tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40900472011-06-23T05:01:37.665-07:00Taking redundancy personally.Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comBlogger341100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-3907006042003-03-14T08:41:00.000-08:002011-06-23T05:01:38.467-07:00

An article that initially appeared to be about skills shortages soon turns into a terrible rehash of the tired no women want to work in IT with nerdy blokes for colleagues. Ann Swain seems to find that there is an IT skills shortage in this country. If only she’d told me earlier I wouldn’t have spent the last 5 months looking for work! The answer to the apparent skills shortage is of course to

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-906660192003-03-13T13:20:00.000-08:002003-03-13T13:20:56.143-08:00

As if the Job Centre wasn’t having enough problems choosing a new colour scheme in their upgrading to JobCentrePlus, their staff are revolting, and that’s just the clothes they wear! Matthew Thompson is claiming a ‘victory for common sense’ in his tribunal with the Department for Work and Pensions. When the DWP took over the running of Employment Office, now JobCentrePlus, in June last year,

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-906659422003-03-12T11:09:00.000-08:002003-03-13T13:16:35.000-08:00

Another Wednesday, another trip to the still unfinished JobCentrePlus. Next time I attend, it will be a whole new experience! Rather than spending three minutes with me, in which time they locate my file, ask me to sign, and thank me for attending, they will spend a whole 10 minutes! This will give them time to discuss my jobsearch activities and discuss other routes to finding work. Whilst I

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-904165262003-03-06T10:38:00.000-08:002003-03-06T10:48:43.000-08:00

Hi to the visitor who found the site by typing “p=i+am+fed+up+with+my+job&y=y">I am fed up with my job” at Yahoo UK. Jen is out of work and is not missing it for a minute. Get the job and then spend it all on their toys.

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-904165062003-03-06T10:36:00.000-08:002003-03-06T10:36:28.893-08:00

As a recipient of £53.95 a week under the Jobseekers Allowance scheme I find myself noticing extreme wastes of money more frequently. I continue to question the justifications behind the firefighters request for a 40% pay rise. I am not convinced that their job warrants such an increase and their union leader Andy Gilchrist is doing very little to convince. Although I’m sure my opinion could be

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-904044832003-03-04T06:19:00.000-08:002003-03-04T06:21:07.000-08:00

When I was updating my CV for the first time in 6 years, little did I realise that it would be out of date 4 months later. I already have 3 versions of my CV depending on which job type I am applying for. Each of these versions may then be tweaked to highlight the skills relevant to the position on offer. Now that I am broadening my job search out to further horizons I am required to create

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-904039082003-03-04T03:05:00.000-08:002003-03-04T03:05:06.153-08:00

The Londoners Job Fair is on today and tomorrow at the New Connaught Rooms, Great Queen St, London WC2 (off Kingsway, Holborn) It is open from 11am until 7pm and entrance is free. They advise smart dress in case of interview and a batch of CV’s to give to prospective employers.

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-903893902003-02-28T09:20:00.000-08:002003-03-06T08:42:30.000-08:00

Use them wisely. If you’ve recently been made redundant and are unsure what to do next Ask Your Ass or visit Laid Off Central. Jen is doing everything right as she’s been voted Unemployee of the Month. Learn from the experiences of Unemployed Theo and compare it with Jessica’s. Consider applying for a Bum Card and then rethink your covering letter. Get your business card noticed. Take a break,

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-903789042003-02-26T10:08:00.000-08:002003-02-26T11:05:26.000-08:00

I miss commuting so much that I spent a couple of hours a day playing Gridlock. I then fill the day with pointless exercises, or networking as I prefer to call it. If anyone can contribute to this game of Alphabetti Bloghetti, please mention this site! Once again my trip to the Job Centre was surprisingly quick as: a) they never check whether you’re applying for work! b) the current

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-903739212003-02-25T10:49:00.000-08:002003-02-25T11:05:07.000-08:00

The Job Centre is now appearing in a kiosk on a high street near you! Is this a cynical ploy by the Government to get the unemployed used to life on the streets? Here I was thinking that looking for work is a full time job when I can be doing it while waiting for a bus. If you’re lucky enough to unemployed and living in Bath, Blackpool, Bristol, Bromley, Knowsley, London, Manchester, Newcastle,

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-903717662003-02-24T11:25:00.000-08:002003-02-25T02:26:22.000-08:00

Rather than spending much of my time visiting job web sites and using their search functions I’ve finally subscribed to the email service of many of them. This way I get an email per search from each site. Some of them have a limitation on the number of searches you can store so you may need to use a complex query to get the best results. I’m certainly not spending as much time trawling sites

