Perhaps indicated by my last entry, after losing my job – one for which I grew an increasing dislike – my time has been taken up by writing (in various forms) and looking for a complementary job. Having picked up some extra branches to my “writing tree”, namely a spot as a guest blogger at grads.co.uk, and contributing match reports for Dartford FC, I feel that I’ve perhaps made decent ground in getting to where I want to be.
My
days have been consumed by scouring the web for relative employment positions
and looking for places to get my work published. Admittedly, my efforts have
been somewhat stuttered, and I hold my hands up to the observation that more
applications should have been made.
On
the other hand, in my being picky I have realised that there are jobs to be had – just not ones that
I want. Sacrificing immediate money and an easy living have been bitter pills
to swallow, particularly where actually living is involved (thankfully, my
financial commitments are few). Nonetheless I think that there is probably no
better time to lay the foundations of my eventual career, as I can afford not
to really concern myself with hurriedly obtaining a regular income. I do not
want to be misunderstood here – having no money after receiving it weekly for
an extended period following graduation is not so easy to relinquish.
The
luxury of disposable income and squandered pennies and pounds seem a distant
memory, but I have to keep reminding myself that, should the right opportunity
come along, the rewards would be clear. Patience is most certainly a virtue in
my case at present, and I am just hoping for the right opportunity to come
along. Thinking of ways to make cash in the meantime is a full time job in
itself, but I have the evident disadvantage of not being money hungry (a fact
that I have only learned in the last two months). I think that I would much
rather sacrifice easier but more ample cash for a job that I love and that will
give me the tools to become what I really want to be.
I
genuinely thought that by this moment in time I would be bored of my pursuits
and maybe gone back to “the Darkside” of chasing the Yankee Dollar. I’m
delighted to say that I am not. I adore writing – especially about football and
being a struggling graduate – and I have also gained an accidental interest in
reading other blogs. There really are some fantastic recreational writers out
there, and I hope that I can count myself among them.
I
have received a couple of calls from recruitment agents, offering “graduate”
positions in sales and marketing. What this essentially means is that a large
number of companies have latched onto the unfortunate circumstances that
thousands of university leavers find themselves in, and offer to pay them half
of what would normally be offered for an equivalent role. I also discovered
that not all recruiters know what
they are doing. In fact, not a whole lot of them care very much about what they
are doing. I am not generalising, I am simply relaying my experience. I tried
my hardest to terminate a call from a recruiter in one instance – the content
of which can only be described as no more than a scripted and ill-informed
attempt to gain excellent commission.
To
wrap up this mixed bag of thoughts, I would say that you are far more likely to
find a job that you will enjoy if you know what to say ‘no’ to. Treading water
and putting it down to a “stop-gap” is an easy way of saying that you are not
trying hard enough to chase your dream. It’s a story that is all too familiar
to me, and I hope that I have now turned the page in pursuing what I genuinely
want to be doing. I’m by no means there yet, but hopefully a lot closer than I
was two months ago…
