Showing posts with label job-hunting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label job-hunting. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

I won an award - let the squirrels dance!



I've just won an award!

I am the winner of Best New Artist in the 2008 ISSA Song Contest Awards!

It's come at an amazing time because I've just been made redundant and my confidence had hit an all-time low. The prize includes a cheque for $500 (about £300), which is really going to help with the bills in the coming months. Right now I'm OK till mid-January and then I'll be in the financial equivalent of Wylie Coyote dashing off a cliff and running on thin air...

It's a scary time - not least because everything rests on my having a job. Not only have the wonderful Tories decided to put me out of work just in time for Christmas, but I've also just discovered that the performing arts academy I teach at is ending in December. There are no jobs anywhere it seems right now and I'm not earning anywhere near enough from the few bits of freelance writing I do to pay my rent and bills. I know it's happening right across the country and it's horrible - even though you know it's your job that's redundant, not you, it's impossible to separate the two sometimes. All I can do is to draw heavily on my Optimism Stores to try to tell myself everything will be OK - and just ride out the panic when it arrives.

I've got to keep positive - if for nothing else to show the world that I'm not beaten yet. In the meantime, I've started writing my NaNoWriMo novel, Travels with my Teapot - excerpts will appear here soon, so watch this space!

My sister sent me this YouTube link and it cheered me up no end - you've got to love Dancing Squirrels...



Thursday, September 25, 2008

Is there ANYONE out there...?



I'm starting to wonder if I've developed a Superhero Power...

No, really.

It appears that I am now able to become... drumroll, please... invisible!

Let me explain...

For a few months now (well, since last November, to be precise) I've been job-hunting. I'd just like to find a job that is more creative in nature, more writing-centred (my current role is more of a copy-editing/proofreading thingy). I've been a busy girl getting lots of writing experience in addition to my work: doing citizen journalism things for the past two years, maintaining my blogs and, of course, writing short stories along with my novel. About the only other thing I could try in order to add to my already gargantuan writing efforts would be to resort to writing down everything I'd normally say out loud on large sheets of A3 paper, a la Bob Dylan.

Now, nobody would say that job-hunting is easy: I completely understand that. And neither am I over-ambitiously pursuing roles that are stratospherically out of my league. I am so entirely capable of every job I've applied for - and if I could just get to an interview, I'm certain that I could communicate my potential. But, twenty-one job applications later, I'm yet to attain this lofty goal...

Maybe it's my CV, I thought. So, I found a couple of CV-clinic services, where you submit your CV and they, basically, rip it to shreds - before suggesting lots of lovely ideas to make it sparkly and attractive.

"Don't have an Objectives section," they advised, "state your Attributes first to sell your skills."

Brilliant, I thought, and got straight to work.

I was ruthless, I was eloquent, I was... well, quite chuffed with the result, actually. So - just to check - I sent my newly polished CV to a different CV-clinic company and eagerly awaited their reply.

"Attributes sections are quite old-fashioned," came the sombre verdict. "You might consider changing it for an Objectives section, so prospective employers know what you are looking for in a position."

Brilliant. So basically either would work - or not work - brilliantly - or awfully - depending on which way you looked at it.

Undeterred - ever the Eternal Optimist - I made some more tweaks and sent my newly - well, altered CV off to apply for several jobs.

Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Ничто.

So, after considering all the options, I finally came to this earth-shattering conclusion: I am invisible!

How cool is that?!

Then, I started to look at other areas too and found that - yes - my Superhero Power is evident there, too! Take my blogs, for example. To be fair, this one does get lovely comments, all of which completely make my day - but my new blog September's had a few comments initially, then everything went quiet...

Don't get me wrong: I love my blogs and I will keep writing them even if I am the Invisible Woman - but do you ever find you start to wonder if what you do makes a difference to anybody? I think we carry on in the hope that something we do, or say, sing, or write will meet someone at the moment they needed to hear it. Maybe that's the driving force behind all creative people, however they express themselves to the world.

I'm not fishing for jobs, or recognition, or a thousand hits on my blog sites - it's just a rhetorical question I keep finding myself asking - well, myself. Am I invisible or do I make a difference? I'm not sure there's an answer, really. After all, how many people do we pass in the course of our day that we never really take the time to notice?

In the meantime, I'm going to have fun thinking of ways to utilise my newly-found Superhuman Ability... Now, where could I go if nobody can see me....?!