A to Z.

Totally jumping on the blogging bandwagon with this one. You know you love it.

A. Age: 22
B. Bed size: Double
C. Chore that you hate: Hanging clothes out to dry. Ugh.
D. Dogs: I've never had one. Kind of want one, kind of don't.
E. Essential start to your day: Brushing my teeth. I feel so unclean until I do that.
F. Favorite color: Red or purple.
G. Gold or Silver: Definitely silver.
H. Height: 5'7"
I. Instruments you play: None at all. I'm really quite unmusical.
J. Job title: Food & Beverage Assistant. Which is really just a fancy way of saying 'waitress'.
K. Kids: None. I am not a fan.
L. Live: Southampton
M. Mother’s name: Janice
N. Nicknames: Babez (this started out somewhat ironically between Dan and me, and has now stuck), Emmy-Lou LIZ (for shame), smidgy/smidger
O. Overnight hospital stays: Zero. Except, presumably, when I was born.
P. Pet peeves: SPAG errors, cupboards/drawers left open ... there's usually so many, how can I not think of many right now?!
Q. Quote from a movie: "I would be proud to partake of your pecan piiiie" [When Harry Met Sally. Dan and I watched it this afternoon because, shock horror, he'd never seen it!]
R. Right or left handed: Left.
S. Siblings: None. Only child, yay!
T. Time you wake up: 5.50am when I'm working at 7am, otherwise around 10am.
U. Underwear: The ones I'm wearing today are pink.
V. Vegetable you hate: Brussels sprouts. Gag.
W. What makes you run late: Getting sidetracked. By anything. The internet, TV, Dan, cleaning the bathroom, you name it.
X. X-Rays you’ve had: Lots and lots of my teeth.
Y. Yummy food that you make: Sweet chilli salmon. So good, though I do say so myself.
Z. Zoo animal: I don't know, panda maybe? I've not been to a zoo in years.

Other things:

- Today was the first whole day that Dan and I have had together in what feels like ages. We had lunch in Wetherspoons, found Ben & Jerry's on offer in Tesco (2 for £6) then came back and watched films. It seems like so long ago already that we had every single day together over the summer.
- One of the films we watched was The Assassination of Jesse James [By the Coward Robert Ford]. SO BORING. It just dragged and dragged.
- On Friday night we went to see Dan's friend Simon's band play a gig at the pub he works at. It was a pretty fun evening, even if we couldn't stay all that late because I had to work at 7am on Saturday.
- I've applied to a couple of 9 to 5 jobs. Keep your fingers crossed for me?

Jobs. Part 4.

So, after my last jobs post, I emailed the guy who interviewed me at the Holiday Inn, explaining that I'd had a couple of other interviews and when was the latest I could give him an answer about the job (this was on Wednesday)? He replied saying Monday 22nd (yesterday). Okay, cool, quite close, but a fair amount of time.

So I rang the hotel where I'd had the receptionist trial shift. The woman who interviewed me wasn't there, but the receptionist told me she'd give her the message and ask her to contact me. She didn't. On Sunday, I rang again, and luckily the phone was answered by the woman who interviewed me. I explained my situation, and her response was to tell me, basically, to take the other job. Right, okay, thanks for getting back to me. Ugh. I understand that they needed to interview other people, but it had been FOUR WEEKS since my initial interview. I don't think I was asking much to be given an answer one way or the other. Did they really think I'd only applied for that one job? That's ridiculous.

Anyway, straight afterwards I emailed the Holiday Inn accepting the job. I emailed on Sunday, feeling all good because I was emailing the day before my 'deadline'. But it's Tuesday and, at this point, I haven't received a reply. The guy who interviewed me has, previously, been super good about emailing back promptly and it's making me a little nervous, I'll be honest. What if he thought I wasn't going to accept the job, so he gave it to someone else? And yes, he could just not have been in work, but if that's the case, why didn't he give me the deadline as a day when he'd be in the office?

I'm probably just being silly, but I REALLY NEED A JOB. I have > £50 in my bank account, which is not a good position to be in. If he hasn't emailed back by this time tomorrow, I'll give the hotel a call. In the meantime, I'm going for a walk in the rain (oh British summer, you've really been a let down this year).

Jobs. Part 3.

Yesterday I had an interview for the position of Food and Beverage Assistant at a Holiday Inn. The position is contractually only 12 hours a week, but the guy who interviewed me assured me that if I wanted to work extra hours, all the way up to full time hours, there's almost always hours available to do.

Today I got an email informing me that I've got the job - hooray!

But ... today I went to a trial shift for the role of receptionist at a hotel in Winchester. It's hard to tell how it went, since I didn't get a chance to do anything that 'proved' myself, but the people I spoke to seemed to like me, which I'm taking as a good sign.

So now I'm not really sure what to do.
I was told I'd hear about the receptionist job in the next couple of days, and that's the job I'd definitely prefer ... but how long can I hold off on giving an answer to the Holiday Inn job offer? It's a good job, and if I don't end up getting the receptionist job, I'd definitely be happy with that job (although let's be honest, right now I'd be happy with almost any job!). I just think the receptionist job is more 'me', and fits in with what I can see myself doing in the future (when I eventually figure it out ...).

