Middle of the night thoughts
It's now the end of March, and I still haven't found a job.
My agency has not come through. Several other agencies have simply sent letters saying they have nothing to suit me. I had an interview at the bridal shop, but I guess they didn't choose me. Neither did the childrenswear shop, or the designer shop, or House of Fraser, nor Borders. I had the arts-related interview. Thought there was a good chance there since they were only interviewing 6 people and choosing 4, but they didn't choose me.
I recently put in an application at Pret a Manger. I went to the job center and looked on their computer and found a few things of interest. Three were very short term jobs at the Norfolk Show, one handling costumes backstage. Since I've done that, both in theater and backstage at a fashion runway show in New York, I thought that would be a shoo-in. The woman on the phone said she'd send the application package, but she didn't. Yesterday I had an interview with a company that transfer prints T-shirts and does custom embroideries like those little logos you see on uniforms. The job is in production, actually managing the embroidery machines. I had a job in New York for a while doing designs for a company that does first sample machine embroideries for the garment trade. This job is full time and minimum wage, but I'd learn something new that might well be of use to me as a textile designer. I'd rather have part-time, but I'd deal with it, I guess, even though it would mean giving up my tutoring and selling at shows these next few months.
I truly don't know what's wrong. Is it that I'm American? That I'm 55? That I'm overeducated? (B.A. in chemistry, Ph.D. in biochemistry, and A.A. in textile design, in case anyone's interested) I've got about ten versions of my CV now, even one in which I do my best to hide that I ever had any degrees other than the AA or any work other than the temp office work I did at the end of last year.
I just found out today that I may have been answering one of the standard application questions wrong. They ask: Do you need a work permit to work in the UK. I have a spousal visa with full working rights connected to my American husband's work visa. I figured that that meant yes, I did need a work permit, the one I already have. But a friend tells me no, that that question is meant to ask if I will need the employer to go to a whole lot of paper-work-involving trouble in order to hire me. The answer to that is no. I have full working rights already.
The other thing it says on my visa is "No Recourse to Public Funds". I don't think the folks who turn me down for jobs consider what that means in terms of life consequences of finding or not finding a job. If a Brit looks and looks and keeps getting turned down for jobs, they still have a certain amount of income, access to council housing, other types of benefits. I have none of those. If I don't find a job, there's just that big empty hole in the family budget that has to be filled from somewhere. That somewhere is my retirement account from the US, which has now practically been stripped.
And that's why I'm up in the middle of the night worrying.
My agency has not come through. Several other agencies have simply sent letters saying they have nothing to suit me. I had an interview at the bridal shop, but I guess they didn't choose me. Neither did the childrenswear shop, or the designer shop, or House of Fraser, nor Borders. I had the arts-related interview. Thought there was a good chance there since they were only interviewing 6 people and choosing 4, but they didn't choose me.
I recently put in an application at Pret a Manger. I went to the job center and looked on their computer and found a few things of interest. Three were very short term jobs at the Norfolk Show, one handling costumes backstage. Since I've done that, both in theater and backstage at a fashion runway show in New York, I thought that would be a shoo-in. The woman on the phone said she'd send the application package, but she didn't. Yesterday I had an interview with a company that transfer prints T-shirts and does custom embroideries like those little logos you see on uniforms. The job is in production, actually managing the embroidery machines. I had a job in New York for a while doing designs for a company that does first sample machine embroideries for the garment trade. This job is full time and minimum wage, but I'd learn something new that might well be of use to me as a textile designer. I'd rather have part-time, but I'd deal with it, I guess, even though it would mean giving up my tutoring and selling at shows these next few months.
I truly don't know what's wrong. Is it that I'm American? That I'm 55? That I'm overeducated? (B.A. in chemistry, Ph.D. in biochemistry, and A.A. in textile design, in case anyone's interested) I've got about ten versions of my CV now, even one in which I do my best to hide that I ever had any degrees other than the AA or any work other than the temp office work I did at the end of last year.
I just found out today that I may have been answering one of the standard application questions wrong. They ask: Do you need a work permit to work in the UK. I have a spousal visa with full working rights connected to my American husband's work visa. I figured that that meant yes, I did need a work permit, the one I already have. But a friend tells me no, that that question is meant to ask if I will need the employer to go to a whole lot of paper-work-involving trouble in order to hire me. The answer to that is no. I have full working rights already.
The other thing it says on my visa is "No Recourse to Public Funds". I don't think the folks who turn me down for jobs consider what that means in terms of life consequences of finding or not finding a job. If a Brit looks and looks and keeps getting turned down for jobs, they still have a certain amount of income, access to council housing, other types of benefits. I have none of those. If I don't find a job, there's just that big empty hole in the family budget that has to be filled from somewhere. That somewhere is my retirement account from the US, which has now practically been stripped.
And that's why I'm up in the middle of the night worrying.
posted by ISAY | 4:52 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home