Update: The next blog will be released on Wednesday 17/4/2013. It'll be coming out later because I'm off to visit my girlfriend for a few days. Chapter Four will be coming out on the 22/4/2013.
My first month back in England was odd.
I spent the time swamped by thoughts about what had just happened and trying create a new plan as I arrived nine months earlier than I initially planned. The Civil Service Fast Stream application for the Diplomatic Service doesn't open until September and so I had to look into some other alternatives.
I signed up to over a dozen job sites and graduate job sites. There will probably be even more sites cropping up when this year's graduates hit the road. When you start applying for jobs there are even more sites that appear before you. Those ones demand you sign up before you can even apply for the job you were looking at. It can get frustrating but thankfully Merlyn gave me an idea of just having a notepad file open where I can copy and paste the info these sites continually ask for. Saves on time lost by potential typo screw ups. *
My first month back was spent trawling for jobs via Graduate schemes & having phone interviews. So my time was spent recovering from the just the general hurt of a burned out dream (China) and finding myself in a country that I had no substantial desire to return to. (Apart from that most pressing desire we all experience when trying to escape from a psychopath.)
Considering that I had burned out the entirety of money surviving & escaping from China I also chose to seek out the JSA. Naturally prior to applying I was warned by friends and family that the people in the centre are battle-axes. That they care little for stories and even less for time wasters. I'm no battleaxe, I'm fond of stories but I hate having my time wasted. I told them a shorter and more succinct version of my first blog. They seemed impressed that Rachel and I had stuck it out for six months and the person told me to create an account on their website and to come back on a Wednesday for another appointment with my advisor. Also I was to receive a call regarding what I had done in China.
The next day I received a call, the person on the other end was succinct but not cold as I expected the great welfare battle-axes to be. During my first appointment I was told to record all my applications and general job hunting details down on their website or keep a log that I could bring. This information would be used to prove that I was keeping up my end of the agreement and I would receive payment. It took one full month to receive payment and during that time I was stuck in a tiny village sponging off of my family.
My first month and the encounters I had with the JSA staff during my appointments has given me the impression that as long as you're looking for work, as long as you can prove with some kind of documentation that you are applying for jobs...then they are ok and will sign the slip. If you haven't done that then they will tell you. I know this because other JSA applicants were often grilled in front of me. The excuses I heard at first seemed implausible but then you don't know how long they've been searching. I had already applied for a fair few jobs through a dozen websites and those leads were turning up with nothing.
I applied for work at Tesco. They phoned me and asked if I could get in for 6 am, I said on my form that I was reliant on public transport and lived in a village. Cycling from Sutton at 5 am or 4:30 is something I've never done. I have walked those roads enough times during broad daylight to know that there are plenty of blind corners and I wouldn't feel safe cycling around them near them. I also wouldn't feel safe cycling back at night because I remember spending most of my youth running from violent people that lived locally. Recently after taking my brother from A&E, a bunch of damn chavs drove by and blew a bloody air-horn at me. If I was cycling and that happened I'd damn well fallen into a ditch wearing a ruddy high-vis jacket while looking like some great big glittering drunk. (The country side is just a load of windy roads, drinkers and ditches. During spring, you're not missing much here unless you like walking through muddy fields.)
I also failed to pass an on-line application to be a stockroom assistant, that was pretty gutting as I've put hundreds of things on coat hangers over the years so I thought I had a shoe in there. A lot of the on-line tests involved maths, reading and psychometric evaluations so it's hard to know where exactly you've gone wrong. Naturally I thought maybe my maths skills were lacking as Maths was never my strongest area at school. Without a clear indication though I just felt like I was fumbling in the dark after those tests.
If companies could give some insight then it would help the candidate with their own personal job hunt. By sending an apologetic email of rejection with a refusal to give any information why...the apology comes across as insincere. I wouldn't instantly reapply if I knew where I went wrong and these forms usually ask if you've applied before so I fail to see why they'd withhold the information. January involved a few rejections, a fair amount of silences and a few phone calls that were not too helpful.
