And now for something a bit different

The last month and a half have been taken up by job hunting. I quit my job at the insurance firm, which was the right thing for me to do. Insurance is, for all intents and purposes, evil. It would be nice for me to blather on about various beneficial aspects, but really it is just another way for quick bucks to be made. I do not see the 'up' side to the industry because in my rather idealistic way of looking at things, if the world were running as it should, insurance would be a moot point. It was an interesting 9 months and I did actually learn quite a bit - on the up side. At any rate, that is neither here nor there. The point is, now, that I am looking for something that is more in line with my experience and education. I fell into the insurance job 10 days after moving back here, so it met my pocketbook needs for that period of time.

What now? Well, I've applied at all sorts of jobs, mainly civil service jobs. I got one interview as a "Senior Disclosure Analyst" with the police service. It was the first interview and I, without doubt, screwed it up royally. The guy who began questioning me asked me why I thought I'd be good for the job and I went on for at least 2 minutes about how fantastic a worker I am - which is true (and not just in my mind, out of the two main areas my previous job consisted of, I did 70% of all the work in one area and 30% of the work in the other area out of a 7 person team in 3 countries) but it did put him off, and he commented how much I thought of myself. Their style of interviewing at the police service threw me off. It was the behavioral method which is based on if you did this in the past, you may do it in the future. The interviewer's questions weren't terribly relevant to my experience so I found myself flustered trying to think of concrete examples. Needless to say, I didn't get the job.

Other things on my plate are analyst positions. I have not gone back into the private sector - I can't bring myself to work in the Oil and Gas industry. It would be like working in insurance. I have an interview today with the City as a Social Research Policy Analyst. It turns out the guy who will be interviewing me knows the people I did my university degrees with. I'm not sure if I want the job in the sense that they only want a BA and I have the MA and the pay is a couple of scales lower than the other jobs I am applying for.

Enough blather about this. It's time for something to come along. Being jobless is hard on the ego, which I guess is important to see with a distanced perspective and see it for what it is. I think it sucks for anyone to be rejected or passed over.

Beyond that, I started Pilates and Yoga again and my god does it help areas that 'normal' gym activity doesn't. While unemployed, I've been going to the gym 1.5-2 hours a day (with one day off a week). It's made next to no difference in the weight area, but I'm stronger, which is what makes a difference - and do not be led to think that I'm one of those girls who stands on the step machine and moves their feet an inch and reads magazines. I sweat like a pig on machines and use weights (low weight, high rep). Saturday was my first Pilates day and I am going to do 3 hours of it tonight. My shoulders are thanking me (in their own lactic acid way) for starting again.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I need to prep for the interview. I doubt this will be the right job since it is the interview #2. If things are in 3s, then most likely it will be #3. Regardless, I can make the effort and see what is what.