Hi Walker
You can always PM them by clicking on their name and then on PM on the page that comes up. This allows you to send any information to that person you want without it appearing on the forum
Take care
John C

Why do the moderators lock this type off post, as the heading of forum is

Careers forum
For newcomers to careers in health and safety, as well as more experienced practitioners. This forum offers you the opportunity to discuss your career path and indicate your availability for work in health and safety

I got my break into H&S via these forums!
I fear I wouldn't have the same luck now, however I do understand why it is done and agree it is difficult to control agencies and bots who would just end up wasting peoples time.

However, private messaging just isn't the same... options?
There was a breakaway group a while ago who now run their own forums, but I find these are overrun with overseas jobs. Worth a look at the other sites though.

I also find Linkedin has resulted in several real oppertunities from head hunters! Well worth joining!

I understand the reasons for locking those types of threads, not that I fully agree with it but I don't think the posters who are searching for work do themselves any favours.

For example, almost every thread started by someone looking for work does not have enough information in it. A few years ago I posted saying I was looking for work, in it I just basically c&p'd my CV - emitting certain details but leaving in my qualifications, experience and everything else that prospective employers need to know, through that I received two job offers, even though the thread was locked.

If someone is looking for someone to fill a vacancy they do look beyond the first page as my post was on page 2 or 3 I think when contact was made.

So a bit of advice from me is to post your location, your specialism (if you have one) your qualifications, your experience, what you are willing to do and where you are willing to do it and how much you wish to be paid to do it.

A post consisting of "Hello, my name is (insert name here) and I am looking for work in Cleckhuddersfax, anyone able to help" is not going to get any interest, and as the thread will be locked no one is going to be able to ask any questions, and frankly why would someone bother making contact via PM if the original post lacked effort and thought?

Yes IOSH should do more for members,but do your conceited replies help anyone in particular to find work?
And why re visit these forums if you (obviously) couldnt possible gain anything from them?

Been there, done that, waste of time!!

I and several others spoke to IOSH regarding the withdrawal of job adverts being placed, reasons given for this decision varied from:

It's commercially sensitive information which we will not release to non corporate members (if it's that commercially sensitive why can corporate members see it and non corporate not?).
It's due to the contract we have with SHP and advertising would be to the detriment of SHP and in breach of contract (As I pointed out at the time, given that IOSH is funded by it's members to act for it's members should it not have negotiated a better contract - one that benefits it's members rather than a publishing company?).
The ban on advertising would not affect jobs being advertised, as was pointed out by several members in tough times some of the ‘entry level’ / apprentice roles would not be commercially viable to advertise given the rates that SHP charge. It was also pointed out that several members had been in the position to recruit ‘entry level’ / apprentice roles that they couldn’t get permission to advertise commercially for – This seemed to have been ignored by IOSH.

At the time I found myself out of work I dropped my IOSH membership and now being back in work I feel that IOSH has not been at all supportive of myself or other members in similar positions, the companies that used to be keen to support the new blood coming into the industry have been actively deterred from helping as the sort of roles they were advertising on the forum just cannot be justified being advertised commercially, any industry needs newcomers, however, IOSH seems to be doing very little to help newcomers to the industry.

By all means try to raise this issue but, don't be surprised if you are met with an unwillingness to review this and the excuses I and others have already been given.

On a final note, the decision on advertising is an IOSH one not the Mods, likewise, if this thread or posts end up being deleted or locked, the source will be IOSH not the Mods.

As said before if IOSH are insisting that members are not permitted to post availability for work on the Careers Forum then they should change the description of the Forum 'This forum offers you the opportunity to discuss your career path and indicate your availability for work in health and safety'

Obviously in this case it doesn't do what it says on the can! so members are posting availability here in the assumption that is what the forum is for.

Interesting point from the mod "it does what it says on the tin". Is this strictly so? The objective is: "This forum offers you the opportunity to discuss your career path and inidicate your availablilty for work in health & safety".

Ok so a person posts a thread inidicating his/her availablily for work. In the present climate a change of career direction might be necessary, e.g. from advisory work to trainer role or from managing h&s on construction site to cdm-c etc. Other forum users might read the thread and be able to offer advice having been there before. Such discussion is prevented because the thread has been locked!!