I did visit an agency and a man in a suit was talking to someone about how their clients needs don't match their candidates skills. It sounded like there are a lot of jobs out there but our society pushed getting a degree more than it pushed getting specific degrees.
To develop this point I can simply give the example that degrees are marketed to children from a young age. We push our children to get the best grades, to get into the best schools, into the best universities and what degree someone chooses to study is often down to an individual's choice. I knew many students that chose their academic path because of they saw it as something they loved, whether or not it was the best economical choice is another matter entirely. My current short term experience of unemployment does not make me regret my decision to study International Relations for I know that I can get a job and I did learn things that I wouldn't have learned on other degree schemes. It's a matter of persistence, resilience and keeping my mind active.
The short term rejections fall straight into the past and rejections from one line of work mean that my options are still open. I remember being told that each time you fail you increase your chances for success. While this is arguably a fallacy, hope is better than despair. Planning is better than sitting idle wallowing in self pity.
Hope and planning are the keys for making a better future.
Jobs don't fall from the sky but if we carefully tailor our CVs and fire them up...one might come falling down into our garden/inbox.
Next week I'll be discussing what I did in February we're drawing closer to what I am doing now in regards to finding employment. These blogs will basically contain the genuinely negative experiences I've encountered and a conclusion as to why they've not got me down.
Here I recounted the emotional responses I had in regards to some rejections and no human being rejoices at rejection. By understanding how our life is not set in stone, that we do have a high level of control in regards to making decisions that could enhance our prospects exponentially, I hope to demonstrate that job hunting is only as crushing as we allow to be. We can choose what we do with ourselves. Right now I'm choosing to look into something awesome but I need to wait for a few hours before I can make the phone call.
Cheers for reading,
Have a great week,
This was Diary of a Job Seeker.
P.S For those interested in the money: I didn't receive any money from the JSA until some time in February. I was able to live through whatever food my family had bought and the fact that my mother is kind enough to not charge rent as she knows the money given from the JSA is a pittance and she expects me to use it to keep myself presentable, get to interviews and land a damn fine job. ^__^
*Naturally I don't save my bank details into notepad files...or sensitive data. If there were any psychopaths out there I doubt they'd be targeting me in the first place. Unless they wanted my giant blue penguin 0___0
My first month back in England was odd.
I spent the time swamped by thoughts about what had just happened and trying create a new plan as I arrived nine months earlier than I initially planned. The Civil Service Fast Stream application for the Diplomatic Service doesn't open until September and so I had to look into some other alternatives.
I signed up to over a dozen job sites and graduate job sites. There will probably be even more sites cropping up when this year's graduates hit the road. When you start applying for jobs there are even more sites that appear before you. Those ones demand you sign up before you can even apply for the job you were looking at. It can get frustrating but thankfully Merlyn gave me an idea of just having a notepad file open where I can copy and paste the info these sites continually ask for. Saves on time lost by potential typo screw ups. *
My first month back was spent trawling for jobs via Graduate schemes & having phone interviews. So my time was spent recovering from the just the general hurt of a burned out dream (China) and finding myself in a country that I had no substantial desire to return to. (Apart from that most pressing desire we all experience when trying to escape from a psychopath.)
Considering that I had burned out the entirety of money surviving & escaping from China I also chose to seek out the JSA. Naturally prior to applying I was warned by friends and family that the people in the centre are battle-axes. That they care little for stories and even less for time wasters. I'm no battleaxe, I'm fond of stories but I hate having my time wasted. I told them a shorter and more succinct version of my first blog. They seemed impressed that Rachel and I had stuck it out for six months and the person told me to create an account on their website and to come back on a Wednesday for another appointment with my advisor. Also I was to receive a call regarding what I had done in China.
The next day I received a call, the person on the other end was succinct but not cold as I expected the great welfare battle-axes to be. During my first appointment I was told to record all my applications and general job hunting details down on their website or keep a log that I could bring. This information would be used to prove that I was keeping up my end of the agreement and I would receive payment. It took one full month to receive payment and during that time I was stuck in a tiny village sponging off of my family.
