One of the comments made quite often to me in the days running up to our move to Spain was that, with technology, keeping in touch with friends and family has never been easier. And in a way, this is true. The internet is a great way to share photos and experiences, to chat to people and do it in a very inexpensive way. Even when we lived in areas where the internet was difficult to access from home, there was always bars and cafes we could go to and have a drink while using their computers.
But, I did find that very quickly I was losing touch with that feeling of being part of peoples lives. I felt I was sitting on the outside reading about it, but not actually sharing it with them.
It was something I struggled with.
My new friends in Spain told me it got easier with time, I actually found it got harder with time and each time I visited the UK, it was harder for me to get on a plane and go back.
Moving back after 3 years meant that I had to pick up the threads of those friendships again, catch up on the changes that had happened while we'd been away. Somehow, not sharing the changes and events meant they hadn't really registered with me even though I had been kept up-to-date with emails, photos, phone calls and visits.
It was just not the same.
It's this type of thing that you can't anticipate how you'll handle it. I was surprised how much it mattered to me. I was making new friends in Spain and meeting nice people but somehow, I missed my old friends and family being close by too much.
After 18 months back in the UK, I feel as if I have caught up with those missing years.
Friday, 16 December 2011
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
It's taken 18 months but finally.......
It is well accepted in the UK that there is a shortage of places with NHS dentists. By moving abroad we were no longer registered with our old dentist and phoning around various surgeries on our return resulted in a complete lack of any NHS places being available.
And so, for 18 months, any treatment we've had has been paid for on a private basis. Not cheap but necessary.
On my last visit to have a broken tooth sorted I noticed the surgery we have been using has a notice up advertising that they were taking on NHS patients from this month.
So, finally, after 18 months, we have now manage to register as NHS patients and will now receive some funding towards our treatment. I think that's the last thing to sort since we moved back last summer. We are now totally back as UK residents, paying all our bills and taxes in one country.
Finally, I can close the folder and file it away.
And so, for 18 months, any treatment we've had has been paid for on a private basis. Not cheap but necessary.
On my last visit to have a broken tooth sorted I noticed the surgery we have been using has a notice up advertising that they were taking on NHS patients from this month.
So, finally, after 18 months, we have now manage to register as NHS patients and will now receive some funding towards our treatment. I think that's the last thing to sort since we moved back last summer. We are now totally back as UK residents, paying all our bills and taxes in one country.
Finally, I can close the folder and file it away.
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Organising the move back.
The main issue when organising the move back was to find someone to bring all our furniture and possessions back. The internet was a necessity for doing this as it saved us a fortune in phone calls.
We decided we wanted a UK company to move us back and needed someone with the facility to store our furniture if there was any delay in getting the keys to whichever house we were moving in to.
After a lot of searching and enquiries we chose our company to move us. We were aware that we would be a part load on a large van but doing it this way kept costs down. This however, means it's less easy to get firm dates. All they would tell us was that the van would be with us sometime during the week commencing - and until the week before they could not give us a definite day. This made it increasingly difficult to plan our trip home. After all if we didn't know whether the van would be here Monday or Friday, how could we book our tickets for the Channel Tunnel.
We did, however, manage to work with this, and trying our best to keep the stress levels under control, we packed everything we could and waited for the confirmed day. On the Monday of the week before we would be moving back, we finally we're told our shipment would be collected on the Friday of the following week. The van would spend the week dropping off part loads as it moved through the UK, France and southwards to us in the south of Spain and would arrive at us as an empty van.
Having collected our stuff it would then spend several days reversing the journey and finally estimated arriving with our stuff a week later.
This meant I could now plan the drive home, book the hotels for the overnight stops on the way home and book the Chunnel tickets.
If cost is not too big a consideration I would certainly book a dedicated company that only move your stuff on the van, but by using a shared van we halved our transport costs which, for us, was definitely worth doing.
We moved within 4 weeks of deciding to return to the UK so it was a fairly hectic and stressful time, however, it was definitely helpful that we'd already done the move out to Spain ourselves as we knew exactly what we needed to do and could just get on with it.
Such things as needing cardboard boxes. Our time in Spain had taught us that whatever you can buy off the internet in the UK, Spain has the same types of supplies. By finding out the spanish for cardboard box and googling it, I found a number of sites which would supply moving packs, cancellation of services is the same as in the UK and we even arranged the re-direction of our post. Jobs that 3 years earlier would have seemed so difficult to organise in a foreign country now all fell in to place without any bother.
I began to realise just how much we had learned during our time in Spain.
We decided we wanted a UK company to move us back and needed someone with the facility to store our furniture if there was any delay in getting the keys to whichever house we were moving in to.
After a lot of searching and enquiries we chose our company to move us. We were aware that we would be a part load on a large van but doing it this way kept costs down. This however, means it's less easy to get firm dates. All they would tell us was that the van would be with us sometime during the week commencing - and until the week before they could not give us a definite day. This made it increasingly difficult to plan our trip home. After all if we didn't know whether the van would be here Monday or Friday, how could we book our tickets for the Channel Tunnel.
