Almost another day worthy of a Smiths' song

A certain feeling

When I started looking this morning I had a feeling - which I've sometimes had before - that today I wouldn't find any jobs to which I could apply. Often this feeling is correct and I've suspected it's a self-fulfilling mood.

The feeling was assisted by continuing search problems with www.jobserve.com. They replied to my email last night saying they did have problems yesterday but they had been resolved. So I advised them today that the problems were continuing.

I really like JobServe but had to give up using it this morning. Instead I tried www.theitjobboard.co.uk. This seems to have the same jobs as usually advertised on JobServe (most advertisers post on a multitude of sites). JobServe is, however, the industry leader (as far as I can tell) so I prefer to use it. I also looked, as I do every day, at www.monster.com.

I was able to apply for four jobs as a result. Two might have been the same job advertised by different people within the same agency. Nevertheless I count them as seperate applications. You never know, they may well be different jobs after all.

Always on my mind

One post I saw was for a job originally advertised at the end of July. I had phoned up the recruiter who said the role had been filled.

A month later I saw the same job re-advertised by the same recruiter. I phoned him up and he said he'd get back to me, last week. Of course, he didn't.

Today I saw the same job, same agent so I phoned him again. He wasn't in and I got his hold music - a dreary Elvis Presely song. They may as well play Lenard Cohen.

I was going to call again this afternoon but didn't.

Contact

And the reason was I went to have contact lenses fitted.

Never had contact lenses before. I've been quite happy to wear glasses when I've had to. But since my accident I have to wear glasses nearly all the time. And they also have to be large frame glasses. That would have been ok 20 years ago (when I was wearing National Health Service glasses because they went so well with my cardigans).

Apart from a disinterest in vanity issues (okay, a fondness for quirkyness) I was always worried about the safety issue. Nowadays, however, they have one day disposable lenses which are much safer. It's a real nuisance driving a car with an eye patch and glasses. The parrot doesn't know what to think. So, I reckon any risks with contact lenses are negated by the risks associated with wearing perpetually dirty glasses. Both being rather small risks.

Also, apparently people with glasses at job interviews are slightly less successful than people without (assuming the people without aren't bumping into walls etc). By the same reasoning blokes without glasses are more successful with women (that is women find them more attractive) than those with glasses. I'm not sure that's so with artic blonde women, which is my speciality.

I had reckoned that having them fitted would take, oh, an hour. Having never had contact lenses before I hadn't factored in the palavar involved. Getting the lens in the first eye took at least 20 minutes. The second eye took maybe half an hour. Then, they suggested I immediately took them out. The first one took about fifteen minutes. The second one. Well, after an age I gave up and the optician removed it in a second.

I have to go again to have another "teaching" session. But meantime I have to wait at least 24 hours before my left eye has calmed down. It got quite red.

It's not squeamishness. It's just that I am physiologically highly strung (but not emotionally highly strung). And my eyelid muscles are unusually strong.

All this palavar took at least two hours. So I was unable to phone agencies this afternoon.

Dated

My c.v. is an excercise in evolotion. Just like my career recently. (Damn, I was going to write about my new style c.v. at the weekend). My current c.v.s evolved from one created on January 26th 1997.

I know this because I put this date in the subject line of the Summary section of the document's properties. This subject line has been inherited in every version of the c.v. which I've produced in the last 7 years. And it's been visible to anyone using Windows who have moved their cursor over the file in a folder. I only noticed this today. Oh well.

Blogged

It's not only JobServe who may receive my c.v. I've had a few problems with Blogger as well. It doesn't always save properly. It has also removed line throws which has made some of my text look squashed.

Like most people, I only spot errors once I've published the post (despite checking it beforehand). I've tried to correct these errors but have recently failed due to some database problem on the Blogger site. In fact, sometimes it's crashed. Not happy but at least I know now.