My first month and the encounters I had with the JSA staff during my appointments has given me the impression that as long as you're looking for work, as long as you can prove with some kind of documentation that you are applying for jobs...then they are ok and will sign the slip. If you haven't done that then they will tell you. I know this because other JSA applicants were often grilled in front of me. The excuses I heard at first seemed implausible but then you don't know how long they've been searching. I had already applied for a fair few jobs through a dozen websites and those leads were turning up with nothing.
I applied for work at Tesco. They phoned me and asked if I could get in for 6 am, I said on my form that I was reliant on public transport and lived in a village. Cycling from Sutton at 5 am or 4:30 is something I've never done. I have walked those roads enough times during broad daylight to know that there are plenty of blind corners and I wouldn't feel safe cycling around them near them. I also wouldn't feel safe cycling back at night because I remember spending most of my youth running from violent people that lived locally. Recently after taking my brother from A&E, a bunch of damn chavs drove by and blew a bloody air-horn at me. If I was cycling and that happened I'd damn well fallen into a ditch wearing a ruddy high-vis jacket while looking like some great big glittering drunk. (The country side is just a load of windy roads, drinkers and ditches. During spring, you're not missing much here unless you like walking through muddy fields.)
I also failed to pass an on-line application to be a stockroom assistant, that was pretty gutting as I've put hundreds of things on coat hangers over the years so I thought I had a shoe in there. A lot of the on-line tests involved maths, reading and psychometric evaluations so it's hard to know where exactly you've gone wrong. Naturally I thought maybe my maths skills were lacking as Maths was never my strongest area at school. Without a clear indication though I just felt like I was fumbling in the dark after those tests.
If companies could give some insight then it would help the candidate with their own personal job hunt. By sending an apologetic email of rejection with a refusal to give any information why...the apology comes across as insincere. I wouldn't instantly reapply if I knew where I went wrong and these forms usually ask if you've applied before so I fail to see why they'd withhold the information. January involved a few rejections, a fair amount of silences and a few phone calls that were not too helpful.
I did visit an agency and a man in a suit was talking to someone about how their clients needs don't match their candidates skills. It sounded like there are a lot of jobs out there but our society pushed getting a degree more than it pushed getting specific degrees.
To develop this point I can simply give the example that degrees are marketed to children from a young age. We push our children to get the best grades, to get into the best schools, into the best universities and what degree someone chooses to study is often down to an individual's choice. I knew many students that chose their academic path because of they saw it as something they loved, whether or not it was the best economical choice is another matter entirely. My current short term experience of unemployment does not make me regret my decision to study International Relations for I know that I can get a job and I did learn things that I wouldn't have learned on other degree schemes. It's a matter of persistence, resilience and keeping my mind active.
The short term rejections fall straight into the past and rejections from one line of work mean that my options are still open. I remember being told that each time you fail you increase your chances for success. While this is arguably a fallacy, hope is better than despair. Planning is better than sitting idle wallowing in self pity.
Hope and planning are the keys for making a better future.
Jobs don't fall from the sky but if we carefully tailor our CVs and fire them up...one might come falling down into our garden/inbox.
Next week I'll be discussing what I did in February we're drawing closer to what I am doing now in regards to finding employment. These blogs will basically contain the genuinely negative experiences I've encountered and a conclusion as to why they've not got me down.
Here I recounted the emotional responses I had in regards to some rejections and no human being rejoices at rejection. By understanding how our life is not set in stone, that we do have a high level of control in regards to making decisions that could enhance our prospects exponentially, I hope to demonstrate that job hunting is only as crushing as we allow to be. We can choose what we do with ourselves. Right now I'm choosing to look into something awesome but I need to wait for a few hours before I can make the phone call.
Cheers for reading,
Have a great week,
This was Diary of a Job Seeker.
P.S For those interested in the money: I didn't receive any money from the JSA until some time in February. I was able to live through whatever food my family had bought and the fact that my mother is kind enough to not charge rent as she knows the money given from the JSA is a pittance and she expects me to use it to keep myself presentable, get to interviews and land a damn fine job. ^__^
*Naturally I don't save my bank details into notepad files...or sensitive data. If there were any psychopaths out there I doubt they'd be targeting me in the first place. Unless they wanted my giant blue penguin 0___0
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