work overseas

ok, so how do i go about this???

I see on this page that lots of people are getting work visas, and obviously thus getting cool jobs in cool places—why i’m here, no less.

I want to work in the neherlands, ideally, at a creative company, doing creative things. but finding that foreign dream job completely bewilders me!

Must all expats be rich and experienced??? can I not get to holland for cheap, somehow, and find work there—or, find and employer willing to hire me with only half of a uni degree, at 21?

so, what are some tips??? how do I find that foreign dream job without having to wait until i’ve finished school, worked in he field to he point of pristine aptitude, and have past my 40h birthday wondering where my youth went?

I’m positive i can find good work overseas, go there, do that, and come back with great experience. but i’m currenly dumbfounded as of how.

Planning for this

I’m so pleased I chose this position (eventually). I love the job, I love the department, and the multi-disciplinary team in which I’m working is fantastic. It’s meant for a steep learning curve in a rather specialist field, but I’m enjoying the challenge. I’ve learnt so much in such a short space of time, and there’s still so much I don’t know… sounds nerdy, but frankly, it’s a little thrilling.

My contract’s been extended until late July. (If I have to be so far away from Matt, at least I’m getting to do something I enjoy.) It’s a little way away yet, but my agency is putting out feelers for any similar positions around the place… they don’t come up often, and they’re difficult to get into without some experience in this field. Fingers crossed that I’ll be this lucky again.

I’m in the process of sorting out work for when I arrive back in the UK. Seems there’s heaps of work on offer, and I’m currently trying to decide between two positions.

The first position is in an area I’d be happy to stay for a while. It’s pretty safe, in terms of covering a caseload with which I’m familiar. There’s hospital accommodation available, i.e. dorm style room… which is generally not very flash, but liveable.

The second position is in a large city, where a couple of friends live. The caseload is more specialised than what I’m used to, and it’s in a different environment. They aren’t offering hospital accommodation… rather, a room in the home of one of the employees (albeit from a different department, so I don’t think we’d be working together).

Financially, they’re both offering to pay quite well. The second position costs £100 more per month in accommodation, and I’ll have to pay slightly more in expenses. But... it’s also a rare opportunity to branch out into a particular area of speciality… not to mention that it’d look fabulous on my CV.

So, I guess the question is… do I step outside of my comfort zone? Do I take this opportunity to learn something new? I’m generally not very brave when it comes to work. I always worry about not being able to do a good enough job, and that I’ll fall on my face. Maybe this is my opportunity to prove (to myself) that I’m worth more credit than I give myself.

But I have done it.

I just had a student knock on my door, and open it to ask, “did you print Jesus?”

“Pardon?” (I was a little confused by this.)

“Did you print Jesus?,” he repeated.

He presented me with an A3 sheet of paper, that he’d obviously just collected from the photocopy room next door. On the bottom of the page, ‘Jesus’ was printed.

Of course.

But, no, it wasn’t mine.

about doing this sort of work, is that I have the opportunity to save a bit of money by living in cheap accommodation. Dorm-style… a bit like the university experience that I didn’t have at university. It’s usually pretty basic, which is fine. A smallish room with a bed, sink, and wardrobe (closet). Shared bathroom and kitchen facilities, which is do-able. As long as everyone keeps their own stuff together, it’s usually okay.

The accommodation in which I’m currently residing is mostly occupied by doctors, on contract at the local hospital. This bunch seem to have no idea about leaving things tidy for the next person. They cook, only to leave food all over the cooktop and counter. Then they leave their dirty dishes sitting in the sink. For days, in some cases. I’m no domestic goddess, but that’s just gross.

There’s one guy in particular, who is just that bit more disgusting than the rest. He makes most of the mess, and I understand why. His fiance has stayed a few times (she works a few hours away), and each time she arrives, she cleans up the whole kitchen. Which does nothing to reinforce the idea that the kitchen fairy will not do their dishes for them.

Worse than that, he chews with his mouth open. Loudly. All the time. If I happen to be sitting in the communal lounge, eating my dinner, I cringe when I hear him coming towards the room. Because, if the noisy chewing weren’t enough, he has another habit that makes me shudder.

I’m not sure if I can quite find the words to illustrate this… but I’ll give it a go. He sits in a chair, and puts one leg up on the other (e.g. his ankle on top of his knee). Then, every ten seconds or so he swings the upper leg… the only thing I can think this does, is to give his bits and pieces a bit of a squish. Gak! The parachute-material track pants just top it off, as then I can’t help but hear the swish-swish-swish-swish.. ...swish-swish-swish-swish.

Yucky, yucky, yucky. His fiance seems so lovely, too. Poor thing.

::Smacks self on forehead::

I was feeling quite pleased with myself, because I’ve arranged with my manager to take off the school half-term, and work an extra week at the end of my contract. This arrangement is good for both of us, because the school will be pretty dead over the half-term, and it’s allowed me to organise a trip to Turkey with my cousin.

