Hey folks,
I've explained why I returned to the U.K despite knowing that unemployment is more rampant here than sand in a sand storm. (Info here) The previous blog covered January and how to handle rejection. Before you get the wrong impression I'm going to preach a bit of Confucian philosophy.
There is a famous Chinese working in Beijing called Yu Dan. She created the book "Confucius from the heart". It sold over 10 million copies and Yu Dan is famous in China for a series of lectures she gave on television about the subject. In her book she recalls the story "On Staying Behind" as told by an old writer & statesman Su Shi. The main point of his story is that in order to overcome any bitterness or the tediousness that may occur every day, we must hold lofty or aspirational goals in our heart. If we have no greater ideals or values then we will get bogged down in the materialism (or lack thereof) that occur around us. The less we hold dear in our hearts, the more we frustrated we get with trivial trifles. The second idea is that every time we retell a story of great hardship we in turn get ourself stuck in our own trifle and open up old wounds.
The point of these blogs is not to burn myself a second time, nor it is to act like a victim for as my advisor said: "If it's unproductive, don't think about it".
Unproductive doesn't just mean: "Oh no...I didn't land a job." Unproductive means: Wallowing, ranting, creating lists of things to do but not carrying out with any of the things listed . I am retelling this story for the purpose of keeping a log, informing others what it is I am doing and also to provide an insight for those interested into what it is that job seekers do. As there are 2.56 million people that are currently unemployed I think that is important that we talk about what we are doing while the media puts forward the notion that we do nothing. There are a vast amount of vacancies out there...I have the phone number for the team that write the statistics so I will phone them later on and write a blog about that. Right now this blog is focused on what I did in February.
So what did I do in February?
1. Did the usual trawl through multiple job sites and applying for jobs online.
2. I attended a day run by a recruitment firm down south.
That day cost an entire week's worth of JSA. As I have no desire to use these firms ever again I feel fine blogging about it as a way of giving insight for people considering this type of agency/middle-man. The firm in question I phoned myself seeking a few answers regarding the general queries we might have when seeing a graduate recruitment firm.
1) What do you do? 2) What can you do for me? 3) When/where do you do these things?
The man on the other end explained everything, he said they run a few tests and one of their regular hiring clients are there THIS Wednesday. I read through the documents emailed to me, it all sounded good. There would be an introduction sessions in which candidates introduce themselves, there would be some tests and then everyone would be divided into groups. We would do two group related activities, one set around numerical/verbal communication and another around selling. The name of their client also checked out and so I decided it was best to give it a go.
The main reason I went down was because the man on the phone said: If you don't get hired by this client, we can keep you on record for other opportunities. He also said that the field my degree itself wasn't crucial! I went down because I didn't think it was a waste of time. First off the layout of the room was a damn travesty. The client in question was hidden around a corner and the room itself was set in such a way that the client could see only half of the candidates.
One of the activities was to sell a Red Letter Day event. You know that company?
The one that went under, was bought by two of the Dragons while they were drunk?
That's it! That failed business venture set up to just flog roller coaster rides to people that have more important things to do. YES! That's the one.
I was there on a day relating to recruitment into sales for a computer firm. I was all ready with amazing facts regarding the greatest threats out there for those that use computers & the internet as a part of their business operation. Informations relating to how the U.S have tracked billions of dollars worth of intellectual property theft to a few locations in China and why security is more important than ever before.
As I left the revamped living room another candidate outside told me that the reason why they say your degree is not relevant is because the firm gets commission for every head in the room. A few candidates told me that they had been to many other days and also warned me that this day was better than others they had attended.
While I understand the importance of acting professional, we must also understand the importance of a safe working environment and not being scared into silence by the threat of being blacklisted. A smart man will pursue more than 1 career path and I am pursuing about three right now. I found the day incredibly enlightening in terms of how they expect a salesperson to act in a "blue chip" London based firm but what I saw made me realise that while our media calls out against acting like a bull in a China shop...it is that attitude still being sought after and I don't feel comfortable belittling my co-workers..colleagues...other human beings.
We must remember that while a job is a job is a job, no salary can truly cover a loss of integrity and no sales pitch can truly convince our conscience that a line of work we feel is not right for ourselves is something we should strive to get involved in. I learned that one line of work was not for me and so I decided to invest my time into looking into other career paths. That was what I have been doing in April and so that will be the topic of my next blog on the 22/04/2013.
Main message here:
Try something new and if you find out that it is not for you...you tried and can now look into other lines of work. There is never any harm in trying. There is always something new to learn. We can always build upon our past experiences thereby refining ourselves for future possibilities.
Cheers for reading,
Have a great week,
Feel free to share this or comment with suggestions.
P.S There is a book called "What Colour is Your Parachute". The author is Richard N. Bolles. He updates it every year and I'm only 20 pages in. He offers a really productive perspective on how to approach job hunting and he has a few figures to reinforce an optimistic outlook. A friend suggested it to me and now I'm reading it. It is a good read.
