Blogruary Day 1: The Survey Man

The MA degree that I am studying is supposed to prepare us for our first full-time, proper, real life job. I say that because we have classes from 9-5 every day. That is apart from Friday, which we have off.

The Drunken Job Offer

Thursday was a busy day for me. I handed in my first university assignment and I had to do a mock NCTJ exam in my multi-media reporting class. Once the class was over, all of us MA Journalism students did what journalists do best.

We hit the pub.

Fast-forward two hours and it was 6pm. I was chatting away after a number of pints of Fosters and then suddenly my phone started ringing.

I looked at my screen at it was an unknown. I didn't answer rationing that if it was important then the caller would leave a voice-mail.

To my surprise the caller had left a voice-mail. I popped in my headphones and listened to the message.

I took my headphones out and gasped. I pressed the call back option and I walked outside the pub.

The call lasted roughly ten minutes and I can't really much apart from the core details. The reason for that is that I was fairly tipsy at the time.

As you know from reading this blog, I am currently studying for a Master's degree in Journalism. I am paying £5,800 for this privilege.

The call I received was from confectionery giant United Biscuits. They were offering me a sales job worth £28,000 a year.

I applied for their graduate scheme last year when I was unsure what direction my life would take. I reached the penultimate stage but am now considered worthy of a sales role with their company.

In my drunken haze I said I would call back if I wanted to take the offer but I've yet to.

Essentially, I have turned down £28,000 to give a university £5,800 instead. Am I mad?

The Next Step

Today is my Mum's birthday. I woke up early and wrote the card that I brought and placed it with the wine and Belgian chocolate that I purchased from her favourite shop, Marks and Spencer's.

I went downstairs to the living room, having prepared my best "Happy Birthday!" shout to really remind my Mum that it was her birthday. I felt it was important to remind her of that.

My Dad immediately said, "Mum's out shopping".

I made myself a cup of tea and kept the presents in their waiting place.

After finishing my morning beverage, my Mum eventually returned. I yelped "Happy Birthday!" as she walked through the door and I thrust the M&S goodies into her hand.

"Wine and chocolate! You know me so well!"

I would like to point out, my Mum isn't an alcoholic or a lady of rotund size despite what she just said. She doesn't live off wine and chocolate. That would be slightly odd.

She then proceeded to give me some bad news.

"When I was out, I stopped your direct debit."

"FUCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!" I thought loudly in my head.

Let me fill you in. Just before I started university, my parent's had managed to pay off their mortgage so they decided that they would give me money every month to cover my living and personal costs instead of taking out student loans.

Their generous money had lasted me three years and I counted down every day until the next batch of monetary juice would flow into my account.

However, as my parent's are paying for my Master's degree they decided that they would cut down this allowance to the exact amount of my phone and gym contract.

Today was the day it stopped.

This news has forced me onto the next step. Whereas before, part-time work was something that I occasionally did which provided me with money to spend on little gifts for myself. Now, I will have to work to fund any fragment of social life.

I guess that is my next step of adulthood but I will now be pretty poor for the next year and I will probably be forced to shop in places such as the 99p Store and Primark.

RIP to my monthly allowance. You served me well, you will be missed.

The Job Rejection

It's a typical Wednesday morning for me. I'm at a computer in the university library casually checking my e-mails when I notice that I have a bundle of new mail waiting for me to read. The majority of it is spam or job advertisements, hardly what you can call exciting stuff. Then I see it. It is sitting there in my inbox and I know my fate will be sealed with this single e-mail.

I open the e-mail and I pray. Well, I didn't really pray as that would probably look a bit strange at 10AM in a university library. I scanned through the writing and I was most pleased by the opening compliment of having an "impressive background and experience" but then I saw those fateful words that spelt out my doom, "we have decided on this occasion and after careful consideration not to take your application further".

Drats. I had been rejected for a job by Lidl. Yes, that cheap German supermarket.

I've just realised that you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Well, let me fill you in. As I am a final year undergraduate student, I am currently spending large portions of my time applying for graduate schemes so that I have a well paid job once my time at university comes to an end. On this occasion, I had reached an Assessment Centre for a Graduate Store Manager role with Lidl but I had subsequently failed to reach the next round of the process.

I've suffered a lot of rejection so far but I thought that once I reached an Assessment Centre my personality would shine through and they would offer me the job there and then. Well, perhaps not right there and then. Heck, they even said in the rejection e-mail that they liked my personality. I decided that something must be up, there must be some reason as to why I'm getting nowhere in my job hunt. Then I figured out exactly why.

Cosmic ordering. Of course.

I was stumbling around the internet when I came across a link about Noel Edmonds telling the world about how he believed that cosmic ordering had landed him the plum role as the host of Deal or No Deal. For those who are uncertain as to what cosmic ordering is, well Wikipedia says that "a person can simply write down their wish list and wait for it to become reality" as long as "individuals can use their desires to connect with the cosmos".

Whether it has any solid scientific grounding is slightly questionnable, but if it's good enough for Noel Edmonds then it's good enough for me. Now that is sound logic.

I wrote my wish list down and I spent some time that morning trying to connect my desires with the cosmos.

Later that evening I recieved another e-mail. It was an offer of a telephone interview for a Graduate Management scheme from a well known hotel chain.

That wasn't on my wish list. This cosmic ordering lark clearly wasn't working.

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