Showing posts with label Job. Show all posts

Flogging yer blogging

I've been cheating on my beloved blog with copy writing because copy writing pays - What a word slut I am.


Whilst talking to my beautiful friend Stephen who has moved to Hong Kong, I realised just how many good things have come to me thanks to my blog. How I couldn't imagine life without it and that the sheer act of writing is soo cathartic and essential to me now. I had to move to Australia to truly discover my voice in writing and I am so glad I've kept going.

I have a lot to thank my blog for. Without it I wouldn't have 'met' the wonderful RDTV team, or landed various job interviews and subsequent freelance copy writing contracts. I wouldn't have met the wonderful Kate Iselin either. 

Writing, the simple act of using wonderful words to express yourself is a timeless tradition. From the walls of ancient caves to eReaders and this Blogger app on my battered iPhone screen; man uses words to record this boggling thing around us. We believe our lives are worthy of note, of comment, but more we want to say we were here. I realise how tenuous that statement is when it comes to blogs but I do believe that my writing has made a difference. I've been told as much. 

Boasting aside, the truth is in our Gen Y world; if you haven't worked up the narcissism to start a blog then you're doing your 20s wrong. Just sayin'. 

Not to mention the therapy it saves, the career boost that comes from a well written and successful blog is surprising to say the least. A permanent and regularly updated showcase of your writing, whether you're in the media or not, a blog adds a third dimension to your cv that you shouldn't underestimate or dismiss. I'm guilty of the latter & have only now started pricing up buying my domain name - late to that party I know! 

I'm never going to be the kind of blogger who gets invited to parties or sent freebies by PRs (I wouldn't survive the irony). But I hope for every third person to stumble across my blog that they take something positive from my words. 

Be it that the blue skies are always above the clouds or that when things seem really bad they're probably just about to get a whole lot better. 

So thanks blog. I'd be lost without you. 

Decisions Decisions



One extreme to the next is my preferred third gear, uncertainty being a comfortable second and worry a very reliable first. I am quickly learning that fear of the future will freeze you to the spot if you let it. That procrastination is very expensive and most importantly that sitting on your hands is sometimes the only thing you can do.

With somewhat guaranteed well paid temping work in one hand but a potentially career building internship in the other which do I choose? To be frank the question is null as I have neither had the interview nor gotten the job. Like I said one extreme to the next is my third gear. Regardless, I have been tossing it around in this cavern of mine all weekend, have driven one boyfriend and one mother absolutely scatty with the matter and tied myself in knots.

Why? For the simple reason that I am so keenly aware that every step I take now may determine my career path further down the line. So whilst temping will pay well, put my mum's nagging to rest and ease my bank balance, it won't particularly help my career. I am having to sit on my hands, and I hate it. I am having to weigh it all up and make an adult decision which may shape things to come in ways I can't even imagine at this point in time

But then, every thing I have done with my life to date was uncertain to me at one point in time, or were the beginnings of adult decisions which shaped events that came after. What makes this moment of uncertainty unique to me is that it has never concerned my career before - probably because I have never had one. Now as I stand tentatively clinging to this bottom rung I am frozen in how best to proceed.

So I am off to this interview, I am going to smash it, give myself more options and then make a decision. Until then I will sit on my hands and continue to have hypothetical conversations with myself, or to the dishes, or maybe even at a wall. I always did like Shirley Valentine.

Homeless & unemployed part II

There is this viscious chicken or the egg paradox which comes with living in London. You can't get a flat without a job and getting a job is infinitely harder when you're sleeping on a friends sofa without your own flat. So when I lost my dream flat in Shepherds bush for the second time I realised I wasn't going to get it all. 


I'm breaking up with the sofa I've been sleeping on for the past month and moving to Kent. Further from London, more expensive to commute. Why? Because it will be to live with my wonderful boyfriend, I'll be cared for and truthfully? It's the only realistic option I have left. I don't actually have anywhere else to go. 

When I got the news on Friday I sobbed unprofessionally and left blue roll bits everywhere. When my colleagues found my hiding place I knew work (my current PR internship) wasn't the best place for me today. I left and had multiple dramatic phone calls with my Iron Lady Norn Irish Ma. A plan of action was then made once I'd had a cup of tea and cried some more. 

Now, on Sunday evening I'm on a replacement rail service bus from London Bridge heading back to the sofa after a wonderful weekend with the beard. I still have absolutely no idea what the next four weeks are going to look like. Nor do I know when I will be moving back to London. But I do know I'll be ok. I do know that in 8 weeks time I'll look back and think, 'that was absolutely shite, but I'm fine now'. I know this because it's happened before. I learnt from it the last time. I dealt with this uncertainty and fear before. I have got experience. 

And despite everything, that feels good, that makes everything just a tiny bit better. Because this too shall pass.

The London Crush

I have already been back in London a month. Most of which has been spent either sleeping on a friends sofa or in front of my battered cream (*grey) mac book scouring the net for either a home or a job. After many viewings of would-be drug dens & one dream adult-cream-carpeted-wooden-floored chick pad I got my dream home & I move in in under two weeks. Hurrah! 

I still have to break the news to the sofa - I'm sorry but I've outgrown you, it's not you, it's me. 

The job side of things is still deliciously dicey and keeps me on my hairy toes like that guy you met once who keeps dangling dinner in front of you & then cancels. I am however, rocking another PR internship, I am 'Intern Extraordinaire' once more. Another label, another chance to prove myself and give my all. I have no idea if this will be the last time I work in PR for free but I do know I'm ready. I have the experience and the edge. I am always learning, I am a Pr sponge.

So what can I tell you? What's the point to this post? That the London crush, that this do-or-die city I've been hankering after for a over a year is completely & utterly worth it. I can almost taste the future, I'm leaning forth into the wind with my tongue out, rather like a dog in a window. Attractive ano. I'm so close to achieving all I've been working towards, I just need that lucky break. How cliche. 

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