Working!

For 2 weeks I've been in employment as a temp in a local company; it's been nearly 13 years since I've worked in my home town, and I must say that it's a novelty to walk a mile to work in the mornings - and all the more pleasant because there's plenty of birdsong to hear along the way. And it's a boost to the sense of self-worth to have some kind of employment to go to!

The work is updating spare parts documentation for product display stands - these are for various companies (chiefly cosmetics manufacturers) and are used in various retailers, varying from large chainstores and supermarkets to pharmacies. I'm working with 3 other men, and they're really nice guts to work with. It's great to be able to listen to music or the radio as you work. Music is certainly something we all have as a common passion. The job may only be for a month, and the pay doesn't compare with what I was earning in IT, but I'm grateful for it nevertheless.

I contacted my friend and former Zeda and Alliance & Leicester colleague Peter, who's still out of work, having applied for more than 100 jobs. I feel for him - and hope that despite this current recession he finds something soon. There's work out there, but with huge numbers of applicants chasing one position, employers can cherry-pick.

The Brown Stuff

They say that when the brown stuff hits the fan, we'll all get covered. Without a doubt, the media each day uncovers more of the mess that the banks and finances are in. We now learn that our prime minister has pledged even more Treasury money to help stimulate the banks into mutual trust and trade - which suggests to me that he and his darling henchman had no idea how much trouble the banks were in when this problem started. Is it that they weren't told? Or was it that the banks painted a false picture of their financial position? Or perhaps it was because the picture has steadily worsened since then? - I don't know, but it's apparent that what started out as a pustule has changed into a boil, which in turn has turned into an abcess. Septicaemia beckons.

But what else could Brown do but mortgage taxpayers' money for years to come? If he were to let the banks rot, the social repercussions would be enormous and far-reaching. The vision of starving and dispossessed pensioners with worthless savings isn't one that any prime minister would welcome. It wouldn't reflect well on him or his reputation if he were to take the Marie Antoinette stance and let them eat cake.  As unemployment and poverty increase, the potential for civil and political unrest lurks like a ruffian on the stair.

So what's likely to happen? Given that this is a global financial crisis (in my view one that has been encouraged, if not engineered) that started over the pond, it is one that will require global solutions. This would be a step in the direction of a centrally-controlled global economic system to be universally imposed as the panacea of all these ills. This may well be Obama's brief; he happens to be the most left-wing president of the United States ever to be elected. This in turn would lead to co-ordinated political control, since politicians always dance to the tune of their financial masters. Orwell wasn't wide of the mark. When the brown stuff hits the fan, we'll all be covered.

Still turning

The wheels are still turning on the jobseeking machine, but there doesn't appear to be any forward (or backward) movement. I responded to an email alert last week; what was significant about this was the fact that it was a job advertised through a local temping agency with which I was already registered! I went in to see them and told them that I would like to be put forward for it. It's for a local company, and it consists of reformatting documentation. It's initially for 2 months. Despite this, you can't take anything for granted in this game, so I've continued to apply for appropriate IT jobs. As for last week's jobs - I haven't heard anything yet. Today I will be going to my Job MAETS course. I've completely redrafted my CV to make it more detailed and yet more terse at the same time.

Sign on Brightly

Today was sign-on day - the first time for a few weeks, since the Christmas period had interrupted the proceedings. On returning home I phoned the agency for the aforementioned job (see the previous blog post); I should hear sometime next week. In view of the fact that there are 300 applicants for this position, I think I stand an excellent chance (of being turned down, that is). I also phoned a recruitment agency who'd called me last week about a Derby support analyst job he thought my CV matched. The fellow who had phoned me has since left the agency! So his successor will be finding out progress on the job application.

I also phoned a company (still Derbyshire - Alfreton) that has been advertising for an analyst programmer for ages. They want someone with AS/400 and RPG skills, but I thought I'd see what they have to say. The lady I spoke to didn't seem to think that my lack of these skills would present an unsurmountable obstacle, so at her suggestion I posted her a copy of my CV with a covering letter. I also applied for a contract helpdesk job - this time in Leicester..

