For the last few days, backup jobs have been failing, and I don't know 
why. I just spent the morning poking around to try to find out why.

Hey, guess what? Several of the backup settings have magically changed 
themselves to something completely different values.

I wonder, who could have done that? Perhaps it was the fairies? Yes, 
that must be it. It was changed by faries.

I'm completely sure that none of this has anything at all to do with the 
new global backup procedure document that comes into effect on the 1st 
of December. (Notice today's date: 18 *November*. Hence, our current 
procedure document is still in force and must be followed to the letter.)

Obviously I have no proof of who changed those settings. But I have a 
pretty good idea.

I'm really angry right now. I've spent all this time doing workarounds 
to try to get the backups to work and writing all these extra log 
entries to record my actions, and the cause of the problem all along was 
some twat in America who ****ed around with MY backup settings without 
bothering to tell me! >:-[

I utterly fail to see how I can be held legally responsible for this 
stuff when I apparently have no control over it. How can I face a jail 
sentence for somebody else's actions? In what universe is that fair??


amount of crap? I'm expected to single-handedly run an entire department 
with no backup staff and having to beg for days off and losing valid 
holiday entitlement almost every year because I didn't get to actually 
use it, and be held legally responsible for all this lot, for slightly 
more than the legal minimum wage?

I'll tell you why I put up with it: I have no choice. Unfortunately 
nobody else is willing to even interview much less employ me. And I 
*need* money. So no matter how angry I am, no matter how miserably it 
makes me, I have to stay here.

And you know what? It really sucks. Big style.

I hate my life.

Post a reply to this message

> I'll tell you why I put up with it: I have no choice. Unfortunately nobody 
> else is willing to even interview much less employ me.

You're either applying for the wrong jobs or doing something wrong with your 
CV or covering letter then.  I think I mentioned in another thread, take 
your GCSE results off your CV for starters.

Why don't you post your CV and covering letter here and I'm sure a few 
people will volunteer some helpful feedback.  After that you can take into 
account whatever advice you choose to and work with that.  I understand if 
you don't want to though, I wouldn't want to :-)

It's just plain incorrect that you won't be able to find another job 
elsewhere, think of all the other people who are *way* less skilled than 
you, they manage to find jobs ok.

BTW I just did a very quick search on Monster.co.uk by typing in "backup IT" 
and it gave this job:

http://jobview.monster.co.uk/GetJob.aspx?JobID=77477279

I would say if you don't get an interview for that job you are doing 
something seriously wrong on your CV or covering letter.  And because you 
have several years experience, I think you could easily ask for and expect 
to get the 25K salary.

What's stopping you?

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:
>> I'll tell you why I put up with it: I have no choice. Unfortunately 
>> nobody else is willing to even interview much less employ me.
> 
> You're either applying for the wrong jobs or doing something wrong with 
> your CV or covering letter then.

Well, I don't know. Just last weekend I applied to about half a dozen 
jobs on a graduate recruitement website. Thus far, I have heard... nothing.

I keep applying to all these jobs, and I never hear anything. It sucks. 
It's the most demotivational thing *ever*. (As if wading through 
hundreds of pages of unsuitable jobs wasn't bad enough already...)

> Why don't you post your CV and covering letter here and I'm sure a few 
> people will volunteer some helpful feedback.  After that you can take 
> into account whatever advice you choose to and work with that.  I 
> understand if you don't want to though, I wouldn't want to :-)

You know, it's amazing. Do you have any idea how many people I've paid 
to look at my CV? I hate to think about the amount of money I've spent. 
And yet each consultant always manages to find something that needs 
improving. (And usually I agree with their comments, actually.)

> It's just plain incorrect that you won't be able to find another job 
> elsewhere, think of all the other people who are *way* less skilled than 
> you, they manage to find jobs ok.

Then maybe it's just the fact that I want to find a job that's *better* 
than the one I have? I'm sure if I applied to clean fridges at M&S 
again, I'd be hired within minutes. (The last time I applied, they 
didn't even interview me. They just told me to turn up that evening to 
start work. And I did.)