We did, however, manage to work with this, and trying our best to keep the stress levels under control, we packed everything we could and waited for the confirmed day. On the Monday of the week before we would be moving back, we finally we're told our shipment would be collected on the Friday of the following week. The van would spend the week dropping off part loads as it moved through the UK, France and southwards to us in the south of Spain and would arrive at us as an empty van.
Having collected our stuff it would then spend several days reversing the journey and finally estimated arriving with our stuff a week later.
This meant I could now plan the drive home, book the hotels for the overnight stops on the way home and book the Chunnel tickets.
If cost is not too big a consideration I would certainly book a dedicated company that only move your stuff on the van, but by using a shared van we halved our transport costs which, for us, was definitely worth doing.
We moved within 4 weeks of deciding to return to the UK so it was a fairly hectic and stressful time, however, it was definitely helpful that we'd already done the move out to Spain ourselves as we knew exactly what we needed to do and could just get on with it.
Such things as needing cardboard boxes. Our time in Spain had taught us that whatever you can buy off the internet in the UK, Spain has the same types of supplies. By finding out the spanish for cardboard box and googling it, I found a number of sites which would supply moving packs, cancellation of services is the same as in the UK and we even arranged the re-direction of our post. Jobs that 3 years earlier would have seemed so difficult to organise in a foreign country now all fell in to place without any bother.
I began to realise just how much we had learned during our time in Spain.
Sunday, 4 December 2011
Settling back in the UK
Along side work was the need to find somewhere to live. While we had money tied up in Spain we would need to find somewhere to rent. Having worked in the Estate Agency business for over 20 years I have seen the trends where numbers of properties to rent increases as the sale market reduces. This was good news for us looking for a nice house in a nice area for a long term rental.
There were 2 things that would be a major issue in finding a suitable property - firstly, that we have 2 dogs and secondly, that we needed somewhere to either site or store the hottub which was definitely coming back from Spain with us.
The main concern was our dogs. They needed a secure rear garden, close to some good dog walking areas. As with Recruitment Agencies being a barrier to finding work, the Estate Agents can be a barrier to finding a suitable property.
The majority of agents make a standard clause on rental properties that simply states, no smokers, no pets, no DSS. And depending on who you speak to in the agents this is an unmoveable clause. But, if you put an offer to the agent they should relay this to the owner. I found a number of houses that were worth considering and all of the owners except one agreed to the dogs on the basis that I had offered them an increased bond against damages and that we would have any carpets cleaned on our departure.
Indeed, the one owner that initially said no, actually changed his mind and said he would permit the dogs so, it paid off knowing how to approach the agents on this.
The choice was made by where had storage for the hottub. There was potential for it to go in the garden but in the end we stored it in the garage for the first year.
I managed to find the house on my fact finding trip in May. The contract needed sorting out and that was not so easy to do while living in Spain, however the agent worked with me on proof of ID etc and we managed to get every thing in place for our return. We picked the keys up 2 days after arriving back in the UK. We had somewhere to live and somewhere for our furniture to be delivered to.
There were 2 things that would be a major issue in finding a suitable property - firstly, that we have 2 dogs and secondly, that we needed somewhere to either site or store the hottub which was definitely coming back from Spain with us.
The main concern was our dogs. They needed a secure rear garden, close to some good dog walking areas. As with Recruitment Agencies being a barrier to finding work, the Estate Agents can be a barrier to finding a suitable property.
The majority of agents make a standard clause on rental properties that simply states, no smokers, no pets, no DSS. And depending on who you speak to in the agents this is an unmoveable clause. But, if you put an offer to the agent they should relay this to the owner. I found a number of houses that were worth considering and all of the owners except one agreed to the dogs on the basis that I had offered them an increased bond against damages and that we would have any carpets cleaned on our departure.
Indeed, the one owner that initially said no, actually changed his mind and said he would permit the dogs so, it paid off knowing how to approach the agents on this.
The choice was made by where had storage for the hottub. There was potential for it to go in the garden but in the end we stored it in the garage for the first year.
I managed to find the house on my fact finding trip in May. The contract needed sorting out and that was not so easy to do while living in Spain, however the agent worked with me on proof of ID etc and we managed to get every thing in place for our return. We picked the keys up 2 days after arriving back in the UK. We had somewhere to live and somewhere for our furniture to be delivered to.
Turning agency work into a permanent job.
Monday morning dawned and a review of work showed that while I had done my work for the audit, my colleague hadn't and there was still 2 weeks work to do. Needless to say my 2 weeks trainging evaporated and eventually was condensed into 1 day.
Somehow I managed to fathom enough from my notes to work out what to do and how, and week 1 went reasonable to plan, week 2 was better. I was then due to go in on the following Monday to handover to my colleague on his return from holiday.
Only, he didn't return, instead he sent in his resignation with immedaite effect. So, again I was summoned to 'the other side' and asked if I could stay on placement doing the weekly accounts and at the same time assist in the re-distribution of the work between existing staff on 2 sites.
