I actually had an interview at long last, too bad it was just a part time job and not either a full time job that I've been longing for or an internship that could then hopefully get me into the full time job I've been longing for but at least I would have some income coming in opposed to taking money out of my savings when ever I need some cash.
Any way I don't think it was that bad really, it could have been better but it could've been so much worse too.
I found out that my local Bingo hall had some vacancies so I applied online and I got a phone call to arrange my interview and it was all going fine until I had the interview.
I am the sort of person who when something bothers me I put it to the back of my mind and try not to think about it or I end up getting really frustrated and upset with worry so I pretty much spent the whole day trying not to think about it and when I got there and told the girl at the desk I had an interview I sat down and tried not to think about it which was probably a bad idea because I should have probably been sitting there thinking bout the questions they would probably ask so I could think of some decent answers.
The people who worked there were really nice, both the man who interviewed me and the people on the desk, I think it's important to remember that people don't want you to fall apart at an interview/audition because it's not just awful for you but it's awful for the interviewer too, I've been told by drama teachers and my media college tutors many times that this is true and they are people who have worked in theatre production and radio/television production so I trust them when they say that employers will want you to feel at ease.
I'm just really shy (which to be honest is probably why I choose to blog and not to vlog or podcast) when I get used to something I get more confident and friends know that whilst I'm really quiet when you first meet me and then after a few weeks I turn into a motor mouth who will tell you just about anything.
The only problem with this is when it comes to interviews (and meeting certain people for the first time) I don't paint myself in the best light and stutter a lot, if I could just fast forward a few weeks to when I'm feeling comfortable with someone I might come across as a better candidate/person and I might be better at first impressions.
Any way someone on the desk recognized me from school and I honestly didn't remember him at all, I felt really bad because I'm usually the kind of person who gets forgotten about and it seems weird to me that someone would remember me and I wouldn't remember who they were.
It turned out his younger brother was in my year at school and was in most of my classes, I remember the boy in my class and listening to the boy at the front desk they were really similar, they sounded the same and said similar things but I still had no idea that boy had an older brother, I'm sorry.
During the interview it's self I spoke clearly which to be honest about I was really scared I wouldn't speak clearly enough and that I would start mumbling but I didn't, I did do that thing however where you use "Your acting Voice".
I don't know if you've realised but people have acting voices, you notice this the most if you've been in a drama group/acting classes or if you did drama/acting at school.
I don't know why but at my school at least everyone sounded really posh (probably because I live in the south of England near London so my drama class sounded posher for some reason).
If you watch reality TV, have been to see an amateur theatre production, or had to hear a speech of some kind you've probably heard the acting voice, it's when the words sound really deliberate, over spaced and slow when normally your voice sounds more fluid. Maybe you don't know what I mean and you think I'm crazy but the point is that my voice was different at the start of the interview and changed half way through so that was embarrassing.
The worst part of the interview and my biggest downfall was that I hadn't prepared for any questions so I hesitated and had some really long awkward pauses but I refused to give up and back down and answered all the questions anyway, I really thought I would give up and say "I don't know, sorry." but I didn't, I have to admit I don't think some of my answers made much sense and the worst part is if it weren't for me feeling nervous I probably could've though of better answers on the spot so if I don't get this job have to remember to think about what they might ask me in advance.
I don't even know if I have the job or not, they said that they should've known by Saturday but it's now Monday, they said that they like to let everyone know whether or not they got the job and they would rather use the phone but they might send a letter...
So basically they might phoneme , they might send me a letter or they might not actually let me know so I could be sitting around waiting for a phone call or a letter that might not come.
My advice (and a note to myself) think in advance what they might ask you and think of answers so they don't catch you out during the interview.
Monday, 25 November 2013
I don't think people always know what I mean.
I have a bad habit of wording things oddly, not sure if you noticed, but I sometimes do and it's gotten me into trouble on a few occasions.
First off the bat I say "you" or "you're" in conversations with people when I'm not referring to the person I'm talking to.
I say "you" when I mean "them" or "me".
When I say "you" I'm either talking about groups of people or giving an example and trying to include the person I'm talking to, like you do in a rhetorical question like "how would you feel if it happened to you?" it's like you're trying to make the feel the question.
I would be telling a story and I will say "you" when I should've said something else like one time I said to my friend during a discussion about how I hate it when people who insult other people for no reason "I hate it when people say horrible things to other people, like you could be walking down the street and someone starts calling you names, like they'll call you... I don't know... fat or something."
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I accidentally called my friend fat,I felt so bad and I swear I didn't mean it to sound like that, it's was honestly an accident it's just that it sounds so awful. I still feel really bad about it , I'm really sorry.
What I really meant to say was "I hate it when people say horrible things to other people, like when people call other people names. Like someone could just be walking down the street and someone calls them a horrible name ... I don't know... like fat or something." and you can see how this can be an issue but thankfully she knows me pretty well and didn't decide to punch me in the face.
I've said "you" and "you're" so many times on the internet and gotten into trouble over it.
