Big Decisions: My Graduate Job Hunt

Once more I return from a blogging hiatus of quite some time.

I thought I'd start with an approximate transcript of what I said the other day when I was asked to share at a church group about how I ended up in my current job and the decisions I made to get there. This was as part of a series (called 'Big Decisions') about major decisions that people have to make in their 20s. Sharing this story is something that I'm glad to do as I think this time was probably the biggest struggle of my life to date and that I learnt rather a lot from it.

Be warned that what follows is fairly lengthy, so be sure you have a drink or snack to hand if you plan on reading through to the end (reading time 15 mins approx?)!

All through education I didn't have a dream job or an intended career path. My main intention when picking my GCSEs, A-levels and my degree was to keep my options open.

I knew that I didn't want to go into medicine or law where years of study are required and that I'd be pretty rubbish at doing anything with my hands or anything creative. So I discounted these along the way, but apart from this I didn't have much direction.

By the time I got to my last year of school, I knew that something 'business-y' was a distinct possibility though, and that I was intrigued by aspects of what both my parents did at the time (IT and market research respectively), without being gripped by them.

I knew that going to university would help me to get into this field and, just as importantly in my eyes, buy me more time to decide which aspect of this area, if any, I wanted to get into.

So I did a joint degree knowing that it would keep my options broad - I decided to study Computer and Management Sciences at uni - a mix between computer science and business management. I chose to go to the University of Warwick as both it and the course had really good reputations and it had a great campus.

My studies there were something of a rollercoaster ride. I spent the first two years predominantly in the School of Computer Science and the third in the Business School. The second year was the most stressful overall, as many people on my course had more computer science experience than me so I was playing catch-up all the time. But overall I loved my time at uni and the other sides of life pulled me through the difficulties: I made some excellent friends including those in my hall and some really good Christian friends as I got more and more involved in the Christian Union - and I got to play a simply ridiculous amount of football, to an extent that I'll probably never get to do in my life again.

It was in my 2nd year of university that I started to more seriously consider my post-uni plans. I'd hoped to have a sandwich year as part of my course, but that transpired to no longer be an option as I hadn't yet studied a significant amount of the business side of things, which was now what I wanted experience in. I had started to discount the computer science prospect, but I was no clearer on direction than that.

It was only in the third year when I particularly enjoyed one of my modules - human resources (especially the training and learning aspect) - more than the rest that I thought I had a starting point for what I wanted to do.

I started to ask myself whether I could see myself doing this for life. I wasn't sure but concluded that there were almost no jobs for life these days anyway, so I started to ask myself whether I could see myself pursuing this for the next 10 years. I decided that I probably could.

But I didn't start looking at jobs whilst I was at uni because I found life there, even with only a few compulsory lecture hours a week, too busy and wanted to make the most of my time there.

I considered taking a second gap year to give myself more time to apply for jobs and had some very realistic options for this, but after seeking guidance on this, I decided against it.

I took the summer off, enjoying one last university summer, and then in autumn 2006 I started my job hunt. I made the most of online recruitment sites, went to recruitment fairs, used my university careers service, the job centre (which I didn't find at all helpful for me) and agencies. With the agencies it took me a long time to work out how many to use, how to use their services, which were suitable for what I was looking for and which were useful in terms of actually delivering results. All this took time and was not very exciting! So from late in the autumn I decided to find a temporary job to tide me over until the right permanent job came up.

And that started a period of about 16 months in which I mixed and matched between temporary work and just being at home applying for jobs. I found it hard to have the energy to both work a temp job and put in quality job applications in the evenings – that was the main reason for the variation.

My degree grade prevented me from applying for a number of the graduate schemes, so this took away some of my options. I very quickly found out that I was in a bit of a Catch-22 situation, which seemed to be not uncommon amongst my friends, of needing experience to get that first role, but nobody being willing to give you that experience.

This lead me to apply for and get a 3 month voluntary internship in early 2007, where I worked for free to get some directly relevant experience under my belt.