In all this, I could see that having my contract extended and again would look good on my CV and so, although I knew no permanent job would come from it, I was happy to continue. I had also been flexible with my days. I initially started 5 days a week, covered on 3 days a week and then went up to 5 days a week again. I decided an element of flexibility would also help with assignments, rather than be rigid in my requirements.
In all the assignment lasted 8 months - not bad from an initial 3 weeks and certainly other agencies were starting to consider me for roles that they had previously dismissed me without discussion. Still, that permanent job evaded me. I was firmly of the opinion that my best chance at a permanent role was through a temporary one, maybe the next job would be different.
I was offered another temporary assignment, 3 months with a view to permanent - and although there was a long commute, if it worked out it would be easy to relocate as our rental house would have been beyond the minimum term. The worst of winter was over and the increased hourly rate would cover the extra petrol costs - I agreed to take the assignment.
Week 1 went very well, but I could quickly see that there was no long term job there for me. They thought thety had bigger problems than they had, but really it was a timing issue and once we had re-done the way various work was done and reports were run, there suddenly wasn't a problem anymore. After 4 weeks they left word with the agency that they didn't need me to go back.
In the current economic climate it was no surprise that they would cut out agency costs as soon as they could, especially as even I could see no long term job there, even after only being there a week.
Back to all the agencies on Monday morning and by mid-morning I had an interview for the following day at another local company, so no more long commute. I started with them later that week on a 13 week contract with possible permanent, 4 days a week. Halfway through the assignment they started making positive noises towards me being kept on premanently. I almost held my breath as I worked those final weeks. I loved the job, got on great with the people, had less than 5 minute commute and so wanted it to be made permanent.
At the end of the 12th week they confirmed they wanted me to stay on and on a full-time basis. My flexible approach had paid off.
If you are returning to the UK and need to look for work after being out of the job market for a while, it is not easy but being prepared to do any form of work through agencies and getting some current work experience on your CV should not be under-estimated. Had I not been fortunate enough to get assignments that ran into each other, I was planning to do some voluntary work just to show I was willing to work and could get that detailed on my CV.
I do consider myself lucky to have found a job I really enjoy, working with people I get on with and so close to home. It had taken me 11 months from returning to the UK to getting a permanent role.
Somehow I managed to fathom enough from my notes to work out what to do and how, and week 1 went reasonable to plan, week 2 was better. I was then due to go in on the following Monday to handover to my colleague on his return from holiday.
Only, he didn't return, instead he sent in his resignation with immedaite effect. So, again I was summoned to 'the other side' and asked if I could stay on placement doing the weekly accounts and at the same time assist in the re-distribution of the work between existing staff on 2 sites.
In all this, I could see that having my contract extended and again would look good on my CV and so, although I knew no permanent job would come from it, I was happy to continue. I had also been flexible with my days. I initially started 5 days a week, covered on 3 days a week and then went up to 5 days a week again. I decided an element of flexibility would also help with assignments, rather than be rigid in my requirements.
In all the assignment lasted 8 months - not bad from an initial 3 weeks and certainly other agencies were starting to consider me for roles that they had previously dismissed me without discussion. Still, that permanent job evaded me. I was firmly of the opinion that my best chance at a permanent role was through a temporary one, maybe the next job would be different.
I was offered another temporary assignment, 3 months with a view to permanent - and although there was a long commute, if it worked out it would be easy to relocate as our rental house would have been beyond the minimum term. The worst of winter was over and the increased hourly rate would cover the extra petrol costs - I agreed to take the assignment.
Week 1 went very well, but I could quickly see that there was no long term job there for me. They thought thety had bigger problems than they had, but really it was a timing issue and once we had re-done the way various work was done and reports were run, there suddenly wasn't a problem anymore. After 4 weeks they left word with the agency that they didn't need me to go back.
In the current economic climate it was no surprise that they would cut out agency costs as soon as they could, especially as even I could see no long term job there, even after only being there a week.
Back to all the agencies on Monday morning and by mid-morning I had an interview for the following day at another local company, so no more long commute. I started with them later that week on a 13 week contract with possible permanent, 4 days a week. Halfway through the assignment they started making positive noises towards me being kept on premanently. I almost held my breath as I worked those final weeks. I loved the job, got on great with the people, had less than 5 minute commute and so wanted it to be made permanent.
At the end of the 12th week they confirmed they wanted me to stay on and on a full-time basis. My flexible approach had paid off.
If you are returning to the UK and need to look for work after being out of the job market for a while, it is not easy but being prepared to do any form of work through agencies and getting some current work experience on your CV should not be under-estimated. Had I not been fortunate enough to get assignments that ran into each other, I was planning to do some voluntary work just to show I was willing to work and could get that detailed on my CV.
I do consider myself lucky to have found a job I really enjoy, working with people I get on with and so close to home. It had taken me 11 months from returning to the UK to getting a permanent role.