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-903449172003-02-19T11:12:00.000-08:002003-02-19T11:12:10.663-08:00

A further indicator of the downturn in the economy is dished up by Reuters as they announce 3,000 job cuts leading up to 2005. This is on top of the 3,200 over the past two years. The company is facing increasing competition in it’s main markets. Their main rival is Bloomberg, but they are facing competition from my ex-employer Thomson Financial. My redundancy was caused by a re-alignment within

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-903396482003-02-18T09:51:00.000-08:002003-02-18T18:02:56.000-08:00

Yes, I’ve been spending quality time with the web site. I’ve worked through a backlog of emails of support from visitors. It’s great to have the encouragement of strangers. Thank you. With the result that I’ve not been job seeking as much as I probably should have. But this investment of time in myself seems so much more valuable than ploughing through countless job sites. There has to be a

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-903360962003-02-17T11:43:00.000-08:002003-02-18T02:36:47.000-08:00

No doubt Ken is regretting not introducing the congestion charge a couple of days earlier to profit from the 1 million people flocking to central London for the war protest. He could have made a bomb! And hidden it. Although he would probably have been caught on one of his 688 cameras. Big Brother is never far away! Remember that under the Data Protection Act you may request the footage of

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-902874572003-02-06T11:29:00.000-08:002003-02-06T11:32:03.000-08:00

WOW! What a day! I received a great email from Emma who found this site useful as she is also unemployed and has been for 10 months. It’s really heartwarming to know that the site is serving as therapy to others. Emma also mentioned that she found my site listed on the Blogger home page. Which is just success beyond belief! Blogger is seen by thousands of people every day and my site is

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-902819132003-02-05T11:06:00.000-08:002003-02-06T03:29:54.000-08:00

Delving deeper on the IT Job Board revealed a ton of tutorials on a huge range of subjects from Web Marketing to Active Listening. Browse the whole list. NamesFacesPlaces linked from cwjobs.co.uk has a lot of interesting editorial, but requires you to register (free) before viewing it. Reading in the Evening Standard last night that a predicted 15,000(!) jobs will be shed from City

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-902745052003-02-03T11:58:00.000-08:002003-02-04T02:00:37.000-08:00

Exhausted Cambridge recruiting sites today as the area is on the up. Also discovered a wealth of Crystal Reports sites including one that was kind enough to display it’s client list so that I can now trawl their sites for vacancies.

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-902638212003-02-01T09:12:00.000-08:002003-02-01T09:12:04.070-08:00

Blimey! A weekend posting! Something important must have happened! Forget the real news. WAGN Railways have finally issued my refund cheque. Although of course I won’t get too excited until I’ve cashed it!

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-902637592003-01-31T08:58:00.000-08:002003-02-01T08:59:08.000-08:00

What a day! Fortunately I wasn’t stuck on the M11 and made it to the interview on time, albeit somewhat frosty. Unfortunately, my 10.30 arrival was 2 and half hours earlier than they expected. All my careful swotting and planning for what was in no doubt a very important meeting was soon thrown into disarray, as they tried to find out who was free to interview me. Within an hour I had seen and

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-902637492003-01-30T11:57:00.000-08:002003-02-01T08:57:56.000-08:00

I’m still taking the advice that the public sector is the only place with any money, I’ve found another couple of websites that specialise in public sector recruitment, Opportunites which didn’t have any for me and JobsGoPublic which isn’t as Thunderbirds as it sounds.

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-902637372003-01-29T10:54:00.000-08:002003-02-01T08:55:21.000-08:00

Thankfully they were refurbishing Job Centre today and had even less of a reason to care about my job search. I was out of there in under 10 minutes. Hopefully, that will still be the case in a fortnight.

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-902485252003-01-28T12:00:00.000-08:002003-01-29T02:01:15.000-08:00

Swotting for the interview on Friday. I’ve never really been to nervous about interviews as I always seem to do OK. For this one though, I think I owe it to them to be slightly nervous. I’d rather be at the Penguin Parade.

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-902449572003-01-27T11:48:00.000-08:002003-01-28T09:20:10.000-08:00

There seems to be something about Friday afternoon’s at the moment. Like last week, things had been pretty quiet until a barrage of calls late on Friday. One series of calls has resulted in an interview for a 6 month contract using Crystal Reports. And I can say no more or the agency will do me untold damage. The other resulted in a maybe for a job where the money isn’t right, but they may be

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-902449332003-01-23T10:15:00.000-08:002003-01-28T09:16:26.000-08:00

A date for my diary arrived in this morning’s post. Not the expected wedding invite, but a missive from the Jobcentre. April 10 2003 is payrise day for everyone on Jobseekers Allowance. A huge increase of 70 pence to £54.65 a week. If you’ve got a suggestion on how I should best use my 70p, please let me know. Lesson of the day: Include everything on your CV! No matter how irrelevant it seems.