Gradually I started to get interviews and to refine my interview technique. Overall I put in a little over 100 job applications in the 16 months and had 12 interviews for permanent roles – and the interview for my current job at Kew was my lucky 13th.

I think I had 7 temporary jobs, including my internship. All but one of them were at least ok. Some provided me with directly relevant experience, others expressed an interest in keeping me on, but none of them ultimately led to anything permanent.

So at times my graduate job hunt was quite depressing. I think a number of times during that period my Facebook status said that I was: “treading water”.

I used to go along to my church group on a Tuesday evening and often we’d have a time of prayer and I’d get bored of having the same request again and again and again: "I wouldn't mind a permanent job".

I don’t want to discourage anyone but I probably think that my graduate job hunt was probably the biggest struggle of my life so far. I don’t think I was ever depressed as such, but I think it was the closest I’ve ever been to this. Maybe I should count myself fortunate that this is the biggest struggle that I've experienced, but I was seldom of this viewpoint whilst I was in the middle of the job hunt.

Biggest Things I've Learnt

1) Calling: I learnt that finding a fulfilling job seems to be as much if not more about knowing yourself as about knowing what's out there to apply for. Because for most people work will take up at least a third of the adult waking hours that you have, I think it's necessary to try and think about it as more than just a job or a career - to work out what you are called to. What has God given you a strong passion for? I know I discovered a lot about my passions and my strengths and weaknesses - probably only part of the jigsaw that I've put together - but it's a start. An amazing resource that I unfortunately only came across right at the end of my job hunt is a book called 'What Colour is Your Parachute?' by Richard Nelson Bolles. If you have not read this book then you really must.

2) Stay connected: I found it really important to stay connected to family, friends and God - especially for support, advice and guidance. Also for the first time I experienced the reality of 'it's not what you know but who you know' and how true this really is. Networking can be viewed as a bit of a dirty word, but you needn't take advantage of those that you know, just ask your contacts for advice and to let you know of any opportunities. Speak to your friends and family about what you’re doing, pray about it and speak to people who work in similar fields in your church or other communities that you are a part of. I also found that you should make an application as personal as possible: the more you can be someone that the company or agency has met, spoken to and has an impression of, rather than just a name on a piece of paper, the better.

3) Persevere: I had a huge struggle in job hunting, but in getting the resulting job there was a huge reward at the end of it. Don’t get too frustrated if you don’t understand what’s happening to you – some of the jobs that I was interviewed for and disappointed not to get at the time, with hindsight I'm now glad that I didn't get. Don’t give up on the passion that you have. At times I felt a bit like the Israelites in the desert thinking that the promised land was unreachable, but then I'd tell myself that I had to keep on believing and so I'd follow-up an unproductive job hunting day with a productive one. I now feel very lucky and blessed to have a job that I love. I generally find my daily tasks quite interesting and motivating, I have good people around me and I believe in the overall mission of the organisation that I work for. Sure, there are boring days and worse, but on the whole I enjoy things there and feel very blessed to have found this post. It seems my perseverance was worth it.

4) Non-obsessive perspective

Don't find your identity solely in your work. As people in our culture can be fairly obsessed with job titles and asking each other 'what do you do?' as one of the first questions when you meet someone, this can be hard. But I found I had to remember the other areas of life when I was job hunting - to keep me sane. I realised I needed to set out on the right foot in terms of work-life balance.

Wanted: Car Scraper

Wanted: Loyal, dedicated individual with ability to swiftly arrive on the scene and remove a thin/medium-thickness/thick layer of ice from a car windscreen whenever required.

Benefits: Short working hours, generous holiday allowance (all non-winter months), excellent (although cold) working conditions and a first-rate boss (once said to be 'sound' by someone in the late 1990s).

Salary: Contact me to discuss (whether there will be one, rather than the level thereof).

Would suit someone who has always dreamed of having a job they can describe as 'the 21st century equivalent of a shoe shine boy'. Ideal experience for anyone contemplating a future in scraping.

