Originally Posted by wannabemedstudent

Bloody hell I can't get the hang of this thing, how do you make it all go into a single thread???!

EDIT-

Oh ok got it. Just add new blog to the original thread.

Merged it for you

Well thought it's about time I updated anyone bored enough to be reading this.

My job has been very boring recently mainly because I don't have one anymore. Not enough hours to go round since two of our venues closed the shutters for the last time. But the boss has said he'll keep my details and he's given me a glowing reference letter so it's not all bad. I hated that job anyway.

So last week I took myself down to the Job Centre, hung around for a few minutes like a kid outside a shop plucking up the courage to go inside and buy some filth, eventually furtively sneaked inside hoping no one I knew saw me. I was ten minutes early for my appointment but predictibly the schedule was running half an hour late.

The stigma I attach to what I see as sponging off the taxpayer was obviously not shared by the bloke sitting next to me who was talking to his mate on a Blackberry (!) telling him about how he wished he was getting incapacity as well "Cos Steve's been on it for fcuking years and there's fcuk all wrong with him....." Hmmmm.

The office itself is a total joke, all open plan with brightly coloured wall hangings and sh1t. It looks like a fcuking playschool. Everything is open plan so you're giving all your personal details sitting almost shoulder to shoulder with someone who's integrity I will readily call into question. By the way, science can rejoice, I've found the missing link. They seem to compromise most of the staff in my Job Centre.

They are a FCUKING JOKE!!! All they seem to do is sit at their fcuking desk talking to their mate across the room. Occasionally they get up from their desk, waddle around the room for a bit picking up sheets of paper, mysteriously change direction mid-step, then go back to their desk, tuck their belly over the lip of the desk, and then go back to the beginning and resume their conversation. Every now and then without any noticable change in their pattern of "work" they will grunt of squeak depending on what their dangly bits look like the name of whichever upstanding member of society/dole scrounging chav scum (delete as approriate) is next on their list and call him over for an interview.

I'm sure I've given them a raw deal here. I haven't seen it from their side and I'm sure there are pressures to the job which I don't understand. NOT!
They are a bunch of poorly motivated workshy slothful jobsworths who've been captured by the system. I blame management.

Anyway the interview itself was another joke. It consisted mainly of ascertaining my identity, very loudly, in case the local fraudster didn't get my NI number the first time, and form filling. I can understand they have to check your ID and fill out forms, but I was expecting there to be a much greater emphasis on actually getting you off the dole and back into work. There's a bit where you have to give three jobs you're interested in, and sign a contract thing where you state what you're going to do to get one of them. It was a complete formality, and the bloke as good as admitted that it doesn't matter whether I actually apply for them- as long as I state I have been trying, every fortnight I'll be getting my Giro.

No fcuking wonder the chavvy layer of society is so huge.

Anyway looking on the brightside, I've got a breathing space now to find me some work. With my medical ambitions I need to be working in a clinical environment, so I've applied using NHS Jobs for work as a:

Phlebotomist x3
HCA x4
Patient Transport Driver x3
A&E Receptionist x1
Pharmacy Tech x1
Some bloke who checks whether newborns can hear properly x1
School HCA x1

...... and many many more. So hopefully my unemployment will be temporary. By the way, if anyone out there has any advice for things like application forms, CVs, interview skills etc I'd be very grateful seeing as it's all new to me. It's been a week now and I haven't heard anything back, I'm starting to think that I'm missing trick somewhere.

On the even brighter side, I've got my interview date for my Access to Med college course which starts in September. So fingers crossed for that one.

Some job application advice:

Reference your CV - have you still got the book the CTP gave you? I always found it pretty useful, and I had a few remarks on how well it looked when I had to use that style of CV (I'm now in an area where a CV is as long as it needs to be). Also make sure your CV relates fully to the job specification - so no generic CVs - should be a different one for each job (this just means tweak it).

Secondly, don't forget to include a cover letter - again, this should relate you to their job description. Don't forget to make the best of your experience, too. I.e. As a bouncer, you are very good at handling difficult situations, have excellent verbal and nonverbal communications skills. As a squaddie, you were adaptable to any role etc.

Finally, always contact any potential employer before you apply for the job (or at least before you submit the application)- maybe with a question about training oppertunities (you will seem keen). This will make you stand out that little bit more, and you'll seen keener - also having previous contact will stand you in good stead in the interview. Then after any interview, contact them again with an email thanking them for their time etc.

And good luck! You seem to have your head screwed on, so I'm sure you'll do alright

Oh, and regarding the HCA stuff - I did that for a while, when I was considering a different career. IIRC, such posts with the NHS are difficult to get, even on bank.

Your best bet? Contact one of the nursing agencies near you (or a national one like Allied Healthcare), they tend to take anybody who can get CRB clearence, and isn't dead.

This is shit for the patients and clients, who end up with a moronic misfit looking after/physically and mentally abusing them, but great for you. It means you have a hope of getting the experience so you can apply for the other positions.

The upside of agency work is also that you get to decide your own hours, and you'll get experience with different clinical populations.

First sorry for not writing anything for a while, assuming that is that anyone gives a fcuk....

There's a few things to mention.

