Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.

Well those of you who've been following my Glasgow progress will have seen my complaining on Facebook about jobs. Basically having waffled about for the last two weeks, this week I got down to business and went looking for work.
It's incredibly dispiriting. My first couple of trips into town to try and get registered for work at some temp agencies almost had me slitting my wrists! Firstly, of course, this was because the economy is in such a state that the agencies can't deal with all of the people that are coming through their doors - although having said that, I can't say I found myself in any queues. In fact, to be honest, half of the time I felt as if I was interrupting them! You know that awful feeling as you go through the door into an office full of people busy doing stuff, and you stand there like a prawn for thirty seconds until someone deigns to notice you.
And that brings me to point two. The way some of these women look at you. Those of you who know me know my attitude towards make-up, well, believe it or not, I was wearing it. Yep, I did 'dress' up - that is, I looked smart. I do feel uncomfortable when I do this, the stuff makes my face itch - luckily I don't go red as a tomato, but it does make me itch. So I'm surreptitiously rubbing at some part of my face - or rather trying not too. Then there's the clothes - I don't do suits, and it's been years since I wore anything other than jeans to work. My preparations for 'work' in Glasgow which might involve something more formal have so far stretched as far as some new t-shirts and a pair of black cotton trousers. So to do this agency thing, I dug out my black cords - well, they aren't jeans, and a new t-shirt, which I topped off with my rain jacket, which is reasonably new, reasonably smart, and always a wise precaution north of the border. For me this constitutes a bit of an effort - quite a bit of effort actually 'cos I had to figure out what was going to look smart, and yet not overdressed. You tell me, what do people wear to walk into a temp agency?
Anyhow, I got what might be described as a mixed reaction. Probably the fault was mine for not judging the agency correctly and going in to the places where they want a size 8 supermodel with talons to match. You'd think I'd know better by now. Anyhow frankly, I've almost had enough of this. A couple of good things did come out of it however.
Firstly, abandon the entire walk round, present with CV deal. This might have been how things were done as recently as say 18 months ago, now it's all "have you registered online?" Now I've got a cv dressed up into a pdf, I've distributed it electronically and it's saved me a sore foot or two. However, and this is a bit of a problem, neither have I had any response to these - as my friend John said "Oh that's how they're doing it these days is it." He's right of course, they'll do anything to get you to walk out of the office.
On the other hand, job sites are good news. Gumtree is my tip, I logged onto to this, and found an ad where some one's looking for call centre staff, where you had to text your name and telephone number. I did, and didn't really expect to hear any more from it, but lo and behold this afternoon, I got a call, and I'm off for an interview tomorrow. I've ironed my white shirt and black cotton trousers (if it rains, the cords which are just about dry from washing on Weds!) and we'll see how it goes. Fingers crossed eh?