Contact: Someone who's tired of scraping his car everyday, sometimes twice a day, in only the second week of December. It's going to be a long winter.

Happy to be at home

I thought I'd map out where I've been this summer (start of July - 10 September, mainly in the UK as you can see). I did this mainly to highlight why I've been whining (despite it being my own choice to go on these journeys!) that I've never been at home (rather than to say "look at me, haven't I travelled extensively?")! I've experienced both the east coast mainline and the west coast mainline, visited Holland twice, visited the north what some would consider a dangerous amount, and become even more intimately acquainted with my car in the process. It was a fun summer, but I'm definitely happy to be at home again now.

"Can I ask you a question?"

This is a question that I've found myself asking and it's been annoying me, simply because it doesn't make any sense - it's a stupid thing to ask!

Why? Well, it doesn't really give the person that you're asking much choice, does it? Your asking for permission to ask a question ... by asking a question? How's the other person supposed to say no?! By anticipating the question and interrupting you?! One person at a place I used to work would always respond to this question with: "What? In addition to this one or is that it?" - which made me realise the error of my ways ... except it hasn't stopped me repeating the mistake!

It just seems to me to be a natural way to check it's alright to interrupt someone when you want to ask them about something. Stopping asking this is probably not a change that's going to revolutionise my life, but it's a habit I want to break because it's a stupid thing to say!

"Cells"?

So I had a job interview the other day with a Danish company, an interview which was taken by a very amiable Danish lady. I had no trouble understanding her except for one word that seemed to keep cropping up when she introduced the company at the start of the interview. She was talking about the different departments and kept mentioning "cells" which seemed a very strange word to use in that context and made no sense whatsoever. I started to wonder whether they used the term "cells" instead of "departments" but I thought that would have been a little weird.

I didn't really want to highlight this - everything else that she said in her introduction to the company made perfect sense - and I felt sure that if I asked about this I'd only be making an idiot of myself! So I kept quiet and tried to figure out what that word was as she kept on talking and it came up again.

Ultimately I was spared from having to ask what this word was as I finally figured out what she was talking about. Her Danish accent had in fact diguised a word that was very familiar to me ...

Sales!

Superficiality

"Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people."

The above is a quote from a book that I'm reading at the moment and it really made me think. Why are people so focused on short-term gains? And that's a criticism that's levelled at myself as much as anyone else. Surely the key things that we do in life should be inspired by something deeper? (although maybe that's assuming that there's some greater purpose to life, which I do believe there is)

This all sounds very serious I know. I'm not dismissing the need to have moments of relaxation and banter and so on - these very much have their place and I know that I'd go insane if I didn't lighten up and have a bit of a joke. But surely there should be something deeper underlying all this?

There are plenty of intelligent people in the world. As a whole, the global population is more educated now than ever before and some of the breakthroughs in technology are astounding. Every day the news contains stories of people that are gifted in every way imaginable. But unless these minds and abilities are used in a way that makes a difference, a real difference, ultimately who cares? And in order to do this I think you need to go deeper, and on a regular basis.

Classic Commentary

From the Rugby World Cup Semi Final, England v France, last Saturday, after 77 minutes:

"Wilkinson seems to be lining up the drop goal.
But now he's going away.
Maybe it's to give the angle? It is!
Wilkinson,
Jonny Wilkinson!
Go on! GO ON!"

Here's to some more of that happening tonight.

Tim Henman: Legend

A little over a fortnight ago, Tim Henman played his final tennis match as part of Britain's Davis Cup victory over Croatia. He'll go down in history as Britain's best tennis player for a long, long time (although surely Andy Murray will soon alter that). Despite this, many people have slated Henman during the latter part of his career (mainly in frustration at the fact that he has failed to win Wimbledon or any other grand slam) and branded him an under-achieving, mediocre player whose career is unworthy of acknowledging or celebrating. I beg to differ.

