find a job

The agency offered me a temp placement for a week. I cannot get over how nice these people are. It’s a wonderful work environment, beautiful views and an easily manageable workload. Although I would have liked to have found a full-time job, I’m happy to have experienced being a temp as it’s shown me variety. It’s also proved to me that I am versatile (I did all ready know that, but it’s good to be reminded :) It’s also great to have experiences that are keeping me fresh and learning new things :)

I had my details with an agency, which has not really got me anywhere. They sent me to an interview at a company within the same industry I used to work in. I didn’t really want to go down that path again, but I had been out of regular work for three months and didn’t have a whole lot to lose.

The company liked me a lot, and requested me return for a second interview only five minutes after I left the first one. The three interviewers all gave me their business cards. I was advised a week later that the role was offered to someone else with more recent experience in the industry?!

Wow, five years experience and a lot of goodwill I could have brought to that business. Seriously, I was disappointed in them, rather than disappointed for myself.

I’ve been considering sending an email to the interviewers thanking them for the opportunity to meet them and wish them well? When someone gives me their business card I usually take that as an invitation to contact them. The interview was arranged by an agency, so I would be stepping out of line if I contacted the company directly?

The more time goes on without me having a new full-time job, the less I seem to want that. These are the things I was lacking in my last job, but have found in the part-time projects I’m currently involved in;

• To be in environments where I am learning things I find interesting and relevant to my life and career

• To be working with people who value me and highly regard my experience and ideas

• To be able to implement those ideas straight away and see positive results

• To be working with people I like, and dealing with polite clients I respect

• To have variety in my working day and have opportunities to meet new people through work

The thing that I had in my last job but don’t have right now;

• Financial comfort

When I look at these two lists, I can see that not having financial comfort right now is helping fuel my motivation. All things are temporary, so I am confident I will be rewarded financially for the actions I take this year.

I could almost call this goal complete, but I won’t just yet. I’ll call this goal complete when I have at least three days of work a week, and earning enough income again to resume saving :)

The couple of months that I experienced with no job distractions gave me time to think about the type of work I want to do. A friend invited me to join her in her business on a part time basis. I do enjoy environments where I can be an all rounder, learn new skills and have variety. I also finally feel ready to work in my own business and create my own opportunities. At the moment I am combining volunteering, part time work and study, and my life feels plentiful and full of variety.

I won’t call this goal complete just now, as my work opportunities are still developing. Even better things are yet to come!

:) :)

I haven’t been successful in securing paid work yet, but I have started some volunteer work which is helping me feel connected. I’ve been able to use existing skills as well as learn some things. At my last job, I can barely think of anything I learned that was useful outside of that job for my career :/ Just being out of that place for two months, I’ve learned things that will be useful knowledge to take into any new job.

I have been keeping busy with my evening course, as well as other short courses. So many people have assured me it will be all right, and that the perfect job will come to me at the right time.

No money has come my way over the last few weeks, but I’m richer as a person for this experience! Keep cheering me on with this please, I need all the moral support I can get! ;)

I have a meeting with a charitable organisation tomorrow. This may lead to some volunteer work. I’m very happy with the idea of contributing to the community while I wait for the right paid job to come my way.

As I was in my last job for so long, I was in a rut. I was saying to a friend recently, all I need is to be in a different work environment, even for one day. I need to experience a different workplace for my new life to properly begin.

Another friend berated me for leaving my last job without a new job lined up. I am happy he was honest with me, and glad he felt comfortable to give the advice he thought was best (which was, “think more carefully before you do something like that again!”).

It may not make a lot of sense to an outsider, but my last job had some sort of hold over me. I never felt the satisfaction of having all my work complete on any given day. I worked so hard, and played so little. The job was unreasonable,and I kept striving to try to reach the impossible. For a long time.

Even though I had moved to part time work a few months before I left them for good, I found it difficult to job search while my mind was in this fog.

