Sunday, 30 November 2014
What the hell am I going to blog about
My dream of a graduate job has slowly melted away, I'm no longer a recent graduate and the prospect of only having one job bores me senseless. I am not a 9-5er. I am very much relishing the freelancer lifestyle.
I am still completely lost in what I actually want to do. Or should that be achieve?
I have recently sacrificed the majority of my social life to go back to running the bar my boyfriend and I own. Although hospitality was never what I wanted to get back into after moving to London last year, at least working for myself is a million times more empowering, albeit more stressful than making money for someone else.
I have now spent nearly a year with the job title "Community Manger" and the company I'm working with is going from strength to strength. In fact it's going so well that our website crashed today because it had more traffic than the servers could handled. I love working for start-ups, my job is varied and I get input into every aspect of the marketing. I also get to do a bit of copywriting here and there and also make redic videos for the website. I have met so many people through it as well.
I'm not sure what direction this blog will take now I'm not applying for five jobs a day and hunting for work 24/7 but I'm sure with time I'll work it out.
Monday, 14 April 2014
Are interviews too much chat not enough do?
This lead me to think about why not more interviews are trial based? I know most jobs have a trial period, but why is the interview process based on chat and exampled not chat and challenges.
I'll admit it, on paper I don't seem like much; bar work, bar work, special effects make-up, bar work, bar work, social media. To me it reads like "Can't make up her mind" when in reality it's "Needed money fast".
I made a promise to myself when I moved to London, move away from hospitality, get a "proper job". When in reality I love bar work. I love talking to people, making yummy drinks and I really love making other people happy. So bar work could be my perfect job. After all despite having a degree I am far more qualified in cellar management and making ferns in coffee because I've actually done it, for ages. But because I've been doing this for ages it's no longer a challenge. I can learn a bar, till system, cellar, menu in about half an hour. Not by studying it, by actually working it.
You know how you go about getting a job in hospitality? It's a lot like becoming a stuntman. Know someone doing it already. So in that respect it's like getting any job: networking. Back to the point, for any of my hospitality roles it's never really been a case of my CV. I got recommended and offered a trial shift. Not an interview, a trial. A lets see if you can actually do the job.
I'm pretty sure it's nearly the same with teachers (or so my mum told me). You're invited to the school you've applied for, teach a class, get interviewed by the students then get interviewed by the senior team.
Now this may seem like a much longer process, but you're guaranteed to pick the right candidate for the job and as a candidate you'll know if you want the job or not. If it's your first job in a particular industry how do you know you'll love it if you haven't done it?
Am I just not applying for jobs I'll enjoy if all I want from an interview is to prove myself from a practical demonstration rather than telling people what I've done in the past.
Or is it that entry-level jobs don't test for this?
Thoughts, comments? Anyone been on a really cool interview process. Or a really bad interview?
Thursday, 6 February 2014
The nine emotions you'll feel while job hunting
Wednesday, 5 February 2014
Am I too old to intern?
From trawling though miles of job adverts it has come to my attention there is a ridiculous amount of jargon to understand while looking for your first career making job. I have come to believe the following;
Work experience - travel expenses only, will usually last 2 weeks
Internship - paid if you're lucky, usually lasting 3 months
Entry Level - have a degree and some experience under your belt
Graduate program - need only apply if you went to a Russell Group University and got a 2:1 or higher
Recently my Google search words have been "Internship London", but should I still be looking for internships? I'm 24, I've managed medium capacity hospitality venues. From bars and nightclubs to restaurants. I know how to manage co-workers as well as customers. I've shaped the running of a restaurant even though it was my first front of house role, and I was part time. There's a lot of transferable skills there.
I never got any of my hospitality jobs by handing in a CV, in fact the only job I've got from applying with a CV is the one I currently had. I looked back at it the other day and realised the covering letter had a few typos. I think I was in the right place at the right time.
In Falmouth I relied wholly on my reputation as a bad-ass bartender and the fact that I knew a ton of people from working in a fair few of the bars and pubs there. I didn't apply for jobs, I got offered them. And occasional <s>poached</s> head-hunted.
But in London it's a completely different story. People don't know what I've done, what I can do. I need to prove myself all over. And as I've decided not to carry on with the hospitality career, it's like starting from scratch.
But is an internship the right way for me to start a brand new shiny career?
Pushing aside the current argument of paid or unpaid, is apply for an internship selling myself short? Do I need to become more confident in my skills and start applying for entry level jobs? I do know things. And I know how to do them well. I've started working for a start-up, thrown straight into the deep end and haven't freaked out. I'm a community manager. No one checks my tweets before they go out. And yes I'll admit with my dyslexia a few typos have gone out. But the majority of the time I spot them before it's too late. Within a week of starting work I had taught myself two new pieces of software, I just got on with it. This job has taught me that all I need is to be told an outcome and I'll work out the process myself. But isn't the point of an internship to be taught how to do stuff? I already know how to do stuff, you've just got to let me show you.
The dictionary definition of intern: A student or a recent graduate undergoing supervised practical training.
I don't think there is any way I can call myself a recent graduate any more. In September it will be three years out of education. That is a terrifying thought. And I don't need to be supervised that much. I'm currently working from home.
