I am still numb. Missed career start of a lifetime by a hair's breadth

[GwynO 16]

Since being bumped off a teacher training program for all sorts of unsavoury reasons best not to dwell on, I have been searching high and low for a new career. Sometimes thinking I may be punching above my weight, still I applied with a thought in the back of my mind of "who dares wins my son" as Del Boy would say. One such application I sent off only this afternoon, for a position with a legal firm specialising in selling will and probate services, offering a starting salary of between £35,000 and £100,000 a year and the further prospect of uncapped commission based bonuses.

 

Might I add at this point that the most I have ever been on previously is around £1,400 a month from working inhumanly long hours, and this job I applied for today offered all that for only 40 hours a week. I didn't really expect a response, despite there being nothing in the advertisement's description of the ideal candidate that I could not fully live up to, very glib statements which I suspected masked an unspoken assumption of previous experience in that line of work.

 

The phone rang about half an hour ago asking if I was the Gwyn Owen who had sent his CV and cover letter via email that afternoon, imagine my surprise when the caller, a representative of a prestigious financial company expressed his intentions to get me in for interview! He was so impressed with the details in my CV and email that he saw great potential for me in the advertised role and wished to proceed post haste in getting me acquainted with their product at the nearest opportunity.

 

My heart at this point felt as though it would burst out of my chest, when along came a somewhat rhetorical question from my interlocutor, "you do drive of course? And own your own vehicle?" There is no smiley that conveys my feeling at that point, nor the speed with which my heart proceeded to leave my chest for some unfathomable abyss someplace beneath my feet and hell, for I have never learnt to drive, neither do I own my own car or a driving license, and I am not in the habit of lying convincingly in such tight circumstances. No sooner my prospective career appeared as a bolt of sunshine in an otherwise tumultuous fugue of financial woe that has become of my days than it evaporated as quickly as the steam from a fresh laid dog's egg on a frosty winter's night.

 

At least I managed to redeem some attempt at dignity through assuring the gentleman that getting on the road was all along my top priority after gaining suitable employment, and that I had considered the remuneration ample in order to allay the cost of taxi fares in the meantime, precipitating a polite if not entirely credible offer to "feel free to contact (me) again when you own your own vehicle".

 

I really wish I could find a crawls into a hole to die smiley.

 

How long does it take to go from no license, to license in the UK? And roughly how much does it cost? I couldn't care less what the car is, so long as I never have to go through one of those cardiac gymnastic sessions ever again.

 

Then again, what was never mine to begin with cannot have been lost. I still have my health, I think.

Edited May 20, 2010 by GwynO

[+whiteknight06604 932]

Damn rough story. I hope you get things right next time. Or might I evilishly sugest next time state you don't have a liscence for some medicale reason and then ask if his company discriminates against people with handicaps.I'm sure in this world it's easier to get some quack to state you have some mental reason why you can't drive.All joking aside I wish you the best of luck getting on the road and getting your dream job.

[FastCargo 412]

That seems like an odd question to ask a prospective employee. I'm surprised if that was a requirement, that they didn't state it up front.

 

Now, coming from the car crazy US, it is unusual to know someone who has never learned to drive (not necessarily not own a car...a lot of city folk I know don't own one because it's a pain to find and keep parking, insurance rates, etc, etc). Before spending the money to buy a car (especially just for the potential of an interview) I would recommend spending it on driving lessons and getting your license. You can always buy a car if you need to...and, although the rules can be different, usually once you get a driving license through the practical test, you don't need to take another practical test when renewing again (usually just a written test). Again, I don't know the rules for the UK, I'm just going by my state's rules.

 

FC

[MaverickMike 10]

Why not try doing a crash course? In my area (South Wales) there are a few driving schools that offer a crash course which is set over one or two weeks (depending on your abilities and availability) for a certain fee. They have even gone as far as advertising a 'guaranteed pass', dont know how this works though

 

When I enquired (about 3 years ago) I think the cost was around £600 which I thought was pretty steep tbh. I eventually just learned over a period of about six months from first lesson to passing the test.

 

Good luck

 

Mike

[GwynO 16]

Thanks for the advice and kind words guys, I think my feet are back down to earth now. It might not have been all that wise to take the job in any case as I am planning to move to Greece in only a matter of months where my partner is busy making arrangements with our first non rented place together. I only applied out of curiosity but for £100,000 a year, if there's one thing about Stam, it's that she's pragmatic and would probably have encouraged me to make a go of it and maybe she could come back and do some study in the meantime. As it is, I have a perfectly reasonable, if not as well paid, career lined up in Greece.

