I'm in the corner.

(via GIRLS Caps)

So, yesterday... I got a job! I am feeling a little less Hannah Horvath than I was the day before yesterday. This now means I can worry less about where my rent money is going to come from and that I won't be stuck in the flat on my own all day. I'm hoping that the hours aren't too bad as I would still like to get to see Moon on the odd occasion, but I'm sure everything will be easy enough to arrange and for now I'm just happy that I've got a job. I'm playing it up like it's something amazing, but really it's just a customer service assistant role with Vue. So I'm still an undiscovered genius, but now I have less money worries, plus I love the cinema and will now get free tickets for myself and everyone so it's pretty sweet. Tomorrow's my induction day so I guess that's when I'll be finding out more, it seems like it's time for another CV update.
As we're on the subject of job hunting, two additional things happened to me yesterday. The first was receiving the bluntest, rudest rejection email I have had throughout the whole time I've been applying for jobs, claiming my CV was too 'Photography-biased' and that maybe if I tried harder, I might have had a shot, yeah okay. The second was a lovely telephone call from Grace at Give A Grad A Go who provided me with a great morale boost regarding my experience and CV, just before I got the offer to start with Vue tomorrow. Maybe the former was just having a bad day, but I thought it was important to mention GAGAG as I've seen them floating about since graduating and I think they need commending on their stellar advice, service and overall polite manner.

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I'll stop rabbiting on now and get the the real point of this post and that was to tell you that I might have gone and broken my clothes-fast after just under a month. Not a bad effort really, and in my defence, two of the items I bought were in the kids section and therefore super-cheap! You know what though, I might even pop out later and break the fast even more, although this time it's much more reasonable - I need dark, smart things of which I have none; smart, yes, dark, yes, but not the two combined.

Multi-way handbag, £12.49 eBay
I blogged about a similar bag last month and although I ordered it a couple of weeks after that, it only arrived yesterday. I have to say I'm slightly disappointed, but I think it might just need a bit of wearing in, as it's very 'out of a warehouse' stiff right now. It's useful to have anyway as I have a 'good' bag and an everyday bag but nothing for in-between so I'm hoping this is where it will come in, for the price I'm not complaining too much anyway. I'm also a bit excited that it doubles as a rucksack.



Dresses, Both £5.99, H&M Kids
These were a confidence boost, I took a bit of Gem Fatale scrimping initiative and ended up wandering into the kids section of H&M yesterday. I couldn't resist the cute heart print which I've seen everywhere lately, and I figured I don't really have anything block-coloured, so why not break my fast with these bargains (I didn't think they would fit anyway)? I got these in the largest kid-size 14y so that's nice to know. If you want a proper look, they're the same dress pattern as these ones on the website.


Belt, £6.99, H&M
This isn't super-exciting but I've not been impressed with my belt collection for ages, it was a toss-up between this minty one or the same one in coral, would it be wrong to go back and pick up the other one too, you can never have too many belts when you have as many dresses as I do.


Cropped blazer, £14.99, H&M
I mainly got this because of how 90s it is, but also because I was a bit bored of my other jackets. It's the perfect colour for when the sun decides to show it's face too.

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Thanks to yesterday's good news I'm not half as sorry for these purchases as I was going to be. As it was the first time I'd bought anything in ages I thought I'd share them with you anyway. Have you found any bargains in the kids section before? I'm pleased more than anything, maybe I'll take the time to browse more often.

All your tubing needs.

This is an afternoon well spent, not the finished product as that's a surprise between me and the company I did it for. Basically, Purple Door at the University of Portsmouth have found me a position as a Creative Lead within a Marketing company, pre-interview prep was essentially showing them what I could to on Indesign using a short brief they provided.

The brief was to create a postcard to go at a till in a builders merchant advertising a particular brand of copper tube for plumbing and heating contractors with the main incentive that if they 'like' the brand on Facebook, they can then enter a photo competition and be in the running for winning an iPad.

