A Man, A Plan, A Flat, Edinburgh.

Following on from my last entry (over a week ago now, shocking!), not only do I have a job (which I will hopefully start on Monday) but I now also have a flat! It's a large place with a huge lounge, 2 double bedrooms (one ensuite), an awesome box/computer room complete with free computer, nice kitchen, a big bathroom with a spider-shower.

I found it on Thursday, after 2 days of frantic flat hunting and about 7 other property viewings. Paid the holding deposit that evening, and put the rest on my credit card on friday. I'm now very poor, seeing as how the advance payment was deposit (one month rent + £200), first months rent, and an admin fee of £120. Still, the reference checks all went through at the start of the week, and I picked up the keys this morning. Wooyay! I get proper internet on Monday (this is going through my phone at the moment), so I'll post some photos once the 20Mb broadband gets switched on :D

In other news, it was the wotmania Edinburgh Gathering this weekend, and I met Paul and Angie in addition to Tom (who's floor I've been staying on since last monday). Met up with them first on Thursday along with Roh and Camilla at the National Museum, and mosied around there for a while before going to the Frankenstein pub. Showed Roh the video I took of the flat place (as Roh is going to be my flatmate), she liked it so I payed the holding deposit.

Friday involved beggaring myself by putting £1200 on my credit card, then meeting up with everyone for meals and stuff in the evening. Saturday was the "main meet day", and we did a walk up to Arthurs Seat (big hill just outside the main but of Edinburgh) where I got a massive hayfever attack and my eyes swelled up to the size of cannonballs. Not nice. And then it started raining. Awesome.

After the wonderful views and picnic lunch (it didn't actually start raining until we were heading back into town, thankfully), we headed back to the musuem thing where we went to a hands-on sciencey area, and totally pushed lots of buttons. Highly amusing, then went to the Jekyll and Hyde pub for food and drinks.

Sunday was nice and relaxing; Tim and Bekah's for champagne and strawberries in the afternoon (along with a 50 hour long game of Once Upon A Time), followed by Wetherspoons for drinks and food.

Monday and Tuesday I mostly spent reading books in Costa Coffee, with a spectacular view over central Edinburgh. It's really rather a pretty city. Oh, and I signed my work contract on Monday.

Today I picked up the keys for the new flat, moved it, got registered for council tax, got TV/Phone/Broadband from Virgin Media set up for next monday (seeing as how the house was already ready for it, it made sense to go with Virgin. Less setup fees), and then cooked an awesome chocolate chili con carne. And chocolate brownies. Except the chili didn't really work that well, and I burnt the brownies. :(
But Tim and Rebekah and Tom and Roh all came over for a mini flatwarming, and they all ate it, and at least said it was tasty, so that makes me feel a little better.

So yes. I've spent far too much money already, and shall probably spend more tomorrow on duvets and bookshelves and drawers and stuff.

At last, some feedback!

Although, I almost feel like I would have been better *not* getting the feedback from my TeachFirst application, because it's made me annoyed about it all over again :P

Essentially, they have several "core competencies" that they look for demonstration of throughout the assessment center. I scored very highly, apparently, in everything but Planning and Organisation where I got an average score (because I gave a duff example in my interview and my 7-min mock lesson wasn't interactive enough) and Humility, Respect and Empathy where I got a below average score (because I talked over people during the group exercise... something I only did to get the group back on track and on time, which I was praised for under the Leadership section!!). And that made me a "borderline case". I just ended up on the wrong side of the border.

I really don't want to be looking and applying for jobs just for jobs sake, but it's already now been a year since I graduated and I'm running rapidly out of options.

Ah well. It'll all work out *eventually*.

P.S. Send me an email or a message on facebook or something if you're in London and want to meet up over the next week and a bit. I'm not going to be able to make it to Canterbury for TagLAN this weekend, but Kim mentioned something about Tuesday or Thursday evenings, which sounds good. Yarrrr.

Oh woes

I can't say I wasn't expecting it, but the way the interview went really did make me think I might just have clinched it... but no. I didn't get the Technology Associate position at the Press Association.

