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Polls apart - shadows of echoes of memories of songs
01:04 pm March 18th, 2003
j4
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Polls apart
Two polls, about completely different things. Basically I just feel utterly unable to make any decisions at the moment...

1. I've been called for interview for another job, "Information and Performance Officer" or something for the NHS. The job pays less than my current job, but it's fewer hours. (I originally thought that the extra time would be more beneficial to me than the extra money.) It would also involve lots of financial stuff, including some training in accountancy.

The problem? I'm no longer sure at all that I'd want the job even if they offered it to me. I know I'm not a "career girl", but it still feels like a step backward somehow, or at least a step in the wrong direction sideways. Also, I'd need to get together lots of documentation and fill in lots more forms, not to mention getting time off work somehow, if I was going to go to the interview; I know that shouldn't affect my decision, but it does -- it seems like a lot of faff (and wasted holiday allowance) for something I'm not really motivated to do.

Poll #114035 Make my decisions for me (1 of 2)
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All. Participants: 11

So, what do you reckon I should do?

View Answers
Do the interview and take the job if you're offered it
1(9.1%)
Do the interview just for practice, but don't take the job if you're offered it
3(27.3%)
Don't do the interview
7(63.6%)




2. I don't know what to do about my birthday celebrations this year. My birthday's on the 5th of May, which is the May Day Bank Holiday. This would normally make things easier, as I'd have more time to have a party and recover from it. However, there's a big national martial arts seminar on the Sunday of that weekend (4th May), which ordinarily I'd have been keen to go to (it's a weapons seminar -- lots of shiny swords etc.). But if I go to that, this basically means I can't have a party on the Saturday night, as I'll have to be up on Sunday morning in time to be in Swindon earlyish.

Other facts to bear in mind: There aren't likely to be many seminars like this, at least no more this year; the seminar costs £60; I want to be able to invite out-of-town people to my party, which would probably mean them staying the night.

Poll #114036 Make my decisions for me (2 of 2)
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All. Participants: 14

So, what do you reckon I should do?

View Answers
Have my birthday party on the Friday night (and risk people from out-of-town not being able to come); go to the seminar on Sunday
2(16.7%)
Have my birthday party on the Saturday night, don't drink too much, go to bed at a sensible time, and get up early for the seminar
0(0.0%)
Have the party on the Saturday night, don't go to the seminar
0(0.0%)
Go to the seminar, have the party on the Sunday night (since it's a Bank Holiday on Monday), risk not getting back in time for guests arriving
10(83.3%)

Other:

View Answers



Okay, so this is all displacement from the real immediate stresses of the moment. But if it works, and helps me make some decisions, then it can't be a bad thing.

Sigh.

Now playing: Nick Drake: Way to Blue
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Comments
Comment by Eleanor Blair
lnr From: lnr Date: March 18th, 2003 06:13 am (UTC) (Link)
Can't really answer the first one. Interviews are a good way for you to find out if you *do* want the job, as well as them finding out if they want you, so if you're just not sure exactly what it involves going to the interview might help you *decide* whether you want the job or not. If you're really heading towards the "turn it down" end of the scale though I'd say don't bother with the interview: while interview practice is probably a good thing it's not really much practice trying to convince people when you're not actually interested, and as you say it's a lot of hassle.
(Reply) (Thread)
Thread started by Juliet
julietk From: julietk Date: March 18th, 2003 06:51 am (UTC) (Link)
<aol> for what LNR said about job interviews. However, I'd think carefully about whether you *really* don't want it or you're just put off by the faff. A sideways move might have advantages given how not-keen you are on current job. But if you're really going to hate it (e.g. I know *I* wouldn't want to do lots of financial stuff) then probably best not to bother.