I've explained why I returned to the U.K despite knowing that unemployment is more rampant here than sand in a sand storm. (Info here) The previous blog covered January and how to handle rejection. Before you get the wrong impression I'm going to preach a bit of Confucian philosophy.
There is a famous Chinese working in Beijing called Yu Dan. She created the book "Confucius from the heart". It sold over 10 million copies and Yu Dan is famous in China for a series of lectures she gave on television about the subject. In her book she recalls the story "On Staying Behind" as told by an old writer & statesman Su Shi. The main point of his story is that in order to overcome any bitterness or the tediousness that may occur every day, we must hold lofty or aspirational goals in our heart. If we have no greater ideals or values then we will get bogged down in the materialism (or lack thereof) that occur around us. The less we hold dear in our hearts, the more we frustrated we get with trivial trifles. The second idea is that every time we retell a story of great hardship we in turn get ourself stuck in our own trifle and open up old wounds.
The point of these blogs is not to burn myself a second time, nor it is to act like a victim for as my advisor said: "If it's unproductive, don't think about it".
Unproductive doesn't just mean: "Oh no...I didn't land a job." Unproductive means: Wallowing, ranting, creating lists of things to do but not carrying out with any of the things listed . I am retelling this story for the purpose of keeping a log, informing others what it is I am doing and also to provide an insight for those interested into what it is that job seekers do. As there are 2.56 million people that are currently unemployed I think that is important that we talk about what we are doing while the media puts forward the notion that we do nothing. There are a vast amount of vacancies out there...I have the phone number for the team that write the statistics so I will phone them later on and write a blog about that. Right now this blog is focused on what I did in February.
So what did I do in February?
1. Did the usual trawl through multiple job sites and applying for jobs online.
2. I attended a day run by a recruitment firm down south.
That day cost an entire week's worth of JSA. As I have no desire to use these firms ever again I feel fine blogging about it as a way of giving insight for people considering this type of agency/middle-man. The firm in question I phoned myself seeking a few answers regarding the general queries we might have when seeing a graduate recruitment firm.
1) What do you do? 2) What can you do for me? 3) When/where do you do these things?
The man on the other end explained everything, he said they run a few tests and one of their regular hiring clients are there THIS Wednesday. I read through the documents emailed to me, it all sounded good. There would be an introduction sessions in which candidates introduce themselves, there would be some tests and then everyone would be divided into groups. We would do two group related activities, one set around numerical/verbal communication and another around selling. The name of their client also checked out and so I decided it was best to give it a go.
The main reason I went down was because the man on the phone said: If you don't get hired by this client, we can keep you on record for other opportunities. He also said that the field my degree itself wasn't crucial! I went down because I didn't think it was a waste of time. First off the layout of the room was a damn travesty. The client in question was hidden around a corner and the room itself was set in such a way that the client could see only half of the candidates.
One of the activities was to sell a Red Letter Day event. You know that company?
The one that went under, was bought by two of the Dragons while they were drunk?
That's it! That failed business venture set up to just flog roller coaster rides to people that have more important things to do. YES! That's the one.
I was there on a day relating to recruitment into sales for a computer firm. I was all ready with amazing facts regarding the greatest threats out there for those that use computers & the internet as a part of their business operation. Informations relating to how the U.S have tracked billions of dollars worth of intellectual property theft to a few locations in China and why security is more important than ever before.
As I left the revamped living room another candidate outside told me that the reason why they say your degree is not relevant is because the firm gets commission for every head in the room. A few candidates told me that they had been to many other days and also warned me that this day was better than others they had attended.
While I understand the importance of acting professional, we must also understand the importance of a safe working environment and not being scared into silence by the threat of being blacklisted. A smart man will pursue more than 1 career path and I am pursuing about three right now. I found the day incredibly enlightening in terms of how they expect a salesperson to act in a "blue chip" London based firm but what I saw made me realise that while our media calls out against acting like a bull in a China shop...it is that attitude still being sought after and I don't feel comfortable belittling my co-workers..colleagues...other human beings.
We must remember that while a job is a job is a job, no salary can truly cover a loss of integrity and no sales pitch can truly convince our conscience that a line of work we feel is not right for ourselves is something we should strive to get involved in. I learned that one line of work was not for me and so I decided to invest my time into looking into other career paths. That was what I have been doing in April and so that will be the topic of my next blog on the 22/04/2013.
Main message here:
Try something new and if you find out that it is not for you...you tried and can now look into other lines of work. There is never any harm in trying. There is always something new to learn. We can always build upon our past experiences thereby refining ourselves for future possibilities.
Cheers for reading,
Have a great week,
Feel free to share this or comment with suggestions.
P.S There is a book called "What Colour is Your Parachute". The author is Richard N. Bolles. He updates it every year and I'm only 20 pages in. He offers a really productive perspective on how to approach job hunting and he has a few figures to reinforce an optimistic outlook. A friend suggested it to me and now I'm reading it. It is a good read.
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