Here's hoping this is enough to impress them, I'm quite happy with it, obviously I had to do a bit of Google-image trawling but hopefully they'll see past that. Coincidently, earlier today I walked passed a builder's merchants, and they did in fact have post cards at the till, I've tried to make mine as different as possible. From what I saw available, they were mainly straight-forward text so I think that part was pretty successful. Thanks to some help from Moon I've got something a bit less 'obvious' than my initial idea.

Fingers crossed it was worth it. I'm so hungry now.

No, no, urgh.

I so currently feel like this, life would definitely be easier if I were a cat.
I don't think that I wish for that many unattainable things in my life. I just want somewhere nice to live and to be happy and able to go wherever I want, whenever I want. If only it were five years ago, when things were a bit better for graduates, and not so impossible.




Moon and I went house hunting in Newbury today, and most of the day was like this:

It seems like everything at the moment involves some kind of chase, house hunting is even worse than job hunting because they totally out and out reject you, literally on the basis of nothing and even when you haven't seen a property. But the likelihood of things moving forward from the point we're currently at is seeming less and less realistic, so maybe April won't be as big a month as I thought.

I'm already nervous so this news hasn't really added much to my general disposition, I'm just a bit cross and feel like an idiot for just thinking that maybe things wouldn't actually be so difficult for once. < / urgh >

Newbury Check-out.

On Wednesday, which I realise is practically light years ago, Moon and I went down to Newbury to check it out and see if it would be a nice place to live, it turns out that it is. It's pretty damn lovely actually, now the challenge seems to be finding rental properties that are available by the end of the month, if you've ever tried this, you will know that it is impossible.

Hopefully something will come up soon as we really need to get our skates on with Moon starting his new job on the 2nd April. Hopefully I will have something myself by then, but I plan on continuing my search once we're down there if I don't have anything. There is a small creative community as well as a few newspapers so I might be lucky.
We tried our hand at online house-hunting yesterday afternoon but were a bit disheartened as most places we liked were either gone or not available soon enough. We were even told rather rudely by Charles Abby (yeah I'll name them because they're not very good), that we're essentially 'unrentable', that is before whoever we spoke to simply hung up. I guess we just won't go with them though as they seemed to be unnecessarily in-depth and basically nosey and others we spoke to were very polite despite having to let us down.

I didn't take many photos while we were there as there was so much to take in. I really like it there though and I look forward to a new adventure. The canals are lovely, as is the town centre, which is so new and pretty. There are so many nice places to explore, not to mention lots of pubs that we can bring our friends to when they visit. ♥


Anywhere that has it's own sausage is obviously the place to be.


How cute is this? It's a night club which stays open until 5:30am on Saturdays, crazy stuff.



This is the adorable collection box outside the RSPCA, there are loads of charity shops in Newbury and most of them look like boutiques (super posh), it will be so much fun to have a nose around once we move there. As we'll be quite skint for cash for a bit, it's quite useful too, especially as I'm a lot more crafty than I was giving myself credit for.




There are so many swans on the canal rather than the standard two, it got a bit lairy.


It feels like I'm closer to moving out, which is what I've wanted for ages, I guess I am a bit nervous but it will be great to have more independence, especially when it's somewhere so pretty.

I think my interview with Sky went okay yesterday but I have a ton of jobs to apply for into next week so I'm not resting on it. If I apply for more, this will hopefully mean more chance of a response.

Crashing and burning.

At least my writing skills are up to scratch, because I'm fairly certain that's the only aspect of the interview I've just returned from that was a success. I've bought a custard crown to console myself, I've never had a worse interview. I already know the response/lack of.
"Ruth is a nice girl, who will be a great success in her life, but she's just not what we're looking for." The interview was through a customer at my mum's restaurant, it's so embarrassing.
It's fairly obvious why in terms of this role (a costs administrator), but it really is the story of my life for the last four months. I was told in this interview that were I to be going for a photography role, I would get it because my experience is awesome, I felt like blurting out, 'WELL THAT ISN'T THE CASE IS IT?!', but I wish it was...

The thing is, I am looking forward to being a picture desk intern, I really am, I can't think of any job that I have applied for that's come up that I've wanted more and I'm so happy I seem to have got it. However, the fact of the matter is, I need to sustain myself financially too and working for expenses isn't going to cut it forever. I'm seriously banking on this being a whirlwind and worthwhile experience.

