Work at last!

After 13 months of unemployment, 100s of job applications, and several interviews, I finally have a job to look forward to. This is IT!

I will be working on the Surface Water Management Plan for a nearby local authority. Each local authority in the country is required to preare a SWMP by the Floods and Water Management Act 2010, which received royal assent on 8th April. So thanks, Queen, I now have a job!

The actual start date has yet to be agreed. Ditto the actual pay. THis is because rather than being employed directly by the local authority, I will work on a freelance basis for an engineering consultancy who will second me into the authority. The consultancy wanted to win a ocntract to do the SWMP in its entirity, but in the end they only get to send me into the authority's team. But I'm moving off the point - the reason for the delay is that the authority's procedures. They are supposed to use a particular employment agency in cases like this, so they should pay the agency to pay the consultancy to pay me, and the agency has done no work at all. So the guy at the authority is trying to find a way to circumvent the procedure - which I think is a universal full time occupation for all local government officers.

Also, because of the above, its not yet clear just how much of the payment will end up with me.

But the good news is that it is freelance work, which maximises my income and also means that I won't have to wind up my limited company.

And it is within commuting distance, so no living away from home and deducting the cost of a flat.

Good news all round.

And of course, when there is good news like this, it should not be forgotten that it has come about by the Grace of God, mediated through your prayers. And so many thanks to all of you that did pray.

Work

A bit more optimisim on the job front.

A client company I interviewed for back in January has now had their meeting with their own client - a local council about one and a half hour's drive away - and it seems that they are going to go ahead with employing me in due course. They will arrange for me to see the local authority sometime next week, and are now thrashing out the details of rates of pay etc.

It will be freelance work rather than staff, which is what I want, and is for a year rather than the just three months that I feared. If this does work out, it means that my own company will have enough income to finish paying last year's tax bill in installments without going bust and it also means that I can actually pay myself something and come off state benefits again.

So it's looking very good. We just need to pray it into existance.

Aparently the boss at the council is an ex-military man, so I will have to get out my shirt and tie again and tell him all about how my son wants to join the RAF.

April 2010 update

Being at home all day day unemployed not mean freedom. It mean being ucked into domesticity, babysitting, talking to this woman in the houe who turns out to be my wife, etc. Hence I rarely blog these days.

Update:

• The 's' key on my keyboard keeps sticking - hence probable spelling errors herein
• Work - still unemployed but market seems to be perking up. I've had a few interviews, but promises don't seem to evolve into contracts. Much depends on the 'Flood and Water management' bill getting through parliament before the election.
• Church - I am part of the 'vision' group, and we seem to be heading towards a 'purpose driven church' kind of model if we can get something like it to fit in an Anglican context. It's good but not without significant problems.
• Home - decorated daughters bedroom
• Car - KA off road since last summer needing new steering rack. LDV recently back from garage - I left the handbrake off and it rolled off down the drive and ripped the side door off on the gatepost. LDV no longer trading therefore part V expensive. Had to get econd hand bits off ebay, and couldn't get a whole door. Hammered into shape sufficeint to close but not at all pretty. Now it ha started to give off black exhaust smoke and lose power, so it's back in the garage again. Luckily (or by faith ?) just received £400 excess back from inurance for accident last summer to pay for thi work
• Faith - high! GOd provides through all circumtances. Big debate on in church: Is all suffering a conequence of sin/devil/fall, or does GOd deliberately send us tough times purely for training purposes? I have never agreed with those whose god is too nice to do things they don't undertand, and am firmly of the view that my unemployment has been very profitable training planned and sent by God, and definitely not an attack by the Devil with God ineffective in the background. I won't give the Devil that much credit!

Sitting here....(work hopes)

I'm on a "Flood Risk Management" short course at Cranfield University this week. Long lunchbreaks - hence time to catch up on blog.

