Michelle's job log: 9

The story so far... Michelle left university in 2007 and found a job as an assistant to lecturers at Manchester University. But she really wants to go into fashion, maybe through merchandising or HR, with the help of a postgrad course.

The fourth attempt

Well doing this application for university still hasn’t happened. It’s one of those paper ones, where you actually have to handwrite it and I’m finding it really hard to actually complete it. I especially hate the fact that it has to be in block capitals, which is even more time consuming, if I could just do my usual joint-up scramble then it would be fine. I know that if it would have been an online form I would have done it a month ago, but everyday I just keep putting it off, the thought of sitting there writing carefully is just not for me. The thing is I have actually attempted it, three times to be precise, and each time I’ve made some kind of minor mistake, and had to start again. I think my brain thinks faster than I can actually write so I end up missing words or letters out. I’m halfway through my latest attempt and I absolutely refuse to start again, a couple of mistakes have been made already, but tipex or crossing out is the only way forward for me or I will actually go insane. I hope I’m not leaving it too late to apply, that’s just me all over, late for everything, but I reckon I should have it done by the end of April, that’s how long I have to give myself!

 

A stage further

As another month ends and the prospect of starting uni in a few months dawns on me the off putting thoughts are already popping into my head; the thought of being poor from having no full-time work is the biggest turn off for me, but at the same time the thing I can’t wait for the most is not having to go to work every day. I think the only thing that could save me would be to get a really exciting job, but I know for a fact that is not going to happen any time soon, especially a well-paid one. Saying that though, I did apply to a trainee scheme for a merchandiser’s role and have got through the initial stages which consisted of an online application form and test. The next stage will be more online tests, which will be numerical and reasoning tests and then if I’m successful at that stage then I will be invited to an assessment centre to do a presentation, group exercise and one-to-one interview. I’m really hoping to get further on this one, the chance to actually go to an assessment centre would be a useful experience, particularly for the career I want in merchandising where you have to do presentations and work as a team, which is something I haven’t really done much of since leaving uni.

College no more

Other than that I’ve quit college, for the fact that it was a fashion course that just wasn’t fashiony enough. There was no design element, it was literally just sewing and pattern making which is fundamental but there was nothing to get excited by, no inspiration, it was just learning the absolute basics with no room for creativity. So that’s the end of that. It just started to seem like a waste of time, I wasn’t even bothered about doing the end of term fashion show because I know that I wouldn’t really be excited by what I had made due to it being so restricted. I feel like I’ve grasped the basic skills which I can do at home, I don’t need to keep going back repeating the same old methods just to prove that I can do it.

So the next challenge is just completing this form and doing my absolute best on the application process for this trainee position and then the rest is out of my hands.

Read my earlier job logs 

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