This is shaping up to be quite the week. I interviewed at Carat last week and thought I did quite well. Turns out I was right! I was called today by their HR rep and was offered the job! I start on Thursday!!
I finally have a job!!! I'm ecstatic. Hence the exclamation marks. I haven't been able to contain my happiness and smiles all day long.
On top of that, I booked a day of supply work on Wednesday that I'm still gonna do despite the fact that I start at Carat on Thursday. And on Wednesday, I'm also going to see my favorite band alive, The Used.
So let's recap. Work. Concert. WORK. Drinks with friends. Amazing week. Yes? Yes.
(Oh and here is a link to the company website so you can see for yourself where I'll be working - http://www.carat.co.uk/index.php)
Alrighty, so first and foremost, the lack of blog updates? This is due to a lack of things happening right now. There's only so many posts I can make about going to the cinema or watching TV at home. The job front came to a stand still for the last 2 weeks BUT fortunately came booming back this week. This is ironic because this was the week I was going to start making calls for supply work but now I don't have time!
Today I had to go in and do some testing for the first round of interview for an administrative job at Carat (pronounced Cara - it's French). It's an entry level job where I'd be working on a team of administrators assisting the TV buyers for the company. They're the ones who buy advertising space, etc for TV (obviously). Anyway, I made it through testing and have an assessment day on Thursday. I'm really hoping this works out for 2 reasons. 1) I want the job and 2) this just happens to be the company that Lou works for! And that would be amazing. She's told me nothing but good things about it as a company and the perks are supposed to be pretty great.
While I was at testing, one of my non-teaching agencies called about an interview day tomorrow for a sales role within telecommunications. So tomorrow I have that all morning. And then directly afterwards I have to go and register with yet another teaching agency (keeping my options open). And then Thursday is the assessment centre.
Busy busy week! I also have plans for Friday with my 2 new teacher friends, the Aussie and the Kiwi. I should really just refer to them as Team South Pacific. That's what I call them in real life anyway! They're lovely girls and it's nice to have some other people to chat with and have to call on.
Anyway, that's it for this post. I will keep you all posted on any progress on the job front - keep crossing those fingers! (They probably hurt by now seeing as it's been 2 months of no job). Love you all and miss you! xxx
A boot = a trunk. Just another vocabulary lesson from Paige.
Just thought I'd do a quick update - this weekend was a Bank Holiday, or as we Canadians know as a statutory holiday. It was actually quite eventful.
On Friday, I went to a pub in central London where one of my teaching agencies was having a welcome night for their international teachers. I met 2 girls there - 1 aussie and 1 Kiwi. We got on quite well and decided to go out afterwards. We met up with the Kiwi's flatmates, who were also from New Zealand, at a pub called The Walkabout. It's a franchised type place, basically Australian themed pubs. It was an amazing night! They were really cool people and it's nice to have met others in my shoes. Definitely will be keeping in touch with them.
Then on Saturday, Lou and I went out to Sussex for a barbeque. One of Lou's friends from university has this barbeque every year out at her parents' place in Battle. It was so nice! It felt a lot like going out to the lake because we were out in the countryside. After living in London for 2 months, you forget what space and trees and such look like! We had a wicked time and had loads of fun.
To cap off the weekend, Lou and I spent most of our time watching films and staying in. Despite the beautiful weather, we wanted to just chill out a bit.
Now I'm off to meet Lou for lunch. In terms of the job front, it basically is as follows. No job. But school's back in on Thursday so supply teaching should theoretically start pretty soon. I say theoretically only because it's quite slow for supply teaching at the beginning of the school year. So my plan is to get a retail job for September-October, use my days off to do a few days of supply then move to full time supply come November. I have an interview for a sales assistant job at the shop in Westminster Abbey which doesn't pay too horribly (about the equivalent of 13$CA an hour) and it would be quite cool to work there! I've also applied at Vodafone, which is basically a UK equivalent of Telus. And that would be in Wimbledon which is quite close to me. So fingers crossed that come next week I'll be working. If I get the job at Westminster it starts Monday. NO MORE BOREDOM!
Miss you all and hope you all have a great September Long Weekend!
Well, it's been a few days since I last updated and I've been keeping busy! Nothing job related - I decided to take a few days off seeing as it was Lou's birthday last week and she took time off from work. So mostly I spent my time helping her get set up for her party on Saturday night.
Last Wednesday was Lou's actual birthday and her brother cooked dinner for her and invited me to tag along. It was wicked. Lovely dinner with her brother and his wife. They were amazingly cool and we got on quite well. So that was definitely a highlight of the week.
Let's skip to Saturday. Had loads of people over at Lou's. The party was themed and everybody was to dress as something starting with a P. I went as a Pink Lady. Lou was a pilot. There was a prom queen, Pocahontas and a peacock among other things. We all had a wicked time and I got to meet a lot of new, nice people. One of which was a girl called Becca and she's one of Lou's best friends from university. She's invited me to come along with Lou to her birthday party this upcoming weekend out in Sussex. I'm stoked! I get to see yet another little slice of England.
The only other news I have is that I've been enthralled in True Blood and that my flatmate, Ken, is amazing. He handed me his external hard drive today and let me copy loads of movies over to my computer. So now, I have about 15 new movies to watch. And you all know me well enough to know of my fondness of film and seeing as I only brought 24 of my 200, I'm happy for new ones.
Love you all and miss you. And happy birthday Mom!
