Trying to sell myself

My goal this week is to sell me. No, not in the sleazy way (please get your minds out of the gutter). I've been doing the rounds of the local schools handing out my résumé and trying to get relief work as an Learning Support Assistant (LSA).

I tarted up my résumé which I found quite difficult given i hadn't touched it in about 4 years. I also had to rewrite it due to heading in a completely different direction. I wasn't sure how to distil 20 plus years of admin and finance work into transferable skills that reflect my new career choice. I'm not sure I actually managed to do it. Regardless I went and introduced myself to a number of schools and left a copy of my resume at each.  Hopefully this will lead to some casual work.

Some of the people I did my course with have work. There were 10 of us who were studying fulltime and a few part-timers cycled through some of our subjects as well. I was under the impression that the majority of our class had LSA work this term. Two of them had had contracts last year and I heard that three people got contracts at the schools where they did their 60 hours of prac. Another had been interviewed for a job and been given the news that she had got it. I was feeling quite despondent and last week I had a little dummy spit because I felt as though I had wasted 6 months of my life studying and was never going to get a LSA job.

The 5 people I keep in touch with, caught up and had dinner recently. Of them, only 2 have work.  Unfortunately for my friend the new job fell through. I’ve been told that there is a push to fill roles internally at the moment so the contracts haven’t materialised this year. While it’s sad that we are mostly all in the same boat I did I felt a little better after that.

Hopefully my introductions at the school will lead to some work.  If not, I’ve been told I’m on the top of the list for relief work where I did my prac.  I’m lucky because I have another job to fall back on. A lot of others don't have that backup.