"Over-qualified photographer and all-round nice girl seeks run-of-the-mill job to buy Christmas presents for family and justify buying an iPad."

My last attempt at freelancing is placing my new (and sexy) business cards on Supermarket noticeboards. I need to go to a networking event, I'm definitely over being intimidated.

What every graduate should feel about graduate fairs.

On Tuesday afternoon I ladened myself with printed CV's and a map and headed over to Islington for the London Graduate Fair.

It's quite clear now that I needn't have bothered. Having read an article on youth unemployment on the Financial Times online the night before, I tried to remain undeterred by the mention of disheartening graduate fairs, this one was going to be different. Apart from it wasn't, and I did end up feeling stupid; I wasted my money by travelling there and all I got was a couple of free pens and some 'best employer guides' produced by people who weren't even there!
The split between Universities offering post-graduate courses compared to actual jobs was disgraceful. Additionally, without meaning to sound rude but it's going to happen anyway, the jobs on offer were hardly life-changing and only left the ultimate feeling that you may as well have tried your luck at working in a supermarket for the last four years because you definitely would be somewhere by now and not have to be attending this farse.

I'm not saying that as a graduate I am automatically entitled to 'better jobs' but when I attend a graduate fair I would expect to see a range of employers offering more than retail or sales roles. These aren't really graduate jobs and I feel sorry for those that were eating it up. No one is inspired by call centre roles and I don't know anyone who would list those kinds of jobs as their ultimate dreams.
I am aware of the lack of jobs out there, but why would you even advertise it as having lots of potential employers, when really it is a sea of universities, job search engines and volunteering roles.



I got suckered in to signing up to be a teacher, because it's my fall-back plan if I am still unemployed by next July. However, I'm not taking the aforementioned application any further, can you tell I have no desire to be an ICT teacher? I know there are Art & Photography teaching positions available, in fact if I had a PCGE already, I would probably be totally set up by now. So why should I settle for a job that is completely irrelevant when there are plenty available that are, it actually baffles me.

The overall feeling from both myself and Moon was anger, we were lied to and I don't think that that's a particularly farfetched exaggeration. Perhaps I knew there wouldn't be a lot of employment opportunities, but I didn't expect UCAS Fair: Take two. After taking part in 'Walk 4 Work' and demonstrating that I want to be employed and that I am pro-active and good enough, this took all that away and made sure that I knew I'd wasted my time and should just go and hide at another university for another year.




For a 'graduate fair' there were certainly no graduate schemes on offer, people were herded around the Apple stand when all they had to offer was retail and eventual management roles. There will be people who need these jobs, who don't mind if they put their degree/passion on hold for the next 5-10 years, but I'm not ready to settle and I'm not ready to take something as pointless as this event lying down.

My advice for graduates; never bother with one of these, you don't need it and you're better than that. You've done a degree and you've worked hard and you don't need to be made to feel like an idiot, especially if you've dressed up for it and especially not for a free pen and some books that you will never read.

I was so mad, I even made a video about it on the ride home.

Since 'Walk 4 Work' there has been a lot of press coverage on both this issue and the overall problem of youth unemployment, this can only be a positive thing and hopefully encourage future events like this to be more positive and productive for it's uninspired attendees.

634.

Last week I felt really motivated and I was posting a lot and taking a lot of photos, this week, I just feel kind of flat. It's becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the get-up-and-go required to sustain a job hunt of this length.

I understand the need to possibly settle for less than I want but I also wonder how bad of me it is to not want to settle. I have begun to wonder what those who are perhaps following my ongoing job hunt think of me, Boots won't even call me back. I haven't even been able to get any freelance work, but I have tried less and less as time has gone on. I don't even know where the time has gone and despite my summer travels, everything just feels like one massive, rude reality check.

I don't know how difficult it is for companies to simply respond to emails with a 'we got this' confirmation, a real one, just so you know that you're actually getting through to someone. I may have applied to my dream job this week, but they won't even answer the phone to confirm. I'm much better on the phone than I am in emails.

