上学

Yes my final year has started, Dilesh, despite it not being term time in the rest of the UK. Unfortunately for those of us going to University in Scotland, they like to spring these sorts of things on you early, then snap it to an abrupt stop just as quickly. As one of my tutors said, "You've only got about 20 weeks of teaching before your finals, and don't forget your dissertations are due in in April!" Oh. My. God.

So yeah, super busy, but I'll try and keep you guys informed of any developments that aren't related to the dismantlement of Maoist ideology in China after 1978. Yeah.

So, how's the flat? - Good, actually. Despite my fears of having not seen it before I moved in, I was quite pleasantly surprised. I guess it helps if you've been picturing the worst. It's right near the Meadows (fieldy thing connecting the uni to other residential areas of Edinburgh) and is cosy in a typical Edinburgh fashion. I shall try and post some pictures if I remember.

How's school? - Yes, I still refer to it as school. It's fiiinnne, doing way more China related courses, which means I will probably know how the country is run by the end of the year. I took an impossibly hard re-entrance exam, but actually did quite well, which I'm taking as a good sign. By impossibly hard, I mean this was one of the questions:

Translate the following passage into English: Other BRICS have slowed too, including China and Brazil. But India's GDP figures, the worst for at least nine years, will havea deep impact on the sub-continent. The country was meant to grow in its sleep - regardless of what happens in the rest of the world. A quick bounce back looks unlikely. The central bank has cut interest rates a little this year, but will struggle to loosen policy further given high inflation. The ruling coalition keeps promising a bout of reforms to boost confidence, but it is so divided, its behavious so erratic and its record of delivery so poor that few believe this will actually happen.

I'm sorry, what?
Well, I had a crack at it, and I passed the test, so I'm sure I'll be fiiiinnnneeee. I've got a sh' load of reading to do and I've been coerced into taking a Literature course (starting with poetry. Poetry!), so expect a languishing death, accompanied with a memoir written in quatrain in the didactic, ku-fu style of the HighTang dynasty.

Does your Dissertation have to be written in Chinese? - Ha, hahahahaha *wipes away single tear* You're so sweet. No. No it does not.

What's your Dissertation about? - How the capitalisation of China's markets and the growth in consumerism in China since 1989 has erased popular demand for democracy. Don't watch that.

What else are you doing this year? - Well, besides cornering innocent Chinese exchange students and forcing them to be my friends, I'm also attending Debate soc, doing some volunteering (meant to be mentoring 1st years/ promoting higher education in secondary schools. I'll definitely let you know how that goes.) and trying to keep on top of Japanese. Or just on Japanese in general. I have the books with me anyway.

I'm determined to get a 1st and look really impressive by the end of this year. In the words of Wang Zhihuan
欲穷千里目， 
更上层楼 

"If you wish to see for a thousand miles, you must ascend further up the tower".

Deep.

Xxx

NB: 上学 (shàngxué) means to attend or begin school, usually in reference to university students.

The Pleasantries of Student Accommodation

So there I was, calmly researching my Dissertation at work, when Sophie contacts me telling me there's yet ANOTHER problem with our flat in Edinburgh. Imma drop some context on y'all quickly just so you can see how inept these people are (baring in mind we were, at one point, organising this across about 12 time zones). In no particular order, their offences are:

• Not knowing who's dealing with us - Zara, Karen, Tom, Jerry, Snoop Dogg, it seems like every single person in that bloody place has (mis)handled our contract at some point, but don't seem to be keeping notes/ in touch with each other.
• Telling us we haven't paid our holding fee
• Telling us we have paid our holding fee, and actually paid too much ( "It's ok, we'll take it off your deposit!" What do you want for coming up with that one? A cookie?)
• Telling us we haven't sent our guarantor forms
• Telling us we haven't sent our guarantor forms
• Telling us we haven't sent our guarantor forms
• Telling us we haven't paid our deposit
• Telling us we haven't sent our guarantor forms
• Telling Sally she hasn't paid her deposit
• Sending me an email with the wrong address, telling me I haven't paid the deposit (the address in the email didn't exist by the way. Thanks 'Joanna')

And of course their latest offence - Telling us that we can't have the keys to the property until 4 days after the contract begins. Oooohohoho this is gonna be good. I feel that these people are very lucky they haven't had to deal with me yet, because I get angry in a very quite-direct-eye-contact-yeah-that's-right-i'm-looking-at-you-don't-make-me-go-loosham-on-you-getting-more-ghetto-by-the-word kinda way. They will rue the day they have to deal with my Mother. In fact, the day they meet ANY of us face to face - we're not stupid just because we're students and don't think that because you're older than us we'll be scared of marching into your office and demanding to have a 'word' with every last one of you. Phew.