All well and good. Booked the tickets last night. No probs.

Until a few moments ago, when I realised the school’s online diary listed the 2006 term dates, not 2007! I’ve been working off dates that are a week too early!

Well, not much that can be done, as the trip is already booked. The manager will be disappointed, but as I was initially supposed to work through the break anyhow, hopefully it won’t be too big a deal. Locums take time off in the middle of contracts all the time.

I just feel like a complete wally, for getting it wrong.

to include, ”... without f^cking it up.”

I’ve really enjoyed this job. Lots of admin work to do, but it all seemed to be going rather well. As I neared my final week, however, I was beginning to feel a bit swamped. I still seemed to have a lot of work left to finish off. Stressful, yes… but everyone else seemed to be able to get their stuff done, so I figured I’d just have to pick up my game a little.

This last week, however, it’s become evident that I’ve really been doing things the hard way. For example, I was preparing resources (searching them out on the system, printing, laminating and chopping them up to send out to clients), when someone commented, “you know, you don’t have to do that. Just print them out and let the clients cut them up to use.”

No worries. Wish I’d known that earlier, but at least it would save me some time now.

I’ve since discovered, that I don’t even have to organise the resources. I could have asked the assistants to do it. That would have saved me stuffing around finding the resources, fixing them up when the system inevitably deleted graphics, and then printing them out… when I could get the printer to work. (There have been all sorts of computer and printer issues, becuse they’d only just moved into the building when I arrived, and the IT guys couldn’t seem to figure out how to link them up properly. Gah!)

• I didn’t have to print reports and letters on the coloured printer (had to keep checking that there was paper in the tray, and not card-stock);
• I wasn’t required to package up reports and letters etc. for posting, as the admin staff could do that;
• I didn’t even have to type up the reports and letters, as I could have dictated them for typing.

So, here’s me, in a panic, because it’s my last day, and I still have work to do. I spoke to my line manager this morning, and said that I’d come in on Monday to finish everything off.

Admittedly, I’m a bit of a last-minute girl anyway. But, when I think of the amount of energy I’ve spent on unnecessary tasks… well, there’s not much I can do really, except learn from the experience.

How to make my next experience better.

_{Originally, I was going to type that as, what I did wrong. But, I’m going to try to look at this positively, just as I would with the clients I see.}

I think it’s all in the asking.

Firstly, I need to ask questions, rather than assuming. Lots of questions. ‘Dumb’ questions, too. It would have been better if I’d asked for help, rather than trying to do everything on my own. For instance, if I’d asked for help with preparing the resources, rather than nutting it out all on my own, I would have found out that I shouldn’t actually have been doing that!

I also needed to pull people up and ask how they go about completing tasks. Although, I did ask that right at the start, but at the time I was (appropriately) only given a general overview. Had I kept asking, and asked questions about specific processes, I’d have known most of this much earlier.

I’ve managed to stop kicking myself, and am reminding myself that it’s my first job here, and my first locum job anywhere. As long as I apply the lessons learned along the way to my next job, then it’s not so bad.

I keep telling myself that every experience, good or bad, is an experience. Even if all you discover is that you never want to repeat the experience, you’ve still learned something.

:::sigh:::

Overall though, I really have enjoyed this job. The staff have been wonderful, and very supportive… especially whilst I was running around like a headless chicken the last few days. I’ve only known them for just over a month, but I’m going to miss them. The two secretaries gave me a farewell card this afternoon (they didn’t know I’d be coming back Monday), and I feel quite special, because they didn’t do the same for the other locums. In fact, they waited until the others had left before they came into my office. I’ll be sad to say goodbye on Monday.

I have a job.

It all happened rather quickly. The locum agency told me about it on Wednesday afternoon, and now I’m starting on Monday. Gah!

The job’s based in Derbyshire, and from what I can gather, is rather similar to the job I had back in Melbourne… providing services to children. The difference is that I’ll be making visits to homes, as well as schools.

As a result, I had to pick up a hire car today. Not the most fun I’ve had of late. I could only pick it up today, as I have to attend a training course tomorrow morning, and the rental place is closed on Sundays. It’s been a long and expensive day… for some reason, it cost me £70 to catch the train from Peterborough (where I’ve been staying with a friend) to Swindon. By the time I arrived to pick up the car, I ended up standing at the counter in tears. Not as the result of anything particularly dramatic, just ‘new job nerves’, combined with the frustrations of trying to organise accommodation for next week, and the horror of cleaning out my UK bank account in the process.

However, all was good once I started driving away. Took close to 3 hours to drive from Swindon to my cousin’s place in Greenwich. The M25 is a bloody long road, and I don’t think I even travelled half of it!

Rest day tomorrow, then on Sunday I drive back up to Peterborough. Monday morning I have to head over to Derbyshire, and straight to work. Goodness only knows how long that drive will take. Sometimes I’m quite happy about having work, but at the moment I’m dreading it. Hopefully a good night’s sleep will help.