Who knows where does the time goes?

If you're ever stuck for a heading use a song title!

I can't believe we've come around to Friday again already. It's been a hectic week, with quite a large percentage of the activity being relevant to the subject in hand!!

I spent a large chunk of Wednesday going through my jobsearch-related emails, weeding out unwanted, out-of-date and irrelevant communications and unsubscribing from mailing lists that have been throwing up more chaff than wheat. I've cut back to, essentially, just my 'Indeed' search so I should be able to devote more time and effort to getting decent applications in for jobs that match my skills (as opposed to wading through deleting the irrelevant stuff that seems to materialise out of the ether.

(My skills, for any would-be employers who may have strayed into my web, are in the sphere of application software design and build. I've got a total of about 18 years commercial experience, using COBOL, Fortran and Cognos Powerhouse on a variety of platforms. I've recently also completed an evening course in C++ programming and object-oriented methodologies, which I'm itching to put to use!!)

Advert over!

We had a presentation from Ian Malcolmson of Computer Business Services at the Job Club yesterday. He was talking about the joys (and to an extent the pitfalls) of setting up a small business. Very interesting and thought-provoking, but not, I fear (I mean really fear), a direction I can see myself following.

Beth Simkin-Park (major HR person at Simplyhealth) has returned my CV with a number of very valid and worthwhile constructive criticisms. I now foresee some serious word-processor time coming up.... anything that improves the presented profile must be good! Many thanks indeed Beth!

This week's really good news is that HMRC have finally come up with most of the Family Tax Credits that have been due to us since my son started college in September - at last we're now two people living on two people's money (such as it is!)

Getting stuff done! (Written on Saturday but not posted because the library closed!)

Having taken Paul's advice to heart, I've spent a worthwhile hour this morning getting emails sent which I've been finding excuses not to! (The ordering of that sentence is far from perfect, but unpicking it would probably take longer than it's worth!) So I'm moving forward on a possible voluntary position that's been in limbo for a while (not entirely my fault!) and have chased up someone who's (very kindly) reviewing my CV for me - in the hope of getting a more effective version out into the world as soon as possible.

Also, it occurs to me that I haven't mentioned Nick Tynan, the driving force behind the Job Club, top photographer and all-round good guy, without whom this blog would never have existed).

Aaargh!!

I use indeed.co.uk as my primary searching tool - it usually sends me out a weekly email that throws up more than enough possibilities to give me plenty to do. Why though, does my search suddenly get marked 'paused' every few weeks. It's a real bind to have to reset it - their help desk insist it must be pausing because I junk their mails - why would I possibly do that????

Yesterday's Job Club Meeting etc

Sir George Young (our local MP) at North West Hampshire Job Club (Dec 22 2011) 

Right, to start on a positive note, we had a really stimulating meeting of the North West Hampshire Job Club yesterday. I think I'll just call it The Job Club in future if no one objects. (Too much typing!) Don't forget there is a link to http://northwesthampshirejobclub.weebly.com/ at the top of the page, Oh, there seems to be one here now as well...the wonders of modern technology!!

Paul Sherwood of Blueberry Coaching gave an excellent presentation on treating life processes (like job searching, setting up a business or even getting fit) more like professional projects. He stressed the importance of setting real goals, timeframes (even - dare I say it - deadlines). His enormous enthusiasm and good humour (and, no doubt, his utilisation of an excellent toolkit) combine to drive home points that I've previously managed to ignore/skirt around/hide in a hole at the bottom of the garden.)

I left the meeting full of enthusiasm to 'strike while the iron was hot' (I avoid cliches like the plague) in sending out some long-overdue emails, sorting out my vacancies and applications files and writing it all up for my (expanding?) readership. However, the usually excellent internet service provided by Hampshire County Council Libraries was not up to scratch in Andover yesterday. (Running like an arthritic tortoise if the truth be told!)

To add to the slight downward trend in the day, I then found myself unable to attend the networking event run by Julia Homan at Propaganda in Andover yesterday evening. Julia's a local HR guru, stalwart supporter of The Job Club and indefatigable putter-together of like-minded people (very often to everyone's benefit.)

However, I'll make a contract with myself (with the blogosphere as my witness) to make sure I have the forward planning in place to attend next time. (Do you see what I did there Paul?)

Must get on and do some actual job searching before I let writing this become yet another excuse for my lack of progress.

A worthwhile call from an agency!

I got a call from an agency yesterday while I was in the 'quiet' carriage of a train, and couldn't decipher her phone number from voicemail. However, I found an email from her this afternoon (I depend on my local library for internet access, and their system was down this morning!) Looks like a good opportunity, but she'd managed to get hold of an ill-advised version of my CV in which I'd been persuaded to conceal my current circumstances, so whether it'll go any further I don't know. Further news as it becomes available!

A blogging I will go!

So, after much procrastination, I decided that yesterday would be the day I would finally get around to starting to post to my jobsearch blog (brought to the world with the kind cooperation of North West Hampshire Job Club - of which much more later - link at top of page!)

This was, however, not to be, as I ended up spending the day hunting down my JSA (Job Seekers Allowance) payment, which had not arrived in my account. After much time listening to (I think) Spring from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, eventually a nice young lady informed me that 'Your automatic payment seems not to have gone through!' (I'd never have worked that out for myself!) The upshot was 'up to three working hours' waiting for a call from 'my colleagues in the payment office'.

Turns out that because HMRC have finally got around to sorting out my Child Tax Credit claim, this flagged up as an anomaly on my Jobseekers claim. The upshot was I got the payment just in time to not do much Job Seeking or blogging.

Right, thats that off my chest - next time, dear reader perhaps I'll get around to posting something about my day-to-day Job Seeking activities.......