Friday, 18 November 2011
Monday Morning Nerves
There is no doubt that having the thought process of 'It's only a temporary assignment, it's only for 3 weeks' helped a lot with first day nerves. I hadn't been the new girl since 1986 and it was amazing how nervous I felt driving into the carpark on that Monday morning.
Everything was new to me, the people, the environment,the industry, the software I would be working with even that they did weekly accounts when I had always done monthly, the time to turn work around was so critical and on day 1 my head was spinning. But even amidst all this confusion I was able to make progress.
I also picked up on a lot of negative vibes towards the person I was working with, dealing with a lot of issues from his colleagues. That was an uncomfortable position to be in, as I didn't want to fall into the same scenario where I too had a lot of negativity directed towards me. I needed to interact between the 2 halves. As it happened, over the weeks I bridged the gap very well and actually found I could work with either set of people, but those early days were concerning while I worked out what the issues were and how best to deal with them.
By the end of the first week I felt the deadline of 3 weeks was realistic to complete the task and had started to make some real headway. Getting information from the chap I was working with wasn't easy as he wasn't the best at explaining things but fortunately my skills learned over 26 years enabled me to work out the majority of what needed doing.
By the end of the first week I was starting to understand a lot of the frustrations within the staff towards my new colleague but I had taken the view that it wasn't my place to comment and soon they realised I wasn't one to 'dish the dirt'.
By the end of week 2 we were well on with completing the task and the strange computer system didn't seem so strange, I knew where all the files were kept and had even been shown the 'stationery supplies' and was allowed to fetch my own copy paper and envelopes - apparently it normally takes about 6 months before this usually happens, I felt honoured.
I spoke to the agency at the start of week 3 and asked them to be on the look out for a new assignment as I would be finished here at the end of the week. I shortly got a call back to say would I be interested in continuing on placement for a further 4 weeks and if so, would I go and have a chat with the FD.
Intrigued, I walked through to the 'other side' (quite literally - the offices were in 2 definitive halves) and found the FD.
'Ah' he said, 'come in. We have a situation where your colleague is due to go on annual leave in 2 weeks time and, as you have picked things up so well, we'd like you to cover his holidays so we can continue to get the divisional weekly figures - do you think you'd be able to so this if you spent the next 2 weeks training?'
Although my work had all been annual reconcilliations towards the annual audit I was quite confident I would be capable, with 2 weeks training, so I was happy to accept the 4 weeks extension.
Little was I to know what the next Monday morning was to bring.
Everything was new to me, the people, the environment,the industry, the software I would be working with even that they did weekly accounts when I had always done monthly, the time to turn work around was so critical and on day 1 my head was spinning. But even amidst all this confusion I was able to make progress.
I also picked up on a lot of negative vibes towards the person I was working with, dealing with a lot of issues from his colleagues. That was an uncomfortable position to be in, as I didn't want to fall into the same scenario where I too had a lot of negativity directed towards me. I needed to interact between the 2 halves. As it happened, over the weeks I bridged the gap very well and actually found I could work with either set of people, but those early days were concerning while I worked out what the issues were and how best to deal with them.
By the end of the first week I felt the deadline of 3 weeks was realistic to complete the task and had started to make some real headway. Getting information from the chap I was working with wasn't easy as he wasn't the best at explaining things but fortunately my skills learned over 26 years enabled me to work out the majority of what needed doing.
By the end of the first week I was starting to understand a lot of the frustrations within the staff towards my new colleague but I had taken the view that it wasn't my place to comment and soon they realised I wasn't one to 'dish the dirt'.
By the end of week 2 we were well on with completing the task and the strange computer system didn't seem so strange, I knew where all the files were kept and had even been shown the 'stationery supplies' and was allowed to fetch my own copy paper and envelopes - apparently it normally takes about 6 months before this usually happens, I felt honoured.
I spoke to the agency at the start of week 3 and asked them to be on the look out for a new assignment as I would be finished here at the end of the week. I shortly got a call back to say would I be interested in continuing on placement for a further 4 weeks and if so, would I go and have a chat with the FD.
Intrigued, I walked through to the 'other side' (quite literally - the offices were in 2 definitive halves) and found the FD.
'Ah' he said, 'come in. We have a situation where your colleague is due to go on annual leave in 2 weeks time and, as you have picked things up so well, we'd like you to cover his holidays so we can continue to get the divisional weekly figures - do you think you'd be able to so this if you spent the next 2 weeks training?'
Although my work had all been annual reconcilliations towards the annual audit I was quite confident I would be capable, with 2 weeks training, so I was happy to accept the 4 weeks extension.
Little was I to know what the next Monday morning was to bring.
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
Interview Day.
The day dawned and I donned my interview suit. I couldn't believe how nervous I was, after all I used to interview for staff in my last job, but I was going to be on the other side of the desk this time.
I had done my research on the company, had a copy of my cv and job spec and off I went. I had taken a drive out the night before to find where I was going so I knew I wouldn't have any last minute panics about finding the place to add to the nerves, and of course, I arrived well before time.
