Hello,
So since my last post I have a couple of updates.
First, I recieved a written, posted letter from Toni&Guy informing me I was unsuccessful. This was obviously annoying, but not entirely unexpected. At the time I received it I felt pretty annoyed. I couldn't help but take it somewhat personally, but as it happens, I do feel as though it was a blessing in disguise.
The second update I have comes from a salon very local to me. It's a very prestigious salon, and the owner is actually quite a big deal in the hairdressing industry.
I had sent them an email a couple of days ago asking if they had any opportunities at all for some experience, as I had contacted them a month or so before about an apprenticeship only to be told the position had been filled.
However, the email I got back actually informed me that they were currently looking for an apprentice, and asked for my CV. As I'm fairly sure they haven't begun to advertise for this position yet, this is obviously very exciting and leaves me at a fantastic advantage.
I went in with my CV in person today and handed it straight to the owner. I got to speak to him, and his assistant (whom is also his wife) and found out that they had been speaking about me and were speculating as to what I was like (!!!). The fact that I came in seemed to really impress them, especially as they got to get an impression of what I am like before reading my CV.
They did ask how old I was when I handed over the CV, and I informed them when I said I was 20 that I was perfectly happy to fund my own education should they not be able to do it themselves. She actually said to me there may be a way around it, which is intriguing and I'll be interested to see what it is. She said she'll contact me on Tuesday to arrange a meeting, so at that point I may write another post - or wait until I have met them and get back with my report.
Overall, this feels really positive. It feels right for me, and it almost feels as though it was meant to happen. This is a salon I have looked up to massively since it first opened, and I know there is a lot I can learn from both the stylists that work there and the owner - who I once again must stress is a big deal in the industry.
The way this has worked out has taught me something I always knew, but perhaps as of late didn't quite believe in. Persistence really is key.
- Alice
Saturday 30 April 2016
Wednesday 27 April 2016
A Different Approach
Hey,
So since I last posted I really haven't got much further.
I've pretty much accepted now that an apprenticeship at my age is pie-in-the-sky not possible. I've now changed my approach when it comes to applications.
I am still sending my CV to as many places as I can find (though I must admit, my options are now running thin as I've applied to so many places now..) but I've added a little extra something to improve my chances of getting the one thing I really need - more so than an apprenticeship, at the moment.
Experience.
So let's roll back a bit and explain how I came to this conclusion.
Let's assume the odds of me getting an apprenticeship is impossible. This leaves me with going to college to get my NVQ Level 2. This is fine, I'll still get qualified in the same way an apprentice would - but it would leave me with no experience in a real salon environment. If I'm already struggling to get a placement now due to my lack of salon experience, think how badly I will struggle when I've completed my NVQ and go around asking for a full time position as a fully qualified stylist.
I'm pretty sure I'll struggle a lot, as experience speaks volumes these days - particularly in such a customer service based role as hairdressing.
So this leaves me with the need for a position that will give me this valuable experience I so sorely need. This is why I have added the following statement to the bottom of my CV:
So since I last posted I really haven't got much further.
I've pretty much accepted now that an apprenticeship at my age is pie-in-the-sky not possible. I've now changed my approach when it comes to applications.
I am still sending my CV to as many places as I can find (though I must admit, my options are now running thin as I've applied to so many places now..) but I've added a little extra something to improve my chances of getting the one thing I really need - more so than an apprenticeship, at the moment.
Experience.
So let's roll back a bit and explain how I came to this conclusion.
Let's assume the odds of me getting an apprenticeship is impossible. This leaves me with going to college to get my NVQ Level 2. This is fine, I'll still get qualified in the same way an apprentice would - but it would leave me with no experience in a real salon environment. If I'm already struggling to get a placement now due to my lack of salon experience, think how badly I will struggle when I've completed my NVQ and go around asking for a full time position as a fully qualified stylist.
I'm pretty sure I'll struggle a lot, as experience speaks volumes these days - particularly in such a customer service based role as hairdressing.
So this leaves me with the need for a position that will give me this valuable experience I so sorely need. This is why I have added the following statement to the bottom of my CV:
"I
understand that many training providers cannot take on apprentices over
the age of 19 due to difficulties funding their education. If this is
the case, I ask you to consider me for a position as a part-time salon
assistant. This would provide me with valuable experience in a salon
environment while also giving me the flexibility to fund my own
education. Many thanks for this consideration."
Feel free to borrow that statement for your own CV, but I recommend editing it slightly if you do so for the sake of originality. I'm fairly sure that if I do succeed in this, it will be by fluke. Most salons probably wouldn't hire someone so unqualified and essentially useless unless they would help them bring in more money, but at this point I would accept a few days volunteer work anyway just to add that experience to my arsenal. And I may get lucky and find somewhere desperate for a receptionist anyway.
