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Job woes/wins


MoogleViper

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See if they'd pay for a flight back?

 

You can get from London to Scotland, go for an interview and be back in London within six hours. Unless I suppose its in a remote part of Scotland but guessing its not?

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I'm starting to hate my job. 6.5 years in at this company and I thought I would always enjoy it. Now I'm not only looking elsewhere but starting to wonder if it's something I want to do at all. I mean, my current projects are shit and I'm generally a bit of a miserable git at the moment, so I could just see where I am in a few months but man, it has really been dragging lately.

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See if they'd pay for a flight back?

 

You can get from London to Scotland, go for an interview and be back in London within six hours. Unless I suppose its in a remote part of Scotland but guessing its not?

 

It's an entry level position and there will be loads of people able to do the job, so it's unlikely. I think flying home for it is an option though, as you said, it doesn't really take too long.

 

If they're unwilling to reschedule an interview, is that the sort of company you'd want to work for?

 

I think their point of view will be is that it's an entry level admin job and they can find anyone to do it.

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I'm no expert on them so I can't recommend a specific place, but it might be worth recording a few and then jumping in to VBasic (think that's what it is called) and seeing what its done and reverse engineering. Obviously in addition to learning about them, but it can be a good way to provide concrete examples to what can seem abstract.

 

If that makes sense.

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mrexcel.com used to be great when I was starting out with some of the more advanced stuff in excel, not really sure how it rates nowadays.

 

There are a few different types of Macros, so may be of use to work out what you want to focus in on before going too deep into something. The main ones being:

 

Recording: Perform an action and excel records it for use later. Good for very simple stuff, won't really advance you in any other area.

 

Scripting: A script that does general actions. Good for very repetitive things. More advanced than the recording and will have some transfer-ability to other areas.

 

Coding: VB as mentioned above. Basically mini-programs in excel, allows you to do more complex things that the general functions don't like. Needs some background before trying and will be harder than the other two, but absolutely transfers to other areas.

 

If you can get the first two mastered you'll be well ahead of most people in terms of excel skill level.

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Anyone know the best place to learn Macro's in excel,. may need it for the new job and want to get a head start

 

I never really found a good online resource for learning macros (other than the very basic recording a macro and opening up the Developer Visual Basic window).

 

If you have any macros that have already been created I would suggest looking at the VB for them (if you don't have any then see if you can download some examples), and trying to understand what it's doing (use the step through to help with this). Then as Ashley said try recording a few of your own and looking at the code.

 

In terms of resources to learn/troubleshoot Mr Excel and Stack Overflow are the best places (but googling will generally lead you to one of these anyway).

 

I'm pretty good at VB so feel free to give me a shout if you have any questions.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Discovered my manager doesn't seem to give a crap about a lot of things. Asked him for an early finish, he said sure go home when you feel like it as it's Friday. I'll take that, i also had it put in writing so the big boss can't do anything when i leave.

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Agreed to help with exams next month. I emailed the head of exams weeks ago asking when the training date was and he said 24th. Found out on Thursday by someone else I had to go in and sign a contract by the end of yesterday. When there I mentioned the training and others said it was 20th. They're going to get the head to confirm when he's back next week. Due to go home that week and wish I'd booked the train already but I guess I'll have to work around it.

 

Already not looking forward to that five weeks.

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Interview for a bi-lingual coordinator position here at the school. They are clear that I won't get the job, as they want a Chinese person doing it, but at least they will see me actively trying to push forward good ideas and be aware that I am not happy remaining in the same position as I am.

Edited by Iun
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Me working for someone else: "I could do everything better"

Me working for myself: "Does someone want to make my decisions for me?"

 

Got five weeks where I'm back working for my last job starting in May and trying to decide between working on a self-contained project with an intent of releasing it or small (maybe one week) game copying exercises for learning in my evenings and weekends.

 

Adulting is difficult.

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Currently in the process of re-jigging my CV to start the process of applying for jobs over the next couple of months as my Ph.D. funding finishes at the end of August and I'm hoping to have my thesis finished by then so need to start looking at getting things in place so that I'm not out on my backside come September.

 

Originally didn't want to stay within Academia but as most of my skills are directly applicable, I've spent a little bit over the last couple of days looking at Lecturing and Research Assistant positions. Got a decent amount of lecturing/demonstrating experience behind me as part of my doctorate and my research field is wide enough that it can be applied to quite a few areas so hoping that'll give me a boost up.

 

Anyone got any experience of applying for academic positions and have any tips? Been quite a while since I've applied for work, mainly because my Ph.D. has essentially afforded me the same kind of experience I would get as a demonstrator on staff, so a little rusty with these kinds of things. Also, any general tips of other avenues to consider outside of academia (my Ph.D. is in Psychology but I've got a lot of experience with stats from my research and from teaching) would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hopefully it won't be a long drawn out process but from others in the department that were applying for jobs last year, I know it's never plain sailing.

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Two weeks ago I got told that it's very likely that my contract would be renewed (it expires at the and of April). I even said: "That's great, I won't look around then to find a different job."

She responded: "Yeah, makes it much easier for you."

 

I couldn't go to work yesterday and can't today so I texted the PhD student I work for to ask about the contract.

Her response: "Looks like we can't extend your contract."

If I hadn't asked I would've probably never gotten information about the issue...

 

I get that "very likely" isn't 100% sure, but still...not handled great by her/them I have to say...I texted her saying that and I will talk to her about it personally when I get back to work tomorrow.

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Two weeks ago I got told that it's very likely that my contract would be renewed (it expires at the and of April). I even said: "That's great, I won't look around then to find a different job."

She responded: "Yeah, makes it much easier for you."

 

I couldn't go to work yesterday and can't today so I texted the PhD student I work for to ask about the contract.

Her response: "Looks like we can't extend your contract."

If I hadn't asked I would've probably never gotten information about the issue...

 

I get that "very likely" isn't 100% sure, but still...not handled great by her/them I have to say...I texted her saying that and I will talk to her about it personally when I get back to work tomorrow.

 

That really sucks. I was told that my previous contract was being extended but the day before it was due to end I still hadn't received the paperwork. I went into work on the last day not knowing if it was actually my last day or not. Ended up costing them as I was actively looking and got offered something else. If they'd got the finger out I'd still be there.

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I have a job interview on Wednesday morning. A recruiter got in touch with me about it a few weeks ago. It's for a pretty awesome job. Everyone seems to be quite enthusiastic about getting me to meet the client (which is what's happening on Wednesday). I'm...not really fussed because I'm cushy at the moment but it's a lot more money and would be a fucking great role for me and my "career". I've done my research. I'm going to smash it out the park then decide if I want it...assuming they want me. Which they could not. Ha!

 

Apparently the last person they interviewed was a bit quiet. They aren't going to have that problem with me. I'm positively fucking charming.

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So apparently I can't even get a fucking job at fucking Tesco...

 

qyL9PkO.jpg

 

This was for a part time sales assistant role, seriously on the brink of just giving the fuck up.

 

Don't give up. I applied for a job at Sainsburys years back and didn't get it. Ine applied for one at ASDA and didn't get one. Hang in there and keep going. These sorts of jobs will attract tons of people and it's partly down to pot luck whether you get through or not.

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Yeah I put in qualifications and yes I will bail as soon as what I want comes along but it's a part time job at a fucking supermarket, who isn't going to bail when something better comes along?!

 

I also had to do some bullshit psychometric test where you choose between three answers to a certain scenario, most of the time at least two of them make sense, so it could've been that I fucked up.

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