Much further out than you thought

[j4]

I feel so far from everybody.

...

Spent last night hiding in my Lerkim (sadly, I can't find a picture of the original Lerkim on the web!). Got lots of stuff done that I can't do at work -- printing photos, uploading user pics for pto452, and trying to write a job application. This job is one that I definitely would want if they offered it to me -- it's an administrative job at the Refugee Council in Oakington: sounds interesting, is significantly better paid than my current job, and is more worthwhile.) Also made a start on scanning and keying the Morris Minor (Series II) owner's manual -- I want to turn it into a useful and properly cross-referenced web resource for moggy owners.

I feel as though I should feel that I've achieved something.

Gordon from Cambridge Kitchens came round this morning at 8:45a.m. (!) to take some more measurements and confirm some bits of the kitchen design. Probably just as well we had that early appointment to get us out of bed; I didn't get to sleep till after 3a.m. (didn't finish job application till 2a.m., had a bath, then tossed and turned and generally felt grotty and eventually got to sleep in the ungodly hours of the morning. And just when I was starting to think that sleep was getting better (actually slept through the previous two nights!).

...

Trying to make a conscious effort to be cheerful. To be honest, it doesn't really feel any more fake or forced than any other emotions at the moment.

Comments

[reddragdiva]

Good luck with the job that doesn't suck!

[j4.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I dithered about applying for this one, too, because it's only a 10-month contract at best... but decided that 10 months doing a non-sucky job would be an improvement on the current record.

(I really should stop dithering and just APPLY FOR EVERYTHING ... it just takes so much energy out of me applying for the damn things that I feel I have to be a bit selective.)

[reddragdiva]

I sent out 700 CVs in six months and got six interviews. I do good interview, but getting the damned interview ... it's a numbers game. Apply for everything that catches your interest and is an improvement on the current hellhole.

[j4.livejournal.com]

SEVEN HUNDRED? Christ. Christ on a bike. That's terrifying.

Mind you, most of the jobs I'm going for aren't the sort where I can just stick my CV in an envelope and add a couple of lines' covering letter -- they're the sort where I have to say "No, I know I don't have the skills on paper, but I do have them really, I do, I do, and I'm keen, look how keen I am! See me learn! See me enthuse!" -- and the idea of trying to do more than a few of those a month just makes me lose the will to live.

The other problem is I'm not very good at interviews. I'm not great at talking about things I can do. I'm much better at just, you know, doing them. I wish there was some way of just saying "Look, give me this job for a week, and see what I can do" instead of having to sit in a hot, brightly-lit room and talk to suits in order to convince them that I'm good at a job which doesn't involve talking to people.

[reddragdiva]

"SEVEN HUNDRED? Christ. Christ on a bike. That's terrifying."

You know how all your friends say IT is really fucked right now?

Mind you, pumping out 20-30 CVs a week is made easier by being unemployed, homeless and living off BOFHly charity!

"No, I know I don't have the skills on paper, but I do have them really, I do, I do, and I'm keen, look how keen I am! See me learn! See me enthuse!"

The ideal CV straddles the line between science fiction and science fantasy - robust plausibility and the occasional interesting flight of fancy ;-)

[j4.livejournal.com]

You know how all your friends say IT is really fucked right now?

No, no, the scary thing is not the fact that it took 700 applications to get a handful of interviews -- that's not too surprising given (as you say) the fucked state of the IT sector; the scary thing is the fact that you managed to do that many applications, without going stark raving ... ah, I see. :)

The ideal CV straddles the line between science fiction and science fantasy - robust plausibility and the occasional interesting flight of fancy

The one for the Refugee Council was a heady mixture of spin and fictionalised truth, with a light frosting of outright lies. ;)

[reddragdiva]

Whenever people ask me for jobhunting tips, I say "700 CVs, six months, six interviews, two offers." I too am looking for a more efficient method :-)

The trouble is that there are all sorts of jobs I could have done and gotten paid tolerably for, e.g. audio typing - but there's no way in hell my CV will let me within a mile of those. I was working on the skill of lying downwards rather than upwards ...

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

"SEVEN HUNDRED? Christ. Christ on a bike. That's terrifying."

You know how all your friends say IT is really fucked right now?

Come to Canada; a million and a half new jobs last year; 55,000 new jobs in February; and lots of them are in IT - I know, I got one.

Mind you, pumping out 20-30 CVs a week is made easier by being unemployed, homeless and living off BOFHly charity!

Specialising helps. Shotgun CVs to anything and everything when you know most of them won't match exactly what people want depresses me past the point of being able to do anything; last two times I've needed to do this, I've been using a sniper rifle approach instead, and both times I was hired halfway through the first interview.

[addedentry.livejournal.com]

I wish there was some way of just saying "Look, give me this job for a week, and see what I can do"

It's called temping. Admittedly it may not be appropriate if you're looking for a job which gives you self-respect.

Good luck with this latest application, anyway!

[j4.livejournal.com]

It's called temping. Admittedly it may not be appropriate if you're looking for a job which gives you self-respect.

It also doesn't tend to lead to permanent full-time jobs... I don't require the job to give me self-respect, just a reliable salary that's sufficient to pay my half of the mortgage, and some kind of reassurance that I won't have to go through the whole goddamned process again two months down the line.

Thanks for the luck, though -- probably more relevant to the applications process than any preparation I could do for it...

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

It also doesn't tend to lead to permanent full-time jobs...

Did in my case - I've had seven offers over the years, and took up three of them. Worth doing, as it also gives you an 'in' with people who are good influential referees... that's how I got into the Bod, by coming from the OHS where I'd been a temp that they begged to stay.

It does depend on how much you can stand the idea of temping though - it can feel a bit rootless. I did it "professionally" for four years and at random other times, and really liked it. I've walked out of precisely one assignment (which really was very very crap), and spent over a year at another. The great benefit is that if you get on well with your temp controller, you get nice long-term assignments, they talk up what you can actually do rather than what you appear to be qualified for (thus getting you into those jobs that wouldn't consider your application on paper), you can pick and choose assignments to some extent, and you will not have to have any interviews beyond the first signing-up one. (I have once been interviewed for a temp position, and decided from that that I wasn't going to like the job, but took it because it was well-paid and short-lived. I couldn't have stood it otherwise.)

[juliet]

I reckon it is worth going for good jobs even if they're only short-term - the contract might get extended (especially in a charity where income etc fluctuates), or another job might come up, or whatever. And at worst you've had 10 months of non-sucky job (& 10 months is quite a while!) which has given you more work experience in a different sort of sector.

So. Good luck, anyway!

[ottah.livejournal.com]

The job sounds like a good thing to apply for, even if just for more cash.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Umm ... what's a Lerkim??

[j4.livejournal.com]

It's where the Once-ler lurks. (See The Lorax (http://www.lorax.org/story.html), by Dr. Seuss.)