Perks of unemployment

a book about how difficult
it is to find your dream job
 - well, sort of... 

Being unemployed sucks (I know that's not the title of the blog - I will get there). It is scary, demoralizing and frustrating. (I definitely thought I would be saving the world by now.) You have no idea when it will end, your bank account misses the days when money went in and not just out out out (and this is with very limited spending thanks to awesome family). You don't have medical aid (eek, although I feel almost rebellious without it, and I have very few moments of rebellion). You can't make future plans because you don't know where you will be in 6 months time (I am looking for work ANYWHERE in the world).

So good, but so sad

It is also frustrating that your poor CV has to carry the burden of introducing you to complete strangers and convincing them that you really are awesome (because of course I am). It is shyly being sent to the far flung places in the world, and more often than not you don't even get told if it got there. Personally, I am also not sure what level to pitch my CV at, is it really true that you don't have to tick ALL the requirements, or am I wasting their time if I haven't explicitly worked on Zebrafish? 

Totally oversold -
this is not a romantic
story. 

There are also the hermit-inspiring questions: "What are you doing now?" and "What are you going to do next?" (Not to mention the stories about the awesome jobs OTHER people have found - although I promise I really am happy for them!) All of this makes life vaguely terrifying. 

BUT, I am a silver lining, bubbles and whimsy kind of girl - at least on Fridays. There are good things about being unemployed.*

LOVELY. Emilio was
my first crush (in
Young Guns II)

I was genuinely exhausted and run down when I finished my PhD , so a bit  of a break is a gift from the universe (do you hear that universe? Only a BIT) and so are the vitamin B injections. I have time to do yoga and not spend Savasana thinking about how I should be writing my thesis (that doesn't mean I am actually able to think about nothing yet). I have time to play with the dogs and play dress up with my wonderful nieces. 

I have also had time to indulge in my all-time-favourite thing - reading. At times during my PhD I had to ban  my self from reading because I get very resentful of having to do anything else when I am in the middle of a good book. Now I have been able to gleefully indulge in book after book. (The book I have just finished was of course a Terry Pratchett - "Snuff" - because it was the best way to cope with the very sad news of him passing away last week, I am not ashamed to say there were tears). 

Just coincidence I also
read this TP this month

I have also (and I say this with some trepidation) had time to try writing a little children's story of my own. It of course includes limpets and sardines because there really should be more books that do. This is a real luxury because it a completely self indulgent thing to do and when does one have time to just write for the whole day? (Unfortunately not in my pajamas drinking champagne**).  I am struggling a little with what should happen next, unfortunately, so maybe champagne would help. I have even spent some time trying to figure out how to draw cartoon faces - for illustrating the book - although I suspect these will only ever see the inside of my notebook. 

Life is better now!

Of course, the reality is, most of my time is spent trawling the internet for possible job openings. This and applying for the tiny proportion that is appropriate takes up an extraordinary amount of time. This is particularly true when you have to fill in the applications online. (And I still have papers that need to be published looming over my shoulder). But one of the good things about searching for jobs in conservation and fisheries is that the internet searches bring you to amazing organisations that are doing really cool things. There are organisations that I have never heard of that are doing exactly what I think needs to be done in the world. There are people that are truly inspiring that I hope to be like one day. (For example: Check out "The Center for Biological Diversity" and the amazing things "Zoological Society of London" are doing and many other cool things that are happening including the discovery of lots of new species by WoRMs). 

This made me Fernweh

Read it! 

While I was chatting to one inspirational person doing cool work I noticed on her wall a sign that said:

"I just want to save animals, drink wine and take naps"

My sign would read:

"I just want to save animals, drink wine and read books - but - could someone please pay me to do so"^

*I suspect this is only true if you have an amazingly generous family, that are willing to feed you, like I do. 

** This is a Terry Pratchett reference, from Snuff #

# I guess including footnotes is also a Terry Pratchett inspired thing, especially when you have footnotes that have footnotes. 

^My sister rightly suggested that reading is way better than napping - napping tends to make me grumpy. 

South Africa, register to vote....

