A Little Self Indulgent Moan

I’ve been wanting to move away from the area I grew up in for quite a while now and it’s really starting to wear me down. I currently work full time, although the pay is very poor, the job itself is entirely reliable and for an unskilled worker, in the current economic climate, that is a fairly big draw. Unfortunately my low pay has left me in a pretty shitty situation where my monthly outgoings are basically equal to my income, meaning that I have no real savings to fall back on. Couple this with the fact that I also have financial responsibilities that require me to pay every month or risk forfeiting my claim to them, potentially losing a lot of money and any chance of ever putting together a deposit on a mortgage. What this means to me is that, in a very real sense, I live pay day to pay day and can’t afford to lose even a single months pay.

As it stands it appears as though I’ve been left with two viable options, continue in my current job and commute to work or find another reliable job in the area that I want to live in. Whilst both of these options look fairly simple on paper they’re not as easy as it seems.

Firstly the area that I want to live in is around 35 miles away from where I work and although this isn’t a vast distance I don’t currently drive, though I am working to change that. It’s taken a couple of years, but I’ve finally managed to adjust my budget enough to afford weekly driving lessons rather than waste my time and money buying them in blocks with, sometimes long periods of time between each block. Essentially this means that, for me currently, commuting isn’t really an option.

Secondly, since the Brexit referendum economic growth in Britain has plateaued somewhat, and in certain cases has even recessed slightly, meaning that less jobs are available, competition for jobs has increased and employers are looking to fill the available jobs more cheaply. As a fairly qualified and extremely experienced employee, whilst not being the most expensive, I would not be particularly cheap to employ. I would require to at least match my current wage, but would ideally be looking to achieve closer to the higher end of the average wage for a person of my level of experience. When combined with the fact that I currently don’t drive, I have a very distinctive style and appearance, and that I have a fairly lengthy notice period in my current job, makes me a somewhat less desirable candidate for most companies.

So where does this leave me? This is a question I find that I’m asking myself ever more frequently and unfortunately the answer doesn’t really change, I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. I don’t have the money, or support structure, to simply quit my current job and move. Annoyingly if this was an option it has the potential to make me more employable due to no longer having a notice period and being available for an immediate start. I’m basically left with having to rely on either there being someone out there willing to take a chance on employing me or on my own ability to learn and the hope that I pick up the necessary driving skills quickly. Unfortunately I’m not convinced that either of these options are particularly viable, but they’re all I seem to have.

A While Ago This Image Came Up On My Tumblr Dash...

A while ago this image came up on my Tumblr dash and, being currently somewhat dissatisfied with my employment/general living situation, I ended up going off on a bit of a self indulgent rant. I re-read it this morning and came to the conclusion that it's a perfectly valid opinion, though it doesn't contain any information that most people aren't already aware of, so I've decided to post it on here too:

There's a fairly simple explanation, traditionally as people get older they get richer. Conservative values and policies generally benefit the rich, so the older people get the more they benefit from being conservative. That is not happening with this generation, largely thanks to conservative values and policies, the financial landscape has changed. Rates of pay at the lower end of the job market have stagnated, the majority of employers are no longer interested in their employees happiness and general well being, as they’re seen as an easily replaceable commodity. Meanwhile, house prices, and housing costs in general, have risen at way beyond the rate of inflation, meaning that many young people can no longer afford to get on the housing market and are forced into the rental trap. Couple this with rises in the general cost of living and it's gotten harder, and continues to get harder, for normal, working class, people to make and retain money. Basically we're poor, we’re getting to a stage in our lives where we should be seeing our hard work pay off, but we're not and as such conservative values and policies do not benefit us in anyway and are, more than likely, only making things worse.

Job Search

I’ve been in my current role for so long that I’d almost completely forgotten how hard it can be to find a new job. The stupid thing is that it’s not even that there’s no jobs out there, it’s more the fact that it seems like no matter where you look none of the jobs available are roles that you’re qualified to do, that fall within your skill set or are aimed at your current level of experience.

You either end up applying for nothing at all or for a ton of jobs that you know you don’t stand a chance of getting. Either way even just trawling through job sites is mentally and emotionally draining, and that’s before you even get to filling out the absolutely ridiculous application forms or spending hours tailoring your C.V. and crafting a well thought out cover letter, all the time knowing that you’re unlikely to even receive a “thanks, but no thanks”.

To me the thing that makes matters worse is that about 80% of the jobs you apply for are through employment agencies, meaning you don’t even know if your application is getting passed on to the company or not. The only thing that you do know for certain is that for the next 6 months you’ll be getting constant phone calls, generally while you’re at work and unable to answer them, trying to get you to apply for any position in a 50 mile radius, even though you expressly stated that you’re not wanting to commute any more than 5 miles, that has a remotely, often extremely remotely, similar job description to your current role.

Being an adult sucks.