Friday, April 23, 2010

The past two days

I am writing this post more like a report than anything else. Today is my 'off' day from the agency. I had long lay in bed, got out about 10:30, had a bath, then put on some new clothes and set up my computer on the desk. I've also started some computer maintenance tasks (backing up, then file sorting) as a matter of 'catch-up'.

It seems now I'm blogging too.

Okay, so lets talk about the past two days.

On wednesday, I started off the day by sending off two emails; one to the police volunteer co-ordinator, and the other to the guy at belgium. Apparently my worries about 'delayed' post were due to his lack of response. The guy was away on a conference and as he came back he found the package. The supervisor found the package with no problems and forwarded it to the relevant authorities. Now all I do is wait, and hope for my life to be judged. This PhD news came to me with a positive energy. As the next couple of days felt like things were going slightly in my way.

I received the monies from the job centre last week, and the travel allowances came in for two weeks about two days ago. I am expecting about 3-4 more payments for travel allowances, but lets see how that goes. A day after emailing the police volunteer co-ordinator; she said that she is organising a shadowing period. I applied for a few more jobs, namely, four.

Two to channel 4 trainee schemes
One to a think-tank type place
One to a university admin vacancy

I have continued the job search and I was consulting the advisor with reed regarding my personal profile and job title goals, as well as my job search activities. The advisor said my job search should go as follows

7 hours a day
1-2 hours searching/prep a day
2 hours applying
1 hour making actual contact with employers a day
1 hour followup - what can i do to make my search better? what can i do to make my application better? that's follow up activity.

He also said that I should apply for 10 jobs a day at an ideal of 50 a week. This sounds crazy, but do-able. I want to aim high. The advisor also calculated that I have a 7-10% rate of getting a response fromthe employers if I am employing at a rate of one a day for the past 6 months. That's no good. If I apply only 1 a day that means I get an interview response maybe every 2 weeks. Definately not good enough. That's why I need to up the ante with things.

Today is the off day, last night is the day that I ate a lot; and the election debate, which was lost on me. The bath was filled with cedarwood, patchouli and lavender. I love those essences.

My parents are going to visit some friends who live very near to where my old university town was. That was a trigger for me. I've had a few triggers lately; I had one today. Mia makes life easier to cope with. Two fingers down your throat makes life a little sweeter. My mind is slowly warped by Mia. Anyhoo, now that I've posted; I can carry on with my day, and job search goals. I'm also doing a bit of job researching too.

Wish me luck. I need it

Regarding my PhD application. Pray for me, I need a miracle.

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