Today

Wow, it’s been a busy day!

I had a job intervies – and was offered the job! Though I’m not sure if I want it. Shall have a think over the weekend.

And the 2 difficult housemates are moving out! One gave her notice in 6 weeks ago, as she’s moving in with her fiancee. And the other told me this evening he’s moving out because he can’t live with me anymore (and also ‘cos our landlord – vicar – doesn’t get things sorted). My only response was “Well, that means I don’t have to”, as I’ve already  been looking and recently went to see a place locally.

All in all, been a bit of a day!

Small goals

Some small goals for the next few weeks.

• Go to a pilates class by 22 July.
• Go to St John Ambulance meeting on 22 July to see if I want to become a volunteer
• Talk to vicar about approaching Street Pastors to become involved in the new team being set up in my area
• Apply for job at Refugee Council (deadline 21 July)

I think that’s probably enough for now!

Applied for the job!

Just submitted it about 5 minutes ago!

My computer stopped working part-way through, but thankfully it was just being temperamental, and after a few minutes of swearing at it, turning it off and on again, it behaved. And I didn’t lose anything! Phew!

Wait and see now… I’ve pushed the door.

Committing your gifts to the max

OK, so I’m STILL going on about Jim Wallis. Sorry folks. Shaking his hand last night obviously went to my head!

This is about his words “we need to commit our gifts to the maximum” and me not entirely sure what they are or what I want to do. So this is about that midwife thing also.

This afternoon/evening I’ve been ferreting around midwife & student midwife forums and LearnDirect for info and advice on becoming a midwife. Or at least finding out what it entails. A lot of them recommend Access to Higher Education course PLUS working in the area, as it’s apparently highly competitive.

So (indirectly) prompted by Jim Wallis, I ended up doing the LearnDirect Skills & Interests assessment and came out with:

• Skills high score: Data
  Which means, apparently, I enjoy working with figures and systems. I guess that’s why I do admin!
• Top Skills job groups include: Admin, clerical, IT, finance (eek!), marketing, selling & advertising (ha! ha! ha!)
• Interests high score: Social
  Basically like working with people and helping them.
  To Interests job groups include: publishing, journalism, retail sales (never again!), customer services (ditto), security (“Excuse me, Madam, but if your name’s not down…” As an aside, I actually thought about training as a bouncer back in 2001), medicine, nursing, alternative therapies.

Which fits with all those spiritual gifts assessments I’ve done in the past. Though disappointed I’ve moved on from the fish farming days of Uni (every careers quiz I did at Uni, fish farmer was in the top 10!)

So, anyway, whilst poking around the NHS jobs site I came across the sad fact that all the kind of jobs that would look good on a Uni application would mean at least a £2K salary drop! Plus I’d have to fund myself through an Access course (part-time that’s 2 years!)

But I did find an interesting job at Homerton hospital (which isn’t SO far away) for a PA/Administrator to a Reducing Infant Mortality Project! Which would fit with that midwife theme. And would mean I would  be working with midwives.

2 challenges though:

1. The funding’s only guaranteed until March, and continuation depends on the success of the project. Now that’s scary for me. And a big risk!
2. The deadline’s Wednesday! Like tomorrow (now!)And my computer and printer are refusing to behave!

A little less cryptic

So a bit more on the cryptic post of yesterday. With a little background first.

India was perhaps an opportunity to run away. Itchy feet because of friends going and working overseas. A shaky time at work. Church being painful and exhausting. Singleness and a new year. Plus, I saw an opportunity to work overseas with skills that I already have.

Every time a friend ups and disappears to Africa or Asia for months and years at a time, I wonder, should I go? I look at Christian agencies, and realise I generally can’t afford them. And am also not sure if I want to pay to go and volunteer – surely that’s not what volunteering’s about? But anyway. So I usually end up looking at VSO. And getting depressed because I have no skills they want. I’m not a teacher or a doctor or a nurse or a dietician or… Or anything they want. In fact, when I had my interview with Oasis, I struggled to come up with anything other than I could do the admin and I like kids.

Aside from that, I find myself wondering what kind of career I could have that, should I ever get to that stage in my life where kids happen and I want to work part time, would work around family. And that is a little more grown up than being an administrator. Though I do a bit more than the average office administrator, I’m a little bit stuck – Jo of all trades, master of none.

A few months ago I was seeing in the news articles about a shortage of midwives, and wondered to myself if maybe I should look at re-training. Then decided I wouldn’t.

TEFL has been another option – train to teach English to non-native English speakers, either here or overseas. Loads of opportunities.

So Saturday night I was out with a group of friends, one of which has taught TEFL in Prague. And I, off the cuff said, ‘Maybe I should learn to teach TEFL’. And thought nothing more of it.

Whilst on the train on the way back to my friends’ house where I was staying the night, she said to me something along the lines of this:

“When you said you thought you should learn TEFL, I wondered if maybe you should become a midwife.”

That’s weird, I thought. Nobody had been talking about kids, giving birth or midwives at all during the meal. So I said: “That’s weird, I’d thought about that a few months ago.”