I can't actually recall any examples, It's funny when you remember getting in trouble for doing something but can't actually remember how it happened but I remember this one time in particular on a forum site and I said "you" and someone got really offended and they started saying how they had never once done the thing I had accused them of and that I didn't know them and stuff like that and I tried so hard to explain and failed miserably, I think I said something along the lines of "when I say "you" I don't mean actual "you" as in "YOU" behind the screen, I'm usually referring to myself when I say you." they must have been so confused because they don't know what I'm like and how awkwardly I word things, they probably thought I had just insulted them and accused them of something awful when I didn't actually mean to.
Thank god I said that on the internet and not to their face so they couldn't punch me, I feel really bad about that too again , I'm sorry.
Another thing I do/am guilty of is explaining things badly, If you haven't noticed I waffle on.
I literally repeat the same thing over and over I just word it differently each time.
I think my problem is that I explained it so badly the first time that either the look on the person I'm talking to seems to say I need to word things differently, or they ask me what I meant or I'm so disappointed with my original explanation I have to do it again and this is why my blog posts go on and on.
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I'm even worse in person, I don't suppose it comes as a surprise to any one but I'm really shy and awkward.(because it's not like people who choose to write on the internet for a hobby are exactly know for their outgoing personality and exciting social lives, no offence because you could be the most confident, busy and exciting person in the world and who just happens to blog but I'm not and I don't think I'm the only one.)
Any way I get really nervous talking to alone stranger and I'm even worse talking to a large group of strangers and I will worry about it like crazy before hand and it really shouldn't be that hard but I end up making it harder than it should be and I often plan what I'm going to say but when I actually come to saying it I pretty much take all of my planning and preparations and throw the majority of it out the window.
.JPG)
When I have to speak in public I literally plan what I'm going to say word for word and write a huge paragraph in advance, I then skip out most of it whilst trying to retain the main points of the paragraph but I end up using really awful words despite the fact I have a whole page in my hand full of expertly crafted sentences and impressive words that I slaved over.Why do I do that.
The points don't really flow together when I improvise either and I just sloppily move from one point to the next and then I talk really fast just to get the whole thing over with. It's really embarrassing and it feels like this.
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It's a little weird really because I used to belong to a dance group and a drama group and we used to perform on stage and I was fine but as soon as I had to talk to the audience directly I'd freeze and do the whole "forget everything you were meant to say and blurt out the points in no particular order" thing, I remember crying in a speaking and listening exam in English at school, it was awful and I was hyper ventilating and sobbing for a good half an hour which is embarrassing really, it's just talking and I can talk to my friends perfectly fine if any thing it's a task trying to get me to shut up so why can't I talk to strangers but thankfully the teacher felt bad for me and made the speaking exams more intimate by putting us into smaller friendship groups which was better so fortunately I didn't fail GCSE English.
I often joke that my awkwardness with strangers is going to be my downfall and I'm going to wind up forever alone but a part of me if a little worried that if I don't pluck up the courage to talk to people I will be alone. forever.
I guess I'm lucky really because I'm a girl and there's more pressure for boys to make the first move any way although that's a little old fashioned now and I do think I need to gain more confidence, I'm not going to be a particularly interesting date if I can't talk properly.
I'm a little worried but doubt I'm going to be "forever alone", I'm 18 and I'm sure things will be easier when I get a job although that might not be for a while. (I'm starting to think that the rest of my life in going to revolve around me getting a job) I could then meet people through work or I can pay to go out somewhere and meet people that way, until then I guess I should just go and be brave and try to talk to people more.
although that's easier said then done when you don't have any money/reason to go out because you don't have a job in the first place, oh well.
Any have some courage you could lend me? It would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
P.S I used a scanner today but I think taking photo's is easier for me, the scanner seems to put pink marks on the image so next time I think I'll just go back to taking pictures but any tips on how to use a scanner is much appreciated.
First off the bat I say "you" or "you're" in conversations with people when I'm not referring to the person I'm talking to.
I say "you" when I mean "them" or "me".
When I say "you" I'm either talking about groups of people or giving an example and trying to include the person I'm talking to, like you do in a rhetorical question like "how would you feel if it happened to you?" it's like you're trying to make the feel the question.
I would be telling a story and I will say "you" when I should've said something else like one time I said to my friend during a discussion about how I hate it when people who insult other people for no reason "I hate it when people say horrible things to other people, like you could be walking down the street and someone starts calling you names, like they'll call you... I don't know... fat or something."
I accidentally called my friend fat,I felt so bad and I swear I didn't mean it to sound like that, it's was honestly an accident it's just that it sounds so awful. I still feel really bad about it , I'm really sorry.
What I really meant to say was "I hate it when people say horrible things to other people, like when people call other people names. Like someone could just be walking down the street and someone calls them a horrible name ... I don't know... like fat or something." and you can see how this can be an issue but thankfully she knows me pretty well and didn't decide to punch me in the face.
I've said "you" and "you're" so many times on the internet and gotten into trouble over it.
I can't actually recall any examples, It's funny when you remember getting in trouble for doing something but can't actually remember how it happened but I remember this one time in particular on a forum site and I said "you" and someone got really offended and they started saying how they had never once done the thing I had accused them of and that I didn't know them and stuff like that and I tried so hard to explain and failed miserably, I think I said something along the lines of "when I say "you" I don't mean actual "you" as in "YOU" behind the screen, I'm usually referring to myself when I say you." they must have been so confused because they don't know what I'm like and how awkwardly I word things, they probably thought I had just insulted them and accused them of something awful when I didn't actually mean to.