Again, it's been a while since my last post but I haven't really done a whole lot. Pretty much been doing the same thing as I was a week ago! Just been keeping busy with job interviews and assessment centres. It's been a good experience in the way that I'm only getting better at it but I still have not gotten a job. It's ridiculously competitive! I have to keep reminding myself that there's 400,000 grads that have just been released by the UK. All looking for jobs and all crazy Type-A high flyers. But I've made it through to the end of a few interview processes, which I guess is a success in itself. Oh well. Just gotta keep pushing. If anything, school starts in about 2 weeks so I can start supply teaching to make some money! Plus, it's really not that bad of money!
I chatted with Lindsey and she wants to come over here in November. So excited! She'll probably stay for 2 weeks - in which we'll obviously explore London and go to Paris for a few days. I can not even explain to you how stoked I am. I can not wait to go back to France! Plus, it'll be so cool for somebody to come visit. I keep forgetting I live in London.
It's Lou's birthday this week so we're busy with that. Her brother is cooking dinner for her tonight and he's invited me to join. I'm sure it'll be amazing. She's got the next couple days off so we'll be busy getting ready for her birthday party on Saturday. It's brought to you by the letter "P" so everybody has to dress up in something starting with the letter P. I'm going as a Pink Lady from Grease. It'll be amazing.
Anyway, I gotta go get ready to meet Lou for lunch. Then I'm off to register with another teaching agency - keeping all my options open.
I have had a lovely weekend! I'm writing this right now as I sit in the garden (aka backyard) with a pint of cider and my sunglasses on. The weather has been fantastic this weekend -- all sun, no rain. I decided to take my mind off things for the weekend and give the job hunt a rest. I have conceded to the idea that it will take time to find a job and there's no sense in worrying about it. Most people I've met have spent 2 months finding work in London, so I shall not fret ... yet.
I didn't get the job at Haymarket, but to my credit I made it to the last round of interviews, which is a huge deal considering this was my first ever career related job interview. I'll take what I can from it and move on. I had an interview with Nielsen (think Billboard magazine and Soundscan, etc) and it went well, in my eyes. Apparently though they weren't as happy with the group that my agency sent -- which might I add was 6 people. Not one of us 6 made it to the second interview. This I blame on them because the interview was only 40 minutes, divide that by 6 and you don't get a lot out of us! Most group interviews take 2-3 hours so the fact that this one was just over half an hour said a lot. Even my recruiter was confused. She has told me to contact her on Monday though and we'll set up a new interview this week. It's awesome now that I've been registered with an agency. They want to get me a job because me getting a job means they get paid. So yay.
I went to a lovely dinner party on Friday and it was illuminating. How so? I've discovered that any sort of "formal" event that you're invited to is really just a front for "Let's all drink!" Dinner parties, baby christenings, you name it. The Brits like them a pint or two.
Anyway, just thought I'd give a quick update -- I'm off to enjoy the lovely weather and my pint of Magner's.
Oh and P.S. I added a slideshow to the side of my blog that I'll keep updated as best I can with new photos. Love you and miss you all. xxx
It has definitely been a little while since my last post and I come to you know with teeny bits of news. I've been quite busy the past few days, what with interviews and moving.
So first off, move in. On Saturday, I moved into my flat! Finally. It's awesome. I love my room, with a few exceptions (more on that later). I went to Sainsbury's, which I equate to Superstore, and picked up a duvet, pillows, towels, etc for my room. I got a nice black and white duvet but because they don't have dryers here (unless you own a house) I didn't wash it right away. Bad idea. I woke up and my hands were black. Other than though, I love it. Super comfy. It was nice getting stuff to make it feel like my room. I think I'm gonna have to print off some pictures and put them up to remind me of home.
The downside of the room? It has a big bay window with white curtains making it impossible to sleep in. On Sunday, I woke up at 6 am thanks to the bright shiny sun. This will only be a problem every other day seeing as London likes to alternate sun with rain and gloom. The other downside to this room is that I face the street. London has a problem with foxes in that they live in the city. Hardcore foxes. I don't know where the sleep or live for that matter, but at night they like to roam the streets, picking through rubbish and making their disgusting mating noises. I've posted a link to a video to demonstrate said noises. In a nutshell, it sounds as though babies are being murdered. This was not a pleasant thing to discover at 3:30 in the morning on Monday. I woke up thinking that somebody was dying outside my window. It took me about 10 minutes to realize it was the bloody foxes.
Play the video for yourself and listen in horror as the fox imitates the death of a small child. That's about it about the flat. My flatmates are incredibly nice, which has made it a very nice experience thus far. I'm writing this from the garden/backyard, which is by far my favorite aspect of the flat. It's all decked and just lovely (as per photos I posted previously).
Now onto the job front. I've had 5 interviews, yes 5, in the past 3 working days. Yesterday I fell asleep on the tube ride home because I had 3 back to back interviews consume my day. I don't think the job with Haymarket worked out but I have yet to hear back from them. They like to take their time here getting back to people. When Lou got her first job in media it took the company 3 weeks to let her know. Anyway, the most important one was with a recruitment agency. They took my info and said my CV looked fantastic so they have set up a couple interviews for me this week within media sales. Right now I'm swimming in a sea of job applications and interviews, but it only gives me hope that someone, somewhere will want to hire me. So please, continue to cross your fingers for me!
Anyway, I'm off to make a few calls and probably head to the supermarket to sort out dinner. Love you all and miss you. xxx