I disagree with claims that Henman has underachieved. I think he's a brilliant case of someone maximising their potential. Henman is not as tall or strong as many other current men's players, and as a consquence few of his shots are as powerful as most of the other current top players. He was a serve-volleyer in what was increasingly becoming a baseliner's world (or so I'm told - I'm no tennis coach!). His natural game was primarily effective on grass, but he vastly improved his game on other surfaces as his career progressed. He surprised many by reaching the French Open semis in 2004, with one journalist noting that Henman on clay had formerly been "about as good as Bambi on ice". He was generally exemplary in the way that he conducted himself both on and off the court too, as Roger Federer pointed out in his recent tribute to Henman. As a youngster Henman suffered injury problems and, due to his then relatively modest ability level, rumour has it that some people were advising him to give up the game or focus on doubles, but Henman did not. He persevered, as he did time and time again in his career.

It's a sad time: to acknowledge that Henmania is over, that Tiger Tim will grace Wimbledon's centre court no more and that those on Henman Hill will never watch their hero again. In different circumstances Henman may have prospered even more. He was unfortunate to have 2 all-time greats (Pete Sampras and Roger Federer) continually blocking his path to the Wimbledon crown. And on the one ocassion that neither stood in his way, he fell to Ivanisevic in the semi-final in a match I believe he would have won, were it not for an ill-timed rain delay. Had he done so, would he have beaten Pat Rafter in the final? We will never know. I can't deny the fact that it's a disappointment that Tim never won Wimbledon - it is, and I'm sure it is for him too. To place the blame at Henman's door, however, and to imply that he could somehow have achieved more by trying harder couldn't be further from the truth (this was a man who gave his all). He maximised his potential and maybe even surpassed it (if such a thing is possible). All in all, surely his career is one worth celebrating, rather than grumbling about. Although he's not one of the all-time greats of tennis, he was without doubt a very good player. In the words of Jonathan Overend of the BBC: "Tim Henman, failure? Get a life."

(Other articles on Henman that I like:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A26241211
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article2517935.ece)

Vacation's Over

October. But the weather has changed so sharply that it almost feels like December. Time to end my blogging draught and write some more I think. 21st May was the last time I posted on here - that's a long time ago - around 130 days ago (not that I counted!). During the summer, it could be said, life took over and writing was put on the back burner, but now I feel the urge to write once more. So this post is just to say "hello, I'm back". And this time I'm going to export my writings to facebook as well (with the loose aims of increasing my readership [from zero this shouldn't be hard!] and generating more discussion, although this may mean that I have to think about what I write more carefully ... hmm). Where to start? Well, I thought I'd start with a couple of sports-related posts. Watch this space ...

Tony Blair

I was glued to the tv and radio when Tony Blair announced the other week that he's to stand down on 27th June.

First, I listened to his farewell speech live on the radio (because, being a job-hunter, I had nothing better to do at that time of day, other than job applications!). Then I listened to the pundits' feedback on the radio, and read about Blair's departure online. That evening I watched every flavour of news on offer: BBC, ITV, Channel 4, probably even Sky. Then I watched 2 or 3 tv programmes reflecting on his departure: Question Time and The Big Talk (I think this was the 2nd programme's title) were a couple of them.

I don't really follow politics all that closely, so why the sudden interest? The last time I was so fascinated by goings-on in parliament was around the time of the last election and Live-8. Why was I so gripped then?

Well, he has been the prime minister of my youth. Tony Blair came to power when I was 12. I had just started secondary school. Before this time I knew little of politics, other than that John Major was boss of the country. I've grown up with Tony Blair in charge, so it's going to be strange without him there.

I think that's why I was so struck by Blair's departure (even though everyone knew it was coming). I wanted to reflect on 10 years of Blair, as seemingly did everyone else. Everyone was queuing up to give "their verdict" on Tony Blair as PM, his achievements and his legacy. As far as I'm aware the front page of The Independent (at the top of this post) summed up how a lot of people (possibly the majority?) feel. I thought that this front page was extremely clever - a really ingenius way of pushing the view that Iraq has overshadowed all of Tony Blair's other achievements - but I'm not sure that I totally agree with it.

