This is a special blog post for two reasons! Firstly, it's my tenth and frankly I think I should get a prize for (more or less) keeping up with it this long, even though there has been the occasional gap here and there...! And secondly, its not about volunteering, as my usual entries are, it's about my REAL ACTUAL JOB, as a Playworker for Community Link Childcare.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I have no idea how I ended up with this job. Everyone I've ever talked to about careers since I was about 13 has assumed I'm going to be a teacher, even people I barely know, and I've spent the last 10 years resolutely denying that I'm going anywhere near a bunch of snotty nosed kids. So of course, within weeks of finishing uni I went and got myself a job in a primary school, working with kids. There were two main reasons behind this. Firstly - I needed a job. I've decided against any kind of further study at the moment, and I didn't have a permanent job while I was at uni, so in order to avoid having to move back in with a parental (THE HORROR!), I needed to find some source of income, quickly. Secondly, although it would have been fairly easy to fall back on the old retail job, I was determined that if I couldn't move UP the career ladder, I would at least move FORWARD. Being a Playworker, while not a graduate job, is at least a source of valuable experience, and seems, to me at least, somehow vaguely related to what I might want to do as a career, whatever that is. So, I saw the job ad, went for the interview, got it, hey presto! Surrounded by children.
I can't lie either, I do like the job. I've been doing it for almost 6 months now and I think the kids at club are on the whole pretty fantastic. Running out of school childcare for 40 children with no money and no resources has its challenges, but I like my colleagues and I enjoy
HOWEVER, I can't be doing this forever. It's a term-time only job so it's financially not possible in the long haul, but aside from that, it's just not what I want to do with my life. Don't ask me what I AM going to do with my life - I wish I knew! But earning less money than it's even possible to live on while repeating the phrase "Not. Acceptable!!!" 8 million times a day is not it. So I've been looking at other options. I had an interview for an admin assistant job with Victim Support Scotland, but the interview surprised me with quite a few questions I couldn't answer on the spot (What does "high quality" mean to you?) and I didn't get the job. I'm a pretty resilient specimen, so I'm not too upset, but I admit, even I'm starting to get frustrated. I have moments where I think, I've been working so hard these last few years - volunteering, having various temp jobs, and studying - and yet I'm still not actually getting anywhere. The main issue, of course, is that I have no actual end goal, and it's pretty difficult to get somewhere when you don't even know where you're going! It doesn't actually help to think like this of course, and I can't magic an answer out of thin air, so I just keep plodding on as best I can. I've been doing a Project Admin Intern role for the Creative Learning team, so to hear a bit more about that check out the blog I've been keeping for them. I'm also doing a TEFL course (I KNOWWWW!! BUT I'M STILL NOT GOING TO BE A TEACHER!), so perhaps I'll just up-sticks and move to Central America, where I shall meet my Latin lover, Alejandro, and we shall tango our lives away while eating Fajitas and playing Flamenco songs...
Keep checking back to see if that happens ;)
So, to round up. Thank you for reading after all this time away - as you can see, not much has changed! I'll make every effort to update more regularly now that the summer of fun is well and truly over! I might go away now and do a small, mostly-pictures blog of what I've been up to since the last post, so you can see I'm not just being lazy.
As usual, please comment if you feel you have something to add! I look forward to it.
Over and out,
Naomi
well i cant disagree x
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