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-902242752003-01-22T11:46:00.000-08:002003-01-23T08:48:02.000-08:00

I had a great night last week ‘networking’ at A Ha Ha Ha comedy club in Soho. We were there to watch Alex Musson, a friend of a friend (the network expands!) With third billing he was one of the highlights of the night – and not just because he delivered the phrase ‘spontaneous lesbianisation’. Being jealous of his wit, I decided to look at his website which was bound to be rubbish. It isn’t. A

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-902241462003-01-21T12:23:00.000-08:002003-01-23T08:28:41.000-08:00

Whilst looking on the BBC jobs site I briefly considered a career as a Taxonomist, although the dictionary definition didn’t sound as much fun. The MSN Careers site seems to offer much but needs more investigation. When one job required me to be a member of the ISTC I had to check the entry qualifications. It appears that it only requires £50 to be a Professional Communicator. I sending

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-901986722003-01-17T09:12:00.000-08:002003-01-17T09:14:16.000-08:00

As my eBay empire expands to nearly one sale a week(!), I found myself trudging to the local post office to send off another book to another lucky customer. On my return I was faced with that classic dilemma – to walk or to help? On spotting across the road, a man laid on the ground and a woman talking on her mobile, I thought I would at least offer assistance rather than ignore them and go home

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-901986622003-01-16T13:11:00.000-08:002003-01-17T09:11:47.000-08:00

And then my prayers were answered! Success! It was as easy as opening a envelope. The letter began “I was amazed when I saw how much money ca me flooding through my letterbox….” It continued “I turned £87 into £43,540 within the first 60 days of operating this business plan. If you decide to take action on the following instructions, I will personally GUARANTEE that you will enjoy a similar

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-901986532003-01-15T11:09:00.000-08:002003-01-17T09:10:12.000-08:00

Halfway through January already! And still no job. Damn the economy! Today is my first trip to the job centre of 2003, and it may be one of many. £53.95 isn’t a lot of money. £215.80 a month isn’t a lot of money. But you’d still be stupid to refuse it. And stupid is how I feel writing in my job log book that I’ve managed to make the required two job applications a week. So far this week, I’ve

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-3901986372003-01-13T12:11:00.000-08:002003-01-17T09:07:33.000-08:00

It never rains but it pours. When you’re redundant and are ‘lucky’ enough to own a car it seems that the downpour is torrential. OK, it’s only been a new battery, a new clutch cylinder and now a new tyre, in the three months since being made redundant. It all adds up when you’re trying to limit yourself to the expense of one daily travelcard a week, especially when they’ve gone up ten pence!

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-901986212003-01-09T12:03:00.000-08:002003-01-17T09:04:50.000-08:00

The job hunt really began today! I can’t remember how I came across JobStats but it’s a great site which gives you a snapshot of the current state of the IT job market showing the demand for each skill. It shows (unfortunately) the steady decline for IT vacancies over the last 12 months. Not the most inspiring news, but sometimes it’s better to know the truth! JobStats then links to Jobserve to

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-901985822003-01-08T08:55:00.000-08:002003-01-17T09:01:11.000-08:00

It seems that I am only suitable for three of the five shortlisted jobs from yesterday. Don’t know what I was thinking of… For the other three it’s just a case of rewording the advert so that it looks like a covering letter. It’s important that the letter has the main points of the advert so the job agency can quickly read it and see that I am a suitable candidate. It’s then important that key

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-901746722003-01-07T11:58:00.000-08:002003-01-12T11:43:30.000-08:00

The job hunt begins in earnest by avoiding looking for work in the hope that I could pounce on it this afternoon. Spent time tweaking a graphic and looking at the admin functions of CFM who are hosting Scribbling Rivalry Press. Looking at Blogger.com as somewhere to host this journal. It looks as though I also need to find somewhere to host the site if I want to do more than host a simple blog.

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4090047.post-901745772003-01-06T11:06:00.000-08:002003-01-12T11:26:02.000-08:00

Not so much a new years resolution as a process to extract some substance from the whole redundancy experience. This journal will be used to track the progress of my job hunt and the myriad other activities which will be taking me closer to employment. What has triggered this journal? The new year signals the 3 month mark of my redundancy. According to prior calculations this means that I will

Martin Wrightnoreply@blogger.com