What's my verdict on Tony Blair then? I think on the whole he was good for the country. Britain could be in a much worse state than it is at the moment. Things like education, health and the economy are difficult nuts to crack, but I think his government has made progress in all of these areas and managed to focus to a fair extent on issues that were previously neglected, such as the environment and global poverty.

Yes, they could have done much better, but they could also have done much worse. On the whole I think they have done a good number of positive things. A lot of people seem very quick to criticise and to call Tony Blair a disaster. It's very easy to criticise though, and impossible to please everyone.

I don't think Iraq overshadows all of this good work, though it does undoubtedly leave a black mark on Tony Blair's copy book. Whilst I think the war there was wrong, I admire Tony Blair for doing what he thought was right. I think there was a lot of spin surrounding the reason that we went into Iraq (where are the weapons of mass destruction? - it was nothing to do with that - it was more to do with regime change), so I wish Tony Blair had been a lot more up-front about that. He did, however, do what he thought was correct, which was a tough thing to do with 1 million people marching the streets of London against the Iraq war.

Some pundits have been suggesting that Tony Blair's legacy can be summed up in 2 words: David Cameron. It wouldn't surprise me at all if in a couple of years time David Cameron was the new PM. I could be wrong, but I struggle to see people getting on with Gordon Brown as well as with Tony Blair. One thing that Tony Blair had was charisma. He really connected with the people and spoke some carefully chosen words at exciting or traumatic times. For me some of the memories of Tony Blair that stick in my head are: his poignant speech after the death of Princess Diana, his involvement in the Olympic bid and his reassuring speech on the day of 7/7. All moments when he really connected with the people of the UK. And I think now his departure speech on 10th May can be added to that collection. As he said, he did what he "thought was right". He had the content (policies) to go with his charisma, and did a lot of good, although he undoubtedly made mistakes. I don't think he made as many as some people claim though. As I said earlier, you can't please everyone.

Errands

At times job-hunting isn't much fun. My typical day at the moment sees me stuck in the house for the most part (on the web and phoning), with me adding some kind of not-so-important errand to the day to make sure I get out of the house. For example, in my first week of job-hunting since finishing my internship, I did something like the following:

Monday: Went to the post-office
Tuesday: Went to post something through someone's door in the village
Wednesday: Went for a walk
Thursday: Went for a run for an hour or so
Friday: Went shopping to buy a new shirt

I did go to some stuff in the evenings (which meant that I kept up a little bit of 'people contact' - always nice!), so perhaps the above is a little bit misleading. Suffice to say, I didn't get out of the house much during the day though! By the way, I like the word "errand" - I'm not too sure why, but I like the sound of it. Even if "running" them is not always as fun. (Just out of interest, why do we 'run' errands? Can they not be done walking?!)

[Currently listening to: Snow Patrol - Signal Fire;
The Enemy - Away From Here (see music player on rhs)]

Virginia Tech

I found the following (written by a member of a US Christian band, Superchick) to be thought provoking. Worth a read:

"When I was a kid at camp, you had to go with a buddy if you wanted to swim in the lake – and you had to stay with him the entire time you were in the water. If you lost you buddy, you had to tell the lifeguard and he would blow the whistle and everyone would have to stop swimming until your buddy was found. Lakes aren’t pools; you can’t see under the surface. With a hundred kids in the lake, this was a good way to make sure that no one slipped under, unnoticed. The lesson was clear: swimming in the lake could be dangerous, but together, we could watch out for one another. No one would go in alone.

I wish we had a buddy system for life.

We can’t change what happened at Virginia Tech. We can’t change what happened at Columbine. But maybe we can change the lives of the people around us. We shouldn’t need tragedies to remind us that people are sad, broken and aching. The world is our family. If you notice someone alone or hurting or lost, reach out to them. Give of yourself. Heal the wounds inflicted by others. Replace hurt with kindness before hate grows in the empty space where love should be.