> BTW I just did a very quick search on Monster.co.uk by typing in "backup 
> IT" and it gave this job:
> 
> http://jobview.monster.co.uk/GetJob.aspx?JobID=77477279
> 
> I would say if you don't get an interview for that job you are doing 
> something seriously wrong on your CV or covering letter.  And because 
> you have several years experience, I think you could easily ask for and 
> expect to get the 25K salary.
> 
> What's stopping you?

...it's in London?

Besides, I'd like to get *out* of computer support.

Ideally I'd like to become a computer programmer. But maybe I'm just 
being completely unrealistic here. After all, I've only been writing 
computer programs for 19 years straight in two dozen different 
programming languages. It's not as if I have commercial experience or 
anything. (Or knowledge of the popular languages.)

PS. My CV is currently on Monster. Once every few months, some recruiter 
emails me about it. I telephone them, they sound really excited, I never 
hear anything ever again. (I call them a few more times, but they're 
either "not in the office right now" or they say they'll "get back to me".)

Post a reply to this message

>> What's stopping you?
>
> ...it's in London?

Oh come on it's barely inside the M25, there are plenty of towns you could 
live in to the west that nobody would ever consider as "London".

> Besides, I'd like to get *out* of computer support.

And how is staying in your current job going to help with that?  You never 
know, at your new job there might be many more opportunities to move into 
programming, especially if it's a larger company with more IT staff.

Seems to me like you're just making up excuses not to move anywhere, none of 
which are really valid.

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:
>>> What's stopping you?
>>
>> ...it's in London?
> 
> Oh come on it's barely inside the M25, there are plenty of towns you 
> could live in to the west that nobody would ever consider as "London".

According to Google, it's 1 hour 15 minutes from where I currently live. 
(Ah, but does Google know about rush hour, and the M1 roadworks?)

>> Besides, I'd like to get *out* of computer support.
> 
> And how is staying in your current job going to help with that?  You 
> never know, at your new job there might be many more opportunities to 
> move into programming, especially if it's a larger company with more IT 
> staff.

Well, I suppose so. It just seems a bit silly applying for a job I don't 
really want to do, that's all.

> Seems to me like you're just making up excuses not to move anywhere, 
> none of which are really valid.

It's the wrong sort of job, in the wrong part of the country. Those seem 
like pretty valid problems to me! :-P

Post a reply to this message

> According to Google, it's 1 hour 15 minutes from where I currently live. 
> (Ah, but does Google know about rush hour, and the M1 roadworks?)

Why on Earth would you be driving from where you currently live?

> Well, I suppose so. It just seems a bit silly applying for a job I don't 
> really want to do, that's all.

It seems even sillier to stay in a job you apparently really hate.

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:
>> According to Google, it's 1 hour 15 minutes from where I currently 
>> live. (Ah, but does Google know about rush hour, and the M1 roadworks?)
> 
> Why on Earth would you be driving from where you currently live?

...because I can't afford to move?

>> Well, I suppose so. It just seems a bit silly applying for a job I 
>> don't really want to do, that's all.
> 
> It seems even sillier to stay in a job you apparently really hate.

Well, what it comes down to is this: If I'm going to apply for 
something, it needs to be bettER than what I currently have. It needs to 
be nearer or better paid or less stressful or *something*.

I think the specific job you mentioned fails on this test. (I'd be 
driving *towards* the traffic jams, rather than away from them like I 
currently do. And the "significant travelling will be involved" leads me 
to think this is probably a customer-facing role, which absolutely rules 
it out of consideration.) But maybe I can find *something* better 
somewhere...

Post a reply to this message

> ...because I can't afford to move?

What, you think all the people earning under 25K live on the streets or with 
their parents?  Really, limiting yourself to within daily driving distance 
from your mum's house is a bit childish, and going to severely limit your 
opportunities.