She then went on to explain that she had a friend who had trained with the idea being to work overseas, not here in the UK.

I just think that’s a little bit weird, so I’ve asked her to get in touch and see if I could meet or even shadow on of her midwife friends to find out a bit more about it. And I’ve just finished printing out the careers leaflet.

This is another door. It doesn’t mean that India is out of the picture. But it could mean that. Certainly in the short-term it would. Training is a 3 or 4-year degree. And would cost a bomb! But as with all of these things, if God wants it to happen, He will make a way. And if not, He will close the door.

So I’m pushing at another door.

Coincidence?

I’m going to be a little cryptic, but when you’re having a discussion over the dinner table and you mention one thing as ‘maybe I should train to be that’, and your friend, after dinner, tells you ‘when you said that I had this thought that maybe you should train to become this instead’, and it’s something you’ve thought about randomly out of the blue a few months ago, is it a coincidence? Or not?

I’m not ready to share it yet. Maybe in a couple of days when I’ve settled back in to non-holiday mode!

Didn’t get the job

Good CV. Good application, but they did a fair interview process, and I’m rubbish at interviews. And the other guy is a lot cockier!

So, that’s another door pushed at that didn’t open. More doors to shove: Something else on the boil at the moment. will keep you posted.

Interview

I have a job interview on Wednesday. I have to do some prep. If you’re able, could you let me know what’s important to you when you plan a holiday? You can email me at: calia7777@gmail.com, or post a comment.

Thank you, and I’ll keep you updated on how things progress.

You have what we’re looking for

“Dear Joanna,
I found your details on Monster and I would be very interested in speaking with you further. You have great experience and your CV is very well put together.
I am currently recruiting a role, which I feel you may be interested. It would be good to speak with you ASAP, please give me a call.”

I spent 2 hours Monday night working on my CV for an internal job application, and thought, why not put it out there, see what happens. I did that last night. And got this email this morning.

So I called. It sounds like an interesting job. It would certainly be a step up from me. I’m a bit bored in my current job. I’ve been doing it for 3 years, and only the last 9 months have been relatively enjoyable. But there’s not much in the way of progression. And a lot of changes coming up, which leave my job role a bit up in the air. So I’m keeping an eye out for something else. But I’ve thought I’m a bit stuck with the type of role I have. Not much like it out there. But maybe I’m being too negative.

Anyway, I’m going to push those doors and see what happens. If you don’t try you won’t fail. But you also may never succeed.

Temptation and a door in front of me

If we don’t have to wait, we’ll never learn patience.
If we don’t have to struggle, we’ll never value that which we achieve.
If we don’t have trust, we’ll never have faith.
If life’s too easy, we’ll never develop character.
If we’re never tempted, we’ll never learn how to resist.

It’s an interesting one this. We justify our actions by saying we’d rather regret what we’ve done than what we didn’t do. But really? Would we rather regret the affair than not having tried and rediscovered love again? Would we rather regret not have that one last drink than having it and the consequences that come with it? I’m not saying do take risks, just don’t take stupid ones. That’s something I’ve learned.

But my point on this is that a guy I briefly ’saw’ in November, who dropped off the radar and stopped contacting me because he’s moving back to Turkey this year and didn’t want to get involved with someone, reappeared over the Christmas break. He texted me Happy Christmas, which I (eventually) replied to (having deleted his number in a strop because he’d not been in touch). Then he sent me a text in the early hours of New Year’s Day: “I wish I was with you now.”

And there lies the temptation. Firstly the temptation towards pride and smugness – I knew he’d regret his decision and miss me! A certain smugness (along with the pain of my bruised and bumped head) reared at that. But the major temptation is to leave him be. It wouldn’t go anywhere (OK, maybe I’m being too dismissive, so I’m leaving this over to God) and he’s moving back to Turkey in a few months. But I could pick it up, carry on where we left off, a bit of a fling, some attention, the ‘pleasure’ of kissing a guy I find attractive and who (miracle upon miracles!) seems to like me too. But what would be the point? Short-term gain over long-term? It would just be because I’m lonely (which is how I’ve got into many of my man messes over the years and something I need to work on one step at a time).

So I’ve not replied. Is that cruel? Yes and no. If I keep up the contact, try to have a friendship it’s just going to get complicated – too many pheromones involved to just be friends now. And I don’t want to lead him on. Or put myself in the place of temptation.

So already one step.

And a door.

I’m thinking about changing my job. I’ve been there 3 years now. I think I’ve learned pretty much all I can in that role. I’m rarely stretching myself, unless you count fighting with the printer and Microsoft templates on a daily basis ’stretch’! There’s no upward progression for me.

But a sideways move has appeared – a 6-month secondment in another department. It would stretch me (and that scares me). But it’s a door. So I’ll apply. I’ll push on it and see what happens. And if it stays shut I’ll push on the doors for 2 other positions coming up internally. And while I’m doing that I’ll really push on some doors – I’m going to update my CV and sent out prospecting letters, not just to recruitment agencies but to various charities and NGOs I’m interested in and see what they have.

So early in the year and steps being taken! Hold on tight – this is going to be a bit of a ride!