Unemployment

          Seeing the recent work experience on my CV, I can imagine potential employers think I'm some backpacker chancer looking for a part-time gig. Not true. I need to put my most recent work experience on my CV, complete with foreign name references whose addresses have strange, alien postcodes, located in faraway places. When it comes to writing a CV, I won't lie. Despite the teaching stuff, I've got a decent back-log of catering experience (over 5 years) but the employers just see the most recent stuff, the foreign language teaching. It wasn't some 'Mickey Mouse' gig. It was early starts, planning lessons, working in a foreign land, having to adapt to everything. The Cambodia part of the experience was not at all easy-5:30 am starts, working 7 days a week.

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  But anyway. Unemployment can really get under one's skin-that, combined with the delayed, reverse culture shock since being back, has created a perfect storm in my well-being. The job market is positively dead; all I've been offered is a free level 2 warehousing qualification with an interview at the end, but no guaranteed job. Still, a free qualification is not to be snubbed. It's going to be 9:30-4:00pm Mon-Fri for two weeks, time that could be spent job-hunting. I'm still trying to decide whether to participate. It makes me wonder how other travellers who were working abroad for a decent amount of time managed to adapt on their return. I can imagine even with a job, the culture shock would still be something to get used to. How quickly people drive in the West, how impatient they are, the efficiency and infrastructure of the West. Yes, some things are good. I had to cope for a year and a half with no tea in the morning. That was my own personal Everest ;)

 I suppose the thing that is most challenging about being unemployed is the lack of structure to the day; sure you can get up at 7:00am and still try to make a difference, but there's only so many websites a person can hammer, looking for work. After no responses or interview offers after a month, the panic and doubt sets in. Like said, I'm not a light-weight backpacker. I've got work experience, have life experience, do not mind doing a steady manual gig. I wanted to travel, and worked all the time whilst abroad. I wish the employers could see the person behind the CV. I won't walk out on them after 5 months-I'm looking forward to having something different on my CV. Who can tell where the next job may take the individual in their life? A job is so much more than money; it's an opportunity to meet people, a social hub, a reason to get out of bed in the morning. But money, that's of course the #1 reason.

The job centre has changed it's system-now the benefit process has been divided into 'Universal Credit' paid monthly, and 'Job Seekers' which is paid fortnightly. It involves filling in an online identity verification form, which is of course attached with numerous problems. They even let you select the company you wish to verify your identity, which I feel is Privatisation gone insane. The identity verification process should be carried out by a government agency. Private companies hold too much sway over the U.K. It's just merely an excuse for shareholders to make more money. So now I'll have to call in person to the Job Centre to verify my I.D. Surely just being told to make an appointment, turning up with a Passport or Birth Certificate would have solved all this?

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 I was offered a trial shift in a pub that was over 5 miles away. With no transport of my own, and no public transport going through the area, it had to be declined. Quite frustrating knowing there was as an opening and I wasn't able to get there. The job situation in the towns around Leicester is rubbish; moving to the city would seem the most viable option. I need to come up with a new game-plan soon, and would welcome next week becoming considerably better. It has to.