Waiting..

As I have alluded to before, most of job hunting is waiting. Waiting for the right opportunities to appear, waiting to hear initially, waiting to hear after interview. Right now most of my time is taken up by waiting. I have about 6 job applications out in the field and 1 interview next week.

That was strange. I was called by a representative from a company I had applied to via graduate jobs south internships. They were not ringing to tell me I was succesful in applying for the internship. Nope, they wished to offer me the chance to interview for another internship which involved extremely similar duties just in a different part of the office. I was also informed that I had been unsuccesful in applying for the other internship and that GJS would be in touch with me soon. That was on Monday, maybe I am missing something. Not that it matters I know now and have another opportunity to prepare for.

I am also waiting for another article idea to be approved in my part time copywriting capacity, the company usually get back to me pretty quickly and its been over 24 hours. What is more is I have to only suggest blog posts until I complete trial so am intentionally only submitting one at a go.

I guess last week was so busy that in comparison this week seems like I am just watching the tumbleweed roll past. In other news I finally get to meet my Marketing team tonight for the SCU. Fingers crossed it all goes well. As for the day, guess I'll just spend it waiting.....

Who are you?

I have been writing this blog for many months now and have amassed quite a number of posts on various issues all within the same general job seeking area.

At various times people have posted to discuss comments, either here or on facebook where these entries are published as notes.

And I am curious. Who are you reader and why do you read? One of the issues with online writing is you are not sure who your readers are and this is something that greatly interests me.

So I ask you, put a short comment on this with your name and why you read. Let my curiosity be satisfied.

Advice from a veteran (of many lost battles)

As I strolled out of the interview on Friday, a smile on my face, I realised something. I am becoming a veteran of interviews, all be it for jobs I have failed to get. Analysing my answers and the process of the interview I realised how much I had come on since my first interview early last summer. The mistakes I had made and avoided repeating, the better answers, the preperation experience and the different interview approaches. There are many guides out there on the internet about what not to do and what to do. Below are 10 things I have learned. More will follow each Monday. Aren't you lucky?

As I said, and the title insinuates, I am still unemployed. Some of this advice, goes against what is commonly suggested and other bits support it. You may therefore take the advice with a pinch of salt. Its the equivalent of taking military advice from the French. Ha, see what I did there? Anyway, in no particular order:

1. Relax - One of the hardest things to do in an interview is relax. Sit back, take your time and be attentive. If you cannot answer a question do not panic. If you stay relaxed you present a visage of being calm under pressure. The best feedback I have had from interviews has come from when I have just sat back and been open, honest and treated the interview as more of a conversation than an interrogation.

2. Don't be afraid to ask questions as you go - This is seen as a big no-no in most guides but I have found it works well. So long as they are short and relevant to the point that the interviewer is making they are generally recieved well. It shows that are you being attentive and are genuinely interested. This beats five minutes of silence any day.

3. Avoid negativity - Everything must be shown to have an upside. Don't let your pessimism take over. If the journey was long it gave you more time to prepare. If you don't like admin, say you prefer other tasks. Negativity presents you as a negative person and negative people are not who you want normally.

4. The Journey- Plan, plan, plan! You can usually trust trains, and if they are really late then you cannot be expected to plan for that and won't be penalised. Buses on the other hand it is often better to make sure you can get a later bus and still make it if necessary. Also it does not matter if your journey was total hell, do not tell the interviewer, you can allude to issues just dont spend long on them. The interviewers reason for inviting you was not to hear about your journey.. unless your applying for a quality tester on public transport of course.

5. The Job description - Bring it with you. You do not need to memorise it but be aware of its contents. It is a massive error if you accidentally state you don't like something which is part of the job. If your aware of what is involved you can tailor your answers to the opportunity.

6. Don't prepare answers - Learn about the company, decide on strengths and weaknesses but do not pre prepare regurgiated answers. Its easy to do in a phone interview but questions in face to face rarely come as you expect them and unless you are a brilliant performer you will just look silly.

7. Seem interested - you want to work for the company. Listen with real intent when they explain about the company. Be willing to engage with any points they make and do not be afraid to get on to an off topic discussion. If it is something you can talk about with authority and it interests the interviewer it will only enhance your chances.

8. HONESTY - Don't lie, don't exaggerate and don't bullshit. It just is not worth it. Take yourself out of the truth and you have left your comfort zone. You may contradict yourself or suggest something out of character. Remember you have probably written a covering letter and they have your C.V. This gives them an idea of what to expect. If you overplay the significance of things you may find yourself lost. Even if you manage to get past this stage, there is the reference and then employment. Don't wreck your long term chances.

9. If your mind goes blank - Admit it. Apologise. Interviewers know that the process can be intimidating and will usually give you time to recompose yourself. Its best if you can avoid it altogether but trying to speak with a blank mind only results in disaster.

10. Be careful blowing your own trumpet - Again this goes against the traditional suggestions. It is usually suggested that you should focus on your own achievements and what you did and not what others did. This is true but taking too much credit for group work only results in you looking like a poor team player. It says to the interviewer that you like to take credit for other people's work. Clearly not a good thing! You do want to give an impression of your skills, competences and generally how awesome you are, but modesty is always respected.