Post-Christmas Normality and other short stories

It's a while since I entered anything in this blog. Since I did, Christmas has come and gone in its customary fashion. It was a great time - our younger daughter and her husband were with us, and we all piled down to Leicester to spend Christmas Day with our elder daughter, her husband and kids. 

Nothing has happened on the job front, but on Friday 2nd January I applied for an IT job in a well-known company situated in the wilds of Derbyshire. I sent the online application off, only to receive an email requesting that I click onto a link and supply more application details. So I did; I spent the best part of an hour carefully thinking about and measuring my responses - only to find in the end that the wretched browser had locked up. (It is Google Chrome, and a Beta version, so I suppose I shouldn't gripe). I sent an email to the recruitment people to let them know what had happened, and they kindly sent me an email containing all the questions I'd either answered or had yet to fill in. So I completed these and sent them off. I'm glad to say that the application has been not only received by the recruitment people, but also sent to the company in question. We'll see of anything materialises in the way of an interview..

Looking at the job pages, it's clear that the market is still in its pre-Christmas stasis. I'm sure that (to continue the metaphor) with the passage of time, everything will loosen up, and with a hard shove the logjam will be cleared.

Christmas Approaching

Once again we're in the run-up to that time of year again. I've been through this process 57 times now, and I still enjoy it - although for different reasons now. Like all kids and young people, I used to love it for the holiday time - the overindulgence and the presents, and the decorations and carols were a seasonal backdrop to it all. Since I became a dad (over 31 years ago) I came to appreciate it in the light of parenthood; the kids provided a shift of focus from the usual cycle of giving and getting.

Since my conversion to Christianity nearly 30 years ago I came to appreciate the season for its theological significance as well - although it's a widely accepted fact that Jesus wasn't actually born at that time of year (or history, for that matter - it's believed that 5BC was the most likely year). What matters more than these disputed facts is that he actually came. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory - the glory of the only-begotten of the Father." (John 1)

While we have the usual media hysteria about the credit crunch and falling retail sales figures, and Mugabe's ongoing indifference to his starving and diseased people continues to occupy our news, the most significant fact of history lies wrapped up and largely obscured in religious ritual, Victorian fantasy and Hollywood sentimentality: the Messiah arrived as promised. That's what history's really all about. Economic conditions - like political leaders have their ebbs and flows, their exits and their entrances - but his arrival has eternal consequences. He is the anvil on which we are either eternally shaped or irrevocably broken.

A very happy Christmas to you - whoever and wherever you are.

Friday

Here we are - another Friday! What a week it's been. On Tuesday my father-in-law took ill (went out like a light and then was quite sick), so we had to call the ambulance. A paramedic arrived with all the hi-tech diagnostics equipment; an ambulance crew soon arrived on the scene. He was rushed into the Royal Infirmary, where he was kept until yesterday. He's now out of hospital and back home; it appears that he has a slow heartbeat, and this may be the cause of the problem. He's fine again, but in the new year he'll have to go in as an outpatient and be rigged up with a 24-hour ECG monitor. It may be that he'll need a pacemaker.

With my son-in-law's ongoing heart issues, this, my other son-in-law's job situation (glad to say, safe) and my unemployment, it's been (in the sense of that well-known Chinese curse) an interesting time.

Yesterday I had a phone call from a job agency in London. Would I like a contract postion in systems security in Cheltenham? I asked if this was for GCHQ, but the gentleman at the other end wasn't going to be drawn. He did however ask me if I had security clearance, thus answering the question for me. I really don't want to have to board in Cheltenham during the week and come home for weekends. Nothing personal against this branch of the Civil Service - I'd happily apply for a job there if it were nearer home.

This afternoon I have another appointment with the Job MAETS centre; I hope it'll be constructive. I have one or two ideas of what I would like to do for the rest of my working life, and they don't involve supporting crappy systems and raking through other people's codal abominations. The other thing I've come to realise is that competency-based questioning is de rigeur in all sections of IT. So if I'm to be asked at every interview "Can you give us a specific example  of a scenario where you found a solution for a system error?" - I'm going to be flummoxed every time, as I've solved hundreds of calls like that, but I don't have the type of memory to store such rubbish. My brain finds room for more interesting things. I don't believe in making up stories at interviews; if I did, I'd already be a novelist or journalist!