Party: I admit to being influenced by wanting to come, but already being booked on the Saturday (Rich's birthday) :-) You ought to be able to get back from seminar on the Sunday in time for party, though, & if it's going to be close can't you get someone to be proxy-hostess for an hour or so if necessary? I certainly reckon you'll get more out-of-town folk on the Sunday than the Friday.
(& there is *no way* that you'll manage the party-then-seminar option, realistically, is there now? :-) )
(Reply) (Thread)
j4 From: j4 Date: March 18th, 2003 07:20 am (UTC) (Link)
...if you're really going to hate it (e.g. I know *I* wouldn't want to do lots of financial stuff) then probably best not to bother.

I don't think it's really the kind of job I'd enjoy. I think I'd be able to put up with it, and if it was (for example) more money, or even a better location, or something, then it might be worth it. But given that it's something that I'm not at all convinced I'd enjoy and it's miles away and it's worse-paid and it's a faff sorting out the interview ... oh, I don't know. I feel like my current job is so crap that I shouldn't be turning down any other possibilities, but then at least this job has the security of a known evil.

You ought to be able to get back from seminar on the Sunday in time for party, though

From past experience I'd probably get back about 8-9pm and be so shattered I couldn't face doing anything except eating lots of stodge and falling asleep...

I certainly reckon you'll get more out-of-town folk on the Sunday than the Friday.

Do you think so? I know not everybody gets Bank Holiday Monday off work, so I guess I was thinking that not everybody would be able to do Sunday night at all -- whereas Friday (leave work and get straight on a train or whatever) is do-able, if a bit of a faff, because people are v. unlikely to have to work on the Saturday.

Oh, I don't knoooooooow. I really just wish the seminar was ANY OTHER WEEKEND AT ALL.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
julietk From: julietk Date: March 18th, 2003 07:24 am (UTC) (Link)
Job: worse-paid + worse location + not likely to be fun does all kind of imply that you might be best just leaving it be.

On the upside: hey, you got an interview! This is a Good Thing in general, right? So you can be pleased about that even if you're not going to do it.

Party: if you know you'll likely be knackered, then that's different & definitely counts against Sunday. Have you considered just having it another weekend? Would make life easier, from the sound of things, & has the advantage of extending your birthday further :-)
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
j4 From: j4 Date: March 18th, 2003 09:47 am (UTC) (Link)
On the upside: hey, you got an interview! This is a Good Thing in general, right? So you can be pleased about that even if you're not going to do it.

That's a point. On the other hand, maybe they're only interviewing me because they're desperate to find someone who'll do this shit job...

Party: if you know you'll likely be knackered, then that's different & definitely counts against Sunday.

Well, I'll have basically been standing up all day, and waving swords around for most of the day. Last time I did a whole-afternoon sword seminar (and that was only with wooden practice sword) I couldn't lift my sword arm above my waist for two days afterwards...

Have you considered just having it another weekend? Would make life easier, from the sound of things, & has the advantage of extending your birthday further

Yeah, but... I dunno, I really wanted to have it near my actual birthday. Especially as that weekend is otherwise free for me, and the next weekend will be just before we get our kitchen replaced, so we probably should be packing kitchen stuff in boxes rather than creating heaps of washing-up...
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
Thread started by Kaet
From: kaet Date: March 18th, 2003 07:50 am (UTC) (Link)
Why not do the interview and grill them a bit, too, to try to find out if you really want the job, and decide afterwards?

Could you have the party on an adjacent weekend? You could have a bunting type affair on another Saturday (okay, it's not spring bank, but there's always other stuff happening spring bank, anyway, and adjacent weekends are often bare because stuff gets shifted to take account of the free Monday). Then you could have a little soireeéeèêée on vendredi ou samedi soir for a select few, and a big årsmöte on the next weekend or the previous.

(Mummy, Swedish is being rude to me!)
(Reply) (Thread)
j4 From: j4 Date: March 18th, 2003 09:50 am (UTC) (Link)
Why not do the interview and grill them a bit, too, to try to find out if you really want the job, and decide afterwards?