Pray that your eyes are opened to those who need your love in their life. We have the power to make huge changes in society with our tiny lives. Make your life about something more than you. All around you, people need you.

Let no one slip under the water, unnoticed.

Peace and brotherlove,
Max
Superchick"

Train Tales

Ok, so a couple of tales about things that have happened to me on trains or at stations recently. All in the last 2 days in fact, to be more specific.

Why is it that so many interesting things happen on trains? One of my current favourite (observational) comedians, Mark Watson, seems to draw a good deal of his material from train journeys that he's been on. I guess it's essentially because if you go on a busy train there's such a broad cross-section of people there that from time to time interesting stuff is bound to happen. And that's despite our English tendencies to be very reserved and negatively polite with strangers.

• So yesterday 2 things happened. Firstly, when I got on my train a family got separated. The kids got on the train, but the doors slammed shut before the mum and her pushchair could join them. Of the 3 kids one of them then proceeded to throw a panic tantrum, jumping up and down and crying and screaming (yes, the little girl) whilst the eldest child calmly reassured her and told her not to panic and that everything would be ok. Sure enough at the next station they got off and London Underground staff took care of the situation.

This reminded me of times that I got split up from my parents when I was little. Alas, being the eldest child, I didn't have an older sibling to reassure me. I seem to remember thinking my world was going to end when I was about 5 and got separated from my parents in Boots or somewhere ... only to find that they were just around the corner anyway. I'm sure if I returned to the same store today I'd find that it's tiny and only has about 3 aisles, but when you're so little the world seems so big and imposing!

• My second story from yesterday involves me in more than an observational capacity. Having not done a sudoku for ages I for some reason quite fancied attempting one yesterday when I got my free newspaper. I struggled a bit near the start, but as time went by and I got a few numbers I got more and more engrossed. Until IT happened.

I looked up from my sudoku just as the tube doors were making that "beep beep beep" noise meaning they were about to shut. To my horror my eyes latched on to the station name through the window. It was my stop. I did a double take. It was definitely my stop. How did we get here so quick?! I flinched as if to make a last-gasp dash for the door but hastily changed my mind. "No," I thought, "you'll only succeed in making yourself look like a moron". My reputation was at stake you see. Not that these people knew me, but nonetheless I was unwilling to swallow my pride and make a dash for the doors when it was so unlikely to be successful.

So instead I tried to stay calm, act as if nothing had happened and hope that the person sitting opposite me hadn't realised 1) how much I'd panicked in that split second and 2) that he was sitting opposite some kind of nutcase who valued getting home as far less significant than completing a simplistic puzzle in a free newspaper. (If I was to guess I think she knew, but being British strangers on a train, of course we didn't talk about it - but it annoys me even now that I think she realised!)

So I went on to the next station before getting a train back to the previous station. The only good thing about this was that it allowed me to complete both the 'easy' and the 'medium' sudokus due to my extended journey. The difficult one awaits me on a day when I'm feeling more daring! Ooh, living dangerously here ... the 'difficult' sudoku .... whatever next?! (and in case it's not obvious that last sentence is meant to be drenched in sarcasm!)

• Now on to today, and I hope I don't disappoint you by telling you that this story is from on a platform rather than on a train! As I was waiting for my train a lady near me was speaking extremely loudly into her mobile phone. And despite her moderately strong accent (though I don't recall the region it was from) it was crystal clear what she was talking about. She was talking to a lady (by the sounds of things, quite conceivably her daughter) and suggesting quite strongly that she gave a second thought to her upcoming marriage. What was said (and bear in mind this is just one end of the conversation) went a little like this:

"You need to think about whether you want to spend the rest of your life with a man who's a control freak ... cos he won't change, he'll carry on controlling for you ... it's not too late to pull out you know ... I mean everything's booked, but I'll pay for it if you cancel ... I just don't want you making a massive mistake."