Thank god I said that on the internet and not to their face so they couldn't punch me, I feel really bad about that too again , I'm sorry.
Another thing I do/am guilty of is explaining things badly, If you haven't noticed I waffle on.
I literally repeat the same thing over and over I just word it differently each time.
I think my problem is that I explained it so badly the first time that either the look on the person I'm talking to seems to say I need to word things differently, or they ask me what I meant or I'm so disappointed with my original explanation I have to do it again and this is why my blog posts go on and on.
I'm even worse in person, I don't suppose it comes as a surprise to any one but I'm really shy and awkward.(because it's not like people who choose to write on the internet for a hobby are exactly know for their outgoing personality and exciting social lives, no offence because you could be the most confident, busy and exciting person in the world and who just happens to blog but I'm not and I don't think I'm the only one.)
Any way I get really nervous talking to alone stranger and I'm even worse talking to a large group of strangers and I will worry about it like crazy before hand and it really shouldn't be that hard but I end up making it harder than it should be and I often plan what I'm going to say but when I actually come to saying it I pretty much take all of my planning and preparations and throw the majority of it out the window.
When I have to speak in public I literally plan what I'm going to say word for word and write a huge paragraph in advance, I then skip out most of it whilst trying to retain the main points of the paragraph but I end up using really awful words despite the fact I have a whole page in my hand full of expertly crafted sentences and impressive words that I slaved over.Why do I do that.
The points don't really flow together when I improvise either and I just sloppily move from one point to the next and then I talk really fast just to get the whole thing over with. It's really embarrassing and it feels like this.
It's a little weird really because I used to belong to a dance group and a drama group and we used to perform on stage and I was fine but as soon as I had to talk to the audience directly I'd freeze and do the whole "forget everything you were meant to say and blurt out the points in no particular order" thing, I remember crying in a speaking and listening exam in English at school, it was awful and I was hyper ventilating and sobbing for a good half an hour which is embarrassing really, it's just talking and I can talk to my friends perfectly fine if any thing it's a task trying to get me to shut up so why can't I talk to strangers but thankfully the teacher felt bad for me and made the speaking exams more intimate by putting us into smaller friendship groups which was better so fortunately I didn't fail GCSE English.
I often joke that my awkwardness with strangers is going to be my downfall and I'm going to wind up forever alone but a part of me if a little worried that if I don't pluck up the courage to talk to people I will be alone. forever.
I guess I'm lucky really because I'm a girl and there's more pressure for boys to make the first move any way although that's a little old fashioned now and I do think I need to gain more confidence, I'm not going to be a particularly interesting date if I can't talk properly.
I'm a little worried but doubt I'm going to be "forever alone", I'm 18 and I'm sure things will be easier when I get a job although that might not be for a while. (I'm starting to think that the rest of my life in going to revolve around me getting a job) I could then meet people through work or I can pay to go out somewhere and meet people that way, until then I guess I should just go and be brave and try to talk to people more.
although that's easier said then done when you don't have any money/reason to go out because you don't have a job in the first place, oh well.
Any have some courage you could lend me? It would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
P.S I used a scanner today but I think taking photo's is easier for me, the scanner seems to put pink marks on the image so next time I think I'll just go back to taking pictures but any tips on how to use a scanner is much appreciated.
Friday, 8 November 2013
I have a dilemma with my local comic book shop.
I love comics, super hero movies and super hero cartoons and this shop even sells a comic book for a web series/cartoon I watch, this shop even sells figurines and dolls. I really love this shop, I think it's one of the coolest shops in town but there is one problem. I've never read/brought a comic book.
I read web comics and manga but I feel that's different, when you read a comic online you can just start from the beginning and work your way through, manga is the same because you start at the first volume and work your way to the end but where do you start with a comic book?
maybe I'm just being nit-picky but most comic book characters have been around for years and I don't know where the best place to start is, I guess I could find the start of an interesting story arch but what arch do I start with?
I suppose I know enough back story on some super heroes like batman to not get confused but what about super hero's I'm not so familiar with?
Another thing is that I live in the UK and all the prices are in dollars and I have no idea how much they are going to cost in pounds.
I went there today and I saw a comic I wanted for $3.99, things should be cheaper in the uk and using the internet I worked out that should make it £2.49 but because the comics would need to be shipped in so that will bump up the prices and the other comics are priced differently and then there are comics in mint condition and they cost even more and I'm just over whelmed by it all.
I just feel really awkward, you'd think it would be hard to feel awkward in a comic book shop but it doesn't take a lot to make me feel awkward, it's just I walk in, look through comics, look at some figurines, consider things I could get for birthdays and and Christmas and then I leave, it's really embarrassing and people are going to think I'm a wannabe nerd.
I like nerdy things I guess but I wouldn't label myself a nerd, I like lots of different things for lots of different things and I'm not bothered about how people see my interests but I worry that the shop owner is getting annoyed at me for visiting so often and rarely ever buying anything. I just feel bad about it.
I keep thinking that someday I should go out with some money and just try and buy something I like the look of and just see if I have enough, but I still haven't actually got around to it yet.