 

Not having a driving license, especially as a male nearing 28 years old is very much a rarity in the UK too. I'm sure many employers might read into my situation as tentative evidence of insanity or some serious criminal convictions, but the reality is that I have never had the money, or the need for a car. Living in cities for the last 8 years I have managed just fine with public transport, but it would be so convenient to get a car. The license doesn't cost so much, it's maintaining the things in terms of fuel, tax, insurance and so on that's the real problem, that and the fact that all these years of not driving has actually made me a bit apprehensive of getting behind the wheel!

 

Thanks for the heads up on the crash course Mike! Hopefully I won't crash but knowing me I will get shunted at junctions from sitting there wondering if it's safe to pull out. £600 would be steep at the minute still as I am eating away into savings doing this whole job search for the sake of a few months left in the UK, it's a catch 22, eat the money now to improve chances of work, by which time it is time to leave and I won't be able to as I'll be broke, or.. well I don't know what the answer is, but times like this I rely on the old dictum: "I have a plan, I don't know what is yet, but it's definitely a plan!"

 

If all else fails, I will take the dark side as you jokingly suggested Matt, if I cross dress, blackface, affect a limp, a lisp and a predilection for humus, just maybe I might get a dream job It's not as bad as that, but still, too many times a company will promote a token minority just so they can say "hey look, we don't discriminate" regardless of the candidate's merit. Anyway, I digress, the point is if they even considered giving me, a welsh sheep shagging badger *****r (according to a cough reminiscent of badger transmitted TB, apparently) a £35,000 a year job, well it can't all be bad

 

Thanks guys

Edited May 20, 2010 by GwynO

[+whiteknight06604 932]

good luck in Greece,it looks almost as promising as Bangkok for exciting nightlife these days.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Bad crack m8...I actually did one of the extensive driving courses...got in a car on Monday, having never driven before...passed my test on the Friday afternoon!

 

Things happen for a reason...you sound like a jolly nice chap, and you have probably avoided a lifetime of Leechiness...working for a bunch of Ambulance chasing Bastards!!!

 

Remember...the reason they bury Lawyers 8 foot down instead of six...is because, deep down they're nice people!...f*** 'em all

 

(and yes...I am pissed up!) ...on a heady mix of Old Speckled Hen, Black Sheep...and a couple of cocktails...so disregard everything I just said!

Edited May 20, 2010 by UK_Widowmaker

[GwynO 16]

good luck in Greece,it looks almost as promising as Bangkok for exciting nightlife these days.

 

Na, it's all blown out of proportion by the news. January and February '09 were pretty hairy by Athens standards when I was there, gun and grenade attacks on police stations, the sting of tear gas was noticeable as soon as we strolled down Eksarxia and Ommonia Square but Ommonia Square just stinks anyway (a mix of stray cats, skanks, junkies, Al*****s, excrement and coconut raft). A police officer was shot with an AK-47 in broad daylight, that one was pretty unsettling because we crossed that street earlier in the day and all was normal then a few hours later it was cordoned off and we got back and saw it on TV. The thing about Athens is the violence is really more noticeable when it's on TV, otherwise you just tend to get on with your daily business as best you can, and if you stay out of trouble spots which are usually well known and or broadcast in advance, then you should be fine. If however, you want to throw petrol bombs at police, then expect to get a pounding.

 

It will blow over soon enough. Greece has had a tough time for centuries, but a lot of the current situation is a legacy from the houda, the military dictatorship in the late 60s early 70s, because of the way that the more politically minded students led the resistance and were brutally massacred by the military on their campus grounds, there is a law that forbids the police or the army from entering college grounds to pursue student activists, needless to say the students of today use this to their advantage, as do the older generations of communists, anarchists and other missfits, they feed the impressionable youths with this image of them as perpetual freedom fighters and this is what you see on the streets of Athens, it isn't even the normal trade unions doing the bombings, it's a loud minority that have been milking the memory of the genuine (i.e. 60s 70s generation when they were actually fighting a dictatorship) freedom fighters for far too long.