40 minutes later I was back in the car. The interview seemed to have gone well. The asignment was well within my capabilities and I seemed to have got on ok with the chap I would be working with. He was seeing others that same day so I would probably get a call from the agency late afternoon with the outcome.
Although the assignment was only for 3 weeks I was surprised how much I wanted to get it. I think I needed to prove to myself that I was still capable of gaining work, and that the massive decision to return to the UK hadn't been a mistake.
I spent the rest of the day continuing my job searching, phoning around agencies, trawling through the internet and firing off my many-times altered CV, now specifically written to suit each application. I was very methodical in my approach and how I kept records of what I had applied for, which agencies I had spoken to and soon my file was building to show an impressive amount of applications - gradually the emails started to drop into my inbox - no thanks, not this time, sorry but keep checking our website for more vacancies - it was quite dis-spiriting.
I decided I needed a break from all this negativity and called the dogs. It was a warm, dry and sunny summers day outside, a walk along the canal with the dogs would lift my spirits for another session of job hunting. The sight of the dogs wandering along the canal path, rooting in the hedgerows and watching the ducks glide along the far bank never failed to make me feel good inside. Everyone we met stopped to chat to me and stroke the dogs - it was just the boost I needed to shift the gloom that had decended. Rejection is never easy but the faceless anonymity of the internet and the speed at which it comes back at you was, somehow, even more difficult to get used to. The speed at which some of the responses came back made me feel they were automated replies, it didn't feel as if anyone could have read my application and made a judgement on my suitability. I rang several agencies for feedback as to why I wasn't suitable, and everytime I got the same answer 'oh, they want someone qualified, they're not bothering with anyone who isn't'. That was something I couldn't change overnight - but it wasn't going to stop me applying.
There were several fishermen dotted along the canal, most looking ready to pack their rods away and rejoin the mayhem of everyday life. A narrow boat pulled into the lock and I stood to watch the water filling up, raising the boat into view. The dogs always found this fascinating too and I was always concerned they would fall into the lock as they peered down to see what was happening, their interest even more so if there was a dog on the boat. I would often chat to the boat owners while they too waited for the water level to reach its goal.
In the middle of this my phone rang, a quick look at the number told me it was the agency. I somehow didn't want more negative news to spoil such an idyllic part of the afternoon but I answered it anyway, prepared to hear another 'no thank you,' knowing that my continued walk along the canal would cancel out any bad news call.
'Hi, it's Emma. I've just had a call from Richard' who I had seen that morning, 'he'd liked you a lot and wants you to do the assignment, can you start on Monday?'
'Er, really? Yes, of course I can, what time?' I replied.
As she spoke, I missed most of what she said as I could feel my brain take in the initial sentence .....can you start on Monday? I had done it, I had managed to convince someone at interview that I was still capable of doing a job. It was a good feeling.
It was only for 3 weeks, but it was a start. I vaguely heard Emma say she would confirm everything in an email and that I was to call if I had any questions. Then suddenly the phone call was over and I was employed again.
All I had to do now was turn up and prove that I could actually do the job. I had a few more days to worry about that, for now I was happy to continue my walk along the canal, in what now seemed warmer sunshine.
I continued my walk along the canal with a little extra spring in my step.
Today was a good day.
I had done my research on the company, had a copy of my cv and job spec and off I went. I had taken a drive out the night before to find where I was going so I knew I wouldn't have any last minute panics about finding the place to add to the nerves, and of course, I arrived well before time.
40 minutes later I was back in the car. The interview seemed to have gone well. The asignment was well within my capabilities and I seemed to have got on ok with the chap I would be working with. He was seeing others that same day so I would probably get a call from the agency late afternoon with the outcome.
Although the assignment was only for 3 weeks I was surprised how much I wanted to get it. I think I needed to prove to myself that I was still capable of gaining work, and that the massive decision to return to the UK hadn't been a mistake.
I spent the rest of the day continuing my job searching, phoning around agencies, trawling through the internet and firing off my many-times altered CV, now specifically written to suit each application. I was very methodical in my approach and how I kept records of what I had applied for, which agencies I had spoken to and soon my file was building to show an impressive amount of applications - gradually the emails started to drop into my inbox - no thanks, not this time, sorry but keep checking our website for more vacancies - it was quite dis-spiriting.
I decided I needed a break from all this negativity and called the dogs. It was a warm, dry and sunny summers day outside, a walk along the canal with the dogs would lift my spirits for another session of job hunting. The sight of the dogs wandering along the canal path, rooting in the hedgerows and watching the ducks glide along the far bank never failed to make me feel good inside. Everyone we met stopped to chat to me and stroke the dogs - it was just the boost I needed to shift the gloom that had decended. Rejection is never easy but the faceless anonymity of the internet and the speed at which it comes back at you was, somehow, even more difficult to get used to. The speed at which some of the responses came back made me feel they were automated replies, it didn't feel as if anyone could have read my application and made a judgement on my suitability. I rang several agencies for feedback as to why I wasn't suitable, and everytime I got the same answer 'oh, they want someone qualified, they're not bothering with anyone who isn't'. That was something I couldn't change overnight - but it wasn't going to stop me applying.