If anyone has any suggestions like maybe a good comic book or a good place to start please let me know in the comments, I would be really grateful. Thank you.
I read web comics and manga but I feel that's different, when you read a comic online you can just start from the beginning and work your way through, manga is the same because you start at the first volume and work your way to the end but where do you start with a comic book?
maybe I'm just being nit-picky but most comic book characters have been around for years and I don't know where the best place to start is, I guess I could find the start of an interesting story arch but what arch do I start with?
I suppose I know enough back story on some super heroes like batman to not get confused but what about super hero's I'm not so familiar with?
Another thing is that I live in the UK and all the prices are in dollars and I have no idea how much they are going to cost in pounds.
I went there today and I saw a comic I wanted for $3.99, things should be cheaper in the uk and using the internet I worked out that should make it £2.49 but because the comics would need to be shipped in so that will bump up the prices and the other comics are priced differently and then there are comics in mint condition and they cost even more and I'm just over whelmed by it all.
I just feel really awkward, you'd think it would be hard to feel awkward in a comic book shop but it doesn't take a lot to make me feel awkward, it's just I walk in, look through comics, look at some figurines, consider things I could get for birthdays and and Christmas and then I leave, it's really embarrassing and people are going to think I'm a wannabe nerd.
I like nerdy things I guess but I wouldn't label myself a nerd, I like lots of different things for lots of different things and I'm not bothered about how people see my interests but I worry that the shop owner is getting annoyed at me for visiting so often and rarely ever buying anything. I just feel bad about it.
I keep thinking that someday I should go out with some money and just try and buy something I like the look of and just see if I have enough, but I still haven't actually got around to it yet.
If anyone has any suggestions like maybe a good comic book or a good place to start please let me know in the comments, I would be really grateful. Thank you.
Monday, 28 October 2013
The "You work experience to get work experience" Paradox.
I know this blog has far to many posts about me being unemployed and I'm really sorry about that.
But to be honest other than that there is nothing going on with me at the moment , the irony of having so much free time and having nothing to do with it and I swear when I do get a job and I'm busy I'm going to appreciate it and never going to wish for more free time.
(That's a lie. When I've been a job for a while and the novelty of being busy runs thin I'm most likely going to be on here complaining about it. I bet you're looking forward to that, am I right?)
Any way I've been applying for jobs for a while now and I've noticed a pattern or rather a paradox emerging, if you want to get some work experience you're going to need some work experience to get work experience.
How is anyone meant to get experience of the work place if no body is offering to give any body experience, it's bad enough that paid internships want you to have some experience (which is pretty much work experience any way, it's a lot more work than regular work experience and internships usually pay you but it's still just experience at the end of the day.) but I've actually seen adverts for work experience and internships that don't even pay travel and they want you to have prior experience and or a degree.
It never occurred to me that going to Uni and getting a degree still didn't get you into work, of course I knew you wouldn't get straight into work because there'd be a lot of competition from other graduates and the majority of the time there will always be someone more qualified (or over qualified) for the job but I never thought that having a degree wasn't enough or that a uni grad would have to compete for unpaid work experience, it just seems kind of sad really but I guess that's the system at the moment and until things pick up economy wise everyone's just going to have to deal with it.
I'm often trying to give advice on this blog just in case someone comes along having scrolled through internet searching for the answers for the exact same problem as me and I'm going to be honest I'm still trying to find experience but there is one thing I noticed, the more you have on your CV/resume the better.
If you think about it for every job you get turned down for someone must have got the role right? And that is because they have more on their CV/resume.
I personally don't think experience is absolutely everything.(although from my job hunting it seems to be the biggest thing employers are looking for.)
I think skills, qualifications, and a pinch of hobbies and interests are pretty important, of course work experience implies that you have the skills and qualifications for the job but I'm thinking about this from my point of view, I.E I just finished college, I have no uni degree and no work experience.
I now think that maybe more qualifications would help, like maybe taking up another college course, doing some A levels or going to university but to be frank I don't want to go back to college myself, maybe uni but I don't want to go back to college.
I do think the more qualifications the better but of course that costs even more money and I don't think it's wise to over spend and become over qualified to secure a job that isn't worth the money you spent.
Skills are important. Of course you will learn skills doing courses at school, college or uni and you will learn skills at work through work experience but like I said before going on lots of courses costs lots of money and I've found a lot of employers would prefer a Uni grad for their work experience placements.
Yes some employers want you to have a degree for work experience that will last a few months, not for actual work.
But I think there is away to get around this one without completely depleting your savings.
I don't know what career you've chosen but I've decided to go into journalism and writing for tv, there are plenty of courses and competitions for writers if you look in the right place for example the BBC does script competitions regularly, I guess if you do well in a competition you could add it as work experience but if you do you you should really stress the skills involved.
I'm also interested in TV and film production, I was never very good at the technical side like cameras and stuff but I liked coming up with ideas and things, it's probably a good idea not to be too specific with your career path as long as it's related you might be able to achieve your original goal in the end any way.