Following on from my previous posts; Toni & Guy still haven't got back to me despite me approaching them asking for feedback (to which they replied they would 'get in touch soon' and a week later.. Still haven't) and the hairdresser I phoned a couple of weeks ago hasn't been in contact either. So far, not so good!
The rejection count is toppling around the 20 mark.
I guess I have to keep on keeping on.
- Alice
Thursday 21 April 2016
The Hardest Part
Hey,
So it's been a few days since I posted about getting an apprenticeship.
I said about my interview with Toni & Guy, and at the time I genuinely believed I was in with a good chance of success with that. Well, I wasn't. I still haven't been contacted and - in my experience of unsuccessful job applications - being ignored means a big fat NO.
This is obviously upsetting. I got my hopes up massively, and have been faced with another rejection. It got me down quite a lot, because as I'm over the age of 18 (when the government stop fully funding apprenticeships) Toni & Guy was the best chance I had.
I think I'm now in the region of about 20 rejections, and all of these (aside from T&G) have been because of my age! It does make me wonder just why the government bother making them available at older ages when no employer really wants to shell out the money to train you.
I think at the very least there should be an option to fund yourself, as I'm at a place now where my only opportunity will be to partake in a college course (at the cost of £1,600) and attempt to get a job from my Level 2 qualification from there.
This is annoying for several reasons.
1. Because the experience in the industry from an apprenticeship would be invaluable.
2. Because I will have to attend college 2 days a week, and somehow find a job that works in between that.
3. Because I do wonder whether I, a 20 year old woman with a clear goal in life, would be far more suited to the apprenticeship programme than a 16 year old fresh out of school who is doing an apprenticeship just because they aren't sure what else to do. (obviously this wouldn't apply to everyone, I'm just pointing out that being older I know far more about what I want in life than I did when I was 16)
4. Rather than being able to begin training within a month or so, I have to wait until September to begin.
I guess to conclude my post, I just want to point out that the older you are when you realise you want to get into this industry, the more considerably difficult it is, to acutally get in to the industry.
And there was me thinking age was a sign of experience.
Ah well! Life goes on, and there are other ways of getting to the end goal.
- Alice
So it's been a few days since I posted about getting an apprenticeship.
I said about my interview with Toni & Guy, and at the time I genuinely believed I was in with a good chance of success with that. Well, I wasn't. I still haven't been contacted and - in my experience of unsuccessful job applications - being ignored means a big fat NO.
This is obviously upsetting. I got my hopes up massively, and have been faced with another rejection. It got me down quite a lot, because as I'm over the age of 18 (when the government stop fully funding apprenticeships) Toni & Guy was the best chance I had.
I think I'm now in the region of about 20 rejections, and all of these (aside from T&G) have been because of my age! It does make me wonder just why the government bother making them available at older ages when no employer really wants to shell out the money to train you.
I think at the very least there should be an option to fund yourself, as I'm at a place now where my only opportunity will be to partake in a college course (at the cost of £1,600) and attempt to get a job from my Level 2 qualification from there.
This is annoying for several reasons.
1. Because the experience in the industry from an apprenticeship would be invaluable.
2. Because I will have to attend college 2 days a week, and somehow find a job that works in between that.
3. Because I do wonder whether I, a 20 year old woman with a clear goal in life, would be far more suited to the apprenticeship programme than a 16 year old fresh out of school who is doing an apprenticeship just because they aren't sure what else to do. (obviously this wouldn't apply to everyone, I'm just pointing out that being older I know far more about what I want in life than I did when I was 16)
4. Rather than being able to begin training within a month or so, I have to wait until September to begin.
I guess to conclude my post, I just want to point out that the older you are when you realise you want to get into this industry, the more considerably difficult it is, to acutally get in to the industry.
And there was me thinking age was a sign of experience.
Ah well! Life goes on, and there are other ways of getting to the end goal.
- Alice
Sunday 17 April 2016
Getting Started as a Hairdresser
Hi!
My name's Alice, as you may have guessed from the blog title. I'm 20 at the time of writing this and I live in the South West of England.
A few months ago I decided I wanted to pursue hairdressing as a career, and I'm going to use this blog to document the progress I make.
The first obstacle I found when I decided I wanted to do hairdressing, was finding an apprenticehip. It seemed to me like there were so many places hiring that I'd be bound to find a placement within the space of a few weeks. Well, that wasn't the case. And it still isn't!
As I live in the UK I used the Government Apprenticeship Service, which is a website set up to list local apprenticeship vacancies. Which sounds great, right? The issue I found was that several of these apprenticeships listed either were already filled or didn't exist at all! This doesn't mean I don't reccomend using it - because I totally do. It's a fantastic resource; just remember you need to double check some vacancies.
The best tip I can give to anyone trying and struggling to find an apprenticeship is to reach out to the employer directly. This means for starters that you'll know for sure that the apprenticeship vacancy actually exists.