Still unemployed, but some hopes. I've had two interviews recently, which both went reasonably well. For one, I've got a second interview this Wednesday. I will have to skive off the course for an afternoon. That would be for a permanent staff job and would be based 100 to 200 miles from home. Moving is inconcievable with my family, so I'd have to rent a bedsit. Being a staff job the income would be lower than I used to get as a freelancer, so I'd be paying for two homes out of a low [relatively] salary. The other interview was much more hopeful: freelance work (yipee!) close to home (yipee!) and they liked me very much indeed. The downsides: they still have to win the work from THEIR cient (and will be using my CV to do so), and when the work comes in it may rather too short term. But the ultimate client has a legal requirement to do the work, a budget for it, and a deadline for it, but no person to do it. So it's looking good. Also, its work which is much closer to my experience than the staff job.

My prayer is that I will be offere one job but not the other, to save me making difficult choices of low pay stable v high pay unstable.

Carry each other's burdens

On Sunday night the Vicar was again strongly suggesting I should apply to the middle east. So this week I have completed preparing a middle-east format CV.

I have also been in touch with an agent about a suitible hydraulic modelling job in England, about 220 miles from home.

Weighing these up, personally I would very much prefer the middle east. For example, compare the cost of renting a flat: here you get something small and dingy in a rough neighbourhood for about £400 month, whereas in Abu Dhabi you can get a bigger and much nicer apartment with access to a pool and a gym for about £200 month. But as stated in my last post, it's not just about me. What is best for my family.

So today I am seeking guidance. Should I send in the Middle East format CV or not? And I come onto my blog knowing that it has the verse of the day in the side bar and wondering if God will speak to me through it. And the verse of the day is "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2). So that sounds like staying in the UK rather than leaving my disabled non-driving wife at home with a baby and other kids.

But then again, I am always cautious of using the Bible as a holy horoscope, so I will wait for further confirmation one way or the other.

Afghanistan, here I come!...or not?

On reflection......

If I go off to the Middle East for lengthy periods, looking at it realistically, how will my wife cope alone at home with the baby when she doen't have the strength to carry her up the stairs? And how will she cope without me when she doesn't drive? It really doesn't make practical sense.

But then, if work is available and I say no to it with the above excuses...."if a man will not work neither shall he eat".

But then, if I believe in a loving God, shold I ot wait patiently for his answer rather than forcing my own? (Compare this with Abraham and Sarah, trying to force God's hand resorting to using Hagar to produce the desired child)

My agent has asked me to re-write my CV in a Middle-East-fiendly style. Is it worth the effort?

And should I go along with he Vicar's suggestion in this matter following his ill-fated suggestion that I should seek ordination?

Who knows.

All I know is I am desperate to get a suitable job, preferably local, preferably freelance.

possible work?

I was called by a former colleague yesterday, who is now working as a contractor (like me) for a firm that claims to be very busy, and asked him if he knew anyone who could help.

This would be flood management work requirig knowledge of ISIS software, but my friend says they would train me.

This is the best news yet. Other times I have tried to get into this field my lack of ISIS experience has counted against me.

The office is 1.5 hours drive away: an awkward distance too far for commuting but too close to warrant getting digs.

My friend, having confirmed my availability, says he will ask the boss to call me next week.

This is my greatest hope for months, so please pray that it wil come to pass.

Interview report XVII

It's official - the internal candidate got the job.

Interview report XVI

Notwithstanding my previous post, I note that my verse of the day is:

“ Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Interview report XV

Still no official news. But the grapevine is that they have interviewed a new internal candidate who is a friend of the director.

So I think we will call it a a day and stop doing 'interview reports'.

I continue to submit my CV for anything vaguely hopeful.

Interview report XIII

STILL NO NEWS!

Allegedly, the client has had 'the meeting', but still refuses to give any clues to my agent. My agent works on a comission basis, and needs the contract as much as I do, and is as livid as I am.

Today

• My daughter used her hair straighteners on her 'Bratz' doll, and wonders why they are covered in burnt plastic.
• I have asked the CAB for a new appontment
• I have registered for job seekers allowance. (My parents have covered the mortgage this months, but I can't expect or rely on them to do it for ever. Ditto, more 'rustling handshakes' at church)

Interview report XII

STILL NO NEWS!!

