Job hunting is a task no one enjoys, and with the most recent figures revealing more than 1.8 million people in the UK were unemployed during the final three months of 2025, competition for positions is fiercer than ever. Statistics released this week show that the UK’s unemployment rate stands at 5.2 per cent, the highest since January 2021. Excluding the pandemic period, this is the highest figure since autumn 2015.
It’s hardly surprising, then, that many people are seeking guidance on how to secure employment. However, that advice isn’t always beneficial – particularly if it’s offered by someone who hasn’t had to look for a job in some time.
One Reddit user expressed their annoyance at receiving outdated job hunting advice from their parents, which they found irrelevant in today’s world. Posting on the social media platform’s CasualUK page, they queried: “Anyone else’s parents give them old-fashioned job advice?”
They shared: “So I’m currently looking for work. Three years in client acquisition and five in sales.
“And my parents’ advice? People in their 60s and 70s? ‘Go to some of the shops in the town centre, ask for the manager, look him straight in the eye, give him a firm handshake, hand him your CV, and ask for [a] job. You’ll be given the job by the time mum puts the dinner on’.
“Then goes on about at my age, he had a trade, a motorbike and a career. At least my mum knows it’s all done online now. You’re lucky if you even get a f****** interview.”
Others shared their own comparable situations, reports the Express. One commented: “My younger brother still lives with my mum. He’s been looking for work for a while, and he’s a bit naive, so I say to him on a regular basis ‘don’t listen to a word mum says’.
“I can’t remember exactly what she said, but the last time I was looking for work she was giving me a lecture on everything I was doing wrong, I said ‘Yes mum, but looking for a scientist job now is not the same as looking for secretary work 30 years ago’. She just can’t comprehend that things have changed.”
Another said: “Sending applications in online and my dad told me I needed to take job hunting seriously. Get dressed, print off my CV and walk into offices and ask to speak to manager. Could not compute that sitting on my laptop was me trying.”
Someone else posted: “Yes, my dad still says send a letter to the CEO and still thinks five applications will mean five offers. It’s laughably out-of-date advice.”
However, one revealed how the traditional method had surprisingly worked in their favour. They explained: “When I was 14 or 15 (15 years ago) I walked into my local computer repair shop and asked if they need any part-time help.
“I didn’t even speak good English back then. I already had experience fixing computers for people privately and hacking game consoles but nothing to prove it.
“They ended up hiring me and I worked there for three years. It helped me massively when I was searching my first real job out of uni. I graduated on Friday and started my full-time job in support on Monday.”
Source – https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/jobs/jobseekers-share-baffling-job-hunting-36748546?