Don't get me wrong, in no way do I think I am better than an internship, I know I still have a lot to learn. And if I was offered one tomorrow I'd more than likely accept it. I'm just not sure if it's the right thing for me to do.
But should I spend three months doing an internship when I could be three months into a secure job. Or is it going to be super hard to land a job without doing an internship?
I think it's time for some networking.
Monday, 3 February 2014
There are not enough hours in the day
You can see me in action at @oneminutelondon
It's good and I'm enjoying learning on my feet. Every week I get excited writing the engagement reports seeing that it's improving every week, and that's because of me.
As it stands, I go into the office for a few hours one day a week so I'm still looking for a few other pieces of work to do. Since last Monday I've been the oldest work experience kid ever. I'm working in GoThinkBig's office. I've been doing a menagerie of activities including writing an editorial on how gaming is like finding a job. It totally is.
I'm currently finding there is not enough hours in the day any more. And going from having no job to working 9-5 ever day and having a part-time job on top of that is exhausted. Waking up while it's still dark is not at all fun. How do you deal with going from Freelance to office? and to office AND freelance?
Saturday, 28 December 2013
Happy belated Christmas and heres to a prosperous new year
Friday, 20 December 2013
My day in Narnia at Inspiring Interns
Sunday, 8 December 2013
30 Reasons London isn't Cornwall. Or photos from my instagram and Flickr
2. I haven't yet seen anyone wearing flip-flops/ bare foot walking around like it's a normal thing.
5. I haven't seen one person use their own hessian/canvas bags when they go food shopping.
6. There is no sea. Or beaches for that matter. Where do you londoners go to paddle when you're drunk?
7.The Christmas lights here are move extravagant than Falmouth.
8. The world doesn't come to an end at 4pm on a Sunday things are still open here. You can still have dinner if you forgot to go shopping.
9. The public transport here is amazing. I see people getting pissed off when a tube is stopped at a station 30 seconds too long. Try waiting for a bus in Falmouth. On a Sunday they only come once ever half an hour. If you're lucky.
10. Londoners don't paint your house fun colours.
11. The cinema prices are ridiculous. As I found out for the price of two cinema tickets you could have got two pizzas and four beers to sit-in in soho.
12. The lack of Tesco around the corner disturbs me. This may just be relevant to East Finchley. I used to have a chose of two Tesco, metro and express minutes from my door. Now I have to walk like ten minutes to a Budgens.
13. Crossing the road is like playing chicken. Luckily I've only nearly died like twice. Those taxi's just don't stop.
14. Coconut water is a thing here.
15. Bubble tea is also a thing here. A thing that I don't really understand.
16. No one walks out the house for just a nice stroll. Everyone seems to be on an a-b mission.
17. "Cornish pasties" here taste weird.
18. You have so many restaurants I haven't eaten at the same one more than twice. I haven't even been to the same brand of fast-food Restaurant twice.
19. If you talk to a stranger on the tube people assume you're a drunk.
20. Above point is not exclusive to the tube.
21. Where are all your aggressive birds? I have not been attacked once since being in London, Falmouth on the other hand it's a day-to-day fear.
22. The weather in London is quite dull. It's always quite meh. No extremes.
23. I'll be there in ten has completely left my vocabulary.
24. Everyone works in PR or says they work in PR.
25. Every time I walk around central the apprentice theme enters my head, in Falmouth it was usually drunken sailor.
26. You actually have fibrotic broadband. It's not just a lie.
27. The view from my window is slightly different.
28. There is no real cider on tap at every pub. I still haven't found and old Rosie or Thatchers Katy.
29. Some take-aways deliver until 1am. That's insane.
30. The water here tastes disgusting.
Saturday, 7 December 2013
My favourite twitter feeds
There you have it. A short list of the feeds I use for job hunting.
Anyone else have any favourite twitter feeds for job hunting? Leave them in the comments below and we can start a definitive "best twitter feeds for job hunting" list.
Sunday, 1 December 2013
This week I taught some people about blogging
Tuesday, 26 November 2013
6 things films lied to me about RE: jobhunting.
You don't have to be remotely interested in the industry to get the job.
Monday, 25 November 2013
Am I having a mid-twenties crises?
If I am having a mid-twenties crises, it's happened far too early. In fact, I think it might of started the day I graduated University, possible the day I started this blog. I started renting a non-student house, I even started looking for graduate jobs. At the beginning the world was my oyster. I had lots of interviews, but not enough "real life" experience. Then all my university friends left my university town, I only had a part time job. I toyed with having a year out saving like mad and doing a masters degree. That never happened. I ended up in hospitality full time.
Like Madeleine says, we know to much about everyone lives. But Facebook is not my biggest enemy. Linkedin is. Every day I get emails telling me congratulate my friend because they have a new job. A cool media job. Or worse, they're having a two year anniversary at their cool media job.
In the last two years I've run pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants. Helped a bar move from Falmouth to Central London, helped redesign a restaurant, given insanely good graduate job hunting advice, despite failing at it myself, learnt a lot about wine, passed my personal licence, taken a course in cellar management, had my gut instincts proved correct about people, been told the coffee I make is too cold despite being trained by three different companies and being a fucking awesome barista and had to deal with some very unpleasant drunks without using violence. And this one time I got to volt over a bar and stop a fright between two very hench men. I've done my national service in hospitality. I want out. Please.