I'm beginning to wonder whether I'm looking for the right kind of job here. My CV seems to be holding up well, as every company who has seen it has given me interviews. It's those interviews that I'm failing at though, and I don't know why as *no one* seems to be willing to give any feedback to me at all. I'm finding it really difficult to critically evaluate my performance when I get the same result every time.

Still, trying to keep positive about it. Rosie's being absolutely marvelous and forwarding me various job opportunities, and I'm starting to look at various agency positions. And I'm spending the next week and a half in London, so hopefully I'll get some interviews while I'm there.

On a related note, if anyone Londonish fancies meeting up for drinks/food during the next week or so (I arrive tomorrow and head to Canters for Tim and Bekah's wedding on Friday 6th June) by all means let me know. I'll have a friend from Norway with me, but she doesn't bite. It'll also be great to see people again, as apart from Dave who lives sorta close, I haven't really seen or spoken to *anyone* who isn't family or, recently, work in *ages*.

More job gubbins

Accenture decided that they didn't like me all that much, and I can't say I'm too surprised. I didn't think the interview went as well as it should have done, and besides; it's their loss!

However, the interview I went to on Wednesday, for a job with the Press Association, went much better. I was much more relaxed during the interview itself, answered the questions well (although I spent the whole journey home on the train thinking of more stuff I should have said, but I guess that's always the way), and I had a really good vibe from the whole thing.

The interview wasn't the whole thing though, there was a technology quiz before; 7 questions in 30 mins. I hadn't been worrying too much about it while I was preparing for the interview, as I'm pretty much on top of technology stuffs.

Except these questions weren't really *about* technology, but rather design principles. Here they are, let me know what you think!

1. What do you know about design patterns, which ones have you come across?


2. Explain your understanding of a UML use case and explain at which stages it would be appropriate to use it


3. Say what you understand by metadata and explain the significance of the Dublin Core


4. What do you understand by Information Architecture? Why is it important?


5. Give three areas in which content management can be used to improve the effectiveness of an organisation


6. What are the main features of MPEG4, MPEG7 and MPEG21


7. What is RDF and why is it important?

Now, with the exception of the MPEG stuff, I know I covered all that in my degree. I particularly remember learning about Dublin Core and RDF in the Mobile and Ubiquitous module, but I couldn't for the life of me remember anything about it! I was completely unprepared for these questions, and although I gave the best answers I could in the time, I think that it might detract from my performance in the interview.

I also had to give a 10 min ppt presentation on "What evolving Information Technologies will multimedia publishers need to master so that they are competitive in rapidly changing digital markets?" which also went quite well, I think.

I should hear back either tomorrow or at the start of next week. Here's hoping!

Keep on swimming!

Well, my interview on Friday went ok. Not great, but ok. I answered most of the questions very well, but feel that I let myself down badly on one or two. I hate it when my mind goes absolutely blank, and I end up stuttering as I try to kick my brain into life. The preparation material clearly stated that one of the things I should know is who some of Accenture's clients are, but when asked I could barely remember one. Oooops. Any which way, I should hear back sometime next week.

In other news, I have another interview next week for a position I found through KTP. The job, in a nutshell, is "to help develop and implement a new and advanced news and information service, to keep the UK’s national news agency, the Press Association, at the forefront of the world multimedia industry". I would be employed by the University of Arts, but work in the PA office on Vauxhall Bridge Road (Victoria). Kinda cool. Gotta ace the interview first though!

In other other news, more lightpainting!

Back to Square 1. Again.

If it wasn't really quite worrying, I'd be laughing. Yet again, I get turned down after an interview that I thought went really quite well. Yes folks, that's right, I didn't get onto the Teach First program. And, to be honest, I haven't got the foggiest clue why. I really need to get some feedback.

And the stupid thing is A) I *know* I can make a good teacher and B) I would have taught ICT, of which there is a great lack at the moment, so at some point during the assessment center I somehow actively dissuaded them from accepting me; they decided that, from what they saw of me, I wouldn't make a good teacher. FEEDBACK PLEASE!