I know this website called mandy which has TV and film related jobs and they advertise everything from work to workshops, they often have short courses for things like after effects and TV presenting although I wouldn't recommend paying for an after effects course because you can learn after effects on a website called videocopilot.net.
even if you don't want a media based job there should plenty of ways you can learn new skills relevant to your career path, clearly for some industries it's going to be easier to learn new skills, it's going to be easier for someone in the hair and beauty industry to learn a new technique or a new beauty treatment than it is if you're in law trying to learn something new.
Hobbies and Interests are often neglected and don't get me wrong a hobby isn't going to secure you a job but put a relevant hobby or 2 along with a list of relevant skills and some good qualifications and it might give you the push you need to beat another candidate.
Think of a CV/resume as a weapon in a fight, a fight between children.
Remember what arguments were like at school when you were 6? The kid with the most impressive things in their arsenal would win and by "impressive things" I mean who's dad had had the toughest job, or who had the oldest brother or sister who could come and beat the other kid up, CV/Resume's are the same thing.
I don't think hobbies can hurt as long as they relate back to the job.
Mentioning that you play for a sports team implies that you are active and healthy and like working in a team and might come in handy when applying for the police or the army but it might not be very helpful if your applying for a marketing job.
When applying for jobs in journalism they often ask for examples of work so I often link them back to my blogs. I guess how effective your hobbies are depends on the job you're applying for really, I imagine active hobbies are very helpful in getting a job in the army and creative hobbies like photography and painting could improve your chances of getting a job in creative design. (obviously if you have experience and qualifications for creative design it's probably because you like like art and design but hobbies could get you into training or work experience so it could work that way.)
However certain jobs I'm not overly sure how you could use hobbies to your advantage, roles like personal assistants probably don't really have any relevant hobbies but I guess using sports to show you work well in teams probably wouldn't go a miss.
If you're in the experience paradox try filling up your CV/resume with qualifications, skills and hobbies instead.
But to be honest other than that there is nothing going on with me at the moment , the irony of having so much free time and having nothing to do with it and I swear when I do get a job and I'm busy I'm going to appreciate it and never going to wish for more free time.
(That's a lie. When I've been a job for a while and the novelty of being busy runs thin I'm most likely going to be on here complaining about it. I bet you're looking forward to that, am I right?)
Any way I've been applying for jobs for a while now and I've noticed a pattern or rather a paradox emerging, if you want to get some work experience you're going to need some work experience to get work experience.
How is anyone meant to get experience of the work place if no body is offering to give any body experience, it's bad enough that paid internships want you to have some experience (which is pretty much work experience any way, it's a lot more work than regular work experience and internships usually pay you but it's still just experience at the end of the day.) but I've actually seen adverts for work experience and internships that don't even pay travel and they want you to have prior experience and or a degree.
It never occurred to me that going to Uni and getting a degree still didn't get you into work, of course I knew you wouldn't get straight into work because there'd be a lot of competition from other graduates and the majority of the time there will always be someone more qualified (or over qualified) for the job but I never thought that having a degree wasn't enough or that a uni grad would have to compete for unpaid work experience, it just seems kind of sad really but I guess that's the system at the moment and until things pick up economy wise everyone's just going to have to deal with it.
I'm often trying to give advice on this blog just in case someone comes along having scrolled through internet searching for the answers for the exact same problem as me and I'm going to be honest I'm still trying to find experience but there is one thing I noticed, the more you have on your CV/resume the better.
If you think about it for every job you get turned down for someone must have got the role right? And that is because they have more on their CV/resume.
I personally don't think experience is absolutely everything.(although from my job hunting it seems to be the biggest thing employers are looking for.)
I think skills, qualifications, and a pinch of hobbies and interests are pretty important, of course work experience implies that you have the skills and qualifications for the job but I'm thinking about this from my point of view, I.E I just finished college, I have no uni degree and no work experience.
I now think that maybe more qualifications would help, like maybe taking up another college course, doing some A levels or going to university but to be frank I don't want to go back to college myself, maybe uni but I don't want to go back to college.
I do think the more qualifications the better but of course that costs even more money and I don't think it's wise to over spend and become over qualified to secure a job that isn't worth the money you spent.
Skills are important. Of course you will learn skills doing courses at school, college or uni and you will learn skills at work through work experience but like I said before going on lots of courses costs lots of money and I've found a lot of employers would prefer a Uni grad for their work experience placements.
Yes some employers want you to have a degree for work experience that will last a few months, not for actual work.
But I think there is away to get around this one without completely depleting your savings.
I don't know what career you've chosen but I've decided to go into journalism and writing for tv, there are plenty of courses and competitions for writers if you look in the right place for example the BBC does script competitions regularly, I guess if you do well in a competition you could add it as work experience but if you do you you should really stress the skills involved.
I'm also interested in TV and film production, I was never very good at the technical side like cameras and stuff but I liked coming up with ideas and things, it's probably a good idea not to be too specific with your career path as long as it's related you might be able to achieve your original goal in the end any way.
I know this website called mandy which has TV and film related jobs and they advertise everything from work to workshops, they often have short courses for things like after effects and TV presenting although I wouldn't recommend paying for an after effects course because you can learn after effects on a website called videocopilot.net.
even if you don't want a media based job there should plenty of ways you can learn new skills relevant to your career path, clearly for some industries it's going to be easier to learn new skills, it's going to be easier for someone in the hair and beauty industry to learn a new technique or a new beauty treatment than it is if you're in law trying to learn something new.