There were several fishermen dotted along the canal, most looking ready to pack their rods away and rejoin the mayhem of everyday life. A narrow boat pulled into the lock and I stood to watch the water filling up, raising the boat into view. The dogs always found this fascinating too and I was always concerned they would fall into the lock as they peered down to see what was happening, their interest even more so if there was a dog on the boat. I would often chat to the boat owners while they too waited for the water level to reach its goal.
In the middle of this my phone rang, a quick look at the number told me it was the agency. I somehow didn't want more negative news to spoil such an idyllic part of the afternoon but I answered it anyway, prepared to hear another 'no thank you,' knowing that my continued walk along the canal would cancel out any bad news call.
'Hi, it's Emma. I've just had a call from Richard' who I had seen that morning, 'he'd liked you a lot and wants you to do the assignment, can you start on Monday?'
'Er, really? Yes, of course I can, what time?' I replied.
As she spoke, I missed most of what she said as I could feel my brain take in the initial sentence .....can you start on Monday? I had done it, I had managed to convince someone at interview that I was still capable of doing a job. It was a good feeling.
It was only for 3 weeks, but it was a start. I vaguely heard Emma say she would confirm everything in an email and that I was to call if I had any questions. Then suddenly the phone call was over and I was employed again.
All I had to do now was turn up and prove that I could actually do the job. I had a few more days to worry about that, for now I was happy to continue my walk along the canal, in what now seemed warmer sunshine.
I continued my walk along the canal with a little extra spring in my step.
Today was a good day.
Monday, 14 November 2011
Job searching on the internet
Another coffee at my side, I switched on the laptop and waited for Google to load. I typed in 'job vacancies' and was rewarded with 52.9 million results in 0.14 seconds.
There at the top of page 1 were Totaljobs, Monster and Fish4jobs. They seemed a reasonable place to start so I set about filling in the search criteria. It soon became apparent that most vacancies are replicated on all the sites and that it was easy to get bogged down trying to filter through them so I decided to register my CV with them all but focus on using one site as my main search. The key thing it did give me was the names and contacts of all the agencies for me to approach.
I struggled to find where companies advertised their vacancies direct, surely not everyone uses agencies these days, the fees can be quite limiting for some firms. By the end of the day my CV had been submitted for a variety of vacancies and in general I had received an email reply saying 'thankyou but no thankyou'.
This soon became a worry as I was more than capable of doing any of the jobs I was applying for. I needed to know what was causing the constant flow of 'no thank yous'.
I started to ring a number of the agencies and discovered it was my lack of qualifications and specific job experience. With the number of people looking for work, the agencies were telling me, the companies were getting very picky about the experience they were looking for and with so many qualified people job hunting they were tending to be more focused on the qualification than the fact that someone has worked in the industry for over 25 years.
OK. I had a new barrier to getting back into work - in my view the agency staff were so blinkered in their recruitment method they were now a barrier to me getting back into work. That was a big worry now that it had become apparent that agencies were controlling the way the vacancies are filled.
My best way to find a job was for a firm to see how good I was, I needed to get through the door. I decided I needed to get some temporary work sorted out as soon as possible.
I rang a number of agencies and by the end of the day I had appointments to see several scattered within a 10 mile radius of home. Over the next 3 days I drove in all directions but felt I had made some good contacts who understood me better than they did from reading my CV. Once more my hopes were raised.
While I waited for the phone to ring I set about making use of one very strong piece of advice I had received. I needed to alter my CV big time. The content was too strong and was putting me out of consideration for most of the jobs I was applying for. People couldn't seem to grasp that although I had previously worked at a senior level, I didn't want to go back into the job market at that level. I needed to delete huge chunks from my CV and have a number of different CV's to suit different roles.
In the middle of doing all this editing and re-writing the phone rang. One of the agencies had an interview lined up for me for a 3 week temporary assignment - was I interested?
Too right I was interested. If nothing else, it would give me some interview practice. I hadn't been for a job interview in over 20 years. Having found out how much looking for a job had changed I was now quite sure that everything else about the process would have changed too.
Tomorrow I would find out!
There at the top of page 1 were Totaljobs, Monster and Fish4jobs. They seemed a reasonable place to start so I set about filling in the search criteria. It soon became apparent that most vacancies are replicated on all the sites and that it was easy to get bogged down trying to filter through them so I decided to register my CV with them all but focus on using one site as my main search. The key thing it did give me was the names and contacts of all the agencies for me to approach.
I struggled to find where companies advertised their vacancies direct, surely not everyone uses agencies these days, the fees can be quite limiting for some firms. By the end of the day my CV had been submitted for a variety of vacancies and in general I had received an email reply saying 'thankyou but no thankyou'.
This soon became a worry as I was more than capable of doing any of the jobs I was applying for. I needed to know what was causing the constant flow of 'no thank yous'.
