Kirstie's job log: 44

The story so far... Kirstie gave up her job in sales to pursue her dream of a career in journalism with a Masters at Westminster University, which is now coming to an end.

An urgent invitation

Just when you think you have a plan sorted you will stick to, something happens to make everything change. I’ve spent the past week concentrating on trying to get as much of my final project done as possible: checking the paperwork, writing a script to read, recording material - just as I planned to do. Then late one evening I was generally searching the internet for nothing in particular when a job advert came up.

It seemed perfect for me - they were looking for someone with a journalism qualification, but needing no prior experience. They wanted energy and enthusiasm, available pretty much immediately, and it would involve writing for an online company. I thought it couldn’t hurt to try, so I applied expecting (as normal) to hear nothing back.

This morning I checked my email to find a message waiting from them - inviting me to come in for an interview tomorrow morning. So today will be spent desperately trying to find out everything I possibly can about the company, preparing answers to possible questions and trying to find an appropriate outfit. The interview is also in Manchester, almost three hours away, so I need to look into a way of getting there quickly and (most importantly) cheaply.

If I were to be offered to job (and there is no guarantee - I tend not to be the greatest person when it comes to interviews and either say very little or you can’t shut me up), then I would have to move out of my London room and find a place to live up north - and I think they’re looking for someone to start as soon as possible. All my plans for working on my final project, staying in London as long as I can and eventually moving home to find work would change.The past nine months have been filled with lectures, seminars, meetings, interviews, news articles to write, radio programmes to record and TV news bulletins to put together. Now, the classes have all finished and there’s only the final project left to do before the course is all over.

I know I’m thinking ahead far too soon, and I was looking forward to having some time without needing to work before I started job hunting again, but the thought of rejoining the rat race is actually quite exciting. With jobs in the media industry pretty sparse at the moment, being offered a job like this would be worth taking up pretty quickly. Of course having money coming in again would also be quite nice!

For now I’ll just have to wait and see what happens at the interview tomorrow before I start hunting for somewhere to live, or imagining being able to go on a massive shopping spree. The final project will have to wait until the weekend before I get round to doing any more work on it, for now I have some revision to do.

Certified shorthand practitioner

The last minute revision I did for my shorthand exam seemed to have paid off, because I actually managed to pass the exam (I scraped by with 60 wpm, the minimum you can get), but as far as I’m concerned a pass is a pass! The moment I found out I’d managed it; ‘shorthand’ was added as a new skill straight onto my CV. Of course if it ever came down to it and I was expected to use it for some reason, I’m still not sure I’d be able to manage it.

Even if I don’t get this job in Manchester and I can stay in London right up until the last minute, that’s still only a couple of weeks away, so last night I started packing up some of the junk that seems to have accumulated throughout the year. I’m sure when I moved in only 9 months ago I didn’t have anywhere near the amount of stuff I have now! I’ve managed to fill 2 big black sacks full of rubbish, and I have barely started clearing everything out. It seems I have treated this year in London as a big shopping holiday - I don’t know where it’s all going to go when I bring it home.

So for now everything I had planned - getting some freelance work while I found a job at home and carried on with my final project - has been put on hold while I wait to find out how I do tomorrow in this interview. Wish me luck!

Read my previous job logs   

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