When I was in my "yes phase" post break up, I signed up to volunteer with the DA. There was a leaflet in the post box - I am somewhat of a compulsive volunteer-er. It wasn't an entirely shallow decision, I have huge respect for the changes that I have seen in Cape Town since the DA has been in power here, I am a big Zille fan, my local Councillor works so hard and is lovely (and I look nice in blue). Obviously there are issues with the DA as with all other political parties AND this blog is not about politics... I am just mentioning it here because this weekend, you can register to vote if, for some weird reason, you haven't already done so.  



People fought so hard to get the vote I think the least we can do is acknowledge that by casting our own vote. In our 4 elections the voter turnout has averaged 82% and was 77.3% in the 2009 election (for a comparison, the 2010 election in UK had 65.1% and in the US in 2012 57.5%). I think that is pretty good and I like being better than the UK and USA at something for a change. Let's keep that up! 

First years.... 

The Daily Maverick reports that 77% of potential voters are registered however, the worrying bit is that they say that only 22.6% of 18 - 19 year olds are registered. Are our youth apathetic? Isn't all youth - by the way - I realise that saying that makes me seem old, but it is hard not to feel old with the influx of tiny first years on campus. 

I didn't really have topic
appropriate photos... can you tell?

OK, so, vote and encourage young(er) people to vote for the first time. If for no other reason than to keep our average turnout higher than that of the UK and USA, but also because I firmly believe you have no right to moan about anything if you are too apathetic to get to the voting stations on the PUBLIC HOLIDAY that is election day. You can register on the 8 and 9th Feb. I will be there to check up on you.... OK that is only true if you live in my neighbourhood, and I will just be there, volunteering, not so much checking up on you.  

For more information about the elections or where to register check out the IEC website or call the local office of your preferred political party. Or call 0800 11 8000 (toll free from a landline) during office hours. You should also check if you are registered. 

       

Register at your correct voting station on 8/9 Feb from 8am to 5pm.

PS The DA has also put up a good fight to get South Africans living abroad the opportunity to vote, so make it worth the slog. (Again, I don't care who you vote for, just so long as you care enough about the country to vote). 

Load shedding silver linings

Load shedding sucks, it has huge economic consequences, is inconvenient and frustrating. It makes me feel a little embarrassed about South Africa especially when I have to cancel a Skype date with friends in UK and Canada because of it (and if you know me well, I'm obnoxiously proud of south Africa so it's incredibly frustrating to be embarrassed by load shedding and SONA2015.)

I know that load shedding can be terribly frustrating. When we had it in 2008 it wasn't that well scheduled, and I had put a 96 well PCR in. You can imagine how frustrating it is to lose that especially when I actually got bands on that gel - and had no way to recreate the conditions - I am sure they weren't real bands, but as you can see, I still remember that plate (I had SUCH troubles with my PCRs in my PhD - optimisation heartbreaks). Now, I think, the scheduling is a little better, usually where it deviates, we get less load shedding than planned, which isn't something to moan about.  

So, it's Sunday night and we're sitting outside drinking chilled white wine until the sun goes down. It is a beautiful still evening. And, this is the first time we have actually had load shedding in a couple of weeks. Load shedding sucks but wow the stars and moon are brighter. Candle light is beautiful and the world seems quieter (unless there's a generator near by).

I think there might even be some good that comes out of load shedding. It makes people appreciate electricity and think about it as precious and worth saving. It starts serious conversations about alternative energy and some people are even starting to invest in solar panels which is definitely a good thing. It forces people to stop their electronic and TV addictions (although I'm emailing myself during load shedding on my phone - just in case I forget these thoughts - so that does rather contradict what I am saying).

When we had to pay for plastic bags, people started to bring re-usable bags. When petrol got expensive, people (for a while) drove slower and were a little more petrol conscious.  Granted, people get used to things quickly and eventually just handed over the extra cash for the plastic bag or petrol, but people thought about things for a while, and some people stuck with the reusable bags, the slower driving. So maybe in a small way, load shedding will make, at least some people, slightly more energy conscious.

