Matt's job log: 9
Matt Atkins has lost his NHS job and finished his freelance TV work. What next? Between jobs This job blog comes at the end of an intense couple of weeks. I’ve been juggling my now-defunct day job with freelance work for the production company while also writing two articles and badgering my temping agency for a new placement. It’s been busy and it’s been stressful but now that all the work’s over, I feel kind of lost. I’d been looking forward to some free time, but now I have it I’m looking for another project to get into.
My last weeks at work weren’t exactly a barrel of laughs, spent as they were teaching the new girl how to do my job. The great thing about my ex-position was that I had a huge amount of autonomy and also a lot of time on my own in which I could stick on my ipod and just get on with my business. It’s been weird having someone following me around all day and, if I’m honest, it had really started to grate by my final day. I felt a bit sorry for newbie. Not only did she constantly apologise for taking my job from me, not that I was that bothered, but this is also her first time working in the NHS. NHS secretsThe main thing I’ve learned since August is that working for the health service in any position requires a fair amount of inside knowledge, which unfortunately is something they don't cover on induction day. Because everybody is working under pressure they expect you to know exactly what you’re doing and also how everyone else operates. Somehow I’ve managed to get by on a mixture of luck, initiative and the occasional boyish grin (makes medical secretaries melt!). Saying this though, new girl is obviously much more organised than me and from the looks of it already knows pretty much exactly what to do. It’s annoying really but she’s probably going to do the job far better than I ever did. Bathroom basedThe freelance work I secured at the beginning of the month was short term – very short term. I’m not complaining though, it was a pretty interesting couple of weeks and it’s going to look awesome on my CV. My time at the production company probably could have gone better though. While I tried to get as much done as humanly possible, the fact that I developed food poisoning towards the end was pretty lame. I managed to work from home though, fitting internet research in the twenty-minute intervals before dashes for the bathroom. To be honest I got a fair bit done, but I’m not sure that working from home is for me. Without the boundaries of 9-5 to go by, I was constantly worried that I wasn’t doing enough and possibly, for the first time in my life, did more than I actually needed to. They seem fairly pleased with the work I’ve done for them, but I always worry about this type of thing. Repeat diallingWith that surge of work out of the way I’m, as I’ve mentioned, left with nothing to do, in a very literal and worrying sense. The end of my placement with Cancer Services comes at a time when the temping agency is overwhelmed with people looking for work. At the moment I don’t have a job to go back to, so I am taking an enforced holiday of sorts. It’s a holiday spent ringing the agency at hourly intervals and otherwise scouting about for other working opportunities. I guess it’s an excuse to spend some time in the library and do some research on my PhD proposal which is still little more than a few random ideas floating around my head. I’ve managed to get in touch with one of my old tutors and thought a trip up to Manchester for a chat might be on the cards. Unfortunately she’s going to be in Australia for the next month so I’m not going to be able to see her until June. It’s kind of lucky considering I don’t actually have any concrete thoughts at the moment, but in honesty I’m looking forward to talking to someone about what steps I should take next. Last bit of news is that I’ve finally made a definite decision to move out of the family home with a couple of friends. We’re toying with the idea of moving to a more lively part of town and at the moment (very lazily) searching the web for suitable places. Here’s hoping I have a job by the time it comes to paying some rent. Read Matt's previous job logs:
Suggestions to editorial@prospects.ac.uk
| 