 

Due to the houda, and the 400 years of Ottoman Islamic suppression over Greece, the people are naturally wary of any form of state control or bureaucracy, it is the irony of Greece that red tape is absolutely everywhere, yet it is universally despised even by those that are supposedly enforcing it! Hardly anyone gives a hoot if someone pays tax or declares their earnings, the so called black economy is enormous! It's a simple fact of life in Greece that there are two prices, one with a tax receipt (high) or one with no receipt hence no tax need be declared (cheap).. what would you choose? The trouble is the governments over the years have been far too weak and embarrassed to confront the situation and demand that everyone pay tax, the rich will complain and say why should they pay for the poor while the poor will say why should they pay if the rich don't, the result has been that for generations, the Greek government has had to borrow more and more to keep on providing public services that should really have been bought with tax revenue.

 

The way out is simple, a huge dose of reality, strong consequences for tax evasion, and the end of the idea of the black economy as some sort of noble resistance seen as a sort of cultural norm. I can see this happening already, but the lunatic fringe will demand their five minutes of television reports, they will demand the attention of the masses, but soon enough the normal trade unions will be back to work with a more sober outlook and the lunatics will fade away. As with the violence, the TV and news papers make the financial situation seem a lot worse than it actually is, Greece has money, the people are very hard working and the economy is capable of pulling through this, all that needs to happen is for people in Greece and outside to keep calm and carry on and ignore the scaremongers.

 

Sheesh! I rant tooo much

[GwynO 16]

Bad crack m8...I actually did one of the extensive driving courses...got in a car on Monday, having never driven before...passed my test on the Friday afternoon!

 

Things happen for a reason...you sound like a jolly nice chap, and you have probably avoided a lifetime of Leechiness...working for a bunch of Ambulance chasing Bastards!!!

 

Remember...the reason they bury Lawyers 8 foot down instead of six...is because, deep down they're nice people!...f*** 'em all

 

(and yes...I am pissed up!) ...on a heady mix of Old Speckled Hen, Black Sheep...and a couple of cocktails...so disregard everything I just said!

 

 

au contraire old chap! You make a lot of sense! Ambulance chasers That's pretty much what they'd want me to do no doubt, I'm not the kind of person to try and rip old people off into taking the most expensive option, that's not who I am. I'm proud of what I have achieved so far in teaching even if the latest venture was cut short, I want to carry on in the educational stream I think, it suits me if I'm honest as what I love best is explaining things, bringing new knowledge and sharing in peoples discovery, there's no better feeling than when you see the moment when the penny drops for a student and they suddenly grasp something new. Far better to live a happy pauper than a miserable baron.

 

Cheers to you my mate! I'm similarly imbibing, although it is only White Star, what it lacks in quality it more than makes up for in alcoholic volume, sheer quantity and absurdly cheap pricetag!

 

 

[Slartibartfast 153]

Sorry to here that... Far better to live a happy pauper than a miserable baron. Going to remember that line as it is rather excellent...

 

It's happened to me on a few occasions... and is rough even though I can't drive I have a full Motorcycle license but even that didn't cut it for one firm... even after pointing out to them politely that I could get to wherever they wanted me to be probably quicker than the guy in the car...

 

I currently work for a law firm if you want to drop me your CV and a covering letter, I can forward it to our HR guys... Head office is in Leeds but we have offices in London Sheffield Manchester Glasgow etc... also in most of the main cities in Europe like Vienna where I am currently causing trouble... drop me a PM and I will send my email addy over...

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

I love Lawyers..Honest!...despite what I said last night...it wasn't me..honest Slarti... PLEASE DONT SUE!!!!

[Slartibartfast 153]

I love Lawyers..Honest!...despite what I said last night...it wasn't me..honest Slarti... PLEASE DONT SUE!!!!

 

When I started working for the company I work at now my first line was :

 

Why dont Sharks eat Lawyers... Professional Courtesy...

 

I aint a lawyer and I have no plan to ever become one I just fix the IT problems they cause to themselves... so your safe... Though I did get insulted from the home office this morning... Apparently I am a Terrifying thought... so I took it as a compliment...

Edited May 21, 2010 by Slartibartfast

[GwynO 16]

Sorry to here that... Far better to live a happy pauper than a miserable baron. Going to remember that line as it is rather excellent...

 

It's happened to me on a few occasions... and is rough even though I can't drive I have a full Motorcycle license but even that didn't cut it for one firm... even after pointing out to them politely that I could get to wherever they wanted me to be probably quicker than the guy in the car...

 

I currently work for a law firm if you want to drop me your CV and a covering letter, I can forward it to our HR guys... Head office is in Leeds but we have offices in London Sheffield Manchester Glasgow etc... also in most of the main cities in Europe like Vienna where I am currently causing trouble... drop me a PM and I will send my email addy over...

 

Thanks! That's awesome!

G.