Since my first post on this topic a few days ago, a few things have happened. No, I haven’t managed to find a job (obviously) but I have applied for four of the slippery little buggers and have promptly and curtly been rejected from the lot. This doesn’t really surprise or bother me considering that I wasn’t particularly qualified or experienced enough for any of the four, and riles me even less when I consider how little I wanted even one of them.
Whilst not mourning the loss of potential employment, I am pretty miffed about the amount of time I wasted in applying through the overly lengthy, mind-screwingly boring application procedures, one of which took over three hours to complete.“Think of a time you worked as a team to achieve success. What happened and what was the result? Think of a time you used your analytical skills to solve a problem. What happened and what was the result? Think of a time you got so frustrated with ineffective, application-sifting questions that you went mental and took to the streets with a rusty kitchen knife. What happened and what was the result?”. Boom. The sound you just heard was my brain falling out.
You might be taking from this post that I’m not actually interested in finding a job at all. This is, in part, true (who wouldn’t sit in their comfies and play Little Big Planet all day if they could?) but not entirely…I just find it particularly difficult to feign excitement for something I would literally hate spending the rest of my life mindlessly performing. I think perhaps I believed my Primary School teacher a bit too readily when she told us that we could be anything we wanted to be, and I suspect that most people woke up to the reality of this (the reality being that, quite simply, we can’t) earlier than I did. At 26 and only just accepting that my dreams of being a creative writer/quaint bookshop and cafe owner probably won’t be realised, I’m somewhat behind the curve.
What I should do at this point is suck it up and throw myself feet first into finding a job I don’t love, don’t care for and possibly dislike immensely. What I am going to do, however, is put off real life a little bit longer and plan on beginning a Secondary English PGCE in September 2014. I’ve toyed with this idea for a while but didn’t, until very recently and thanks to a teaching super-friend, realise that it was a financially viable possibility if only I’m willing to extend my (already astronomical) student loan. Which obviously I am, as there’s little hope of me ever fully paying it off as it is*.
*Are people like me the problem with this country? You may well think so. Will I ever manage to get a reasonable job otherwise? Almost certainly not. Not, all things considered, a difficult decision to make.
You may be wondering why I’m not launching myself straight into the PGCE this coming September, places as there still are at my University of choice. Firstly, I’m not totally convinced and would like some volunteer experience in a UK school first. Secondly, I’m getting married in June and should probably anticipate that being something of a time-suck closer to the date, not to mention being considerably more stressful that it is at the moment. Thirdly and finally, I’m currently residing an hour away from the city I want to live and study in, so I should probably get some sleeping arrangements locked down before I sign up to anything. Sensible, huh? I must be getting old.
So, friends, that’s where I’m at. I’m more definite on doing an English PGCE than I thought I would be a month ago, and certainly more happy with the idea than I am at the thought of anything else. That said, a couple of years ago I was adamant that I’d do a Photography Masters despite having very little experience and not owning a camera, so I have to take into account that sometimes I’m a moron prone to regrettable decisions.
This is the end of Part Two! Join me again for Part Three, where I inevitably doubt my own life choices and scrabble to find a job to keep myself alive until September next year…
…shit, I achieved nothing with this post.