How I listen and respond when my Letting Agency contacts me with their nonsense

How I feel on the Inside

Anyway, so Sophie, the first of us to arrive in Edinburgh, wanted to arrange to pick up the keys the day after the contract starts (the 31st) as that's when she'll be back from holiday. "Oh I'm sorry, the whole office will be away in Dundee on that day. We can't get you the keys till Monday." At the risk of being a bit obscene here, are you sh*tting on my face? Are you actually trying this ridiculousness now? It this how it's gonna go down? Really? Ok, let's go. Do you know that due to your own inefficiency, one of your tenants could be left homeless for half a week because you couldn't arrange for 1 person to get her keys to the property that she legally rents and to which she has rightful access from the start date of the lease and everyday thereafter until the period agreed upon in the contract has been terminated, or has been violated by any one of the parties? Do you? Because you do now.

Don't even try me fools. I have been reading contracts, agreements and terms and conditions for 3 weeks now - I know when someone's in material breach. Stop your nonsense, make my keys available to me, or give me my money back for those 3 days that you have not allowed me access to my property, or I will sue you. Do. Not. Try. Me.

And this is only the beginning. The place isn't even that nice you know. kmt.

Edi Xxx

***Addition - I've now checked the 'Tenancy Agreement', clause F12 states that:
"12. Suspending part of the rent

If you cannot live in or use part of the premises you will not have to pay a percentage of the rent until the whole premises are fit to live in again."

Honestly. Bring it.

Drum Roll Please

Omg I feel like an absolute genius for figuring this out – and by this I mean the mind-boggling series of life decisions that I’ve been considering since becoming an adult. Follow my train of thought if you will.

You remember how I said I was agonising between continuing with education and entering the real world [with some education thrown in], well I’ve just, just, realised how I can do both. I was thinking about my year abroad the other day, and how people often commented on how I seemed mature for my age. This is because most of my friends not from my Uni were a little older than me – 22-26, where I was only 20. Then I realised that most of them hadn’t entered the real world, but [on the whole] didn’t seem to be too old or wasting their lives. If anything, they seemed more ‘employable’. And that’s because they’d done the degree ‘ish, worked a little and then gone and done something else with their lives. Hey! Why don’t I do that!

So, new plan kids. I’ve decided to put my full efforts into applying for law training contracts [I’ve decided on a nice, random number of 7], maybe a couple of graduate schemes, work for a few years, then move abroad and continue with my favourite hobby of them all – studying. Yes, ok Mum, you tried to tell me something similar before, but it really hadn’t sunk in, as I was obsessed with not being able to learn Japanese before I was old, and before I realised that I wasn’t going to get a Fulbright Scholarship to a competitive, world-reknowned US University with nothing but a degree and a winning smile.

Sorry Stanford - You're just gonna have to wait.

Ah yes, the Fulbright Scholarship, ‘what is that?’ you ask. Well, it happens to be the only not-really-that-viable option for British people looking for a heavy discount for studying in the US. It’s so good (fees fully paid for a year as well as a living allowance, what whaaaaat) that it’s got ridiculously high standards for acceptance. Of course, anyone can apply. But a quick glance at the ‘Current and Past Fulbrighters’ list tells you that you ain’t getting on this course without at least two of the following: A first class degree (Or 2:1 if you went to Oxbridge); being an aeronautical engineer; being a prize winning novelist/artist of any description/athlete; having a very impressive CV; being the world’s best person. Of course, you don’t have to fulfil all of these criteria, but a smattering helps. So, I’m going to go into the world and collect my smattering!.... That came out wrong.