I just want a break and I want to be happy.

I promise I'll stop being 15 soon and post something nice.

Selling myself.

I've definitely been suffering this week with a serious case of a 'can't get a job, won't ever have a job' blues. So after perking up a bit after my driving lesson, as well as on the suggestion of Moon, I made this flyer.

I'm the first to admit that my graphic design skills are second to quite a few people's but I don't think that I've done a half-bad job on this. There was further suggestion, when I posted it on Twitter earlier, that I should add an image to the flyer, I guess because it would sell what I'm offering more. However, I believe that currently it's fine the way it is, I think the design is solid enough to catch people's attention, but that's just my big head. Further criticism is encouraged if you feel that it's needed.


Things aren't looking as down as they were at the beginning of the week though, having been in touch with a few promising leads this morning and with a telephone interview (I hope) to look forward to later this afternoon. I have also really made headway in scrap-booking again which will definitely help towards keeping me creative and stopping my brain from turning into mush, I'll maybe do a post about that in the next few days.

611.

I'll begin this post by saying that I really haven't got anything interesting to say and that I wish I did. If that part doesn't bother you, then do proceed to read on.

So, on Thursday, after the terrifying ordeal that was my first driving lesson (I'm lying and it was actually fine), I went down to Dorking to see Stephen Merchant at the Dorking Halls with my sister.

He was so awesome and really funny! I laughed all the way through and all the way home, all I wanted to do when we left was re-live those last two hours. His support, Josh Widdicombe was really good as well. I can't wait to buy the DVD, I'm considering pre-ordering it when I have a slightly more respectable amount of money (or I might put it on my Christmas list). Due to how tiny the Dorking Halls is, we actually had really good seats, despite being in the middle of the balcony.

I spent the rest of the weekend with Moon and seeing some old friends. I wish I'd brought out my camera, not that it will be the last time it will be happening now that I'm home forever. We went to Guildford last night for a friend's birthday, not sure I'll be doing that again in a hurry, and definitely not on a Saturday night anyway. It was actually an okay night, if you ignored everyone there that wasn't us. There were far too many 'lads' on the hunt for 'birds' and I felt very out of place due to my lack of slutty get-up, I must remember that for the next time I put myself in that situation...

But I've had quite a nice weekend, I applied for around 5 jobs on Friday so that should keep the Job Centre quiet tomorrow (urgh). It was nice to be with Moon anyway though, but we actually saw each other a lot this week. We made a delicious salad last night from a recipe I saw in Closer. We modified it slightly because it called for cold kidney beans, but it was quite pretty and still good for the next day. I would recommend it, particularly with a bit of warm quiche. Nom.

Nadia's Skinny Dinners: Three-Colours Salad
Serves 2 or about 5 if you make as much as we did

200g can of tuna (drained)

½ red pepper we used a whole one, finely chopped

198g can of sweetcorn (drained)

215g can of kidney beans (drained) replaced with shelled peas

Large handful of spinach leaves we just used a small bag of baby spinach

1 hard-boiled egg we did three because were expecting three but would have done two at least because half a boiled egg is shit rubbish.

For the dressing (we just bought some mango & chilli dressing from Sainsbury's, which was delicious and less faff)

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp chopped parsley

3 black olives, sliced

Salt & pepper

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Step 1: Mix all the dressing ingredients together and set aside
Step 2: Place the tuna, pepper, sweetcorn, kidney beans peas and spinach in a bowl. Pour the dressing over the top and gently toss.
Step 3: Divide the salad on to two plates, halve the hard-boiled egg and share between two (SEE!).
Step 4: Serve immediately with a slice of wholemeal bread (or not bread and something much nicer).

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I'm basically just posting this to avoid unpacking my stuff from the weekend, and to share a nice recipe with you, obviously. I've got a few photography-related things I'm going to try and get out of the way over the next month or so (if the weather improves). The week after next will be the week that I finally sort out my portfolio and website. I'm also in the process of sorting it out for Moon and I to attend a Graduate Fair in October, it's free and I really think it will benefit us, at least I hope it will (although ideally neither of us will need it and we will have jobs by then). I think the key to not becoming a shell of a person when unemployed is to remain active, I'm definitely glad that I'll have my portfolio to do when I'm not 'scheduled' to do something.