Hobbies and Interests are often neglected and don't get me wrong a hobby isn't going to secure you a job but put a relevant hobby or 2 along with a list of relevant skills and some good qualifications and it might give you the push you need to beat another candidate.
Think of a CV/resume as a weapon in a fight, a fight between children.
Remember what arguments were like at school when you were 6? The kid with the most impressive things in their arsenal would win and by "impressive things" I mean who's dad had had the toughest job, or who had the oldest brother or sister who could come and beat the other kid up, CV/Resume's are the same thing.
I don't think hobbies can hurt as long as they relate back to the job.
Mentioning that you play for a sports team implies that you are active and healthy and like working in a team and might come in handy when applying for the police or the army but it might not be very helpful if your applying for a marketing job.
When applying for jobs in journalism they often ask for examples of work so I often link them back to my blogs. I guess how effective your hobbies are depends on the job you're applying for really, I imagine active hobbies are very helpful in getting a job in the army and creative hobbies like photography and painting could improve your chances of getting a job in creative design. (obviously if you have experience and qualifications for creative design it's probably because you like like art and design but hobbies could get you into training or work experience so it could work that way.)
However certain jobs I'm not overly sure how you could use hobbies to your advantage, roles like personal assistants probably don't really have any relevant hobbies but I guess using sports to show you work well in teams probably wouldn't go a miss.
If you're in the experience paradox try filling up your CV/resume with qualifications, skills and hobbies instead.
Thursday, 10 October 2013
Getting real tired of being unemployed.
I'm still hopelessly unemployed and I'm getting real sick of being bored of doing nothing all day long, there is only so much internet, reading, tv, video games, whatever you can do without getting really bored and after a while you've pretty much seen and done everyone you wanted to see and do and then you're left with nothing again.
This is me.
And I feel like my life is going now where, don't get my wrong because things can be so much worse but I'm just struggling to work out what to do with myself, I have so much time on my hands and I know tons of people would sell their souls for more free time but this is becoming a joke, I can feel myself getting lazier and lazier and I'm struggling to get up in the morning, the more time I spend asleep the less time I end up spending bored I guess.
It's not the end of the world, I'm not going to give in.
(I'm pretty resilient, it would take an awful lot crush my spirit)
I'm just getting used to not doing anything productive and becoming lazy, the worst part is my Facebook is filled with pictures of people from school partying, cooking and getting to know each other at university and not to mentions my friends are all still at college and are busy most of the week so it just feels like my life is on hold.
My life is like your favorite TV show (only not as interesting) and just as something awesome is about to happen and you're eagerly waiting for the next episode and then they put it on hiatus and you have no idea when it's going to continue.
I do blame the economic crisis/meltdown/collapse what ever it is for my employment woes, I think that before people had to worry about tight budgets they employed more people but now every company big or small is worried about over spending and there is seriously no way you would employ a college level grad or better still someone with entry level qualifications when you can employ someone with lots of high level qualifications who is going after the same job.
It's a lose, lose situation. People are spending lots of money to go to university and get degrees to secure jobs that they are over qualified for and people without basic qualifications struggle to get part time jobs, when 20-30 years ago people were being employed you because the employer liked them and wanted to give them a break and it's depressing.
But I'm resilient and I'm not giving up and I'm not backing down with out a fight.(even if damage is far greater than the actual reward.)
I've decided that if I can't find any thing near a full time job by Christmas I'm going to apply for university and because I have the grades I should find out whether I'm in pretty quickly then keep applying for work experience and a part time job until I start.
This is me.
And I feel like my life is going now where, don't get my wrong because things can be so much worse but I'm just struggling to work out what to do with myself, I have so much time on my hands and I know tons of people would sell their souls for more free time but this is becoming a joke, I can feel myself getting lazier and lazier and I'm struggling to get up in the morning, the more time I spend asleep the less time I end up spending bored I guess.
It's not the end of the world, I'm not going to give in.
(I'm pretty resilient, it would take an awful lot crush my spirit)
I'm just getting used to not doing anything productive and becoming lazy, the worst part is my Facebook is filled with pictures of people from school partying, cooking and getting to know each other at university and not to mentions my friends are all still at college and are busy most of the week so it just feels like my life is on hold.
My life is like your favorite TV show (only not as interesting) and just as something awesome is about to happen and you're eagerly waiting for the next episode and then they put it on hiatus and you have no idea when it's going to continue.
I do blame the economic crisis/meltdown/collapse what ever it is for my employment woes, I think that before people had to worry about tight budgets they employed more people but now every company big or small is worried about over spending and there is seriously no way you would employ a college level grad or better still someone with entry level qualifications when you can employ someone with lots of high level qualifications who is going after the same job.
It's a lose, lose situation. People are spending lots of money to go to university and get degrees to secure jobs that they are over qualified for and people without basic qualifications struggle to get part time jobs, when 20-30 years ago people were being employed you because the employer liked them and wanted to give them a break and it's depressing.
But I'm resilient and I'm not giving up and I'm not backing down with out a fight.(even if damage is far greater than the actual reward.)
