Just Another Blokes Blog

Back on My Blog Shit

So I’m back again, not quite providing daily updates as planned and it’s mainly due to the lack of good content. Don’t know why I thought I’d have enough to fill a blog each day, I’m literally doing the same thing every day.

Wake up -> open the laptop -> apply for jobs -> read rejection emails -> close laptop -> game -> sleep

I could literally copy and paste this into a daily blog and save you all some reading time.

The Interview

Yep, today was my first interview in a few weeks so I woke up slightly excited. Opened up the job spec on one screen, my CV on the other.

Drafted a couple of possible answers to the usual questions that get thrown up, “Can you give us some of your weaknesses” etc. Reviewed the background of the company so I could show I was interested.

The interview was scheduled for 12pm via Teams. I told everyone in the house I was “working from home” today, they still don’t know I’m out of work (well they haven’t questioned me about it anyway), and that I had a meeting which I was taking upstairs.

Teams is such a God awful tool and anytime I have an important call or meeting it shits the bed. I logged into my email, opened the calendar and clicked on ‘Join call’. My laptop decided it was done with life and staged a full-blown meltdown and this was 5 mins before the interview was due to start.

Restarted the laptop, followed the same steps and joined the call at 12:01pm full of apologies and excuses about how I was stuck in the ‘Waiting room’ trying to join but they were cool about it. There were two of them, the guy who I’d be reporting into and a lady from HR, both introduced themselves and they seemed really down to earth so I felt relaxed.

He gave more info on the actual job which, surprise surprise, was different to the job spec but I had enough experience to adjust my answers to the questions he had. I went through my CV, gave examples of real-life cases which I could apply to the new role and they seemed happy enough. The lady asked the usual HR questions which, again, I answered with examples. Everything was going well.

That was until she stopped with a loud “Hmm” which caught both myself and the dude off-guard. She then proceeded to say this role would probably be too much of a step-down for me based off my experience and he quickly agreed. It literally went from everything looking promising to me scrambling to salvage the interview.

I explained the reasoning behind why I was interested in the role, why I liked the company and even went as far as providing random facts on the company to try highlight I was that invested in this role but it was no good. I got the usual response of “we’ll be in touch by the end of the week” but I have to admit it does not look promising.

Feels like I’m stuck in a vicious cycle at this stage.

Sod’s Law

I got my final salary payment today and thought to myself, great stuff, this will tie me over for a while and it will stop me dipping into my savings. That plan didn’t last long.

I had a call with my solicitor today regarding an ongoing legal case (which I can’t talk about right now but will update in a future update), it will cost me just under €6k to retain his services for the remainder of the case and I’ve invested too much time and money into this already to simply drop it.

I started receiving my social welfare benefit two weeks ago but this has been stopped until I attend an interview tomorrow. No doubt they’ll want to see some sort of evidence or proof I’m actively searching for a job so I’ve got plenty of ‘light’ reading there for them if they need it.

Totally forgot I was booked in to see my neurologist tomorrow until they rang this morning to confirm the appointment. The initial consultation cost me just over €600 so I thought to myself surely this appointment would cost less, nope. The follow-up appointment comes with a price of €850 so needless to say I’ve cancelled that appointment!

So I’ve gone from planning on how I can stretch out my final salary payment to last as long as possible to seeing it disappear within minutes, along with a decent portion of my savings.

Update on the ‘YouTube’ incident

If you’ve read my previous blog you’d be familiar with the incident involving my son and his curiosity on YouTube which we addressed.

I woke up on the Saturday morning to find him with his headset connected to his Switch while staring blankly at the screen and the first thing that came to mind was he’s already back watching YouTube so I rushed over thinking I’d catch him in the act but he was instead watching some of his saved gaming clips so minus one point for me for doubting him.

He did in all fairness actually delete the app himself and showed me his Switch to prove this. I can monitor his activity on my phone so I’ll know if he downloads it again anyway but I trust him to follow through on his promise.

I did have another chat with him about it on Saturday and made it clear that, while I wasn’t happy with him searching for the type of videos he had searched for, I would rather he come directly to me with questions. He knows he was in the wrong and accepts this so we’ve moved on.

We spent the rest of the weekend out geocaching and playing football so it was a weekend well spent. I know every parent thinks their child is the best at their sport but the level of skill I’m seeing from him week on week is unreal, he literally went from not being able to string a pass together to scoring every week with some crackers thrown in there. Hopefully he keeps the hunger for the game and get his big chance some day.

Rant of the day – Job Applications

When applying for jobs, why do companies ask for your CV and then ask you to re-type everything again??

I don’t know how many jobs I’ve applied for so far where I’ve uploaded my CV, filled in my personal details only to be asked for exact same information on the next screen. I’m literally opening a copy of my CV, copying and pasting the same info across, its actually pointless.

Then you have these sites that ask for a copy of your CV so they can extract the info they need to pre-fill your application only to find its made an absolute balls of everything. Job titles are in the company name field and vice versa, the start/end dates are mixed up and they input your name in all capitals which, of course, the system doesn’t like so you end up spending more time fixing this shit show then anything else.

You finally get to the end of the application and you’re presented with a list as long as your arm on what gender you are, your religion, are you related to anyone senior in the company. If I was related to anyone senior Karen I’d be asking them to get me a job rather than telling my life story on this fucking application.

There is one part though where I struggle to answer, do you have any disabilities including mental disabilities. Some sites give lists of what they class as disabilities which include depression and anxiety, both of which I suffer from, where others offer only a yes or no option.

I know companies are not supposed to base their decisions off this information alone but I still personally think there is a stigma out there when it comes to mental health so if I’m presented with a simple yes or no option I usually select no. I always feel that if I select yes, without the option of being able to give more info, I’m ruling myself out of getting that job which I’m sure is not the case.

But the overall process of applying for a job is a pain in the nut sack and after investing so much time in getting your application ready you either hear nothing back or get a generic reply saying you didn’t get the job.

I read a post on LinkedIn today from a hiring manager in some company who had advertised a position. Within 24 hours they had received over 200 applications and they basically admitted that unless you’re one of the first 50 or so applicants to have applied for the job, your application was not getting reviewed. So this basically means you could be the most qualified person out there for this role but because you didn’t get your application across within the first 30 mins of the job being advertised you’re screwed.

Recruiters always recommend you tailor your CV and create a cover letter for each application to highlight your experience for the role on offer but this could take an hour or two to actually update which means by time you submit the tailored application you’ve already missed out.

The system is broken.

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Peace out and much love,

The Bloke