In particularly the "he'll carry on controlling you" bit went on for quite a while. The lady on the other end of the line clearly didn't agree with this. So it was repeated several times, each way phrased slightly differently, with an increase in volume on each occasion.

So why did I find this worth re-telling? Merely because I found it quite shocking that this lady was talking about this in such a manner in such a public place. Perhaps it would be appropriate for her to raise her concerns about the impending marriage as marriage is a serious commitment and not one that should be taken lightly. I admire her integrity - she's obviously not afraid to make her views known. But to talk about this so vociferously in public?

I half tried not to listen (cos I felt like I was eavesdropping) and half tried to listen (as I was so intrigued!). In the end listening won the day, although I made sure I deliberately looked the other way as I just know that if I looked anywhere near her I'd have ended up staring at her! Anyway, I found that most interesting - the very situation for which the phrase "washing your dirty laundry in public" was invented.

Map of Countries I've Visited

I've just come across the site that let's you make one of these and thought it was pretty cool. Would be interested to see other peoples ...

Oh, and before anyone asks, I have NOT been to Hawaii. Ever. :( It seems it's classed as part of the United States by the website though.

(Below it's cut off the right of the map and I can't be bothered to fix it right now - if you want to see my full map then look on my facebook blog)


visited 15 countries (6%)

create your own visited countries map

[Currently listening to: Relient K - The Best Thing (see music player on rhs)]

Consistently Inconsistent

I seem to very inconsistent in terms of when I blog. I have a little intensive spell for a few days/weeks, then there's a big silence from me for months. I haven't posted here for ages. Hello? Anyone still out there? ;)

Anyone who actually reads this thing must get terribly frustrated by this - oh well, I'll try and have a blogging spell over the next few days.

Then I'll probably decide that blogging isn't the best thing in the world after all and become decidedly apathetic about it for quite some time. Blogging: it ebbs and flows (hope that's a correct use of that expression, cos I've never fully understood what it means!).

The Truth

So I was watching a bit of tv yesterday (the football highlights, what else?) and a trailer for a new BBC programme called "The Verdict" came on (think it started yesterday or today - don't really know). Whilst the trailer itself looked quite good, and I might actually watch the programme if I happen to be free when it's on, although that's unlikely as I don't watch much tv nowadays, there was something else that got to me. The tag-line really bothered me:

"The truth is what you choose to believe"

- which, when you think about it, is absolute nonsense. The truth is not what you choose to believe. Surely whatever you believe there's only one truth. You might believe something to be true, but that doesn't necessarily make it true! I just felt this was typical of the pluralistic society that we're living in nowadays, where someone can say: "well that's fine for you - that's your truth - I'll decide on my own truth thanks". Surely we should be looking at the evidence as closely as possible and trying to make an informed decision as what THE truth is? And this surely applies all the more in a court-room type situation, as I gather "The Verdict" is based around. Whilst its not always possible to prove something is 100% true (especially in court), anything short of a proper effort to get at THE truth is potentially misleading yourself. Anyway, that was just something that annoyed me a good deal.

[Currently listening to: The Fray - How to Save a Life (see music player on rhs)]

Visit Britain ... and ask your ridiculous questions

The other day I read one of the funniest things that I've read in a long time. It was a list of some of the craziest questions asked to VisitBritain (the British tourist board last year) by tourists arriving in Britain in 2006. The list included:

"Are there any lakes in the Lake District?"

"Can you tell me who performs at the circus in Picadilly?"

"What is the entry fee for Brighton?"

"Why did they build Windsor Castle on the flight path of Heathrow?"
(Surely this could only have been asked by an American!)

"What tube line runs to Edinburgh?"

and my personal favourite:
"Is Wales closed during the Winter?"

Hehe. Those made me laugh a lot. Fair play to the people for asking though: if you don't ask, you may never know! They could, however, have engaged their brains a little more before they asked!

