Once again I am in a familiar position. Having moved house (and city) I am without a job. The sensible thing would have been to have had something set up before I left London but that would be far too straight forward.
In my defence, I was working full-time until the day before I left and trying to fit packing around that so my time for job searching was somewhat limited. Not an excuse I know, but partial mitigation.
I have now moved, the house is unpacked and I've settled down to that familiar feeling of rising panic and general disillusioned irritability. The recruitment consultants I have been in touch with have been worse than useless. Yes I know I don't really have much sector experience in any area but surely you can see from the academic stuff that I'm bright enough to pick a lot of stuff up as I go along. I'm not asking you to get me on a graduate programme here, just get me something to pay the rent and buy food. To add insult to injury, I told one of them my previous (extremely modest even for London) salary to have that blown out the water as outlandish. Seriously?!
So I'm left wondering where the hell to start to get a job. Any job. Ideally office hours and ideally with the glimmer of prospect about it but I'm not that fussed at the moment.
The last time I was in this situation, my guardian angel was watching and I got a phone call out of the blue offering the van driving job I talked about. OK, so it wasn't the best paying or most challenging job but it was a source of income when I was growing desperate and I got to work with some incredible people. Overall it was lots of fun but I can't go through life trusting almost exclusively to fate.
Fortunately, unlike last time I was in this situation, a friend of my parent's next door neighbour lives nearby. He is a true gentleman and a genuinely lovely man who, as well as providing much needed, moral support, is arranging introductions to various people of vague influence in areas where I am interested in working. Creating networking opportunities is invaluable and I really appreciate it.
In addition, my girlfriend's father has just become a senior partner in his accountancy firm and has offered to spend some weekends taking me through the basics of accounting. He has also suggested that I enrol with a professional accounting body and think about taking one of their qualifications in the next nine months or so (well and good but it's going to cost the guts of a grand to do). This will give me certifiable accounting qualifications combined with a decent period of experience and a reference in the accounting world should I decide to follow that route or, at any rate, a strong and viable plan B. Even if I don't become an accountant, the basic knowledge will add to my general knowledge of the world and the way it works and will hopefully give me additional depth and perspective in any career path I do follow. As I discussed with someone recently, there are few careers where it wouldn't be an advantage to appreciate the financial and legal implications of actions being taken. Although I might not be a qualified practitioner (and would naturally default to one for in-depth analysis or an official opinion) I would still have and be able to apply that knowledge if only to rule more extreme scenarios out.
This is all very well, good and exciting but in the mean time, what the hell do I do to pay the rent?
Argh!!!
JR
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