This forum does not really do "what it says on the tin". The practice of locking threads are possibly "well past the sell-by date".

That makes 2 of us! However I posted and someone replied :)

Well.

My job hunt request was locked in less than three minutes after posting it!

Nice to see this industry is just as unhelpful as any other industry!

We all hear the country has a skills shortage & employers cannot find people with the correct skills.

Not surprising at all i'm afraid.

Hi Sdkfz181.

Glad to see we're on the same wavelength on what you get for your membership money.

Maybe it's time the paid up members question what they get for their money.

Soon it could be them who are out of work & wanting help, to then find they don't get any & their posts locked out.

Very slightly off track here and following on from a previous comment (s) about IOSH providing career "help", I would love this type of service to be on offer. I am trying to switch sector from retail, warehousing and logistics to something else for a change and new challenge. Despite being relatively well qualified (3 NEBOSH Certs, NVQ4 (old one) amongst others and still going with Env Dip) and having a good amount of experience and responsibility (albeit in my current sector) I cannot get a foot in any other door. My CV is in a good format and tailored content to suit but still nothing, whilst it is not the end of the world as I am fortunate enough to be in employment I would appreciate resource from IOSH to give advice on how to cross over sectors; hopefully they will here our pleas and pay cognance to them not just acknowledge them. This facility would be a real help to unemployed and employed alike.
Whilst I am here; if any of you have any tips on how to move sector (possbily to manufacturing, construction, engineering etc.) I would gladly recieve all advice sent.

Many thanks teh_boy, I'll improve on my linkedin profile on your advice. At present I only have my current job title showing as i've never got round to the filling the rest out. Guess it's worth a try!

I'm not clear what you are asking for. This topic has encompassed many ideas, and many misconceptions. Please could you make your request clear.

The answer is that I do not think that this career advice service is available. However, to be sure, you could check with the membership department.

You can post on this forum to ask for advice, and this gives you access to wide range of people with a great deal of experience. You can also approach your local branch - networking in this way can be quite important.

Just to make things clear, this forum can be used to ask for advice and to indicate your availability for jobs, but we would appreciate that you keep these issues in totally separate topics.

We prefer to lock the job seeking posts, as this prevents a great many violations of the forum rules. It also makes the job seeker posts stand out - an employer need only look for the posts with the padlock symbols to see which forum users are seeking jobs.

Please note, this is not a response from IOSH, it is a response from a volunteer member, who does not know everything. Please check.

Pete has put his finger on something crucial here. If that one post is all you can have then for goodness sake use it to publicise yourself properly. Give all the information a prospective employer might want and say exactly what you are looking for and where. Don't start off by saying you've lost your job or you have been looking for a job for ages or you can't get any interviews! Be positive and highlight what you want for the future and what you can do for a prospective employer rather than dwelling on why you aren't employed now. Choose a title for the post that gives a positive feel - "H&S Manager looking for my next opportunity" rather than "Made redundant, need work".

Who on earth am I to tell you how to post? Well I put a single posting on here about 2 years ago and as a direct result picked up an excellent contract which has given me a lot of good experience. I spent about an hour writing and rewriting the post before I actually pressed the "post" button. Take some time to think what you actually want to say rather than dashing it off in 5 minutes and ending up with an incomplete post full of errors.

It is possible to get jobs and make contacts using this forum but you have to make the best use of its limited scope for advertising yourself.

I wrote a long reply to this - where has it gone? :(

It basically said - Now we have 4 people who have work thanks to these forums!!!
How can IOSH follow other bodies and provide the support that is asked for.
I agreed with Heather in that your 'one post' must count, mine took hours to get right. I see too many with poor spelling and sentences that don't make sense. It's not hard to get it proof read.

I also said - I am willing to offer help and guidance (but that made me feel old and sensible) but I think we need a more structured way to ensure this advice is sound.

It's Friday and I need to plan handover for my job! Yes there are new jobs out there - mine might be one soon, and I found a new one. (not through the forums this time) - roll on the weekend.

Well said. The moderators were really not helpful, I think the following sums it up!



Who does know everything?

I think the request now is who can take this forward. We can do our best as a forum to help and support the new peolw but as I said it's not formal help. Someone must know who can take this up for us?