The job hunting support thread

[fractionMan]

Are you a programmer?

Just spotted this, although it's in Kew, london: @d_n_t: Job Vacancy- Digital Preservation Analyst Developer, The National Archives (UK), London. http://bit.ly/10ukzrl #dpc

 

[Cloo]

I'm not sure when they ask people to do workfare. They haven't asked me yet.

My mate had to do it after about 12 months without work. He quite enjoyed it in the end, though it had nothing to do with anything skills-wise for him and I think he kept volunteering there (charity shop).

 

[Orang Utan]

Chaos in the job centre today.
They had had a fire drill and there was a two hour wait for some people.
There was a lot of moaning, but I took the view that at least they'll hurry everyone's appointments and not give anyone a hard time about their pitiful job search evidence.

 

[RaverDrew]

Chaos in the job centre today.
They had had a fire drill and there was a two hour wait for some people.
There was a lot of moaning, but I took the view that at least they'll hurry everyone's appointments and not give anyone a hard time about their pitiful job search evidence.

Why have I never thought of this tactic before ? Genius

 

[Elvis Parsley]

Are you a programmer?

Just spotted this, although it's in Kew, london: @d_n_t: Job Vacancy- Digital Preservation Analyst Developer, The National Archives (UK), London. http://bit.ly/10ukzrl#dpc

who me? sadly no i'm not and Kew would be a killer commute from here. i did 5 years commuting to south london, want to stay local now if i can, even if it means doing something else. might try getting something part-time and top things up with some self-employed IT or carpentry work. opening an Etsy online shop thingy soon, which i imagine will make me slightly less than bugger all.

might do some voluntary work at the local libarary too, they need someone to help folk use the computers

 

[Cloo]

Well, networking meeting was a bit of a screw-up on my part - I really ought to have prepared a spiel, but I just wasn't sure what to expect and he didn't take much of a lead, which I should have expected. I guess I just felt quite sheepish about taking someone's time. I wasn't terribly coherent, so not very impressive, but, on the other hand, I did get some answers to my questions and some useful things/places to follow up.

What came out of it was that he seemed to think that moving in to commissioning non-fiction was fairly unlikely, as he felt really you need to be in the field from the bottom up, as it were. OTOH, he does quite a lot of voluntary stuff relating to publishing and he reckoned my looking into charity/third sector communications roles, as I have been doing, was a good idea, and that publishing people often don't think about moving in that direction. He gave me some good organisations to think about in that respect. He also reckoned that the fact I was commissioning proactively was a good skill, so I think I could probably play it up more.

 

[Orang Utan]

My interview went quite well, but I was surprised to be called as soon as I got home to be offered the job!

 

[Puddy_Tat]

My interview went quite well, but I was surprised to be called as soon as I got home to be offered the job!

 

[Cloo]

Brilliant news, OU - what was the role?

Interesting role I'm sending app in for tomorrow through an agent - I'm assuming they're a bit desperate to find someone, as this agency doesn't normally contact people this much! It's editing a professional journal, though now they've sent me a PDF copy, it's more like a magazine than a journal in the trad sense. Not uninteresting subject area (surveying/property/land) and apparently they're more interested in someone who can just get a handle on things than necessarily having specialist knowledge. Involves some writing, doesn't ask for anything I can't do, let's put it that way.

Shot off another speculative CV to very small (probably teeny) homework-book publishers who might mostly be based in Torquay, though they do have a London office - but even if they don't need anything from me, maybe they'll know someone who does, or need some freelance work. Going to try to send more of these, as they could lead to interesting places. Identified the head of the academic section of a large independent house, specialising in social sciences/humanities, including education, so will definitely try her. One thing I can usefully do is, without moral issues, bring some good education academics/writers from my old employers, seeing as they've basically run down the book list so won't have book authoring work for them anymore.

 

[Orang Utan]

Ta! It's managing a school library.

 

[nagapie]

Ta! It's managing a school library.

Brilliant news!

Have some tips:
Get some proper boundaries in place from day 1, school librarians are sitting ducks.
Know the school policies so that Leadership don't try to use your library as a dumping ground for naughty kids...well not too often anyway.
Get to know all the nice swotty kids that use the library regularly and help them out where you can.
Be kind to the special needs kids that need somewhere to hide.

