I’ve accepted an upgraded version of the temporary position I took on a month ago. After a slow start I’m starting to enjoy the work and working with the people there, there are going to be some interesting projects coming up and I’m going to be taking a full part them now that I’m a permenant employee. It’s not exactly the ideal job I had in mind when I started my job hunt; the job has the effective aim of making me a technical specialist rather when I might have prefered something softer involving software packages rather than OS and Hardware but the company is a diverse one and there are many routes I could go down from here just within this company.

After a month in employment I am already missing the unstructured nature of studenthood and unemployment when I had the ability to do anything I wanted within my means, now I’m stuck in the office with summer in it’s last throws. I do pine to be back in full control of my destiny ala studenthood but for now I’ll settle for gaining some valuable experience and earning some equally valuable money.

This will be the final post in this blog it’s been a great distraction and stress relief when I thought the search would never end, I shall perhaps return to blogging at some stage in the near future but I shall have to find a subject that envelopes me as much as this one did before I do so.

Thanks for reading.

Going through the centre of Leeds the streets were alive with the students back from their holidays for the start of the new term. I looked on envy as they enjoyed the sunshine with not a care in the world and the smug satisfaction that for the next year at least they’ll be devoting their lives to learning but more importantly having fun. It makes me all nostalgic for the relatively care free times of beer, pool, and occasional lectures. I’d love to be back there now instead of working in a deary IT support role but alas I’ve not found a Masters course that would truely be worthwhile or useful for my career, I just need to find a job that is also useful else I will be back next year.

I was in Leeds for a job interview for an application support officer, the atmosphere of the place was relaxed almost student like in their attitude which can only be good although I was a bit perturbed that neither of the interviewers thought it necessary to dress smartly for the interview with my suit on I thought rather overdressed.

Over the last few days I’ve noticed a few search strings feature my actual name, which I suppose shows the power of the blog and rss feeds. This clearly shows that my up and coming profile website is going to need a blog if the website is actually going to be of any inherent value to me finding a job or my future career prospects. The mission now being to find myself a topic that I can write on a semi-regular basis without exposing my professional or personal life too much.

to confirm that we have received your application for the graduate rock cracking position, we are currently going through the procedure of selecting applicants for interview… if you don’t hear back from us by the 15th September then unfortunately your application has not been successful on this occasion”

What an odd letter, why bother getting me all excited about a possible interview but then convey no useful information to me? Why not just send everyone a letter before the 15th September confirming whether they have been shortlisted or not? This way I’m just left on tenter hooks, I’d prefer to know nothing as they say ignorance is bliss.

It’s that time of year again, the decision makers are back in the building and so the ‘milkrounds’ begin. It’s hard what to make of graduate schemes, it’s clearly a great career opportunity the positions are setup to give you a spring board into the organisation and give you a chance to learn the ropes. The problem for me is that some of them are somewhat hand holding, the training scheme proscribed and the responsibility not entirely clear. For my mind any job I’d like to take would have responsibility and the ability to progress in the organisation and my career. This discounts isolated technical support roles and makes me think critically of graduate schemes and their contents. As ever my ideal job is bleary and indistinct, it’s out there somewhere with someone.

I’m currently questioning whether my current temping job actually exists, I spent the entire day surfing the web and applying for jobs. I got no phone calls, no emails, and no one came to my desk in need of desperate help of IT assistance. In these times of boredom I was interupted by a phone call from an agency who offered me the chance to apply for a pretty medicore job but with the ensuing boredom I decided to take them up on the offer of sending my CV over. It’ll give me an excuse to get over to the North East (the job is in Sunderland) if nothing else and catch up with some of my uni friends assuming I get an interview of course.

So my first day back at work after my degree and it’s déjà vu; endless repetitive tasks, a game of solitare and the interweb at my mercy. IT support jobs are boring I need some responsibility, interest, stimulation and a bit of cash would come in handy to. Okay I enjoy some of the techie bits and I hope this job will hot up soon but I’m more determined to get myself a graduate position of some kind. I just have to find the time to do all the applications I have planned.

At last someone has taken the bait, sure I used my contacts to get in the door and I’m a little under qualified for what they need but they were desperate and now I have a job albeit a temporary and casual one doing tech support for a software house. The network setup is a lot more complicated than from my previous experience but they’re fully aware of what I’ve done in the past so the bar of achievement is set low.

The interview process was very interesting they actually had a problem to solve and although there was a techical ‘manager’ there my suggestion actually solved it. I love the warm satisfaction of out geeking and thinking someone who should know better than me.

The other interview didn’t go so well I think they may have been looking for someone with a bit more hands-on experience, they gave me a test covering all kinds of technical stuff which I had no mostly no idea about. I guess server administration is like being a popstar to get your big break you have to know the right people, it seems I may do.

However the job hunt continues this is temporary rememdy…

So after my appointment to sign on at the job centre at I went out into the wilds of Hull to whore myself out to any recruitment consultants I could find. It usually went something like this:

Me: “Hi my name is Andrew Smith I’m looking for work”

Receptionist come Recruitment Consultant: “What type of work are you looking for?”

Important note for recruitment consultants: I’m told recruitment is all about people so why bother with a receptionist you’re not going to make contact with your clients if you stay in yur ivory tower. You make a much better impression when the person meeting you on the door actually has some enthusiasm for what they are doing.

Me: “Ideally IT”

Receptionist: “We don’t get many IT posts, would you consider any other work?”

Me: “Perhaps temporary office work, but only IT as a permenant option”

Receptionist: “Do you have a CV?”

*hands recruitment consultant CV and leave*

Probably going to be a waste of time but you never know.

So I finally got some joy out of my ’social network’ (well me mum but who’s counting?) except people keep going on holiday. On friday my contact was on holiday but the IT services manager sent her (strangely not me) an email with what amounted to a job offer to which she replied on Monday morning and of course copying me into the mix. The person who had contacted her was on holiday from Monday and the potential stand-in was also on holiday. It’s a wonder people get any work done at all! If they’d have contacted themselves on Friday I could have been working there some time this week but as it stands I’ve managed to secure a ‘informal’ interview with them tomorrow morning, without even speaking any of the people involved with running the department I’d be entering.

Meanwhile an agency got in contact with me regarding a comparable job on Tuesday and sent my CV off with one click, a couple of hours later I was offered an interview for the Thursday afternoon, so tomorrow I have two interviews with a change of clothes necessary inbetween. And a little bit of journey to make between the two, with no car it might be a bit difficult but I’m sure the public transport system will see me straight!