Hi everybody
It is now three years since I published my very first blog post. So on this third anniversary, I want to talk about my recent achievement which I have been wanting to tell you for very long time. I finally got a job. My very first paid job. So in these details I’m going to talk why I achieved it & that it took 4 long years from 2019 to last month October 2023. So with further ado, let’s begin on this latest blog post on my third anniversary of me blogging.
4 years of struggling to find a job: It wasn’t easy but it was worth it.
Well normally I do not really talk about my personal life in terms of day to day stuff (which I am a careful person & that I happened to be a private person) because there are some things I can talk about on social media & not to talk about on social media or generally in the public domain or even my own blog. Although I am happy to talk about my struggles of finding a job & how I recently got my first ever paid job. This is the only time I get to talk about publicly. Even I did mentioned in some of my previous blog posts (even the very first blog post published in 2020 at the time we were staying at home & coping with the Covid 19 pandemic). By now some of you might already knew that I was struggling to find a job. For those who don’t know. Long story short.
I left school at the age of 16. I spent many years, studying at the college to study courses including the recent course that was career related. Which all I accomplished all except two occasions in 2016 and 2017 when I failed maths course. Luckily in 2018, I eventually passed the exam in order to overcome a struggle that was a barrier to my path to boost my job prospect.
In all these periods, I built up a lot of employability skills (Workskills) in volunteering and unpaid work experiences while at the same time to finish my education by having enough useful qualifications (including main subjects English and Maths) so that it won’t have to be a problem when I eventually try to get a job. Well the only barrier up to now (October 2023 - last month) was that I didn’t have a recorded history of employment. I also happened to be on benefits (which I will not disclose much information publicly on this platform). I wondered myself how will I ever succeed in life if I do not have a job to do & all things I want to do in life (besides work). I have my own life goals & aspirations & being in the world of employment is part of it.
And so 6 weeks ago, I had a job interview at the school with two people (former teachers: Ginny & Caroline) I know well personally from my time at secondary school. The school (which is called Windmill. SEN school & that is recently opened as of September 2023 so basically it’s a new school) where I had a meeting for my latest job interview was a informal discussion for what job roles I can possibly do. I even wanted to do work at the office for admin office which was also discussed.
And then on Friday evening, I received an email from Ginny (headteacher of the Windmill school) to say that she welcomed me onboard. Meaning I finally got a job after 4 long years of looking for one.
The job position is a part time. One hour once a week for Thursday PE sessions in the afternoon to support students with SEN as an assistant (teaching assistant). Originally I wanted an office work but it was not available job so that’s how I accepted this job role.
It really meant a lot to me. I was so emotional with happiness after 4 long years of me struggling to find a job (2019 to this present day). 🥲🥹
It has not been a easy period for me personally. Even the Covid 19 pandemic & lockdown measures had severely affected my chances of finding a job in 2020 & 2021. I even had moments of regrets after attending previous job interviews & not being accepted after applying for so many job vacancies on job searching sites including Indeed. One thing that had kept me going from difficulty to find work is faith. My Christian faith. Me having to bounce back from the difficulties of finding a job & having resilience to not giving up a job search despite the setbacks. All because I do not have employment history yet which now, it is about to change with me having my first ever paid work.
It is a new beginning for me. A new chapter for my life & I know I will definitely do well. And finally, since I left secondary school at the age of 16, I had finally achieved a lot in my personal life for my studies and building up enough employability skills for all work experiences & volunteering that I had done in the past while studying at the college. I looked forward to start my work now that I got a job & that I started working earlier this month.
So you know now about my story of struggle to find a job & overcoming it which took me 4 years to do so. 🙂😀
Plus I originally never wanted to talk about my experience of finding on my blog because I had a concern that some of you (who do read my blog) might look down on me as if I am not trying hard to overcome my struggles & that you won’t understand what I was going through or that I am lazy & not doing enough. Well my answer is: Knowledge is power
Sometimes at the time when I used to struggle to find work was that I wanted to give up of finding job. Well the opportunity came to me & that I personally felt it was my last hope to find job successfully or that I was going to give up completely to find a way like becoming self employed (via having a business of my own or becoming freelancer especially if it does mean earning money as writer/blogger or any profession) or going back to education to improve my job prospects (& gaining some new qualifications which I was not very interested) or simply learn a foreign language. Frankly, those ideas didn’t materialise after I finally accomplished my personal goal of finding a job. So in other words, me being unemployed was not my fault & that I didn’t choose to be unemployed. It is one of those stuff that happens in life & unfortunately we live in the society who sadly does look down on some people who are indeed unemployed & even homeless (as if they are deadbeat) who genuinely want to do something in life & to improve himself/herself. It’s not a lifestyle choice
And all these times, I didn’t write blog post that much except occasionally whilst focusing on my job hunting. Now that is accomplished, I’ll try to get back to writing much as possible before the awful incident happened in my personal life few years relating to 2021 flight ticket scam & the court case which I did not win February 2022 that nearly impaired my mental health (given I do not really have mental health problems except I only have hidden disability: Autism - high functioning autism despite I really do not like admitting it & that I do not really considered myself as disabled except I won’t deny it as it is stated in my medical information. Especially if you have read my 2021 blog post about my disabled freedom pass story) while I continued to not have any breakthroughs of me being in 2019, 2020, 2021 and last year 2022. 2023 will be the year to remember (as we will soon enter 2024) that I finally overcome my struggles of finding a job & here I am. Working as an employee in my first paid job. Earning money & enjoying myself in the workforce while being under 30 (at least for two more years). Me working as personal assistant/teaching assistant for one hour PE session in the afternoon once a week as I started earlier this month (November). It is not the ideal job for me personally but at the same time, as I said there were no vacancy of admin job so that’s where I gladly accepted the job role & to embrace it. So far at this moment, I am enjoying the PA/TA key worker job role at Windmill school, supporting and managing students with special educational needs. I find the job to be so rewarding. From Yoga to mediation & from parachute to rhythm sticks. I even played the role as the goalkeeper. 🙂😀😁🥅🧘♂️🪂
So guys all I want to say is that sometimes in life, you have to be grateful in some things that you have. Even the things you want personally has not happened yet. That was the case with my struggles to find work. Now I am grateful that I have a job & that my next job in the distant future will be different than the one that I am currently doing (my first paid job) or that I go for self employment path. Who knows. Only time will tell. 🙂😀
And finally I will end with this motivational quote from Sylvester Stallone who played Rocky Balboa in Rocky films & the 80s rock song which I always loved listening to. Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor. Powerful & motivational quote which I highly recommend you do click on it & also listen to the song that was also part of Rocky 3 soundtrack
These had kept me going & I haven’t given up. There was no doubt that I would fail & lucky, I didn’t fail. I won & that I am a winner.
Thank you everyone for reading this blog post on this anniversary blog. Take care and god bless you.