Feel free to disagree but these are 10 of the things I have learned and will continue to practice at all future interviews. As I said more next week

Rinse and Repeat

Tomorrow signals another interview. A surprise interview at that for a position where I was lacking several skills and of course experience. Given the ability recently of organisations to find me and not wanting to make a bad impression I won't write their name, instead just saying they are a major U.K I.T distributor. The biggest company I have interviewed for yet. They even have had in the past a graduate program. This, I admit has me a little worried. I have been turned down by tiny companies for a lack of experience, it seems unlikely that a major one would want to take a risk. I also suspect the competition will be high. All in all tomorrow is likely to be a wasted trip. Its the opposite effect of having your hopes high, when they are low you go in knowing you have nothing to lose. It is harder however, to motivate yourself to prepare properly as in your mind you have already failed to get the job. I just hope to be given a fair chance. I once went to a company in Basingstoke for all of a 20 minute interview. It was clear the guy was not impressed and I was in and out after just a few mundane questions. This admittedly was when I was a little bit less experienced with interviews, but still the thought hangs, I don't want to have spent £15+ just to make up numbers for a firm who have no intention of employing me.

As for the preperation process it is a case of rinse and repeat. Printing off maps, planning the journey, researching the company. It's a tedious necessity which is also time consuming.

The never ending internships

A couple of weeks ago I admit I was actually excited when the first of the internships appeared. Designed specifically for out of work graduates and therefore a place where experience is less likely to be a differentiator they were perfect for me. I was told to submit a covering letter and a C.V which I did.

Two weeks later and I have now applied for six different marketing internships all in different guises. Some have attached research, administration, design and P.R. Some are three months long, some are twelve. Some involve working in Southampton, others are as far north as Hook. The thing they all have in common. They are produced by GJS based in the same office in Southampton Solent University.

Can anyone spot a potential issue yet?

Writing a covering letter is time consuming. Most jobs require covering letters to accompany C.Vs so if you have any sense you have templates. After all if you are after jobs in the same industry what you want to say is likely to be very similar. One of the particulars for the internship is what you think it will do for you. Regardless of which internship I end up on, I hope it will do the same thing. The result is I have now attached six virtually identical covering letters and the office that receive them are probably sick of me. The thing is I don't see what else I could have done. An intelligent approach would have been to have one letter explaining why any internship would benefit you and what skills you hope to gain.

I still have not heard from any of the positions yet but if more keep appearing which will provide me with useful skills and carry the coveted "marketing" in the title I will keep applying until the GJS have a small pile of my applications. Yes I prefer some over others but any of them would make a massive difference to me and my chances of forging a career in marketing and therefore I will keep applying.

May the internships never end. Although it would be nice to hear from one or all of them soon.

Peer Reviews don't work at University

A slight departure today to a topic which is more relevant to current students. I am in a sense using this post as a warm up for my (potentially) paid writing and it is an issue I have seen effect friends recently.

A peer review by nature suggests bias. Your peer is likely to have an opinion and they gain/lose nothing by their decision. Peer reviews in the form of recommendations are common on linkedin. I can recommend so and so as he did an excellent job with me. I always think this loses some of its strength if the same person then reviews him back. Yes, he may have done a good job, but in giving him a dazzling review you are increasing the liklihood you will get one back.

At University the idea that any piece of work, that even 1% of it is marked by peer review is prepostorous. I can only assume that it is meant to be a demonstration of maturity, impartiality and supposedly a chance for you have to have your say. In reality it is simply nothing of the sort. It turns academic work into a popularity contest and I am flabbergasted that any lecturer still views it as a good idea.

After all there will always be people who vote highly for their friends, regardless of what there friends have actually done. Therefore the more friends you have the better you will do. People with grudges against each other are likely to mark harshly and even the person trying to be the fairest and most impartial will struggle when marking their boyfriend/girlfriend/best friend. There will also be bargaining, questioning,

"what did you give me?"
"if you give me an 8 I will give you an 8"


I remember all this from school when nothing was at stake. At university when the outcome of your degree and possibly your livelihood is in focus, to expect everyone to mark fairly is quite simply naive.

As someone who never strode the lines of popularity, any chance for peer review was something I dreaded. I knew I wasnt being marked on my actual performance on a task, but on a hundred other factors which were utterly unrelated. Even if someone tries to be impartial they arent going to be cruel to their friends and they certainly won't fail them.

Ultimately if noone votes fairly and the actual content of the work becomes irrelevant then all peer reviewing actually is, is an exercise in futility.

Changing the mind set.

One of the hardest things I have found to this week is change my mindset. In a sense being unemployed you get used to a ridiculous amount of flexibility. You can try to regulate what you do by routine but ultimately you can do what you like, when you like so long as you keep searching for jobs. After several months it seems hard to revert to anything else.

Its like the summer break. You have months of nothing and then have to gear yourself back up for the start of term, only when your unemployed this is amplified.

I now have things I could be doing. I could if I wished to wake up early and get straight to work, either on drafting blog posts or continuing the marketing strategy. I now have two areas I can focus a lot of time on but motivating myself to do so is a challenge. Its not that I struggle for self motivation, its just that I have become complacent and used to having more free time than it is healthy to have. Another issue is that I am stopping myself from actively pursuing hobbies when I know I could, and possibly should be working. But instead of working I am just killing time by checking random websites, watching iplayer and generally doing very little.

I think I need to accept its the start of term and that from next week I have to stop from just going through the motions and really begin the actual work.