I'm going away for 2 days from tomorrow, and I don't want to leave the email unanswered until Friday evening, but I'm not sure how to reply to it at the moment. I don't want to say something that implies that the job is a back up ... but it is.

TL;DR? I've been offered a job. There's a chance I'll be offered a job I want more (but also a chance I won't be). How do I reply to the job offer without taking that option off the table, but without formally accepting it for the moment?

Jobs. Part 2.

A while ago, while desperately applying for any job that seemed to be within a reasonable distance from my flat, I applied for a job as a Trainee Business Manager with McDonald's. I had no particular desire to do said job, but it seemed like a good graduate job with good pay, and it wasn't as if I had many other job options, so I applied.

I managed to bullshit my way through the online form, and apparently they liked me enough to ask me to fill out an online personality test. They still liked me (why? Who knows), so they asked me to an On Job Experience day. Which I went to yesterday at a McDonald's in Croydon (why did I have to go all the way to Croydon? I have no idea). There were 5 of us, all a bit apprehensive as we had no real idea of what we were there for.

The day consisted of us doing various tasks, including trying out 5 jobs within the restaurant (well, 'trying out' might be a bit strong. We watched someone else do the jobs), and coming up with a business plan for a fictional failing McDonald's restaurant.

Now, before the day, I wasn't all that keen to go. 'Do I really want to be an assistant manager of a McDonald's store?' I asked myself. 'It's good pay!' But, frankly, that - and being able to put 'assistant manager' on my CV - was the only thing it had going for it. So I went to the OJE hoping that it would make my mind up either way. It didn't completely. I didn't hate the day. But neither did I love it. If anything, it reinforced my belief that there was something slightly depressing about McDonald's. Don't get me wrong, I can see that they treat their employees well, and that it would be a good temporary job to have. But as a career? No thanks. Even the two managers who were interviewing us - who had been there for 16 and 17 years - weren't exactly a beacon of happiness.

But my problem was that if I got through to the final stage, and even got the job, I'd feel like I had to take it. Not because I'd feel bad turning McDonald's down (oh no!), but because, no matter how soul destroying it may be, it is a good job. The two advantages I mentioned above are pretty damn convincing advantages. I just wasn't sure I wanted to take it.

So this morning when I checked my email and I had an email telling me
..."we regret to inform you that after careful consideration, we will not be inviting you to attend the next stage of the recruitment process."
I won't lie, I was relieved. I don't have to work in McDonald's! Hooray!

And so the job search continues ... I should probably ring the hotel I had the receptionist job interview at, but I keep putting it off ...

Jobs. Part 1.

Since I moved to Southampton I've been searching for a job. That's what you're supposed to do, isn't it, when you finish university - you're supposed to enter the scary world of work. Which is something that, I'll admit, I haven't got much experience in. I've only had one 'proper' (ie. regular paid) job, which was when I worked at Marks & Spencer for 2 and a half months around Christmas 2010. The longest shift I've worked is 5 hours. So, perhaps understandably, I'm somewhat apprehensive about the whole thing.

I did apply for Saturday jobs when I was 16/17, but only to a very select number of shops (Waterstones, Disney Store, Past Times and a couple of stationery shops) because I was a shop snob. And when I say apply, I mean I handed in a basically empty CV to a shop that wasn't hiring (this was back in the day before online applications made applying for jobs 376 times easier). Needless to say, my vain attempts to procure a job were unsuccessful.

In my second year of university I decided to get myself a Saturday job volunteering at an Oxfam bookshop so that I could get myself something - anything - to put on my CV. I discovered I quite enjoy serving customers on a till. Some of the people I worked with were rather on the odd side (to put it politely) so it wasn't the most fun of places to work (my managers were lovely, but after I moved from the morning to the afternoon shift, everyone else was strange to the point where I had no clue how to interact with them), but I did enjoy the knowledge that I was helping a charity while also getting some shop work for my CV.

I didn't even need any kind of experience to work at M&S, which came as something of a surprise. I answered a bunch of questions correctly on their website, and was automatically given an interview. It turned out to be a role play rather than an interview, and I totally nailed it. I'd hoped they'd keep me on when my Christmas contract finished, but the job they offered me was a late night shift in food, which wasn't what I wanted, so I declined it.

And now I'm in search of a real job - preferably a full time one, so I can have enough money to pay rent and bills and have money left over to buy pretty things from time to time. With so many jobs requiring previous experience, it seems as if my only option may be to work in a shop. I had an interview at Argos and got the job, but then I went and got chickenpox so I couldn't go to the induction day, and I haven't heard from them since, despite being assured I'd hear in due course (this was over a week ago). I'm taking it as a sign that there are better things in store for me (although, hopefully, not actually in a store). I had an interview for a job as a receptionist at a lovely hotel in Winchester today, so I'm crossing my fingers on that one.