Leaving that workplace has opened up my mind so much! I can see my strengths, but also areas where more training is required. It is also so much clearer to me, the type of place I want to be working. Although I’ve been moving at a snail’s pace with applying for jobs, I am acting in a deliberate manner, and acting like this is ultimately going to take me to the right place. :)

After looking at my lack of results with the recruitment agency, I have reminded myself of my original beliefs. I consider myself dynamic, unique…and not a product. Unfortunately many of the jobs on the local market are advertised through agencies. I didn’t know it at the time, but it is common for the recruitment agencies to present an employer with several candidates who compete for the same position. Just like magic, multiplying and dividing the job opportunity at once! The recruiter said I’m more than welcome to conduct my own job search, and I can alert her of jobs I’m applying for. She’d be happy to represent me in the jobs I find myself!?

I’ve decided to do as I used to in the past, and apply for jobs that are advertised directly by the employer. In my search last week I found vacancies at two establishments I would love to work for. The locations, job description, conditions of each job would be a great fit for my needs. Also my experience and skills are spot on.

While I’m waiting to hear back regarding either of these paid roles, I can use my time to do some volunteering.

Also, the process of looking at job advertisements has helped me see a couple of my own knowledge gaps that I can rectify through some training. I’ll look at closing those gaps through a couple of short courses.

Before I finish this post, I should note that I’m still very pleased I decided to leave my job last month, even without no new job to go to.
I was there far too long, in an environment that didn’t give me a lot of job satisfaction, with conditions that kept worsening.

Whatever happens, I’m sure I’ll look back at all this very happily. If this was a game, I’ll find I was playing all the right moves, even if I didn’t know it at the time :)

The recruitment company put me forward for an interview yesterday. Turned out to be a panel of three interviewing me. First panel experience, interesting! They were all nice, so it wasn’t too daunting. The location is not too far from where I used to work, several years ago. Everything about the job looked good (matched my skills, company appears to be very organised, people seem nice, good learning opportunities), but the location was the big drawback :(

It took me almost 1.5hr to get back home by public transport. With my evening course coming up (three nights per week), I don’t want to put my body through the travel. Not sure I have the job anyways, as they said they will get back to me in a week after they finish interviewing. As far as my skill set goes, I have years of experience in very similar roles. I’m a perfect fit for this job. I also possess a pretty rock solid work ethic, and a sparkling personality. So it would be really awesome for them, if they offered the role and I accepted it.

Maybe it’s because I don’t have prior experience with recruiters, but when I found out the agency put another person forward for the same role, I thought that was odd. If my friend said, “hey, I think I found the man of your dreams, please come and meet him tomorrow”, then asked another friend to meet the same guy at another arranged date, I would find that, well, dodgy! As far as professionalism goes, I can still say this recruiter has been great to deal with.
I feel like they have listened to my needs and are trying to look after my best interests.
So I’m happy to keep dealing with them. However, now that I better understand the process of agencies, I will broaden my search independently.

I do feel strange not having a job at the moment. It’s only been two weeks! So much of our identity is tied up in the jobs that we have. So I shall look at this time of life as a gift, currently I’m not burdened with the label of my job identifying me!

I met with the lady from the recruitment agency today. Considering my job search began a few days before Christmas, I’ve been really fortunate to find someone like her. I heard from her the day before she went on holiday, and then the day she returned. She has been actively looking for suitable jobs and sees the value in my experience, interests and skills.

My name is being put forward for a position, and we’ll wait to hear back from the company. Whatever happens, I’m confident my job search will be successful before I know it. It’s just up to the right employer identifying that I would be a great person to have onboard :)

It feels like all the major parts of my life are in a state of flux at the moment! There is a course I’m applying for, and if I get in it will be pretty time consuming and demanding (but creatively fulfilling:). On one hand I’d like to just work part time, so I can have free time for study. On the other hand, I have financial goals that would benefit from a full time income. I’m leaning more towards setting myself up with a full time job, and making study fit around that.

Also, I have been on a job hunt for the last week. The week before Christmas is probably not the ideal time to look for work, but I’ve all ready handed in my notice, no turning back now!
The first day of my job searching, I spent my time looking for jobs that were in creative fields. What I saw advertised was not highly paid. Since then I’ve moved my attention to work that is more similar to my current job. My current job is ridiculously impossible and demanding, so much so that my manager said he will try to get TWO people to replace me!

I believe it will be possible to find a similar job, in a more organised environment, that is less stressful and on equal or more pay. I have the whole month of January to find something, so it will come. But I’m not going to rest until I have a new job!

Looking forward to it, Life will bring me great new work experiences :)