 

[Orang Utan]

Great advice.
It's the SEN kids who will need my help more than others. Libraries aren't just for swots. At least, they shouldn't be.
And yes, I'm not taking any shit from the outset.

 

[sorearm]

Well played Orung Utan!!!

... saw and advert for a technicians post, night shift work though applied for it anyway via agency.

another bioinformatics job down south - wouldn't want to live away from home. same old same old, but applied for it anyway.

Got about 3-4 jobs whose closing dates have gone that I'm waiting to see if I get any interviews for. Not holding my breath

 

[Belushi]

My interview went quite well, but I was surprised to be called as soon as I got home to be offered the job!

Fucking ace! Well chuffed for you mate

 

[Belushi]

My interview went quite well, but I was surprised to be called as soon as I got home to be offered the job!

Fucking ace! Well chuffed for you mate

 

[purenarcotic]

Congrats, OU! Hope it's enjoyable.

 

[Looby]

Well done OU!

I'm a bit jealous, always fancied library work.

 

[Orang Utan]

Shhhh!

 

[twentythreedom]

OU will make a fucking brilliant grumpy librarian Telling them noisy kids to keep quiet, quite right too. Good work OU, librarian is one of my dream jobs!

 

[Puddy_Tat]

hope all goes well!

 

[Orang Utan]

OU will make a fucking brilliant grumpy librarian Telling them noisy kids to keep quiet, quite right too. Good work OU, librarian is one of my dream jobs!

I'm not grumpy in real life. I am Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society.
Students will be killing themselves to impress me.

 

[8115]

I'm not grumpy in real life. I am Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society.
Students will be killing themselves to impress me.

Not me. I'd be like fuck you, hit me with the good shit.

Or, killing myself to impress you (in your view).

 

[Cloo]

Got another speculative CV off today to a very interesting publishers, seeing if they bite. They say they're always interesting in freelance editing or freelance project management, so have said I'm open to that, too.

 

[Quartz]

I got offered the job I applied for

Well done!

 

[kalidarkone]

Well done!

Thanks!

 

[Cloo]

Huzzah! An end to the 2.5 month interview drought. Professional journal editor job next Thurs. I am glad, cos I think I wrote a pretty kick-ass application, so it would have sucked a bit not to have got anything off that. The nice thing about this role is it's commissioning magazine content, so more like moving towards a journalistic role. I'd actually kind of forgotten I wanted to move in that direction as I just didn't think I'd find a role at the right level that would interview me, so glad this has come through.

Need to really prep for this one - so far, TBH, I'm always a bit overconfident and think I can manage it with relatively little prep (I always know I need more, but not sure what!), and I usually come out thinking 'That went OK', but often a day or two later I think 'Actually, it wasn't terribly good, was it?' and sure enough, I don't get any further. Be nice to change it with this one.

 

[Orang Utan]

Great news! Good luck

 

[Cloo]

Well, gsv got a new job recently after 3 years of looking, my dad got one, so hopefully if these things come in threes....

 

[stuff_it]

Ermagherd.

Might have a customer. A life with fewer lentils beckons.

 

[Cloo]

Had a sudden panic that I'd barely done any prep this weekend for my interview on Thurs because Ez had parties and, and should have just asked gsvto take the kids to the parties this weekend while I worked (duh!) and also that I might not have much time at all this week with the kids to contend with.

Anyway, bit of a pep talk with gsv and did some more research and spotted something nifty - that the organisation interviewing me has a free seminar introducing their professional services on Tuesday morning. So if I go to that a) major Brownie points b) I find out more about their work, which is actually really complicated and c) I go their HQ and get a feel for the atmosphere of the place. Booked on and luckily our friend L will look after Zig.

I have also just done 2, yes, 2 solid hours of interview prep - just writing down answers to questions. Fuck knows if it's any use, as I may or may not be able to remember any of it. Part of my trouble with interviews - I don't want to be 'remembering what I should say', I just want to be able to say it without stumbling or worrying how much I've forgotten. I just find it so hard to strike the right balance, but I think I need to put a lot more into each one than I have done, if for no other reason than to give myself greater motivation to actually get a job out of it. It's crazy, we need me to get a job to move house, and I need to crack on with my career before I forget what it's like to bloody work, and I know that, but I sort of move on from each failed interview with a 'ho hum', but I kind of think I ought to be much more pissed off for every one I don't get.