a voluntary organisation may help. Once you have a foot in the door it does get a bit easier... Well it did in the good old days :) My break through came when I started to be very specific, I focused on chemical specific jobs and sold my existing skills (I am lucky enough to have a degree in chemistry and lab experience). Once I started to be more focused I started to get some luck! So in answer to your second point - make sure your cover letter is top notch! I am sure people on these forums will offer to read it for you if you request help! The Royal Society of Chemistry were amazing, practice interviews, personal careers advisor who gave me a reading list and a list of contacts! If you are a member of any institute use them to the full, you don't pay £100 / year for a magazine :) ! IOSH - well they told me to check the back of SHP thanks guys! That said my first job came from these forums, again vague 'I want work posts' failed but a very specific request worked a treat! (Worth noting I also had the advantage of being able to relocate to anywhere for work!) I was also told at uni - send 10 CVs to get one job interview and go to 10 job interviews to get offered one job! I am sure in the current climate you can up those numbers. So head down, hassle everyone and good luck, you really do just have to keep plugging!

throw your net out as wide as possible and look to apply to hundreads of companies and more - go around your local industrial estates as well; looking for face to face contacts - generally I find that HR are very poor so try to get in touch with insiders who may be able to help e.g. process engineers, QA etc also attend your branches & the various H&S groups Best of luck

Hi Mike Your cover letter needs to be tailored to each application, and identify how your skills could add value to the specific organisation (which obviously also means doing your research into what they do and where). Good luck.

Also look at the recent prosecution - improvement notice info kept by the HSE as those companies may be more likely to here U