5 of each

Some of my current favourite things in the world:
• Revels
• Wikipedia
• Coke Zero
• Musicals
• Razorlight

Some of my current least favourite things in the world:
• People who use "off of" as part of a sentence
• Bad grammar use in general (by native speakers who should know better anyway)
• Having to work weekends
• White Maltesers
• Not having played in a proper football match since mid-November ... in fact, that's probably worst of the lot

Everything seems to come in 5s in my blogging at the moment. I think I should try to break the trend next time around.

5 Exciting Things

I think I'll tell you about 5 exciting things that happened to me today. I've recently started a new temporary (whilst I continue to apply for other stuff) job at Harrods in case you didn't know and so far I'm quite enjoying it. Here's some of the things that happened today ...

1 I encountered my first out-and-out fraud case
Clearly I can't write too much about this due to data protection laws and what-not but I'll see what I can say. Basically I encountered a definite fraud for the first time. I was phoning a customer to verify his order so that we could authorise his card (just nod and smile if this is techno-babble to you) and for the first time encountered a customer who knew nothing of the order that had been place. When I told them which card the purchase had been paid for on I was met with the response, "but he doesn't even have a mastercard!". Clearly not a very good fraudster then, more like a prankster. Whoever it was it seems they'd obtained a legitimate name and address but then completely made up a credit card number to go with them. As if that was going to be successful. Not very professional (if you could ever call fraud "professional").

2 The Santa's Grotto had to be closed cos it was too busy
Not sure how this decision was received. Not so well I'd imagine. How do you cope when there's too many people to see Santa and people are getting annoyed by the crowds? Yep, close the whole thing so that no-one can see Santa. Oh well, I trust the relevant Harrods people knew what they were doing. If I was an excitable 4-year old though, hearing that I wouldn't be able to see Santa after all would not go down too well with me.

3 I had my first experience of giving a customer directions
Yep. I don't get many opportunities to do this as I work in an office just off the shop floor, but this afternoon as I was walking through the store I was asked where the teddy bears were. I was only too happy to oblige ... once I'd grabbed myself a store plan from a nearby desk to find out where the bears actually were!

4 There was a protest outside the store
I went out for a walk on the streets of London during my tea-break (like I do, cos I'm cool ;) ) and was surprised to see a smattering of protesters around the outside of the store protesting against fur. They had placards saying things such as "Stop the fur cruelty. Boycott Harrods." and were handing out leaflets. It was a rather small-scale demonstration: the protesters can't have numbered more than about 20 or so people and despite their best efforts to spread out, make some noise and hand out leaflets they were somewhat lost amongst the hundreds of people walking by the outside of Harrods. As I was walking towards some of the protesters the guy in front of me turned around saying "I'm not going that way - I'm wearing fur" and took a different route as he sought to avoid the protesters. Some of the protesters were dressed up as foxes. Interesting.

5 I momentarily took on the role of tour guide
On the train on the way into London this morning I was asked by a stranger what the landmark in the distance was. Overcoming the temptation to reply with some flippant remark like "Big Ben of course" I restrained myself and muttered that it was the new Wembley stadium. As the train got somewhat nearer to the stadium the 'askee' said "oh yes it is the new Wembley". Clearly he didn't believe me 100% when I told him. We exchanged a couple of humorous remarks about how it'll be a great stadium if it's ever finished. Then we went back to behaving in the way that us Brits always behave on public transport: minding our own business and pretending that nobody else exists.

So there you are, 5 exciting things that happened to me. Feel free to re-brand them as something like "5 vaguely interesting things that I wasted my time reading" if you wish. :)

CUs in the News

Christian Unions were the subject of a front-page article by the Times on Saturday, which is a bit unusual really. It's a subject close to my heart, having benefited from and really enjoyed 3 years being part of the CU during my time at Warwick.

There were also several articles discussing Christian Unions and religion at universities inside the Times and I thought that on the whole they gave a relatively balanced account of the current situation. The pick of the articles, I thought, was this one. A pretty neutral, sensible editorial about how tolerance needs to be a two-way thing. Anyway, check out the article and see what you think.