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The rat race [PICS]

16:32 / 27.09.06

Oh my.

like all tubular lifeforms, I have finally been processed by the great University beast. So, the question is: where to look for work? I'm plugging away at whatever employment opportunities I can see of a vaguely arts persuasion, but was wondering if any of you Barbeloids might have a clue or two? Any hints you can offer me?

16:46 / 27.09.06

paranoidwriter waves hello

16:56 / 27.09.06

1) Make sure you actually receive, fill out, and send off your Student Loan deferral forms, until you can afford to pay them installments.

2) Do not get a credit card unless you can handle it. i.e. avoid borrowing for at least three years, unless you have a concrete plan and find your drea job (which can afford your "habits").

3) Think of your first job as the next leap to (e.g) an MA, not as a career. If you can afford it, try voluntary work in your sector/discipline for as long as possible. Above all, experiment, "shop around", be polite, and see what happens...

4) Make sure you've had a good, proper holiday before you sign a big, heavey duty contract.

5) Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke. You're more qualified than you realise. Walking out is sometimes teh only way to preserve enough dignity to wake up every day

6) Remember there are a myriad of tools and services that can actually help you. e.g. the Interweb.

Hope that helps. I wish I'd done likewise, but I had to make mistakes to learn...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

16:56 / 27.09.06

I hear the money's okay.

17:27 / 27.09.06

*Sob*, it's all so bloody futile...

17:44 / 27.09.06

The volunteering thing is definitely a good idea if you're looking to get into telly or film. TV production companies often take on junior staff in a training capacity (read: for no, or very little, pay), as do post production facilities.

I suggest sending out a lot of letters and making a lot of phonecalls in order to get an idea what's out there, but in the meantime you should join the mailing list on the top of this page, the one marked "artsjobs".

You really should. Really. Do it.

18:10 / 27.09.06

I don't have any good advice, but I do have a warning:
Don't work in a call centre. They're terrible places. Even if the money seems good and you think to yourself "it's got to be better than temping". It's not worth it.
Learn to be a hermit. Grow a beard and focus on drinking dew and eating berries.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:16 / 27.09.06

Axolotl has a very good point. NEVER work in a call centre.

I lasted a week and a half. When I tried to leave it all got very cultlike. I ended up in tears, and promised I'd go back the next day. The people I was living with (bless 'em) didn't let me.

18:16 / 27.09.06

A friend of mine has been working in a call centre for years now, and she likes it.

18:27 / 27.09.06

The post-graduation period is, for a lot of people, really, really harrowing.

I delayed it by staying in my bar-job until the lease / rent ran out on the place I was living in and then I moved home, stacked with no-interest overdrafts.

I recommend highly searching out Temp agencies for quick work and reliable cash (as long as they're reputable) because nothing made me feel worse than having little-to-no money. Adecco were good for me when I showed them my fast typing speed.

Still, they placed me somewhere several years ago and I got taken on permanently, I'm out of bank debt and I'm doing something I believe in, so there is light at the end of a long and very annoying tunnel, I can say.

Stick with it. It's not fun, it's not easy, but it's do-able.

18:50 / 27.09.06

Bear in mind, tho', that temp staff have next to no rights, often get paid shit money, and can find themselves without a job in two seconds flat. Temp staff whore themselves for cash, basically, although, like Feverfew says, it is possible to find yourself a good permanent position on the back of a placement. I did.

20:00 / 27.09.06

Agreed about temporary workers. My contract was for just-above-minimum wage and earnt me a paid day off for every three weeks I worked - but I did pick up more pay occasionally for greater hours.

I was an arts graduate, too, but I had no desire nor intention to do any arts-related work. So I ended up where I am now, and thanks to my job I can now be self-consciously arty on my own time...