I started to ring a number of the agencies and discovered it was my lack of qualifications and specific job experience. With the number of people looking for work, the agencies were telling me, the companies were getting very picky about the experience they were looking for and with so many qualified people job hunting they were tending to be more focused on the qualification than the fact that someone has worked in the industry for over 25 years.
OK. I had a new barrier to getting back into work - in my view the agency staff were so blinkered in their recruitment method they were now a barrier to me getting back into work. That was a big worry now that it had become apparent that agencies were controlling the way the vacancies are filled.
My best way to find a job was for a firm to see how good I was, I needed to get through the door. I decided I needed to get some temporary work sorted out as soon as possible.
I rang a number of agencies and by the end of the day I had appointments to see several scattered within a 10 mile radius of home. Over the next 3 days I drove in all directions but felt I had made some good contacts who understood me better than they did from reading my CV. Once more my hopes were raised.
While I waited for the phone to ring I set about making use of one very strong piece of advice I had received. I needed to alter my CV big time. The content was too strong and was putting me out of consideration for most of the jobs I was applying for. People couldn't seem to grasp that although I had previously worked at a senior level, I didn't want to go back into the job market at that level. I needed to delete huge chunks from my CV and have a number of different CV's to suit different roles.
In the middle of doing all this editing and re-writing the phone rang. One of the agencies had an interview lined up for me for a 3 week temporary assignment - was I interested?
Too right I was interested. If nothing else, it would give me some interview practice. I hadn't been for a job interview in over 20 years. Having found out how much looking for a job had changed I was now quite sure that everything else about the process would have changed too.
Tomorrow I would find out!
Sunday, 13 November 2011
Over 50 and looking for work.
I remember the morning I decided to start looking for work again and it was scary. There was a number of issues constantly running around my head that just wouldn't go away.
1. I hadn't worked for 3 years and I'd always felt it was easier to get a new job if you were already in a job - with so many more people in the job market and the recession having reduced the number of vacancies significantly, would this still hold true?
2. I had stopped working 3 years previously due to ill health, so there was a serious concern as to whether going back to work would trigger any of the old health problems. Basically, could I still hack it?
3. Having previously been the 'boss' would I now be able to work for someone else? How good was I going to be at taking orders from someone else? Now that was a real challenge to take on board.
4. And finally, if I found work, how far was I going to be travelling everyday to get there? Hubby had insisted on getting me a reasonable car when we got back from Spain so that I had something reliable for getting to and from work. And I do enjoy driving but it didn't mean I necessarily wanted to spend hours a day in rush hour commute.
But, with all this going around in my head I still sat down on day 1 of job hunting with a huge amount of confidence. I had updated my CV and was ready to hit the job hunting circuit.
It had been 1986 when I last looked for a new job and back then the local newspaper was the place to start. The internet had not become the force it has today and every Thursday was jobs day in the paper. There was also a specific 'jobs' paper that came out once a fortnight which collated the jobs from a number of areas and put them all in one place. This was my first task - to go and get the most recent edition of 'Jobs Today' and check what was in there.
It was coming towards the end of July 2010 and summer holidays were just about to start, a known quiet time for companies recruiting for permanent jobs but I was unprepared for just how little was available when I paid my money and took home a very flimsy newspaper as opposed the the heavier tomes I remembered from bygone days. I settled myself at my desk with a cup of coffee, a large black pen and started to work my way through the pages.
There was 1 suitable job vacancy on the paper and that was 40 miles away. I felt my spirits drop significantly as worry crept into the back of my brain.
But, this was only the first step - next was to get the laptop out and see what the internet had to offer.
1. I hadn't worked for 3 years and I'd always felt it was easier to get a new job if you were already in a job - with so many more people in the job market and the recession having reduced the number of vacancies significantly, would this still hold true?
2. I had stopped working 3 years previously due to ill health, so there was a serious concern as to whether going back to work would trigger any of the old health problems. Basically, could I still hack it?
3. Having previously been the 'boss' would I now be able to work for someone else? How good was I going to be at taking orders from someone else? Now that was a real challenge to take on board.
4. And finally, if I found work, how far was I going to be travelling everyday to get there? Hubby had insisted on getting me a reasonable car when we got back from Spain so that I had something reliable for getting to and from work. And I do enjoy driving but it didn't mean I necessarily wanted to spend hours a day in rush hour commute.
But, with all this going around in my head I still sat down on day 1 of job hunting with a huge amount of confidence. I had updated my CV and was ready to hit the job hunting circuit.
It had been 1986 when I last looked for a new job and back then the local newspaper was the place to start. The internet had not become the force it has today and every Thursday was jobs day in the paper. There was also a specific 'jobs' paper that came out once a fortnight which collated the jobs from a number of areas and put them all in one place. This was my first task - to go and get the most recent edition of 'Jobs Today' and check what was in there.
