Spent 3 days working and 2 days looking for work

Talking about mental toughness - from this week, my daily schedule begins at 7am, ends at midnight if not later. Meetings with supervisor for thesis, 3 days of work, lots of commuting,   interview with HP contact in the US after work. 


Knackered. Went to London yesterday to complete the biometrics enrolment at the Camden Town post office, fingers crossed that PSW visa will be granted in due course. Had one skype interview which didn't go well and a group interview at a leading publishing company and played Beyonce. Went lucky as I was queueing in Euston Station when someone gave me a seasonal ticket between London and Milton Keynes anytime, any route!! For free! :D Came back, bit of rest, straight to Bedford for house viewings - checked out three houses for rent, just to make life easier rather than wasting 4 hours precious time every day. 


Thinking now, it is a lot of sacrifice for a temp job that is not leading to anything permanent. Underpaid. Of course we say we do these for the experience. Still, at a huge cost. A lot of suffering. Have to think it through carefully.


Just wanted to share some exercises we had yesterday at the lovely publishing house. We were asked which movie character would play us. Followed by a group interview where Matthew and John (from the traditional media and digital platforms respectively) prompted us to introduce ourselves one by one, this was particularly interesting as to see how the others explain their motivations for job, how they describe their experience and make a strong case for themselves in front of a peer group. The next exercise was to prioritise one's day, which made you think which tasks are the most urgent ones and which ones the least. Then the balloon game. Each of us had to pretend to be a famous person and come up with an argument to defend ourselves why we should remain in the balloon. (I was Beyonce!)


Everyone had something rather special about themselves - an Italian who has travelled across different continents with finance and business background, a natural sales talent who  did economics and finance and was super sporty since when he was in Kenya, 2 lovely British girls, one doing masters, one just finished off gap year travelling, a Glasgow boy who was fast and funny with his lovely accent, and there was me. Never been in a group interview as such before. Really helpful experience as I picked up some jolly good techniques and learnt how to make use of every opportunity to express yourself and show teamwork. It was interesting too to hear what they have done in sales, marketing and media. Interests and hobbies were highly valued too - what people do when they're not working...need to be more sporty! : )