There's always a silver lining.  So instead of ranting about load shedding on Facebook try enjoy the moment. Go outside and look at the beautiful stars, light a fire and have a braai, practice low-light photography, make a phone call to someone you haven't spoken to in a while - try doing something that doesn't require electricity for the 2 hours you will be in the dark. For me, it is now time to actually enjoy the candle light, wine and quality time playing trivial pursuit (and the wine!) 

What is your weakness? Interviews?

Shumba

I have a confession… I hadn’t really planned on telling people about this because if nothing came of it I wanted to avoid the sympathetic head tilts. I do really hate the head tilts – unless it is Shumba that is giving them to me, because he is just so pretty he can get away with almost anything. Of course anyone who has spent time with me (particularly when wine is involved) will know that I am very bad at keeping my own (I really can keep your secrets don’t worry) secrets anyway.

Meet Marmalade - he pretends he wants
you to stroke him, but really he wants to
dig his claws into you - not the sort you
want to interview you. 

OK, now I am worried this is too much of a build-up, REALLY, it wasn’t a big deal, I just had an interview on Monday, which is kind of a big deal because as you know I am currently looking for a job. I have only actually had 5 interviews before this (EVER) and none of them had gone well, so I have mostly gotten myself into the frame of mind that I am bad at interviews. That and my general self-confidence took a real knock with the whole PhD thing.

The first was for an internal position I knew that I could do better than anyone else, and that didn’t go well because I expected them to know that too. I also found out how much I was going to get paid and decided it wasn’t really worth my time and asked them not to consider me for the position (I am not a snob, I have at various times worked hard for very little money – but I knew what kind of time commitment this job required and I couldn’t justify it). I did get the runner up prize, a different position with fewer hours and an hourly rate that actually suited me better.

Benji 

The second interview was for a youth-leadership program (within a political party), but I don’t have that “RA RA” personality that I think they were looking for – I really am more of a “do-er” than a “let’s discuss in an opinionated way what needs to be done” sort. Anyway, having recently watched the SONA I am glad to distance myself from the political sorts. The third was a telephone interview for a position that would have been really interesting. I worked really hard on that one – read papers, did research and was quite excited about it. It didn’t work out, but if I think about it, it wasn’t really for me and I know I am not that good on the phone.

The fourth was awful and I was actually choking up on the phone to my mom before it because I didn’t want to work there, but I didn’t feel like I had the option to be choosy. It was a horrible interview. I try to forget about it. The fifth was my dream job. I say that, running the risk of potential future employers seeing this. Eeekkk. And because it turns out that potential future employers have looked at my blog, I will refrain from saying it remains in my top 3 places of work. Alas, I didn’t hear anything. I was heartbroken.

Marmalade again

Which brings me to this interview: I was nervous, of course, I did the required research, of course, and I think it went OK. It was a Skype interview which was a first for me and a little awkward because I could see the funny facial expressions I pull and they had their camera kind of pointing at the empty wall so I was talking to invisible people for at least some of the time. It is an exciting opportunity that I won’t tell you about too much because I haven’t had any feedback yet (and now you know that you can give me wine and I will tell you, so I will hold out and let you buy the wine). If nothing else comes out of it, I am glad that I had this interview. It made the whole interview experience less terrifying for me because there were such nice people on the other side of the camera (when I could see them). I didn’t feel like they were trying to trick me or catch me out. They had read my CV (and – blush – some of my blog) and were really nice.

Jill 

So, this rather long preamble is to say that when people tell you that just the experience of having an interview is a good thing, it is really true. It turns out that when I was terrible at an interview – it wasn’t that I am terrible, it was that it wasn’t a good fit. (Although being almost in tears before an interview because you don’t want to work there should have been enough of a sign that it wasn’t a good fit). Whether or not I get this job, I know that I genuinely have good qualifications, varied experiences and worth and if you are reading about how to survive a PhD, then you probably do too (or you are friends with me, and then you definitely do). And the right fit might just come along (OH how I hate it when people say that to me!)

PS They said I would hear on Wednesday, but obviously I haven’t heard, is there a consensus on whether or not it is rude to send a polite email asking? It has (within South Africa) geographical implications for me after all.