I had my interview for my college course last month and I'm glad to say I got offered a place there and then. It was an interesting experience, mainly due to the fact that I'd shat myself 30 minutes before the interview started. I blame this on the 3 pints I had the night before. It was nothing to do with the curry I also had. But I digress.... So anyway, I was sitting in the car killing time when I felt an ominous rumbling in my belly, so I got out and waddled towards the building with my arse clenched. I was waddling faster and faster as the need to shit grew, and by the time I got to the door I was almost running. I was really starting to panic at this point because I couldn't find a toilet. Anyway, long story short, I unloaded into my shreddies just as I saw the door marked "Men's Toilets". Fcuk. A massive clean-up op then followed, culminating with me stripping and washing my arse in the sink. My boxers unfortunately didn't make it, and had to be buried at sea in the cistern. Thank fcuk I had deoderant in the car, better to smell like a toiletries aisle than a sewer...... Anyway no harm done, interview went ok, although I swear she was wrinkling her nose. I got the place starting in September, and drove home a wiser man.

Out of the dozens of jobs I applied for, I got three interviews and two job offers. I took the one which pays more, and gives me plenty of patient contact which I can put on my UCAS application to med school in October. The only bad part of the job is that it's a 40 mile drive away, but I'll put in for a transfer asap. The job itself is working for an NHS Ambulance Trust driving a Patient Transport ambulance, basically the minibuses full of old dears going to dialysis. It doesn't really appeal to me but fcuk it it's only for 6 months and I do need some evidence that I can work in a caring profession, apparently the med schools are big on that these days.

At all the interviews I had, it was amazing how many people, mainly young men I have to say, turned up wearing trainers and jeans or a flowery shirt with no tie or jacket. I mean fcuks sake, I wasn't exactly in evening dress but is a suit too much to hope for? The jobcentre even give you an allowance to buy some decent clothes for interviews! You might be tricked into thinking that these lads didn't especially want a job, as they were managing quite alright on JSA cheers easy...... why work for a living when the government will steal I mean redistribute other people's hard earned cash? I'm all for safety nets, as you'll know I was on the dole myself since january, but once you reach the stage where welfare is a legitimate career choice something's got to give.

Anyway, that's about it for now. My step-dad's just had another minor heart attack so I'm waiting to drive the mother in to see him. I don't really like him, but I don't particularly want him to die. Not just yet anyway, especially as I suspect I don't feature in his will. Oh well.

Originally Posted by bullet_catcher

Swapping a bayonet for a thermometer sounds unusual, but at least they both go in the same hole. Seriously though, good luck with your plan.

not technically accurate as a bayonet tends to, by virtue of its being a stabby thing, makes its own hole. Doing that with thermometer might lead to questions being asked

Semantics I know!!

I've worked in various jobs including many years ago as a social services ambulance driver and within the last 12 years as a member of a social services directorate helping to run the department. That was a culmination of 20 years working for a local authority in a number of different roles starting off as a manual employee and ending up as a fairly senior local government officer. That's local government, not health but given my social services experience, it's not that different to the health working environment.

If you want to get into practising medicine, there is only one way to do it that I'm aware of and that's the qualification route. Anybody who suggest's you can start off working as a driver and then move on to greater and greater things basically is giving you very bad advice. You can drive that motor for the next 10 year's, you are never going to be a doctor or anything approaching it.

The only way to get in a position to go to medical school to be a doctor is to get the relevant educational qualifications. That probably means going back to college or night school and so on. There are not any shortcuts that I'm aware of other than this route. That's how the system works and you have to go with the system. Theres no other way around it. So really, your questions should be, what educational qualifications do I need, how do I get them and where do I get them. An important element of all this is going to be how do I pay for my food etc while I'm doing this so you need to see what grants, loans and other funding you can attract to keep you alive while you are stuying etc.

It's not an impossible task either. I knew a former sargeant in the royal marines, a falklands veteran, who came out of the mob with nothing educationally speaking. He decided to go back to college etc to get some qualifications under his belt so he could get a decent job. He ended up getting his phd in social sciences at bradford uni. He's a schoolteacher now teacher infant children. I sometimes laugh when I think of this bloke running around the falklands in 1982 with his SLR and bayonet now teaching 5/6/7 year olds in school. But that's a fact, he did it.

Good luck in your venture. I hope you get what you want.

Originally Posted by wannabemedstudent

First sorry for not writing anything for a while, assuming that is that anyone gives a fcuk....

Keep it up mate... I'm keen to hear more (well, not too much on you sh!teing your kecks). If you need any pointers about surviving in an academic environment feel free to PM me (uni lecturer in Biology).

good luck!

S-H

Originally Posted by Schleswig-Holstein

Originally Posted by wannabemedstudent

First sorry for not writing anything for a while, assuming that is that anyone gives a fcuk....

Keep it up mate... I'm keen to hear more (well, not too much on you sh!teing your kecks). If you need any pointers about surviving in an academic environment feel free to PM me (uni lecturer in Biology).

good luck!

S-H

I echo SH's sentiments, I am interested in your progress, we can all learn from your experiences.

Congrats on getting a place on the pre-med course; that should sort out your qualification level and show yourwillingness and ability to study.

And I hope the job works out - only by doing it can you discover if it really gives patient contact in a way you can show to be relevant. If your worried that it might not, have you thought of other things you could do? Perhaps on a voluntary basis so you can fit it round the income stream? I was thinking of something like The Samaritans or with SSAFA as a caseworker?