I’m now into my fourth week (hence the lack of blogging) at Truvo (the company behind Golden Pages & Eircom Phonebook), so I am officially not a job hunter anymore. Still/again. Its a little confusing because the first job wasn’t a real job in my eyes. Probably sounds a bit picky, but that’s just the way I felt.

Seems a bit weird to be writing about having gotten two jobs in the space of two weeks, given the 17,300 plus people who could be losing their jobs soon. It’s a funny old world at the moment.

One big thing that struck me particularly was that 62% of job seekers don’t tailor their CV for each job. Maybe its just me and my own background, but I always tailor my CV for each job that I’m applying for. This to me is a big no no, as no two job specifications are going to be the same. I would encourage everyone to carefully read the job spec and then go through your CV, line by line if necessary, and make any changes that will make you a target for this job. It could be anything from changing a module you did in college to changing the wording of a role or responsibly you had in a previous job. Anything that makes you more relevant to the position. Further to this, when you go into the interview, know your CV so can both talk about it correctly and direct the conversation to how your strengths will benefit this job.

Yahoo! HotJobs have another article about what annoys interviewers. Several recruiters talk about what pet peeves they have about candidates that they come across. A few of them are related to what I just mentioned – targeting jobs and tailoring your CV towards them. One even mentions that they had been asked ‘What position is this for?’ in the interview. I think if you’re asking that in an interview, you should be kicked out of the office!

Across the Atlantic, things are pretty much the same. The US unemployment rate stands at 9.4% according to a government report issued on 5th June, which is up from the April rate of 8.9%. Given this though, there was still a bit of a surprising statistic – the number of job losses in May was the fewest in 8 months. This has been taken as evidence that the economy is getting better, but we shall have to wait and see.

The airline has asked over 30,000 staff via email to help the company survive by volunteering betweeen one week and one month’s unpaid leave or unpaid work. A small bit of credit goes to company CEO Willy Walsh for leading by example and forgoing his July salary of £61,000.

It raises a very good point in this current economic climate – what would you do to keep your job? Conversely, what wouldn’t you do?

In news from last month, Eircom has agreed a restructing deal with trade union reps to cut 1,200 jobs over the next two years. This new deal also includes a few more cost cutting measures. Firstly, there is an immediate two year pay-freeze, which will run until June 2011. There will be cuts of around 25% in certain staff allowances, such as mileage rates. Also, there will be no performance-related bonuses in this year or the next two years.

These are the first steps the company is taking to try and cut €130m in the next two years. The company is also looking for voluntary pay cuts from all staff, 10% from management and 5% from other positions.

All I could think was – good for them. I’m not in the same happy place myself, but if people have gone through the emotional pain and trauma of losing their job and have come out the other end better off, then bravo.

It got me thinking about how I have benefited from being unemployed. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to spend more time with family and friends. Being a Dublin blow-in, most of my friends are still in Cork. Being desperate for work, I managed to scrape some odd jobs, but they’re in Dublin, so I can’t get to Cork as much to see the family. In fact, I get to Cork less now that I’m unemployed. Funny that.

On the topic of people doing things that make them happy, I found myself struggling to think. I’m not unhappy right now, some days it can be difficult, but I’ve always enjoyed my job. Any job I’ve had in fact, going back to part-time work. I’m not sure what that says about me. I’ve never been driven by money, but I’ve worked for the majority of my adult life (since I was 15), so I think its that I just enjoy working. Employers, if you’re reading, that’s got to be a hireable characteristic!

Part of enjoying life though comes back to money. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve told people that I can’t meet them for a drink, can’t go to a gig, can’t take that trip to Cardiff, can’t go to the cinema, because I can’t afford it. I’m at the stage where I have to consciously stop myself from saying it – nobody wants to be that person who’s always whining and moaning about being unemployed. I’m not saying that you can’t enjoy life without money. I strongly believe that money doesn’t buy happiness. But just a little money can certainly go a long way in helping one to do things, especially when nearly all of your friends are still working.

On the plus side, I’ve lost weight. Nearly a stone in fact. With all this free time, you do need to find plenty of stuff to fill your day. I have taken to running 1-3 times a week, as well as doing some toning/keep fit exercises in the house. On rare days, sometimes going for my run is the only time I leave the house, so its a very good habit to get into. And I suppose I’m lucky enough to say that I enjoy exercise. If you don’t, you’ve probably found yourself vegging in front of the TV.