Anyhoo, I felt that this path was much better than spreading myself too thin and, knowing me, not getting anything, travelling round the world for a bit, get bored, come home, go back to uni forever, and end up in lots of lots of debt before running away to become a nomad. A well qualified nomad. Hey I could be a wise woman that people come to see for solutions to their problems! A wise woman hidden deep in- Sorry, massive tangent there.

So yeah, I’ve come up with a solution to my problem that a 6 year old could have figured out, which will mean more enjoyment in my final year as well as less stress. Yeah, I know, it seems really obvious to you, but let me just say that many a person has asked me to help them look for something when it's been right in front of them the whole time. Don't judge - we all have our moments, let me have mine.

Edi Xxx
P.S. I've decided to bring back the random Chinese words that littered my last blog because, I don't know about you, but I've missed them. I'll start integrating them from now on, but today's phrase is 进退两难 [jìntuìliǎngnán - lit. to find it difficult to advance or retreat - to be in a dilemma] to describe the turmoil that I was in, from which I have now relieved myself. :)

Does ‘Blogger’ count as a skill?

I’m not desperate for skills, hobbies and interests to put on my CV and upcoming application forms, but I have to wonder if I can include my blog as any one of these, from logistical point of view as well as a space filling one. It doesn’t really add anything (I’m not sure ‘avidly and continuously updating my adoring Facebook friends on my worldly doings’ can really go under the category of ‘creative writing’), and to be honest I’m not even sure I could talk it up into having some sort of higher purpose.

Maybe if I went semi-pro with it?

sem·i·pro·fes·sion·al

 

 /ˌsɛmiprəˈfɛʃənl, [sem-ee-pruh-fesh-uh-nl, sem-ahy-]

adjective

1. actively engaged in some field or sport for pay but on a part-time basis: semi-professional baseball players.

2. engaged in by paid, part-time people: semi-professional football.

3. having some features of

professional work but requiring less knowledge, skill, and judgment: a semi-professional job.

　

Hmm…so, according to definitions two and three, sub-sections 1, all I need to do is slap some Google adds on the sidebar, earn a little bit of dollar from ‘clicks’ and boom, I’m almost professional. I’ve already got the ‘less knowledge’ bit covered. Get in.

　

However, another problem presents itself in that if I include my blog on my application forms then a prospective employer might actually read it. Yes, that would be the point. But lets face it, my blog is highly opinionated in a very prejudicial way, contains way too many swear words and, worst of all, is derisively humorous. For example, I don’t think an interviewer would care for a later review of my experience as being ‘about as much fun as a poke in the eye’, with the interviewer himself being described as a 'wet fish' (see previous blog for more details)– and if they don’t care for my opinions, they’re not going to care about me.

Well, I was just wondering…

Edi Xxx



An Independent and Ignorant Inquest: How to Talk Yourself Up

***I feel I should warn you in advance that this post is really long...Much longer than I had originally intended...***

On the day that the new UK unemployment figures were due to be released, I heard a report on the radio saying that youth unemployment is the worst it's been for 20 years, and is only getting worse. Upon further research (BBC and Guardian articles) I found that around 20% of young people (16-24 years old) are unemployed and the number of youths that have been unenmployed for over 6 months is increasing, despite an overall decline in unemployment (8% down from 8.2% in the last quarter).

Now, 16-24 is the age group my good friends and I belong to, and though we largely belong to the more privelledged of society (we all went to good Unis and more than one of us is studying medicine related courses), we too recognise the difficulties of getting hired. I've already spoken about the competition for training contracts, and when a good friend of mine was employed by Deloitte (Top 10 Graduate Employer from now until the end of time), we threw him a party. "You get a party just for getting a job now?" an incredulous, over-40, permanently employed family friend asked me. The simple answer is "Yes, you do", and you probably deserve one too.So, what is responsible for this turn in fortune, what is anybody doing about it and, probably most importantly, what can you do to big yourself up and land on the much coveted 1^st step of your career ladder?