This week is hella busy though, with the Job Centre, Thorpe Park, another driving lesson, a gig and a trip to Exeter, I don't think I'll be bored. I kind of hope I don't exhaust myself though...

One day I'm going to be really good at this.

Eventually, I'll actually stop taking 'mirror' photos of what I've worn, it looks so rubbish. However, due to being a Photography graduate and having studied all sorts of photographic genre's, I could probably whip something up about mirrors, wardrobes and clothing pretty quickly if it was required of me.

I was going to post these and a bunch of others at the end of the week, but I need to unwind a bit after a slightly frustrating day. I really, really should start wearing shoes in these.

06 September 2011:
Cardigan: H&M
Shirt: H&M
Scarf: Primark
Dress: Etsy
Tights: Marks & Spencer.
Going to London Bridge to have some lunch (I also wore lipstick for the first time today, like a grown-up).


07 September 2011
Cardigan: H&M
Shirt: Etsy
Belt: eBay
Skirt: Dorothy Perkins
Tights: Marks & Spencer
Sign-up interview on Oxford Street and signing on at the Job Centre (but not really the second one).


I bought this shirt to take the postage and packaging cost down for the dress (above) as they're from the same seller on Etsy, but I think I actually love it. Especially in this combo, it's so bright and happy.
I've been having a pretty busy week so far, I went to have lunch with Moon and my old friend Tom in London Bridge yesterday and today I had both a sign-up interview with a Digital Media Agency and I went to the Job Centre to file a reclaim for Jobseeker's Allowance.

Yesterday was great, it's always nice to see old friends because things are rarely different and usually just easy. We had a nice lunch at a pub opposite Borough Market. Moon had an interview around London Bridge and that's where Tom works too, I had nothing to do so I just tagged along. Moon got the job by all accounts but it turned out to be quite demeaning and rather insulting when you consider that he is already a graduate and soon to finish a Masters degree, so he left during the trial this morning.

Today was a bit different. The sign-up interview went well I think, but I need to do a bit of research into Digital Media Planning/Buying to be considered a more serious applicant. It seems quite promising though and the roles that are potentially on offer are intriguing so I think I could definitely get into it.
After that I had a quick wander into Urban Outfitters and Topshop, it would appear that my more thrify lifestyle has meant that I've ignored these shops for a while and I don't think that it has actually made a difference, I saw nothing new or exciting. Which is not only quite good because it means that I get to keep some money in my purse, but it also doesn't really matter because I'm actually quite liking my wardrobe at the moment, especially since I've been losing weight. I did see a dinosaur t-shirt though that I could have gone for, but not for £20, sorry.

< prepare for a rant about the job centre >
Then I headed over to the jolly old Job Centre Plus. I officially hate it! It is such an uninspiring place, the people that work there are horrible and rude and nothing is on time as it should be. I arrived five minutes early but still had to wait 20 minutes, and I can bet that had I arrived 25 minutes late, I would have got it in the neck, it's idiotic. The whole process didn't take very long though because I was only making a reclaim but I'm dreading follow-up meeting on Monday. Basically being on Jobseeker's Allowance means using DirectGov (which is a terrible website most of the time) to search for jobs more often than searching for jobs through other platforms, you also need to put aside unrealistic (but not actually unrealistic) goals in order to be in work but unhappy for the rest of your life, just like the people who actually work in the Job Centre.

Second point on the 'Jobseeker's must' list:
- Have reasonable chance of finding work if you limit:

the kind of work you are willing to do.

where you are willing to work

the hours you are willing to work

So I may have potentially sold my soul for £50 a week, but maybe something will come up instantly and I can just leave it. I've sought out nearly 30 jobs to apply for this week, so something should come up soon. I do feel a bit more stable now that I'm signing-on in a way as it means I won't have to ask my Mum for things like train fare, but I'm not a fan of the bureaucracy that I already appear to be a part of despite the fact that I'm doing nothing much different than I would have been doing before, but I'm now reporting to someone... urgh. < / rant >

'Graduate Nightmare'.