Because the interview is a lot of faff for a job that I'm already pretty sure I don't really want. I suppose they could turn around at the interview and say "Ah-ha! You have l33t skills. You would be wasted on a lowly job in accountancy; we will make you Lord High Dictator of the World instead", but I think it's unlikely.

I dunno. I feel like I should do the interview, but I really don't want to. And part of that is not wanting to do the interview, but a lot of it is being fairly sure that I wouldn't want to do the job.

Could you have the party on an adjacent weekend?

See my reply to julietk's comment...

What does the Swedish word (I can't be bothered to look up how to reproduce an a-with-a-dot-over-it as an entity ref) mean?
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
From: kaet Date: March 18th, 2003 09:54 am (UTC) (Link)
It means annual (år) get-together (möt).
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
Comment by ewx
ewx From: ewx Date: March 18th, 2003 11:43 am (UTC) (Link)

I voted for "don't do the interview" - it sounds like you really don't want the job, so I'd save the holiday allowance, energy, etc for something else (not necessarily another job interview).

Not sure about the party one, though. One possibility would be to ask the out-of-Cambridge folk you want to invite if they'd still be able to make it if it was on the Friday evening (and indeed whether they'd be able to make it on the other days). Failing that I think I'd vote for the Sunday option. I have a vague recollection that I've been late for my own party in the past...

(Reply) (Thread)
Thread started by Fortune depends on the tone of your voice
bopeepsheep From: bopeepsheep Date: March 19th, 2003 08:42 am (UTC) (Link)
Hmmmm. Not much suggestion on either (although I think I'd fall into the "do the interview anyway" camp). If you have to be in Swindon on the Sunday, you could I suppose swing by Oxford on the Saturday afternoon/evening if you want a mini-celebration - it's easier to get to Swindon from Oxford than from Cambridge, allowing you that slightly longer recovery position on Sunday morning... (I'm sure half a dozen people could offer you a bed, including us.) Obviously that doesn't solve your big party problem, since you can't bring loads of other people with you (presumably), but it could act as a part-solution and then you could host a bigger party either the weekend before or the weekend after?? (Or even host one on the Friday in Cambridge and assume that those who can't make it might be able to make the Saturday in Oxford?)
(Reply) (Thread)
j4 From: j4 Date: March 19th, 2003 09:17 am (UTC) (Link)
If you have to be in Swindon on the Sunday [...]

I'll be getting a lift down there with the rest of the school; that way I don't have to be awake enough to drive either beforehand (early morning) or afterwards (too knackered). So I don't think the complicated multi-part journey stuff is going to work, really. Sorry. And I'm certainly not going to try to host parties in a city that I don't live in while en route to somewhere else I don't live!!

To be honest I still really want to have the party on the weekend of my birthday. :-/ Am I behaving like a petulant small child here? Or is that a valid thing for a nearly-25-year-old to want?

(BTW I'm really surprised that people are seriously suggesting the Sunday -- AIUI not all jobs will automatically give people Bank Holidays off, and certainly those in academentia won't get them as holiday.)
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
bopeepsheep From: bopeepsheep Date: March 19th, 2003 09:25 am (UTC) (Link)
In that case, I don't really see what you can do that will successfully satisfy all parts of your desires for that particular weekend. Hmmmm. I don't think you're daft or petulant for wanting the party on the right weekend, I feel the same some years. This year my birthday's a Friday and I'm quite put out that I won't really be in a fit state to have/host a party, or even go to the pub. :-( (Bizarrely, I reach 31 weeks on my 31st birthday. How neat is that?)

Bank Holidays are odd things. It would make no difference to us, since I'm not working and DH can get BHs off, but I can see that some people would be hampered rather by the Sunday, not to mention the vagaries of public transport over BH weekends.

Crucial question, I guess: are you totally and utterly committed to the Sunday sword thing? If so, I think it's a Friday-into-Saturday party, and take your chances on who gets there when. :-(
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