A lot has gone on since I last put something up here. Bit of a generalization, admittedly, but it's the only way I can think of summing up over a year's worth of absence. I'm sorry, if that helps. I got held up.
The reason I'm writing now is that it might just inch me across the line between "Looking For Work" and "Looking For A Pay Rise".
Don't get me wrong, I love writing, but I certainly love it more when I imagine that any potential employer will be reading it.
I'm at that point in life where a lot of people my age- having graduated from university -spend a lot of time looking for their first full-time job. A full-time job is security, a little bit of certainty. Possibly a cheap studio flat that you can call your own; at the very least because you're the one living in it.
No disrespect to those in part-time jobs, of course. I currently work at a local supermarket, while living with my parents, and I'm happy to be employed. It's not bad, by any means. But I don't want to be in this position forever. I will happily trade the family home/disposable income/free meals for a surprisingly-expensive-studio flat/spare change/cheap meals, when the time comes.
Call it a matter of pride, the need for independence, or an attempt to develop some maturity. Right now I'll settle for some sort of conclusion to my job search. It's the digital equivalent of scrunching your CV into a ball and throwing it into the street, hoping that someone- or the intended target -will pick it up and...well, employ you...
Right now, I don't actually know what needs to happen to achieve employment. I imagine the person in charge looks at all the notes they've made on the applicant, consults their list of employee requirements, and decides that the former is close enough to the latter. After which they give the news to a now very relieved soon-to-be-employee, who dances all the way home and then has a panic attack after discovering the cost of renting a cheap studio flat.
I imagine this is what happens, anyway; after the interview process, the first impression-making, and the whole business of getting them to notice you in a good way. It's probably less dramatic than that.
What's really important, however, is- to borrow a cliche here - getting a foot wedged in the metaphorical door. Employers like seeing different names on the CV. Many expect experience, even for a graduate position, which generally means an unpaid internship or two and a lot of asking around.
Something I've already been called up on is that I've written/write for the Huffington Post. Which is true enough. I haven't made the front page, yet, and I'm still gearing myself up for writing a post on something a bit more important than hobbits and blogging. But it's a name people know. Or can at least Google.
The point here is that it wasn't necessarily my degree or my other work experience that got me noticed by one potential employer. It was this blog- a blog headed by the ambition to write a book about tigers. While applying for other things, and scanning my inbox daily for a response, I'd forgotten how important the presence of a name on a certain website might be.
It hadn't occurred to me that people might still be reading this stuff. Right now, however, it's another foot in a potential door. And I have all the time in the world to shove it wide open.