If you follow me on Twitter, you will know that my current 'most talked about' topic is my ongoing job hunt. Hashtagging and talking about it generally has struck me up many conversations over Twitter as well as got me a couple of potential (but eventually unsuccessful) job offers.

Today I signed up for my first real-life recruitment agency since graduating in July and beginning my serious job hunt in May. I have been with a recruitment agency before, but only for temp work over the summer after the first year of University and it was only to earn a bit of extra cash, not to find a real-life serious job. It is looking as though this recruitment agency is going to be a similar case to the one I faced all those years ago. While it's nice to have a bit of extra money, I don't want to do catering and basic admin for the rest of my life, and I'm not really sure why I was told to come in if they didn't have any relevant jobs for me, they must have read my cover letter and CV before inviting me in?

I'm waiting on hearing back from another recruitment agency in a few days and have a prospective meeting with another one some time before I go away. When talking about this on Twitter, the response was 'Post-Grad hell', and it's probably a correct statement. It's becoming more and more disheartening as the time goes on. I feel like I'm definitely going to have to put my wants and wishes on hold and have to settle, for a stable job in recruitment or sales, not that I believe I would be competent in either role.

I have also discovered that all is not lost when it comes to my current 'Jobseekers' position, I can re-apply any time between when I went away and six months, meaning I can probably get back on it with no issues when I come back from France. It really upsets me that doing Jobseekers properly is kind of engaging me.
Things may be looking up slightly but only just, I contacted a Digital Media agency and they may have some graduate roles that are appropriate for me. I just really hope I get a response because I'm really interested in that area and to stay away from generic recruitment jobs and to be more specific to what I actually want is so much more appealing.
I suppose that I'm just feeling really worn down, particularly after the rejection I faced from a role I was really excited about. It should all be fine. I personally don't think the fact that I took a Photography degree is limiting, people do realise that degrees generally are quite academic, do they not? I'm a bit of a clever clogs, you know.

Here is what I wore to my sign-up 'interview' this morning, although I shouldn't really have bothered because it was pretty casual really. I'm off to a family party this afternoon, where I can discuss my failing job hunt and how difficult everything is. I'm not really as down as what I'm writing makes me seem, just frustrated. I want to be a real grown up.

Cardigan: H&M (borrowed from my sister)
Shirt: H&M
Belt: Dorothy Perkins (w/ dress)
Skirt: Dorothy Perkins
Tights: Primark
Shoes: New Look


Cardigan: H&M
Shirt: Dorothy Perkins
Trousers: New Look (love them, picked them up yesterday as final birthday gift to myself)
Shoes: Converse

Sorry these are just on my phone, the last few days have exerted a lot of energy.

576.

Final leg of apparent multi-blogging today, just going to post a few photos from the Grad Ball on Saturday. This way I feel like I have fully rounded off my University life and get back to more inane posts. I promise that I will begin work on the website tomorrow evening, today and tomorrow have turned out to be a lot more eventful than I had planned.

To add to my schedule, I am expecting a phone call tomorrow about a job I applied for this evening, I basically nerdgasmed over the company, it's so cool — perhaps more about that later, although it may be another case of 'initial excitement, no response', I'm not criticising them at all, it's just becoming slightly apparent to me that I'm not that spectacular at follow-up emails, but that is unrelated to them and more to do with disappointment from other applications.

I don't think I mentioned what I thought of the Grad Ball. I really enjoyed it and it was great to be so happy and to have everyone around me be so happy. However, I don't think that it was any better that last year's and it was over £10 cheaper last year, at a far more respectable, £25. I'm not a cheapskate but I do like to get my money's worth and for the record, Zane Lowe lived up to being a predicted disappointment, even a hipster agreed with me.
One thing I must say was a plus, was the fact that due to the high price of the ticket, everything once you got in was quite reasonable, although more reasonable had it been free...

Disgruntled Jobseeker now apparently seeking Admin work.