Quite often you'll find on the .Gov website that the applications are processed by a training company. This means that sometimes your application won't reach the employer. The best way to contact an employer would, ideally, be by phone. But if the company have a Facebook page it can be quicker and easier to contact a number of employers just by sending a message to them. Don't be disheartened if it seems as though they've seen the message and ignored it - quite often they're very busy and just waiting for enough time to reply to you.
If there's a few salons local to you that aren't advertising but you're wondering if they have a vacancy, definitely give them a ring. I phoned 2 salons in my area and although one didn't have a vacancy, another did. They took down my details and said they would contact me in a couple of weeks. Remember - the more salons that you approach, the more likely it is you'll find a placement.
Even after all of this, I still have struggled to find an employer. However, I did manage to contact Toni & Guy, who have been looking for apprentices for a while now. I first approached them via Facebook, and was asked to email a CV. I did that, and after 6 days hadn't heard anything. As I happened to be in the area recently, I popped into the salon just to ask when to expect a response.
The receptionist actually remembered that I had Facebook messaged them, and they offered me an interview slot then and there. This totally proves it's worth it just to suck it up and approach an employer you're interested in, even if it makes you nervous! I very nearly didn't go in to the salon because I felt too nervous, but I believe if I didn't I probably wouldn't have been interviewed.
Remember, looking keen will always be attractive to an employer. It shows you're motivated and you're not going to waste their time if they'll be investing in you as an apprentice - this particularly will apply to those over the age of 19 where the government will no longer fully fund you. You have to make yourself seem worth the money a company will need to pay to educate you.
And that's as far as I've got so far! I'm yet to hear back from Toni & Guy after my interview - although I felt that went really well. I'm also waiting on a response from the local hairdresser I phoned, and there are several other applications I've made too. Probably about 15.
I hope this post helps someone, I know I certainly could have used a resource like this when I first started looking for my apprenticeship!
Thanks for reading,
Alice x x x
My name's Alice, as you may have guessed from the blog title. I'm 20 at the time of writing this and I live in the South West of England.
A few months ago I decided I wanted to pursue hairdressing as a career, and I'm going to use this blog to document the progress I make.
The first obstacle I found when I decided I wanted to do hairdressing, was finding an apprenticehip. It seemed to me like there were so many places hiring that I'd be bound to find a placement within the space of a few weeks. Well, that wasn't the case. And it still isn't!
As I live in the UK I used the Government Apprenticeship Service, which is a website set up to list local apprenticeship vacancies. Which sounds great, right? The issue I found was that several of these apprenticeships listed either were already filled or didn't exist at all! This doesn't mean I don't reccomend using it - because I totally do. It's a fantastic resource; just remember you need to double check some vacancies.
The best tip I can give to anyone trying and struggling to find an apprenticeship is to reach out to the employer directly. This means for starters that you'll know for sure that the apprenticeship vacancy actually exists.
Quite often you'll find on the .Gov website that the applications are processed by a training company. This means that sometimes your application won't reach the employer. The best way to contact an employer would, ideally, be by phone. But if the company have a Facebook page it can be quicker and easier to contact a number of employers just by sending a message to them. Don't be disheartened if it seems as though they've seen the message and ignored it - quite often they're very busy and just waiting for enough time to reply to you.
If there's a few salons local to you that aren't advertising but you're wondering if they have a vacancy, definitely give them a ring. I phoned 2 salons in my area and although one didn't have a vacancy, another did. They took down my details and said they would contact me in a couple of weeks. Remember - the more salons that you approach, the more likely it is you'll find a placement.
Even after all of this, I still have struggled to find an employer. However, I did manage to contact Toni & Guy, who have been looking for apprentices for a while now. I first approached them via Facebook, and was asked to email a CV. I did that, and after 6 days hadn't heard anything. As I happened to be in the area recently, I popped into the salon just to ask when to expect a response.
The receptionist actually remembered that I had Facebook messaged them, and they offered me an interview slot then and there. This totally proves it's worth it just to suck it up and approach an employer you're interested in, even if it makes you nervous! I very nearly didn't go in to the salon because I felt too nervous, but I believe if I didn't I probably wouldn't have been interviewed.
Remember, looking keen will always be attractive to an employer. It shows you're motivated and you're not going to waste their time if they'll be investing in you as an apprentice - this particularly will apply to those over the age of 19 where the government will no longer fully fund you. You have to make yourself seem worth the money a company will need to pay to educate you.
And that's as far as I've got so far! I'm yet to hear back from Toni & Guy after my interview - although I felt that went really well. I'm also waiting on a response from the local hairdresser I phoned, and there are several other applications I've made too. Probably about 15.
I hope this post helps someone, I know I certainly could have used a resource like this when I first started looking for my apprenticeship!
Thanks for reading,
Alice x x x
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