Michelle's job log: 13

The story so far... Michelle left university in 2007 and found a job assisting lecturers at Manchester University, though she really wants to go into fashion retailing.  To get change under way she decided last month to quit her job and relocate.

Not so fast

Well all my drastic plans have been scrapped. I’m no longer moving to Birmingham and not going to quit my job. I decided to do the sensible thing and stay until the job market gets better and I fully decide what I want to do, as I don’t want to just go for any dead-end job.

What actually brought me to this decision was realising that my salary was a lot more than I had thought it was, my manager had to provide an employment reference for the flat that I was going to rent in Birmingham which needed to show details of my salary, she let me have a copy of it and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had gone up considerably since I had started here over a year ago. The jobs I had been applying for in Birmingham were a lot less than I’m getting now, so that kind of nailed it for me, I thought why earn less and pay more to live in Birmingham, I can still visit there on weekends after all.

Moving house

So the latest is that me and two friends have found a house to share and we move in within a week. We’ll probably do this for a year and that way I can have enough time to make plans, perhaps business plans as I think I really don’t want to work 9-5 anymore, I’d rather try going it alone or working freelance or maybe even shifts. I’m just going to try it to see if the grass really is greener than being stuck in an office, I’m hoping so because I still don’t feel I have adapted to this working pattern.

If having my own business doesn’t work, my back-up route will be retail management and then if that’s not the one, I’m going to finish my training to be a make-up artist; that’s my final plan, I’m sick of changing my mind, I just need to find something, stick to it and be good at it.

The Apprentice

Another thing that made me decide to stay at my job was going to an interview last week which was like something from The Apprentice. It was in a big shiny office building, in a boardroom. The job was the most simple ever, doing basic admin duties like opening post and the salary was pretty poor for such a big company. Because of this I thought it would be such a simple interview and even though I didn’t want the job I just went out of curiosity to get a feel for what it would be like working for a big corporate company.

The interview was long and intense, with the interviewer asking me some very detailed questions about what I would do in certain situations, how I would deal with conflicts and difficult people, how I felt about working from 8am til 7pm etc etc. The interview bored me so I knew the job would, half way through I think it was clear to the interviewer that I wasn’t really interested and the job would not be for me, especially the bit about working 8-7 - never would I do that for such a low wage and doing something that I wasn’t passionate about.

One last question

The clincher came at the end of the interview when he said ‘we’ll let you know the outcome via email, we’ll send it to the hotmail account that is on your CV, do you check your Hotmail at work?’ There’s me thinking he was just asking so I replied ‘yes I do’ with him replying ‘You should never check your Hotmail at work, you can’t do that here’.

In my head I was laughing, thinking that was such a me thing to say, anyone else would have said the right thing but I fell right into the trap. I just can’t lie about things especially when it comes to a job, I think that if I have to do that then my whole career would end up being false, pretending to be something I’m not. I want a career where I can just be me, no pretence, no strict rules to follow, that’s why I like retail, wear what you want, do your hair how you like, have a laugh, work as a team and let your personality shine out. 

Anyway a couple of days later I got feedback from the interview which said my current role differed too much to the environment I would be working in at a professional services firm and that he didn’t feel it would fit with my expectations of an ideal career. The feedback was definitely spot-on.

So basically that’s it, I’m staying put, biding time and planning, but don’t be surprised if next week I contradict myself again and change my mind for the 100th time.

Read my earlier job logs   

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