Job hunting

[Damini]

Minimum wage officially sucks. It feels like trying to bail out a sinking boat with a thimble and a sponge, while wearing a name badge. So, back to the job hunting. Do any of you guys have any job websites you recommend? Or a place where you can upload a CV and have potential employers look you up? I just know there's someone out there twitching to hire a dyslexic ex-stand up comedian with a drama degree who's written children's books and once got sacked from a paper round for getting lost. Every day.

THEY JUST NEED TO FIND ME.

 

[DaGaffer]

Erm, normally I'd recommend LinkedIn (its certainly the first stop for any headhunters who call me these days), but its generally quite business-y, is there a LinkedIn alternative for arty types I wonder?

 

[Zenith.UK]

Jobsite UK – 1000s UK Jobs, Start your Job Search or Recruitment Now
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Jobcentre Plus

Those are my first usual stops.
I've not actively looked for a job for a number of years though so I can't give you much help with how the market works these days.

 

[Nate]

drama degree, children, teacher?

 

[Chilly]

Nate...would you want kids going near damini? they'd come out as mad as her!

 

[Nate]

But they could act normal with her dramatical skills

 

[Damini]

I've thought about teaching Nate, but I'd hate to be a drama teacher, and with English I think I'd struggle with all the reading (certainly didn't manage to do it when I was a student). My grammar is really haphazard as well, so I'd not be in a position to correct other people's work. Also, they're talking about rejigging the english GCSE to remove all creative writing elements from it - something which makes the writer in me feel like crying.

 

[Damini]

Also - the more I go into schools, the less I want to become a teacher. God knows how people manage it as a career. Unless you get into a grammar or private school, it's sheer hell.

 

[Aoami]

Do you live in Canterbury?

I've just got a job with Patisserie Valerie which is opening on wednesday and is still recruiting afaik. It's not going to be the most exciting of jobs, but the pay is better than minimum wage, the hours are alright and it's a peice of piss.

 

[Chilly]

Do you live in Canterbury?

I've just got a job with Patisserie Valerie which is opening on wednesday and is still recruiting afaik. It's not going to be the most exciting of jobs, but the pay is better than minimum wage, the hours are alright and it's a peice of piss.

FREE CAKE


clearly the only perk worth considering.

 

[Tom]

Plus, working in a place like that you could leave copies of your books lying around for the customers Like some places have local artist's work on the walls...

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Minimum wage officially sucks. It feels like trying to bail out a sinking boat with a thimble and a sponge, while wearing a name badge. So, back to the job hunting. Do any of you guys have any job websites you recommend? Or a place where you can upload a CV and have potential employers look you up? I just know there's someone out there twitching to hire a dyslexic ex-stand up comedian with a drama degree who's written children's books and once got sacked from a paper round for getting lost. Every day.

THEY JUST NEED TO FIND ME.

I know someone who knows someone, etc. No promises, I'll put out some feelers.

 

[Damini]

Well, I've joined linkedin. Not sure how much good it will do, since writing is a rather insulated profession, and my cats don't have a page.

Aoami - thanks for the heads up I'll look into that - to be honest though, if it's not a massive difference in wages I might just stay put as everyone where I work is lovely, and I also have bonded with the 30% discount. I just feel like I need to make the leap into something either career wise, or capatalist whore wise. And my brain is dying there. Dying. Last night I had a dream about selling tables, and once I realised I'd been working for twenty minutes and hadn't even bothered focusing my eyes.

Chilly - [nerd] I heard the cake was a lie? [/nerd]

Roo - much obliged either way

 

[ECA]

Why don't you stand in the street throwing books at people and when you hit them claim they damaged your property and have to buy it ?

I don't see how it could possibly go wrong.

 

[Damini]

Ninja throwing star - now with added prose!

 

[00dave]

I just know there's someone out there twitching to hire a dyslexic ex-stand up comedian with a drama degree who's written children's books and once got sacked from a paper round for getting lost. Every day.

THEY JUST NEED TO FIND ME.

You forgot part time crime fighter, it's important not to forget anything in your CV

 

[ECA]

Ninja throwing star - now with added prose!

I'm pretty sure getting hit by a hardcover on the head would hurt a lot more than a ninja throwing star.

Although it might be less stealthy and you definitely can't hold as many.

 

[Fweddy]

It would be easier to build a fort with the hardcovers though. They're perfect for both offence and defence.

 

[Chilly]

Last night I had a dream about selling tables, and once I realised I'd been working for twenty minutes and hadn't even bothered focusing my eyes.

lol

 

[xane]

LinkedIn is very business like, and dominated by IT professionals, unfortunately most of the jobs sites I use and can recommend are IT/Finance related, you can always resort to monster.co.uk, and local news websites are quite good for job hunting.

 

[Damini]

PC Gamer were looking for freelance writers in January. Sent them an email anyway in the hope that they're still looking (which is highly unlikely, bearing in mind that number of redundant writers out there). That would be awesome if they were though - getting paid to combine love of gaming and writing? Win.

I might have to stipulate no scary games though.

"Dear Sir. I would love to embark on your requested review of Left 4 Dead II. However, it makes my heart hurt, so instead I played some Black and White and taught my pet cow never to poop again. Yours Sincerely,

Damini x"

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Freelance games journalism is near impossible to make a proper living from, there's thousands of people trying to do it, and nearly everyone is shit.

 

[Damini]

Wasn't thinking proper living from it, more hookers and beer money!*




*cat food and bread

 

[russell]

Hang in there dude. Something will come up

 

[Wazzerphuk]

In that case give it a go, but be prepared to be ignored and rejected in favour of some spaccer who can't even construct a basic sentence and just continue to add words in without really thinking about where they're going or what point they're making or what it even was they were discussing at the beginning of the absurdly long, ironic mess that is this block of text, or shite, whatever your preference may be; after all it is personal preference, and personal preference is what makes people interesting, I could go on but I really am rather hungry, so fear I must stop this harangue on the subject of exactly nothing.

 

[Chilly]

In that case give it a go, but be prepared to be ignored and rejected in favour of some spaccer who can't even construct a basic sentence and just continue to add words in without really thinking about where they're going or what point they're making or what it even was they were discussing at the beginning of the absurdly long, ironic mess that is this block of text, or shite, whatever your preference may be; after all it is personal preference, and personal preference is what makes people interesting, I could go on but I really am rather hungry, so fear I must stop this harangue on the subject of exactly nothing.

I do hope that was sarcasm en masse.

 

[SilverHood]

Damini, you considered writing a steamy teeny novel about vampires, set in England?

 

[Damini]

Funny you should say that - I was working on one. Well, less steamy, because supernatural romance as a genre makes me retch into a bucket and then want to stamp on faces, but I was working on a supernatural teen book, with a parallel world that all magical creatures had been purged into, and in order to keep itself alive it steals people from ours, people that have run away from home, so people that have effectively volunteered to disappear.

Oooh, we really like it, say all the publishers. Except... can you write out the vampires and werewolves? The market is flooded now, so if you could write the same book without those supernatural elements that would be great.

I tried. I did. But it sucked and blowed in equal measures.

Damn you, twinkly vampires. You have KILLED the genre.

 

[Gumbo]

I hope you are still writing a bit. It will keep your soul alive whilst you have to do the crappy jobs to get by. If you believed in the story, saturated genre or not, could you pop up a chapter or two on the invisible friend website and get some fan reaction?

 

[Damini]

I'm trying to still write. It's just awful - the longer I work as a sales assistant, the less I feel like a writer. I just feel like someone who played one on tv. I think I've just had the confidence knocked out of me a bit.