Grr. Grrgrrgrr. Well, I've still got an interview with Accenture in 3 weeks time. I'm chewing through plans like a worm through an apple here.

Just a quicky

As I mentioned a few weeks back, I'm looking at the Teach First programme as an option for the near future. I submitted the application right before the deadline on 27th March (my birthday!), and went through to the assessment center, which was today in London!

And I've just got back from it. I think it went quite well, the 7 minute lesson I had to teach (on comparing the advantages and disadvantages of searching for information on the internet with other sources) went very well, and I think I did ok in the group roleplay thingy. My interview *didn't* go as well, I feel, but I still showed my strong points (maybe too much, I think I came across a little over-confident and egotistic).

I should hear back from them within the week. I've also got an interview with Accenture at the beginning of May, and Logica liked my application and are now comparing it to their business requirements, whatever that means. I should hear back from them by May 1st.

Now off to bed, because I have temp work for the next week and a half. Yay money!

Oh, and also, I need to send a letter off to Barnstaple with my P45s from last year because I'm owed about £400 in tax rebate. Yay more money!

Lifestuff

Having come to the realisation that it's now pretty much been an entire year since I took my exams and finished Uni, and that all I've managed to do is spend an interesting two months in India and be rejected from a total of 5 different places, I've spent the last few weeks trawling through the web to come up with some more options.

I'm horribly in debt so I need to get a job pretty much immediately, temporary or otherwise, simply so I can afford to move away from home to where jobs are more likely to be found (read: London).

I've applied to the Teach First program, and also Accenture and Logica. The TeachFirst program is quite interesting in that I would teach for 2 years, and become a qualified teacher, and then move on to an industry job, hopefully with Accenture. This is good because A) I've already been toying with the idea of becoming a teacher, B) it's only a 2 year commitment, you're expected to leave and get a job (other teaching options expect you to become a teacher for life, really) and it looks good on the CV, C) the qualification is recognized all over the world and is valid for ages, so if I decide I don't want a typical career in the future I can just travel and teach, D) it's in London and E) I'd get school holidays!

The down side though is that it's another 2 years, at a time when (due to my gap year, sandwich year and this last year) I'm already looking at graduate places with people 3 years younger than me. Coming out of this program at 26 and trying to find a graduate job, if I don't get the Accenture deferred entry, would be a nightmare.

I'm becoming less and less sure all the time about getting a job and "settling down" though. Part of me wants to just get some money, and go travelling and working throughout Europe. It's totally possible, and I know I'd enjoy it, but (and I know I'm getting old when I say this ¬.¬) I think I really need to start thinking about a pension and some security, especially in the current economic climate.

Another option I've considered is starting up my own hitech/dotcom business. I've got an idea that's marketable, but finding the capital and resources to start it up is going to be a mammoth task, one that I certainly can't undertake with no money, living with my parents. Although, if someone does happen to have a bit of cash lying around and fancies investing in me, let me know :P

I'm going to continue to look like crazy for any and all possible opportunities, but I think TeachFirst is likely to be the one I will concentrate on for now.

Right then. Time for a plan!

If you didn't get my last post, well, I haven't got the job at Google. It would be *really* nice if I could get some feedback from them about why I wasn't successful, as as far as I was concerned my onsite interviews went fairly well. And this makes the 5th job I've now somehow fluffed. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong, it's quite disheartening.

So. I come back from Norway on the 2nd April, and need to get a job. Even just a temp one. So I'm going to be making a niiiiice long list of all my options, and try to come to some plan of action. The main problem is that I have zero money, so relocating anywhere is going to be difficult.

Does anyone have any ideas about where I can find a good job? A graduate scheme would be nice (although at this point in the year I'm guessing that's going to be highly unlikely :( ) but really anything that's A) somewhat intellectually stimulating and B) allows me to support myself financially will do. I'd appreciate any and all help on the issue.


Yohoho and bottle of rum.