office moves and editing

Tags

editing, excitement, moving, office move, packing, work, working

This morning there is the sense of holidays floating around the desks in the office. Everywhere there are stacks of grey and pink crates filled with the content of drawers and office supplies. The company I am currently contracted to work for is on the move!

Come Monday morning their somewhat rundown North Side home will be abandoned and replaced with a shiny new South Side premises. Moving an entire office seems to hold many challenges, but now that all the sorting, throwing out and packing has been done, the packers will do all the hard lifting tomorrow. So when everyone arrives (if they can find it that is) at the new office on Monday morning it will be a little like Christmas – crates unpacked and desks reorganised.

I won’t be moving until Wednesday (I am only in the office during the later part of the week) and I still don’t know where I’ll be going – let alone where I’ll be sitting. But I am sure, come Wednesday morning, I’ll find my way and someone will give me a chair and desk. And since I only have two small folders and a couple of pens and post-its loitering on my desk, my friendly desk neighbour is giving my few bits and bobs crate-asylum until I find a home in the new office.

Somehow this state of ‘in-betweeness’ has created an unusual atmosphere, excitement paired with busyness, inactivity and uncertainty mixed with hyper action and clear instructions buzzes around me – making it hard to concentrate on my task at hand – read and edit a technical manual.

So while I try to block out the chatter with my green headphones and read the words in front of me I can’t help but be infected with the flutter of newness that is all around me.

Editing while on the move, maybe not the ideal working combination but exciting none the less.

 

 

snow day

Tags

Dublin, Ireland, snow day, traffic, weather, work life, working

I woke up this morning to find my skylight covered in snow – not the nice fluffy kind but the wet slushy kind – and knew that this would mean chaos.

Dublin doesn’t get much snow, so when it does most people, and amenities, just don’t seem to be able to cope: traffic goes mad, people stay home, kids get excited (even over slush) and Dublin isn’t quite in working order.

With that in mind I left a little bit earlier for work and arrived 15minutes earlier than usual – not the 30 minutes later like I expected. It was odd entering the office with only three early birds there to greet me. As the morning progressed it became clear my idea of leaving early was the wise choice, nearly everyone was late and at 10am we still had a few MiC (missing in commute).

But something else also happens when we have one rare snow day – people seem to change. The normal comments about the weather accelerate and a shift in mood happens. Somehow most people become even more laid back than usual – sure if you can blame everything on the snow nothing is really anyone’s fault – and everyone just gets on as best as possible, the excuse of snow always ready to explain everything away.

And of course there is always home, a glass of wine and the fire to round off a perfect snow day!

lists and weekends

Tags

busy, friends, life, lists, post-its, to do, working

Shopping lists, to-do-lists, lists of who to call, packing lists, post-its sticking to pages, in books, on doors in my calendar, sometimes even on my phone – lists and post-its are how I organise my world, and time.

With Saturday just one sleep away and my work hours slowly counting down I am somewhat dismayed to see how my weekend list seems to be growing a little out of control. I seem to have to do more things than I think I have time for.

So now as I look at my calendar and the list I have scrawled in wonky writing and feel dismayed. With a friend who I haven’t seen since before Christmas popping in later for a long overdue catch-up, my home needing a good clean, my wood guy delivering wood tomorrow, a friend needing a lift on Sunday and a surprise cinema ticket win inviting me to a surprise film on Sunday afternoon my time is more than limited as it is.

But with my list growing and my desk overflowing I think I will just have to bite the bullet and succumb to the fact that this weekend will be busier than I’d like. But maybe, before I can start checking things of my list, I should consider tiding up my work-space and decide what can be pushed another week. And I already know the first thing not getting done is cleaning – as long as I can find my desk and my lists, that’s all I need.

Now all I need to do is to write a list of where to start and what I need to get it done!

reading, writing and trying to find time to sleep

Tags

American College Dublin, lack of sleep, literary greats, masters, reading, working, writing, writing &reading

This past week has been more than a little busy – between lecturing, trying to find work and my masters I have been trying to find enough hours to sleep – Wednesday night was particularly touch with a 3am bedtime and a 7.30am wake up.

To catch up a little bit on those lost hours and to avoid even darker circles under my eyes, I indulged in a short lie-in this morning. However it was only a short reprieve since my dinning room table still showed the evidence of my late night study session. Piles of printouts and underlined passages the reminders of what is done and still left to do.

But I decided to prolong my relaxation and have enjoyed a morning over cups of tea and the papers, now I need to head out to stock my fridge – its painful emptiness reflected in the grumbles of my tummy.

Once that’s done my bum will deepen the imprints on my dining room chair once more, as I forage through the literary works of some of the worlds great writers, before I turn my own humble attempts to the keyboard and write a few words of my own.

literary mayhem greeted me on my dining room table this morning, no room for my breakfast

selling yourself

Tags

applying for jobs, CVs, jobs, looking for work, work, working

Since the college, much to my surprise and horror, has reduced my lecturing hours I have been looking for extra work to make up for the income loss.

And while looking for work is hard and tricky, selling yourself is even more of a minefield. How do you stand out and be honest at the same time? How do you talk about your strengths and weaknesses without sounding too negative or too delusional. And there seems to be whole hidden language buried between the lines.

Before you send out your CV think about what it should say about you. A clean professional looking CV says so much more than a cluttered page. Structure your CV, make it easy to understand and follow. And don’t just list your abilities  but talk about your achievements as well.

Short is sweet, so when you write a cover letter stick to the rule of three, highlight three things about you that an employer will pick up on and remember. In an interview do the same. The reason for this is that we tend to remember roughly three things about any new book we read , film we see and person we meet. So think about what three things differentiate you from other candidates and own them.

One other thing most experts suggest is to make yourself familiar to the people hiring you, research them, understand what they are about and ask them questions. The simple reason behind this the fact that we react and remember things that are familiar to us. Think about songs you hear on the radio. When a song comes on that you recognise you may start to tap your foot or sing along to it – not because it is the best song, but because it is one you are familiar with.

And lastly, don’t underestimate networking, who knows who the people you know, or meet, know.

However, no matter how perfect you believe your CV to be or how much you hone your pitch, looking for work always means rejection. So don’t rely on that one job application, that one interview, keep looking and eventually – hopefully – something will open up. After all, looking for work is like a job, you have to spend time and effort on it to ultimately be successful.

 

long days, short nights

Tags

desk day, dreaming, long day, sleepless, working

After a day at the desk yesterday I have a  long day ahead of me today: first five hours of teaching (no break), a meeting about some magazine design work and then supporting a friend at her film screening. Somewhere in-between meeting, teaching and viewing I’m going to have to find the time to eat.

As the day stretches long in front of me my mind wanders back to my sleepless night. For some reason I ended up working until early this morning and when I finally did get to bed i couldn’t sleep.

I hate that feeling when you’re lying in bed, knowing that you have to be up early in the morning and dreamland just won’t open up it’s doors and admit you. As I tossed and turned and watched as the minutes slipped by my mind just wouldn’t shut down and give me peace.

So today I am stuck with an overtired feeling and some rings under my eyes, I just hope that I can get to bed early tonight and that sleep will come. After all even if it is only a four day week for most I have to work this weekend.

So I will trudge through the day and hopefully I will find restful dreams at the end of it.