The agent emailed on Tuesday to say that the relevant bosses were having a meeting on Wednesday. So I have patiently waited for the phone.........

Meanwhile, I have started cancelling direct debits and standing orders, so from now on every time the phone goes it will be trepidation - news about the job or people wondering why I haven't paid them.

I really need the news, so that if I am not getting the job I can start to take appropriate action, visit the citizens advice bureau again, etc, and if I am getting it to start releasing money from the company.

Meanwhile, my accountant has changed his advice about job seeker's allowance - apparently I can claim it after all. I think his previous advice was to discourage me going in and out of benefits frequently between short jobs. But I've been off work fro three months now, so surely hat has to count for something!

In another development, my old agency is asking if I am interested in sewer network modelling with my old client (different department). But it would be permanent work with people that have previously rejected me, so it would be doubly low pay and I can't see it working out. Mrs is dead keen, because it is local and could be an answer to prayer.

Interview report XI

I phoned the agent. The agent phoned the client.

One of the guys that interviewed me has been 'out of the office' all week and so has not had a chance to think about it. Also it seems that rather than the 3 candidates I was originally told about, it seems there are five, one of which is internal.

I can feel it slipping away................




But my faith is that God has looked after me this far, and usually does things at the very last minute, and so despite all the stress it will work out OK in the end. In my view, that means I will get the job, whereas Mrs is convinced it measn a local job will come up instead.

Interview report X

Still no news.

Getting desperate now.

On 1st July all my direct debits go out. There is nothing to pay them with. Tomorrow is the last day when I can make internet transfers from my company account to my private accounts, which I can only do if I know I have got the job and there will be money coming into the company. I suppose I can withdraw cash from one bank, walk around the corner and re-deposit it in the other bank on Monday or Tuesday.

If I don't have the job, then the bills will not be paid and I'm off back to the citizen's advice bureau again.

These are the kind of desperate times when God acts. Somehow I feel my recent sermon on 'active patience' from James 5 is relevant.

Interview report IX

Still no news. Desperately need to know one way or the other.

Interview report VI

Man, that was tough!

But overall, I think it went well. The other candidate from my agency went before me - a tall grey man in his 60s, moving to the area for his wife's retirement. His interview took 1/2 hour longer than mine - could be a good thing or a bad thing. There is another candidate from another agency to be done on Tuesday next week.

The questions were pre-printed, to ensure fairness. Not particularly technical, bit mostly along the lines of "give an example of a time when you have....." and it was hard remembering things from some time ago when the more relevant experience took place.

With glorious hindsight I can see that I made many mistakes - not least drawing attention to the mistake in the adress on my business card - so I can only hope that the other guy made more mistakes or that I am just a significantly better candidate overall. I think that they liked me, but is that enough? It could go either way.

But I am sure that the Lord's will will work out, and that if i don't get this job it would never have been right for me anyway - but that does raise the question of how I will pay the mortgage next month. I have told too many people about how the Lord has abundantly blessed us, and so they have stopped giving. Me and my big mouth!

Please pray for me to get thsi job, or else for something better to come up locally, immediately.

Interview report V

So - tomorrow I have my interview, at 3:15.

2 other candidates - scary - but I suspect that I am still the preferred candidate and that these are just to make up the numbers required by the client's procedures.

They are looking for someone with sufficient 'gravitas' to handle the role. Gravitas is not something I am stong on! I will have to stop picking my nose and scratching!

Bought a new suit, had my hair cut, cleaned the car. I've done all I can. Now I just need the Lord to bless me and let me have a job.

Interview report IV

Today's information is thta the Face to Face interview will probably be Thursday. That's the only day the guy is free, but apparently he still needs sanction from his line mnager before its a definite.

We can but sit and wait. And since in my recent talk on James 5 I majored on 'active patience', I suppose I had better practice what I preach

Interview report III

I heard today that I definately have a face-to-face interview next week, but don't know what day yet.