It was coming towards the end of July 2010 and summer holidays were just about to start, a known quiet time for companies recruiting for permanent jobs but I was unprepared for just how little was available when I paid my money and took home a very flimsy newspaper as opposed the the heavier tomes I remembered from bygone days. I settled myself at my desk with a cup of coffee, a large black pen and started to work my way through the pages.
There was 1 suitable job vacancy on the paper and that was 40 miles away. I felt my spirits drop significantly as worry crept into the back of my brain.
But, this was only the first step - next was to get the laptop out and see what the internet had to offer.
Saturday, 12 November 2011
1 Year On
We've had a week of grey skies and drizzle, a common occurence following Bonfire Night here in the UK, and the temperatures have definitely dropped a few degrees. And so, as we head into another winter with a variety of predictions as to how severe the snow will be, how long it will be until the sun appears again, I thought I'd reflect a little .
We've now been back in the UK for almost 18 months. In many ways our lives in Spain seems even longer ago. That's probably because I really do not miss it. Yes, I have the odd moment where I find myself thinking back to sitting in a cafe in Terreros watching the world go by, chatting with my friends over coffee. It is still a pretty place to live but when we went back for a visit in January there was no longing to be back or a feeling of missing home.
Equally, I see photos of the house in the mountains and have no sense of wanting to be back there.
I am very settled back here, love seeing my family & friends again and really enjoy work.
I often find myself in conversation with people who have the dream of retiring somewhere sunny, somewhere by the sea, somewhere to escape to - away from all the things they don't like about the UK, and I realised that actually that never was my dream. Spain was an accident for us, not a lifelong plan. So maybe that was why I never settled there.
I have no regrets about our Spanish adventure, and at least we will not look back in 10 years time and wonder 'what if'.
There is no doubt I needed a break from work to allow my health to recover and to enable me to get a better understanding of what my body will allow me to do now that the arthritis is in so many joints, and it was definitely a bonus to have that break in Spain. To be able to experience a different lifestyle, culture, location etc was a good experience. To actually organise it, make it happen and manage to find our way around the complex issues involved in relocating to another country was interesting, challenging and frustrating all at the same time - but we did it, and without too many mishaps.
It was probably more scary thinking about moving back, predominantly because one of the main reasons for coming back was that I wanted to work again. I missed going to work, I was not ready to retire, but I'd been out of the job market for 3 years. I'd left a good job that I'd been in for over 20 years due to ill health. Now, here I was, over 50, not worked for 3 years and hoping to find a job in the worse job market in 20 years - my timing couldn't have been worse.
The other issues surrounding a move back were all hinged on whether or not I would be able to find a job. We could afford to live in Spain without working (although that may not still be the case with the way prices over there have risen and the continuing rate of the euro) but the cost of living here meant that we needed an regular income. Where we lived depended on where I could find a job so I think looking back, there was a bigger risk involved in moving back than there was in going to Spain.
It was a huge gamble but as they say, if you want something bad enough, you can make it happen.
More soon.
We've now been back in the UK for almost 18 months. In many ways our lives in Spain seems even longer ago. That's probably because I really do not miss it. Yes, I have the odd moment where I find myself thinking back to sitting in a cafe in Terreros watching the world go by, chatting with my friends over coffee. It is still a pretty place to live but when we went back for a visit in January there was no longing to be back or a feeling of missing home.
Equally, I see photos of the house in the mountains and have no sense of wanting to be back there.
I am very settled back here, love seeing my family & friends again and really enjoy work.
I often find myself in conversation with people who have the dream of retiring somewhere sunny, somewhere by the sea, somewhere to escape to - away from all the things they don't like about the UK, and I realised that actually that never was my dream. Spain was an accident for us, not a lifelong plan. So maybe that was why I never settled there.
I have no regrets about our Spanish adventure, and at least we will not look back in 10 years time and wonder 'what if'.
There is no doubt I needed a break from work to allow my health to recover and to enable me to get a better understanding of what my body will allow me to do now that the arthritis is in so many joints, and it was definitely a bonus to have that break in Spain. To be able to experience a different lifestyle, culture, location etc was a good experience. To actually organise it, make it happen and manage to find our way around the complex issues involved in relocating to another country was interesting, challenging and frustrating all at the same time - but we did it, and without too many mishaps.
It was probably more scary thinking about moving back, predominantly because one of the main reasons for coming back was that I wanted to work again. I missed going to work, I was not ready to retire, but I'd been out of the job market for 3 years. I'd left a good job that I'd been in for over 20 years due to ill health. Now, here I was, over 50, not worked for 3 years and hoping to find a job in the worse job market in 20 years - my timing couldn't have been worse.
The other issues surrounding a move back were all hinged on whether or not I would be able to find a job. We could afford to live in Spain without working (although that may not still be the case with the way prices over there have risen and the continuing rate of the euro) but the cost of living here meant that we needed an regular income. Where we lived depended on where I could find a job so I think looking back, there was a bigger risk involved in moving back than there was in going to Spain.
It was a huge gamble but as they say, if you want something bad enough, you can make it happen.
More soon.
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