Most of the above is recorded in 140 characters or less in ranty antidotes on my twitter feed.
As my mum so elegantly put it the other day, when I went home to eat the entire content of my parents fridge, "You have been acting like a student for the last two years". Yes thanks mum.
But she's right. For the past two years I went to work at to serve breakfast/lunch/dinner/coffee/cake/booze to the lovely people of Falmouth, and it's tourists. During summer I was usually working from 9am - 2am. Inevitably, when you finish at gone midnight you go have a drink somewhere else, which in turn becomes an impromptu night out because for some reason in such a small town you will meet someone you know out and before you know it it's 4am and you're diving off a pier into the sea. You go home have a few hours sleep and start the cycle all over again. No hangovers allowed, no bad days. You arrived at work bright eyed and bushy tailed.
By the time my parents where my age they where married, owned a house and where just beginning to jet set all over the world. Me, I'm renting, I have a boyfriend who doesn't want to get married and I haven't been out of the UK since I was 16.
Fortunately, my previous delusions of moving to London have subsided and as I get deeper and deeper into the overdraft I never once had while I was a student, I realise I need to dramatically up my game on the cover letter front if I want to avoid the oh-so-impending do I pay my rent or eat today scenario.
I am probably having not a mid-twenties crisis. Like the majority of graduates I'm having the post-uni blues. Which is slightly better in a way as I haven't got the money to have a crises. I can't do what my dad did when he has his pre-mid-life crises and buy a load of expensive tech. I can't afford therapy like Spencer from Made in Chelsea. But if anyone would like to offer me counselling in the for of a cool media job, that would be awesome.
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Update 2: GoThinkBig Digital Exchange
Monday, 11 November 2013
Update 1: My weekend away
Tuesday, 8 October 2013
An odd coincidence
Monday, 30 September 2013
You have 1 new email.
Move to London tomorrow.
I do fear I may have broken my nose though.
I would like to say a massive thank you to the man who elbowed me in the face on the last night I was in Falmouth. You have made it very hard to forget. Even if all my friends had no idea about it till I told them about it the next morning. We may have consumed the majority of alcohol in Falmouth.
Anyway, I had an email back. An email which stated that it's nice that I've done a film degree. So I'll be off for what sounds like an informal chat soon. Boom!
Yes I have finally had someone find it good I have a film degree despite the fact I'm applying for non-film related jobs.
So hang in the fresh film graduates. Even if like me you did your degree just to get away from your parents, and had no idea what you actually wanted to do. It's not the end of the world.
As I actually have to move to London tomorrow, this find a job thing is becoming a bit more real than it was a few weeks ago. I am now going to send as many emails as humanly possible to try and line up some interviews so I am not sat around getting frustrated and bored while I'm in London while my boyfriend goes out to work everyday.
Following on with the photo thing I've been doing, as I'm at my parents I get to pretend I am even more proffesh as they have a study. This is HQ for the next few hours.
Wednesday, 18 September 2013
You have no new emails
Well I do, but they are mainly junk.
After my week of emailing what seems like a billion people I have had no emails back. Apart for 1000heads, who are lovely and their HR manager has the same first name as me. Pop fact for you there.
So after having no luck with big companies. This weeks challenge is to email little companies. As, quite frankly, job hunting is the most boring yet stressful thing ever so to make myself do it I'm turning it into an experiment.
Last week I just used twitter, last year I used job hunting websites, and when that all failed to work I just made people give me a job. So far only the latter method of job hunting has turned into a job.
I have a week and a half left in Falmouth. I haven't even started to pack, or collect all my stuff into one place. It is still scattered over several houses.
With a move and job hunting I might as well get married just to get divorced as well and just make my life as stressful as possible.
Monday, 9 September 2013
Technical Problems Cont./ Inappropriate Latte Art
Mail is still frozen on computer, iPad being an iPad doesn't let you attach more than one thing to an email, or let you upload files to applications. Safari is also being a little bitch today. Blahhhhhhh.
In good news I have a place to move to in London. Which will mean I will officially not be homeless anymore and I can have all my stuff in one place for the first time in about 5 months. I can also stop living out of a bag. Which will be lovely.
I've had a few days off from job hunting and emails, purely because I still have a job which I worked horrific split shifts on. One of which included training three new people on the bar on a Saturday night. It went well though.
Today I have written a whole new CV and 2 covering letters and applied for work experience at FHM and Zoo. Hello if you're reading :) And I am now currently apply for about every on gothinkbig.co.uk which means I am writing about a billion different CV's and Covering letters because they're all very different jobs.
Currently of the 3 PR companies I emailed last week none have got back to me.
However much I love writing my job hunting frustrations down on this blog, I would quite like to turn it into whatididwithafilmdegree.blogspot.com very soon.
F.Y.I If anyone is looking for a work experience kid to make them coffee, I can do inappropriate latte art if required.