I've decided that if I can't find any thing near a full time job by Christmas I'm going to apply for university and because I have the grades I should find out whether I'm in pretty quickly then keep applying for work experience and a part time job until I start.
Wednesday, 25 September 2013
Watch out world, I could end up teaching your children! (well potentially.)
I finally got my results from college, which to be honest took much longer than it should have and now I have DDM in BTEC creative media level 3 which is equivalent to getting ABB in A level and is worth 320 UCAS points.
While I don't really want to get into explaining the British education system but I'm going to because it doesn't make sense if you aren't familiar with it.
In England at least by the time you get to 16 you have the option to leave school or stay on for two more years, in those two years (or maybe more if you choose college) you can either do A levels or A level equivalent courses at either college or school and those qualifications can get you into university, you don't really need any qualifications at all to be quite frank but the jobs that are on offer to you are low paid so the more qualifications you have the better off you're meant to be.
People who do A level argue that BTEC is easier than A Levels because A level involves an exam at the end of the 2 years to get their results and BTEC is graded by the coursework that gets done through out the 2 years and to be honest if I had done A Levels I probably wouldn't have done as well but I wouldn't say it's because BTEC is easier, I think I did better because in BTEC you hand in your coursework unit by unit and your tutor can tell you what you're missing so you can boost your grades when in A Level all you can do is remember as much as you can and regurgitate it into your exam paper and hope for the best so in that sense BTEC is easier but quite a few people didn't do too well or failed because they were lazy and didn't put the work in over the two year period where in A Level you can afford to slack off a bit more as long as you remember most of it and revise nearer the end, really just go for the option you feel suits you.
People who do A level argue that BTEC is easier than A Levels because A level involves an exam at the end of the 2 years to get their results and BTEC is graded by the coursework that gets done through out the 2 years and to be honest if I had done A Levels I probably wouldn't have done as well but I wouldn't say it's because BTEC is easier, I think I did better because in BTEC you hand in your coursework unit by unit and your tutor can tell you what you're missing so you can boost your grades when in A Level all you can do is remember as much as you can and regurgitate it into your exam paper and hope for the best so in that sense BTEC is easier but quite a few people didn't do too well or failed because they were lazy and didn't put the work in over the two year period where in A Level you can afford to slack off a bit more as long as you remember most of it and revise nearer the end, really just go for the option you feel suits you.
At the moment the economic climate is pretty unstable so even if you do have a university degree of some sort it doesn't mean you will get the job so the best bet is getting as many qualifications,skills and experience on your CV and hope for the best.
Back to how I could end up being a potential teacher.
At school I was seen as notoriously stupid, which I think was unfair looking back.
I was always put in the bottom group in lessons at primary school (you know what I mean) in maths and English I was always put in the group where the work was easiest and we weren't that thick we knew we were sitting at the under achieving table and so did the rest of the class and nobody expected much of us and we were teased a bit.
I just really struggled writing, it wasn't really the words themselves that I struggled with it was just writing them, my hand writing was awful and writing just felt uncomfortable and it took me ages to find a comfortable way of writing, the weirdest part is that I was in the "top" group in reading and science, thank god they had reading groups or I would have felt pretty stupid and probably would've gave up on English as a subject but I think this just proves that I wasn't really stupid, I just had an issue with pens.
Any way throughout primary and secondary school I felt as though everyone thought I was stupid, I don't know maybe it's just me maybe no one really looked down on me but it felt that way, I remember when I was 10-11 we had some exams and they were giving the bright kids extra lessons to help boost their grades up and I got into the science group which was cool but all the other kids were the kinds of kids who were good at everything and I remember them awkwardly shooing me away when the moved on to maths and English and I remember it really got me down.
I was pretty good at science and I was in top set science in secondary school and even then someone accused of cheating, I think they genuinely believed that I had some how cheated my way into top set or something but what actually happened was I was looking for the date and the teacher hadn't put it on the board and I knew this girl would know the date and instead of asking her like a normal person I just looked at her book, she was quite horrible about it for a while until the seating arrangement was changed but honestly how could I have cheated off her when all she had written was the date, seriously.
This all changed when I got to college however, people didn't think I was stupid in college, I guess it's because of these reasons:
1. my hand writing had slightly improved at 15-16 (when I say improved I mean just about readable.)
2. most of our work was on the computer so my hand writing didn't matter and computers have spell check so I could fix my mistakes.
3.these people first met me when I was 16 and saw me for who I was at that time and didn't know me as the girl who used to struggled in lessons.
I really do think that the reason I struggled so much was down to my handwriting not my intelligence I just wished I had seen that when I was younger.
Any way with my college grades I can get into an English undergraduate course at Bournemouth university if I really wanted to but I have actually have met the entry requirements for the course , I'm not sure that I would take the English course because I would rather do a script writing course if I really had to but if I did the English course I could go on to do post graduate and so on and become an English teacher.
How funny would that be if I did become an English teacher, I can picture the look of shock on my old class mates if I end up teaching their children
For the sake of proving everyone wrong and rubbing it in their faces it would be so worth it but long story short I don't want to be a teacher because I still really want to work in television but it's still an interesting idea.