Just for the record, I have zero experience in "Admin". I recognise that it is unlikely to be a difficult job, but I would imagine that there are certain procedures you have to go through and certain things that have to be done a certain way. It's one of those jobs that someone has to do but you never really think about it. I am in no way ragging on Admin people, it's a respectable job and it's better than sitting at home and applying for job after job.
I think I could handle being an Admin Assistant, but it isn't my overall goal in life, I mean this in terms of what I would imagine the Job Centre would offer, so many companies that I want to work for offer Admin roles. I'm not sure how I can stress this, I hope you recognise what kind of job I'm talking about here. It's very hard to convey this through writing but, I'm thinking in a certain Slough paper merchants direction.

I had an interview with the Job Centre today to make a claim for Job Seekers Allowance, it is not something that I am proud of or something that I have the desire to do again. It is unlikely that I will actually be able to "go" on Job Seekers because of all the holidays that I'm going on. However, applying for it is something that I believed to be the right thing to do considering that my current life-goal is to gain employment. This is not something that Job Centre Plus makes particularly easy for you though. I already had to cancel my initial appointment with them due to being down in Portsmouth for Graduation, it appears to be a reasonable explanation, but they still put a little cross by my name.

Now I have to bail on my next appointment due to going to Hong Kong (something that has been planned for months), and will have to restart the whole process again when I come back. Although I understand why this has happened, I think it is incredibly inconvenient, not to mention stupid, due to to the fact that they ask when the applicant is available and take little notice of these dates at all.

The whole experience of having to apply for JSA in the first place, was not something that I wished to take part in, but as I have discovered, jobs don't generally fall in your lap, so a bit of extra money while you're taking the time to apply for several different jobs a day doesn't go a miss — particularly when there are obviously thousands of people cheating the system and gaining the same thing. I feel I must point out how easy it would be to cheat, I don't care because I am a lawful and honest person, but the system is only slightly short of idiotic. No proof needs to physically be provided that the applicant has made headway in seeking employment, all that needs to be done is that the applicant writes down what they have done that week to forward themselves, HANDWRITE IT! This includes telephoning and emailing potential employers as well as reading newspapers and searching online. I was pretty appalled, particularly when in terms of the regulations, there is a lot of bureaucracy to overcome.

What I was most appalled by, and this may not be due to Job Centre Plus overall and could just apply to this particular centre or the individual interviewing me, but the way that they communicate with you is definitely not up to scratch. They throw around a fair amount of 'Job Centre jargon' and do not appreciate it if you deviate from proceedings by asking questions, seriously.
When asked what kind of jobs I was looking for I said, 'Photography', and despite the fact that I have carried out numerous roles as a photographer, this was only my second 'choice' because it wasn't 'realistic' enough. When I composed myself and said perhaps anything media/creative based instead, I was shot down and told that, 'the Job Centre is only interested in getting you into employment and is not looking at the long-term'. And that is where my issue stands right there, although currently Job Seeker's Allowance is a short-term fix, surely them seeking out short-term unambitious roles for me only leads to me returning to receive Job Seekers Allowance again?
So top of my list in terms of 'what I can do' is now Admin, despite not having a clue about the ins and outs of it and having never carried out an Admin role in my life.

So, congratulations Job Centre Plus, you have managed to thoroughly fill me to the brim is pessimism over any chance I have of gaining employment within my discipline, I look forward receiving payments from you in the future. Also, thank you for telling me I would need a CV this afternoon just so I can be practically shouted at to put it away when I suggest that we take a look at it.
There is a very good post on The Guardian talking about how the Job Centre is failing graduates, in case my style isn't up to scratch.

Despite all the angst held within this post, I have actually got an interview tomorrow. It's for a Fashion and Marketing Internship, it's unpaid, but it's only round the corner, so we'll see how that goes. I hope everything starts going up from here because if I have to go back to the Job Centre I will be sad. I also have high hopes riding on another job; I received a rejection email a couple of days ago but have not heard anything from the same company about a different position I applied for on the same day, so it is looking slightly promising. Sorry for posting such a long rant.

TL;DR: Job Centre Plus is just a terrible place with ridiculous bureaucracy and rude staff.