Redeployment

I currently have no job but I ain't sweatin it this time. I'll tell you why.

Mainly because I've been unemployed before, as surely everyone will have been at some point in their adult life. But my premier venture into the world of joblessness was far scarier than the limbo I am now in.

Summer 2010, was an exciting time for me, I worked (occasionally) hard and I graduated from the University of Reading with a proud 2.1 in Biological Sciences. It was then that I decided to remain in Reading with fellow biologist Allen, well, because I could. With no job I stayed put there, as going to live at home seemed a boring prospect (4 years later, here I am at my Dad's- and it is pretty dull. DW, I am moving out tomorrow.)

The problem was, like many graduates, I had no idea what I wanted to do. Apart from NOT working in the shit pit of customer brainlessness that is retail. This aggression flows from working for Argos, where there were (and are still) an army of zombies constituting the customer base, yet unfortunately this served as my only paid experience in the working world.

As my friend Mike friend says, "students aren't real people".
        Now he's not talking about those new robot students you may have heard of, what he means is the real world is not like the student life of drinking, partying, and fornicating. Ok well it is, and that should be what your 20's are about- but in the real world some times you have to do a bit of work too.

Ideally I'd need a simple job that would allow me to earn a bit easily, whilst leaving time to party.

Lets omit boring details of sending out numerous letters and CVs, only to hear nothing back; its a trawl that many people are already familiar with.
        I ended up scoring a low paying job as a cover supervisor (basically a school babysitter) thanks to a lot of talking on my part, based around some school volunteer work a year prior. I got a bit stuck there, a story for another day, but I did get a lot of party time at weekends.

From the end of Uni to my first day at work, I was out of work for about 16 weeks. I did not go on job seeker's allowance because I think that's for people who are really struggling with money whilst looking, and I could scrape by. Also I know that is not a colossal amount of time to be out of work, but if you've ever been there then you'll know that the repeated recession-related rejection is sometimes quite crushing.

Actually I don't even know if its the recession still, but that's ok as I'm not an economics guy.

Changing subject- ready for a list? Guys I am not (things I suck at):

I am not the politics guy. (that's Sam)
I am not the computer guy. (that's Jason)
I am not the gym guy. (that's Josh)
I am not the drugs guy. (that's Ed)
I am not the business guy. (that's Mike)
I am not the fashion guy. (that's Roberto)
I am not the sports guy. (I don't even know who that is, such is my disinterest)

Comments what sort of guy I am will be ignored as I'm sure they will be unoriginal. (Science, queer, attention seeker, HP expert are among what I expect. Feel free to fire in the comments if you have anything LESS predictable.)


This time round? Well, no job= no worries! I actually knew in March that I would be working in mid November in Lapland, yet I did have about 32 weeks where I had no plan constructed. Quite some time!

But the difference is that I have experience in the world of work:
          I am better at talking, and am particularly better versed in discussing a topic I have less-than-expert standings on (bullshitting).
         The experience I hold includes some stellar restaurant time, not to mention teaching (like I've never mentioned that before) but you can argue many skills extend from it in interviews.
        Er, that's it.

I have 5 weeks of work from July in an International school in Worcester, some festivals to go to and work at, exciting back packing prospects and before all that will be moving in with my cousin in Ealing Broadway, welcoming me to inner city London.
            So the gaps are filling themselves in, in a medley of ways.

The thing is, everybody has trouble at some point in their lives- take these now famous people:

-Beloved J.K (Rowling) was a jobless single parent when her manuscript for "HP and the P to the S" got rejected 12 times. (Well, its not actually as good as her other books- gasp!)

-Bruce Wayne used to merely be a billionaire playboy (lame) before becoming the Worlds Greatest Detective.

-And Walt Disney was once so skint he is said to have survived on dog food for a bit. I thought I had it bad when I was drunk and ate cat food as there were no pot noodles. Goes to show we all have worries.

Next post: Refuelling
Previous post: Rekindling


And now, a story of coincidence, on a global scale:

"When I went to Florida with my family when I was 11, it was when there were five hurricanes in a row. We were hit by the first one and had to leave the house we were renting because it was destroyed and move to a hotel in Miami for the remainder of the trip. I met a girl there called Jodie and we became holiday buddies.
         A few years later, a new girl came to my school in the year below and it was Jodie. Such a small world!"

                                                                                          Sophie Elle Day

Thanks for that Elle! You win a county-and-western-singing African Grey parrot for sharing the story.

Not.