Any way the moral of the story is that if you feel stupid and you are under achieving at it's probably got nothing to do with your intelligence and you shouldn't just write your self off like that, you shouldn't put others down either because it's not fair, everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses you shouldn't make people feel about themselves.
On a side note I don't think it's right for teachers to label a child by putting them on a certain table, I think it makes the children on the low intelligence table feel self conscious and they stop trying, I would like to hear what other people think in the comments, did they feel labelled at school? what was your school/college experience like? It would be interesting to know.
Any way throughout primary and secondary school I felt as though everyone thought I was stupid, I don't know maybe it's just me maybe no one really looked down on me but it felt that way, I remember when I was 10-11 we had some exams and they were giving the bright kids extra lessons to help boost their grades up and I got into the science group which was cool but all the other kids were the kinds of kids who were good at everything and I remember them awkwardly shooing me away when the moved on to maths and English and I remember it really got me down.
I was pretty good at science and I was in top set science in secondary school and even then someone accused of cheating, I think they genuinely believed that I had some how cheated my way into top set or something but what actually happened was I was looking for the date and the teacher hadn't put it on the board and I knew this girl would know the date and instead of asking her like a normal person I just looked at her book, she was quite horrible about it for a while until the seating arrangement was changed but honestly how could I have cheated off her when all she had written was the date, seriously.
This all changed when I got to college however, people didn't think I was stupid in college, I guess it's because of these reasons:
1. my hand writing had slightly improved at 15-16 (when I say improved I mean just about readable.)
2. most of our work was on the computer so my hand writing didn't matter and computers have spell check so I could fix my mistakes.
3.these people first met me when I was 16 and saw me for who I was at that time and didn't know me as the girl who used to struggled in lessons.
I really do think that the reason I struggled so much was down to my handwriting not my intelligence I just wished I had seen that when I was younger.
Any way with my college grades I can get into an English undergraduate course at Bournemouth university if I really wanted to but I have actually have met the entry requirements for the course , I'm not sure that I would take the English course because I would rather do a script writing course if I really had to but if I did the English course I could go on to do post graduate and so on and become an English teacher.
How funny would that be if I did become an English teacher, I can picture the look of shock on my old class mates if I end up teaching their children
For the sake of proving everyone wrong and rubbing it in their faces it would be so worth it but long story short I don't want to be a teacher because I still really want to work in television but it's still an interesting idea.
Any way the moral of the story is that if you feel stupid and you are under achieving at it's probably got nothing to do with your intelligence and you shouldn't just write your self off like that, you shouldn't put others down either because it's not fair, everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses you shouldn't make people feel about themselves.
On a side note I don't think it's right for teachers to label a child by putting them on a certain table, I think it makes the children on the low intelligence table feel self conscious and they stop trying, I would like to hear what other people think in the comments, did they feel labelled at school? what was your school/college experience like? It would be interesting to know.
Tuesday, 17 September 2013
How we measure thing's in England.
In England we measure things weirdly and by weirdly I mean we use our units of weight, height, distance, water volume ect inconsistently, for example we weigh people differently to how we weigh ingredients for meals and I have no idea why we do this, I guess some things just stuck when we switched to metric, I don't know.
I tried explaining this concept to an american who asked me how much I weighed in kilograms because he thought that we just use the metric system and I explained that we weighed people in stones, pounds and ounces and I just confused him even more and had to explain stones and it occurred to me that we (the English) over complicate how we measure things and I thought "Well if that guy was confused and didn't know what a stone in weight was there are probably plenty of other people who are just as confused."
So if you're either curious or confused I am going to attempt to explain.
First I will explain liquid volume, we measure different liquids differently.
We measure alcoholics drinks like beer and milk in pints and other liquids like water, bottled drinks and petrol/diesel (gas for vehicles) in litres and millilitres, a litre is the same as 1.75975 pints.
Height is sometimes measure in both metric and imperial , something like a building could be measured in both feet or metres whilst a person is usually measured in feet and inches,the lengths of objects and rooms are measured in metres and centimetres.
a foot is 30.48 centimetres and a metre is worth 100 centimetres.
Distance like height is measured in both metric and imperial, long distances (like the distance between two cities or towns) are measured in both kilometres and miles whilst shorter distances (like something within sight) can be measured in metres, yards and feet.
1 mile is the same as 1.6 kilometres and a metre is 1.09 yards.
Weight is probably the most confusing of all, people are weighed in imperial and we use stones,pounds and ounces while the US use pounds.
A stone is worth 14 pounds so a woman of 8 stone would weigh 112 pounds for example.
We use milligrams, grams and kilograms for food (if you were using kilograms it would be meal for a large group meal like school dinner)
A gram is made up of 1000 milligrams and 1000 grams make up a kilogram.
And we measure big things like cars in Kilograms or tons depending on how heavy it is , so if there was a week bridge there would be a sign to let you know how many tons or kilograms the bridge can take, an English ton is heavier than an american ton however.
An English ton (or a long ton) is the same as 1016.05 kilograms so tons are used for larger things like buses and planes.
A uk ton weighs 2240 pounds where as an american (short ton) is more like 2000 pounds.
And that is about that really, if you are wondering about any other unit of measurement you can always ask me in the comments, be warned I'm not a mathematician but I'll do me best.
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