> Well, what it comes down to is this: If I'm going to apply for something, 
> it needs to be bettER than what I currently have. It needs to be nearer or 
> better paid or less stressful or *something*.

Almost double the salary, probably far less stressful, a better organised IT 
structure, way more opportunities to do other stuff and be recognised for 
it, and it will look good on your CV for when you come to apply for a job 
you *really* want to do.

> I think the specific job you mentioned fails on this test. (I'd be driving 
> *towards* the traffic jams, rather than away from them like I currently 
> do. And the "significant travelling will be involved" leads me to think 
> this is probably a customer-facing role, which absolutely rules it out of 
> consideration.)

It probably just means they have a few different sites which you will need 
to visit quite often, who knows, maybe one of them is near where you live 
now?  And even if one of the other sites belongs to a different company (a 
"customer" facing role) it's really no difference for you because they'll 
all be new people anyway.

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:
>> ...because I can't afford to move?
> 
> What, you think all the people earning under 25K live on the streets or 
> with their parents?

I gather some of them have friends and are able to pool their resources 
to rent somewhere.

I guess I could sell everything I own and use it to pay for a 1-room 
prison cell like the one Marcus has. I don't really see how this would 
be an "improvement" to my life though.

> Really, limiting yourself to within daily driving 
> distance from your mum's house is a bit childish, and going to severely 
> limit your opportunities.

Who wouldn't want to work somewhere near to where they actualy live?

It's not like it has to be right next to my front door, but I would like 
it to be within a *sane* distance, yes. (E.g., Northampton, Buckingham 
or even Cambridge wouldn't be too bad.)

>> Well, what it comes down to is this: If I'm going to apply for 
>> something, it needs to be bettER than what I currently have. It needs 
>> to be nearer or better paid or less stressful or *something*.
> 
> Almost double the salary, probably far less stressful, a better 
> organised IT structure, way more opportunities to do other stuff and be 
> recognised for it, and it will look good on your CV for when you come to 
> apply for a job you *really* want to do.

It says "up to" 25K. (In other words, that's not what they'll be paying 
*me*.) There's absolutely no guarantee it'll be any less stressful. It 
could in fact be far *more* stressful.

I agree with the part about my CV though.

>> And the "significant travelling will be involved" leads 
>> me to think this is probably a customer-facing role, which absolutely 
>> rules it out of consideration.)
> 
> It probably just means they have a few different sites which you will 
> need to visit quite often, who knows, maybe one of them is near where 
> you live now?

Maybe. But even so, would *you* want to spend a "significant amount" of 
time driving from A to B? Besides, it does say "analyst" in the title 
(altough that isn't any guarantee either).

> And even if one of the other sites belongs to a different 
> company (a "customer" facing role) it's really no difference for you 
> because they'll all be new people anyway.

Your employer [usually] wants you to stick around. *Customers* don't 
care if you get infected, crawl under a rock and die a slow, painful 
death - just so long as they get their system working again. And they 
aren't afraid to say so to your face.

I wish to avoid customers at all costs.

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:

> BTW I just did a very quick search on Monster.co.uk by typing in "backup 
> IT" and it gave this job:
> 
> http://jobview.monster.co.uk/GetJob.aspx?JobID=77477279

I'm doing some searching myself. It seems that "Imagination 
Technologies" have a whole bundle of adverts for people designing custom 
digital hardware and/or writing device drivers and firmware for such 
hardware. For example,

http://jobview.monster.co.uk/GetJob.aspx?JobID=73965942

This looks like the kind of thing I could really enjoy doing. Trouble 
is, I'm not seeing any specific job that I can tick ALL the boxes for. 
I'm actually thinking maybe I should just send a letter to their 
recruitment department telling them what I *can* offer and see what they 
say to that...

> What's stopping you?

In this instance, they seem to be *demanding* actual experience. 
(Specifically C, C++ and VHDL. None of which I have, but I'm pretty sure 
I could learn the latter two.)

Post a reply to this message