The Wheel of Fortune (Kay Starr FYI)

Graduates are unlikely to have experience. Unless you make friends with people who mirror you identically, why not share experiences and skills to help your unemployed friends develop skills, bulk up their CV and become a more well-rounded person.

If you know a grad (or anybody I suppose) looking for a job, and you feel that you have a skill you could share, find out what you could exchange. I know how to use Social Media. So I could approach my friend who is hapless at using Twitter and offer an exchange to develop my dressmaking skills.

Why not set up a skill sharing site? 

Right now, I want to learn/perfect/better myself at the following:

• Night time photography with SLR camera (see above photo for evidence of my lack of ability)
• HTML
• Graphic Design
• Advanced Yoga
• How to make sushi (I have the mats and rice and everything: I'm all set)

I can exchange the following skills and gifts:

• Piano lessons
• How to budget your travel
• How to find the cheapest airflights known to mankind
• Clarinet lessons
• Basic sketching
• Beginners adult ballet
• Thai food
• Mexican food
• Gluten free/vegan baking
• Social media skills
• General fitness/healthy eating
• Tapas. 

Somewhere, there must be a match who wants to exchange what I have (essentially a greedy tummy who learnt how to cook shit) and has what I want.

Just a thought. 

Back to the book. 

Am I sad and depressed?

Other than a fact that I'm currently house sitting for a friend whose housemates all work for the civil service fast stream, the company I just left, the most depressing thing is that I feel like everything's a little pointless.

That's not to say that I'm sad, depressed or suicidal, it's just you kind of have a little more time on your hands so you start thinking about where it all went wrong/right (if, like me, you're still convinced that leaving your last job was the best thing you could do right now). Here's an example. I was sitting on the bus yesterday at 6pm.

Teenage girl to her grandmother: I had extra art class today but I had to leave early because I needed to go and take my lifeguard exam but then I realised that I had left my swimming costume in the dance studio during rehearsals.

That is exactly what my life was like approximately 5 1/2 years ago. Minus the dance and plus some piano lessons. All the people I've met who are unemployed so far are either moping, don't have any experience because they spent all their time getting drunk at university and doing nothing else, or just aren't applying to anything. I'm in denial, and am calling my new period of unemployment 'freelancing' until the point when I get a new job and I can breathe a sigh of relief that the unstructured days of yesteryear are over. (I actually love it, I just feel guilty that I love it rather than conceding to societal mores and working a 9-5 because I'm not currently getting paid enough to buy milk).

So occasionally you do wonder what the point of it all was. Those of us who have jobs mainly dislike them, some lucky ones love them, and some lucky people who have excellent connections have excellent jobs. Others decide to risk it, change the direction you're pointing in and try to start again.

As my friend Clare's wardrobe says: 'If you're not happy with where your direction is taking you, turn around.'