I would like to be able to say that I’ve avoided the TV, but I can’t. Over the last few months I’ve watched a couple of seasons of House, The US Office and Arrested Development. Well worth it, especially compared to the day I found myself watching Rachel Ray – a sad, sad day.

No?

Ah well, if your still reading then your about to hear some good news – I have a job! Pretty amazing, huh? Quite an achievement given the current state of affairs. The hours aren’t ideal, but I’m not complaining. Its been nearly 4 months of job hunting, but I’ve reached the light at the end of the tunnel. To the other job hunters out there, keep the chins up and hopefully something will turn up.

I’ve also decided not to quit the blogging, as I’ve taken to it like a duck to water. I enjoy it, and I’ve loads of posts partly written which I do want to finish and publish. So even though the posts might get more infrequent, do check back for bits and pieces about job news, life on a budget, tips on staying sane and anything else I get the mood to write about.

The new membership secretary, Oscar Duggan, has been involved in increasing the activity in the JSU. This is presumably leaving David Jones (the founder) more time to publicise the JSU – appearing on TV & radio shows, promoting his book and writing blog entries.

The JSU website has expanded to now include several things. There has been a new membership process, that aims to gather more details about members, so that they can be better served by the union. There’s the classifieds section, the Job Seeker’s Classifieds, for people to advertise their skills and businesses.

A support meeting has kicked off also. Last Friday, in the Digital Exchange on Crane St., the JSU and the Dublin Jobs Club ran a meeting aiming to motivate job seeker’s and provide CV advice. Details of what happened at the meeting can be found here. A second meeting is planned for this Friday, same location, from 10-1.

David Jones is continuing his blogging in a new location. The new posts concentrate less on his own progress and more his thoughts and musings on unemployment. Having read them all so far, they are not the most uplifting pieces of writing. Check out this post in particular. To me its a nice piece of poetry, and I’ve gone through practically every emotion in it myself over the last few months, but boy does it change your mood after reading it. I’ve been trying my best to keep my own blog as positive as possible, which sometimes is not achievable, but I think I do succeed most of the time.

This is typical it never rains but it pours on another aspect of my life at the moment. As well as missing a few days of my course due to interviews (not complaining about that one), my appointment letter arrived on the same day that I took a trip to the Community Welfare Officer.

A word of warning to anyone else doing the same – don’t rely on the HSE website to be helpful. After wasting an hour going between a couple of Community Services buildings around Cherry Orchard Hospital, I was told that I was in the wrong place altogether. And the place I was supposed to go to only is only available for an hour a day, 3 days a week.

What I was looking for when I went down to the health centre was information about getting some sort of an emergency payment (called a Supplementary Welfare Allowance) and more information about Rent Allowance. I don’t know the first thing about what I’m entitled to, which is why I went, and it’s safe to say I still don’t know. All I got was a couple of forms to fill out. Not the most helpful bunch, but its the HSE – what was I expecting?

So, the two courses were €90 – Foundations of Java and Advanced Java. The titles of the courses were a bit misleading, even by the lecturers admission. The first course is not necessarily easier than the second, as implied, as they deal with different topics. So it is worthwhile to do both.

Secondly, the course is aimed at working towards the Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) standard. While the exam itself is not the SCJP exam, because UCD don’t have Sun certification, it is aimed at the same level. So whether or not it’ll look good when you stick it on your CV is up for debate. I’ve actually had a few interviews over the last couple of weeks and most people (not just HR people) haven’t heard of the SCJP. But then again if you’re applying for a Java position, you’d like to think that the person reading your CV will know what it means.

I mentioned a couple of times that I’ve a background in Java. But even though I’ve done a bunch of applications in the language, I still figured the course would be worth doing, if only to learn the correct terminology and to brush up on my OOP techniques. And it turned out that I did find it worthwhile and ended up learning a few things. So even if you know a little Java, I think doing both courses will be in your benefit.

The lectures are delivered to a high quality, as are the notes. Labs are given every day, with plenty of demonstrators available for questions. There is a lot of material and only a short time to get through it, which is why the timetable is structured to include the weekend in the middle, so that people who are struggling can catch up. The course is aimed at people with a computing background but no language skills and programmers with no Java skills. The former will find it tougher, but still doable. All in all, its a good quality course and worth doing, regardless of your background.

And no, I am not receiving any payment for this positive review. Maybe I should be though ……