Tuesday, September 26, 2006
New School
Regardless of whether you left full time education a year ago or not September seems to exert an unfair sway over the rhythm of the year. The summer is putting in a late resurgence after a washed out August in S10 but is pretty well gone and things are starting up again. The Church has welcomed back its students making being on time mandatory if you want a seat and the high street is littered with school children sporting tans that suggest that they spent the summer umbilically attached to the television. The latter was rudely brought to my attention when I turned on to the homeward stretch of my morning run and was confronted with a slalom course past the bus stop.
September was also a month for moving jobs after just over 4 months spent twiddling thumbs and variously checking football and tennis scores on the internet before the severe doldrums set in and I was forced to start writing better applications form. Apparantly it is not enough to repeatedly assert the fact that you can do exactly what the employer is asking for without giving evidence. The Environment Agency call centre was a very nice place to work but I had long since exhausted its practical benefit to by cv. Enter the council and seemingly insatiable need to appoint a professional support officer. Having applied on a Friday I had the call back the following Tuesday and an interview 6 days later and started the following Monday (26/09/2006). It is hard to know what was the single biggest contributing factor in being accepted since I had, after months of nagging, acquiesced in getting a short back and sides but the empirical value of that was distorted by getting my trousers pressed and dry cleaned. The interview consisted of a 30 minute assessment (typing, minute taking and practical sense) which nobody was responsible for timing and a half hourish interview. I was particularly pleased with my answer to the “experience that had a discernable effect on you?” Well, I began, having set out alone to Canada with the noble aim of learning to snowboard I had to overcome such obstacles as having nowhere to live or source of income. If only all character building were so much fun.
I left the environment agency in a decorous manner, taking in carrot cake which I did try and share but ate 3 pieces of anyway and was rewarded with a card and malteasers. The intervening weekend was intended to for the purpose of buying shirts and ties which were in plentiful supply in Ecclesall Road’s many charity shops. Fleet is less so well endowed as when I tried to buy one for graduation last year. The selection there can best be catergorised as cartoon characters, saxophones with trails of notes and cartoon character playing saxophones with a trail of notes pattern. In the event I borrowed one from a neighbour after mother vetoed my preferred choice of Dad’s funeral tie (…but black goes with everything...).
The office is on Ecclesall road South in a converted school which has many different uses. My office is an old class room but some of the room are still used to teach proto-type lessons when they bring pupils and teachers in. There is even an assembly hall but on the 2 days I have been here we haven’t congregated to sing “All thing bright and beautiful”. It takes about 45 minutes to walk in the morning but more like 30 if I take the right bus. I probably ought to buy a bike since I would save £15 a week and would only have to pedal on the way back given that I live at just about the top of everything around here.
September was also a month for moving jobs after just over 4 months spent twiddling thumbs and variously checking football and tennis scores on the internet before the severe doldrums set in and I was forced to start writing better applications form. Apparantly it is not enough to repeatedly assert the fact that you can do exactly what the employer is asking for without giving evidence. The Environment Agency call centre was a very nice place to work but I had long since exhausted its practical benefit to by cv. Enter the council and seemingly insatiable need to appoint a professional support officer. Having applied on a Friday I had the call back the following Tuesday and an interview 6 days later and started the following Monday (26/09/2006). It is hard to know what was the single biggest contributing factor in being accepted since I had, after months of nagging, acquiesced in getting a short back and sides but the empirical value of that was distorted by getting my trousers pressed and dry cleaned. The interview consisted of a 30 minute assessment (typing, minute taking and practical sense) which nobody was responsible for timing and a half hourish interview. I was particularly pleased with my answer to the “experience that had a discernable effect on you?” Well, I began, having set out alone to Canada with the noble aim of learning to snowboard I had to overcome such obstacles as having nowhere to live or source of income. If only all character building were so much fun.
I left the environment agency in a decorous manner, taking in carrot cake which I did try and share but ate 3 pieces of anyway and was rewarded with a card and malteasers. The intervening weekend was intended to for the purpose of buying shirts and ties which were in plentiful supply in Ecclesall Road’s many charity shops. Fleet is less so well endowed as when I tried to buy one for graduation last year. The selection there can best be catergorised as cartoon characters, saxophones with trails of notes and cartoon character playing saxophones with a trail of notes pattern. In the event I borrowed one from a neighbour after mother vetoed my preferred choice of Dad’s funeral tie (…but black goes with everything...).
The office is on Ecclesall road South in a converted school which has many different uses. My office is an old class room but some of the room are still used to teach proto-type lessons when they bring pupils and teachers in. There is even an assembly hall but on the 2 days I have been here we haven’t congregated to sing “All thing bright and beautiful”. It takes about 45 minutes to walk in the morning but more like 30 if I take the right bus. I probably ought to buy a bike since I would save £15 a week and would only have to pedal on the way back given that I live at just about the top of everything around here.
