The search for gold

Job hunting is a time-consuming thing. Good job I have all this time to do it in, then. Although of course, there are many other things I would like to be doing, like writing. You think that it should be relatively straightforward. You look for a job; you find a job; you submit an application. But no, there are sometimes things which take you hours to do, when it should take a few minutes. Even more frustrating when you end up not hearing back from people.

For example, the other day, I was applying for a job. Everything now requires you to sign in to the job site and create an account, so I did that and then began filling in the application. Oh good, you can just upload your CV and add a covering letter. The least painful method. Although I remembered to tweak my CV before posting.  Then I wrote a wonderful letter about how marvellous I would be for the job.  Then I scrolled down. The site wanted, in addition, the usual information filled out in their boxes about my education, experience, and why I wanted the job. So basically everything on my CV. I filled this out dutifully and then went back to change my cover letter so it didn't include everything I needed to say again.  Then I pressed submit.  It told me I must fill in all the asterisked boxes. Ah, ok: it needs dates. I put in the dates. Submit. No, still no good. I looked again. Ah, they have little calendar icons; I must use these to select the dates. Done. Submit. Still no good! I looked at the top: "please put the date in the format DD/MM/YYYY."  OK! Now I get it. But when you select the date from the calendar it put the date in the format DD-MM-YYYY.  So I had to go back and change it.  Sigh. Finally it accepted it.

Then this morning. I am applying to a well known and large organisation. "Please address any queries to XXX".  OK, I have a query. I will ask her. I emailed the woman.  An email came back: "I am out of the office until Monday, please email ZZZ with any queries."  Ok, fine. The closing date is only tomorrow but I'm sure ZZZ can help in your absence.  I emailed ZZZ. An email came back. "I am out of the office until a week on Monday."  Ah! Very helpful. So the person you put down as your cover is not there himself. Does this look good for your company? I think not. But then we're all human and things like this do happen. It's just that as a candidate applying for things, you are asked to show how marvellous you are, because that is the only sort of person they want.

And then to top it all this morning, as "Homes Under the Hammer" comes on (or whatever it was, please note I was not watching it), I see Dion Dublin is now one of the presenters. Dion Dublin. Ex-Aston Villa and England footballer. Tell me, what experience and qualifications does Mr Dublin have, exactly, which have led him into this career? Oh but I see I am wrong. He has had lots of presenting experience for the BBC (Football Focus etc). And I expect he has a lot of experience of posh houses. So I am wrong. And should get back to job hunting.