Before I iron...

Hi everyone,

A quick post before I iron a shirt for tomorrow.  It's been another winding-up day, in which I drafted the last advice I'll likely do for Thomsons.

The morning was spent out and about.  First, to the Magistrates Court for a mention where I thought the court might have some questions and I thought it might be unfair to send a trainee to get walloped.  Then to the "career transitions counsellor" that I saw last week for a second appointment.  Oh my...

It's the closest I've ever been to walking out on another professional.  She (a) had forgotten to diarise the appointment and (b) seemed to be half asleep.  OK, I can forgive those things; certainly I've had days like that.  What came next really stunned me.  she reviewed my CV (again) and recommended I state my degrees in the 'education' section in this fashion: "Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.)" and "Bachelor of Arts (Honours) (B.A. (Hons))".  I asked why, given that I otherwise don't use the abbreviations or the full titles anywhere else in my CV.  I really couldn't see what grammatical or explicative purpose was being served.  She said "well, some recruiters and HR people might not know what LL.B. stands for".  I didn't feel this really explained her point and said so.  I also suggested that I could probably assume anyone involved in the realm of HR would know the abbreviations for canonical degrees like the B.A., LL.B., B. Econ, M.B.B.S. and so on.  For reasons unexplained, she doubted it.  We moved on to looking for work, and her first suggestion was that I get Saturday's Age newspaper to get some idea what jobs were out there that I might be suited to.  I resisted the temptation to explain about this rather large thing called the Internet.  The breaking point came when we moved back onto my CV and she queried the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) I'd listed as presently in progress and was asking vaguely if they resulted in a certificate or what.  I explained the concept of MOOCs to her but wasn't at all sure she understood.  At this point I what I wanted to do was suggest she get any higher education supplement from the Australian or the Age over the last twelve months and read them: this is the single biggest development in tertiary education since mass admission to universities developed in the 1960s, and they've been covering it in some detail.  I was genuinely astonished that she wasn't aware of it.  I made another appointment but, frankly, don't expect I'll keep it.

The next port of call was my GP to get my ribs checked out as per Blood Bank request.  That's all fine - just some inflammation of the rib cartilage from where I hit that lamp post; it should fade in a month or two.  It's pretty well faded now.

After lunch work consisted of the advice mentioned before and generally trying to stay focussed.  Not a lot of actual work is left to do.  One call from the recruiter and then an email re an interview - the best news I've had in ages!

Back at the casa by 7pm.  A 6 kilometre run, shower, dinner, blogging and bed.

Quiet day tomorrow, I believe.  Still, I need to be presentable, so I'd better get this shirt ironed.

Hope all is well with yourselves!

See you tomorrow.