Catch up

The Triodos trip consumed most of my time last week. This week I’m trying to catch up on e-mails and churn out some applications. My reward was to go out for a drink tonight at the Duke of York as part of a Meet Up gathering. There were probably 20 people there, so plenty of people to talk to. Duke of York front bar:

Back bar:

For those who for some masochistic reason want to follow the job-seeker’s journey, below are the essential criteria for a job I applied for today. I had to write 12 essay questions explaining how my experience aligned with these criteria. Job seeking is soul destroying because each day that you spend selling yourself is another day that you are less convinced that you have anything to offer.

Essential
• Relevant experience of working in an economic and social policy development capacity where policy changes that you have worked on have benefited others;
• Proactive attitude and proven ability to work at all levels within an organisation, creating and maintaining good working relationships;
• Well organised, with proven time management skills, with a strong commitment to customer service;
• Demonstrable experience of managing, analysing and interpreting economic information and research;
• Proven ability of proactively building and maintaining effective partnerships and good relations at all levels both within the organisation and with external bodies and special interest groups;
• Writing reports, guides and summary documents and preparing responses to official documents;
• Experience of managing a project demonstrating proven time management skills and the ability to handle multiple requests simultaneously;
• Good project management skills; and
• Behaviour consistent with the Consumer Council’s values.

Relevant experience has been defined as “experience of conducting evidence-based public and social policy analysis, implementation and evaluation that has an impact on consumers or citizens”.
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