‘In the current economic climate’ is a phrase we hear a lot these days, but how much has the recession affected our opportunities? Well, according to the TUC, "prospects for young people deteriorated sharply when the recession started in 2008 and have been at 'crisis levels' ever since". So it is the recession then. Hardly surprising, as it was the private sector that a) caused the recession, and b) most people want to work for. I thought it was more money more problems? Anyway, the TUC go on to say that this dire situation has not been helped by the government cutting support for people out of jobs, and their representative on the radio said that the government had cut ‘essential’ programs that had shown proven benefits in the past.

Never fear though, as the government is apparently on it like a tramp on chips, assuring us that they won’t ‘underestimate [the situation] for a moment’ and are ‘committed to helping young people get the skills and experience they need to get a job’. They’ve introduced this new spangled Youth Contract thing, which I don’t 100% understand [despite my weeks of proof-reading training], but is basically meant to pay employers to hire youths by tempting them with wage subsidies. Hmmm. Well there's a link if you actually care.

Well, enough about the government and their boring, ineffective plans, let's talk about us (baby). What are the options, if any? Some smarty pants out there may be sitting there pointing out (to themselves) that there are actually many viable options for people willing to put in the effort. Well to that smarty pants I say this: not all options are viable for everyone. The world always needs more teachers, for example. But - besides the fact that not everyone is inclined to be a teacher – this generally requires another year of funding a course that many can’t afford. But many of those who could afford it, or could afford to take (another) year ‘out’, just want to get on with life. So, how to stand out from the crowd then.

Well, many of the points I mentioned in my previous Law post can be applied more generally, such as volunteering or doing an Internship or 3 (some unpaid but all useful). But again we’re back to the problem of those who have neither time nor money. If you’re really desperate for a certain position, you may have to lower your youthful expectations and work your way up. An example off the top of my head: I found during my legal research that some medium-small firms offer positions as a paralegal, and give you the opportunity to apply for a training contract later on. 

                  It's not all about University - most of these guys work for big companies with very well paid positions

And what about those people who didn’t go to Uni or didn’t get top grades in general? In the spirit of recently released A level results, to those people who didn’t get the results they wanted, didn’t get a place through clearing, or just weren’t academically inclined in the first place, it may just be a case of lowering your expectations. University isn’t for everyone, and, bless them, getting a 2:2 from the University of The Only Place That Would Take Me with DDE, sometimes just isn’t worth it. As the TUC pointed out, although 41% of young people go on to higher education nowadays, it does not afford them the same guarantee that it used to. No Sh*t Sherlock. I’m not telling you to settle for Zara for the rest of your life (they only hire beautiful Spanish people anyway), but schemes like Apprenticeships in IT, Accountancy, Childcare (you can charge a bomb for being a Nanny nowadays) give you an extra qualification to boost your CV at a later date and frankly a way to earn money and skills at the same time. If you’re dead set on Higher Education though, don’t let me stop you, hey retake your A levels if you must – but do it properly.

Chris Moriarty [great name btw] on the Radio today from the Chartered Institute of Marketing says that there's more to life than Uni grades and qualifications - 

"If you know what career you want then you should contact your professional body/institute [For us, someone who wants to get into marketing]...What professional bodies do is provide guidance, support, advice... We work with Universities to map their courses to our guidelines...We can give you a guide to what a career [in marketing] will be like, give you CV advice and provide you with available job roles... If you're not a graduate you're also at an advantage for being willing to take the less well-paid jobs."

If you’re just starting out at University or are in second year or thereabouts, my advice to you now is to make it count. Good grades really, really are not everything these days. Great you’ve got a 2:1…..And? Do tutoring at a local school, do lots of extra curriculars and become a committee member of the Harry Potter Society, learn a language (THAT’s what I’d forgotten – everyone should learn a language…not Chinese though, you’ll be learning forever) outside of your course. And if you’re lucky by the time you graduate this recession bollocks will have blown over.

To those of us 18+, all is not lost and there is still time for us to prove ourselves before we become a lost generation. Hell, move abroad and teach English and come back when the economy’s looking up. And if you’re really good, at the end of it I’ll throw you a party.

Edi xxx

As a note of Contention – Is it just a case of what you put in is what you get out? As the one-handed pianist proves, no task is insurmountable, and even a jobless youth admits that while he ‘feels like a loser’, he hasn’t been as proactive as he could have been... (Discuss?)