As I write this, it has been exactly 9 months since my last post, but it seems like a lot less time than that, even though a lot has happened. I go through phases of writing and tweeting, and as much as I enjoy it, I sometimes question why I do this when I could be interacting with people in real-life (especially when very good friends go through terrible things).
Now, there are two things I said I wouldn’t do after uni. 1. Work in London. 2. Live in London.
I quickly accepted that I’d have to work in London. There was no way around it, unless you consider Salford Quays in Manchester, and that’s no option, it’s a punishment (obviously nothing to do with my football affiliation). So, as I mentioned 9 months ago, I accepted a position at the Moving Picture Comany in Soho, and although I enjoyed it, I was there for only 3 months before starting a freelance role at Sky News. Again, this was great, I enjoyed the work (I really did. A lot of people hear the word ‘ingest’ and run away screaming, but I liked it), and the people were great, but 4 months after starting, I was off again, to start a far more technical role as a Broadcast Engineer.
The first couple of months passed in a blur of dark 5am starts and depressing commuter trains, and before I knew it, I was on the night shift rotation. This isn’t so bad, because as a freelancer at Sky, I tended to end up with more than my fair share of nights, weekends, and weekend nights, but adjusting to the first of a run of shifts is always the hardest.
Knowing that I had these (longer, 12 hour) night shifts coming up, I considered breaking rule number 2, and started looking for a flat in London. Initially, I was looking for a 1 bed flat, but this quickly stopped after seeing 3 flats which, although were ok (‘compact’ describes them well), were not ok enough to justify £1000 per month in rent alone. I put it out of my mind, and prepared myself for 3 and a half hours of travelling on top of a 12 hour shift, but it wasn’t long before a guy at work asked if I was still looking for somewhere, as he needed to replace a current flatmate.
There was barely a cursory look at the place, before I was moving boxes in, and as of yesterday, I now live and work in London. Rules one and two broken, but I’m much happier for it.
So now, for me, university is over. 4 years of my life have gone into a degree, the classification of which, I won’t find out for a little while yet.
Does this classification actually matter? I’ve been applying for jobs like crazy, and whilst some say that they required a certain classification (most want a 2:1), a lot don’t. The more technical ones do (some of the broadcast engineering jobs require a degree in electrical engineering, or similar experience; something I can’t quite boast yet).
That all said, it seems it doesn’t matter what class of degree I end up with (I mean, it does, obviously..) as I’ve just been offered, and have accepted a job in London!
It’s all a bit crazy at the moment. There’s a lot of stuff on my list of ‘things to post about’, but I just don’t seem to be getting around to any of them. I’m hoping this changes when I get into more of a routine. You’d think I’d find the time with this limbo period… I just don’t know where the time goes.