I wish it were finally over. I wish the job search were already over. I wish I had a professional future ahead of me again with a job lined up, contract signed. I wish I could finally continue planning my move back home.
Sending out applications, having interviews, which usually go quite well but not getting into round two due to others having other qualifications, maybe less specified than mine. Or already having qualifications I can’t provide even though I would be interested to get into this new field of experience. Like quality management, which I know would be a good fit for me, being the organized and structured person that I am. I wish someone would just take a chance with me. Or maybe being 900 km away IS a hindrance, after all? Or my 3 month notice period from my old job?
On the other hand, I was approached by LinkedIn job hunters, offering me project management positions in Germany and internationally. And even though it felt quite good to be contacted and wanted, Germany or any other country than Austria is not an option for me. And in terms of Austria, I want to return to my university town, my home of the heart, the home of my parents and relatives, the home of my friends. I can’t do anything else. I can’t move anywhere else. I would be in the same situation as I am now. Just with the difference that they are not 9 hours but only 2 or 3 away. But it would still be the same. I would be alone, not being able to visit one of my friends after work for a chat and coffee. Or meet up with my other friends spontaneously. Or my aunts. Be there. Be home. Where I belong. So that doesn’t make the job search easier.
But it is getting to me. Even though I have “only” been on to it for the past four months, it’s getting to me. I know I have to be patient. I know, even though specialists are in demand, it’s still not easy to find the right job and company which suit. And there are days where I get pretty depressed, wondering whether I will ever find a job or whether I will be stuck here indefinitely. It’s getting harder every day. But there’s nothing else I can do apart from keep doing what I am doing. Checking job sites, sending out applications … and waiting!
Three years ago, Diego came to live with me at the proud age of 15. Three wonderful, funny and happy years with this lovely tomcat.
Thinking back, it was an exciting time for both of us. Getting to know each other and our new apartment, which was still filled with unpacked banana boxes. Three years later the banana boxes are back, waiting to be unpacked in Austria. I wonder what our new apartment will be like? Will Diego be happy there as well? Will we have a balcony again? Or even a small garden? Will he get used to Austrian food? (So far, my first trials with Austrian grocery stores’ own brand cat food was not particularly successful!) But, I will do my utmost to make our new future home a beautiful haven again.
Reminiscing about the past three years, this little boy has become the centre of my life and I regularly feel bad when I have to leave him alone for more than a couple of hours. Like going to the office occasionally. Provided with his Cat Mate feeding apparatus he has to muddle through without me for approximately 9 to 10 hours on those days. I wonder what he is doing while I’m away apart from sleeping and eating? With no one to throw one of his toy mice around? With no one to complain loudly that he needs some attention and caressing? Or some treats? He certainly tells me that he is not happy having spent the day alone by meowing loudly as I enter the apartment, and, as I have learned from T.S. Elliott’s poems, I apologize profoundly and spoil him with one of his favourite treats. Which he graciously accepts and stalks away to return to one of his preferred places of the moment. With me calling after him, promising to be home until the next bi-weekly / monthly office meeting. He certainly is the lord of the manor … and that’s what I love so much about cats. They are genuine, individual and still enjoy company.
Happy 18th birthday, Spatzi! Many happy returns and healthy years to come!
A funny book to get rid of your everyday annoyances …
Told you! Currently I have no clue what to write about since nothing is really happening. Which, on the one hand, is not bad at all and I’m quite happy about it. Who needs bad things happening!? Anyway, my life is kind of boring and every day mostly the same. Day in, day out, weekdays not much different to weekends. As much as I love home office, I leave my apartment even less than usual. I hardly need any groceries, shopping in general is something I think very hard about at the moment and taking walks without purpose is just a waste of time.
Sooo … not much happening. And I still get annoyed at a daily basis? More than once? Let’s see what I can come up with to piece together a post to survive another Saturday deadline.
1.) Every day of the working week is kind of annoying, isn’t it? Let’s start with Mondays! I hate Mondays, absolutely hate them! The week ahead seems endless and usually someone or something tends to be particularly annoying on Mondays. What a great start in the working week! Tuesdays: Tuesdays are so lá lá. They are just there. Another day to get over with. Wednesdays: a little ray of hope. Half of the week is basically over. Here in this area it’s called “Bergfest” (mountain party) – what a stupid expression, maybe someone invented it who thought it to be funny, but clearly wasn’t. Don’t ask me why it’s called “Bergfest”, especially since you can search for mountains with the magnifying glass – there are none.Thursdays: yeah, weekend straight ahead! Just one more day! Fridays: TGIF! Finishing off the last issues, everything seems to be slower, everyone’s mind is already halfway in the weekend and you’re lucky to reach anyone past 2 p.m. Including me!
2.) Getting up at 5:30. Sometimes I think I must be absolutely and completely mad. Why would I get up at 5:30 just to sit down at my desk and start work at 6:00? When I could sleep in, with my way to work a few steps away? Why not enjoy this luxury and put this much pressure to myselfinstead? It’s my bloody conscience and apart from being able to get a lot done in peace and quiet concentration before meetings start, I’m still annoyed with myself to not take it easier.
3.) Those horrible “musicians” screeching in front of my window. (The great pleasure of residing in a pedestrian street!) Hardly any day passes without one of those people gracing everyone with their non-skills. And annoying me in the early afternoons with the same day in, day out.
4.) Early morning street cleaners with their diesel-powered equipment blowing the waste towards the middle of the pedestrian street to be picked up by the following sweeper. How efficient! And how environmentally friendly! And how bloody noisy. In summer, I need to close the window whenever I have a MS Teams call because I just can’t hear a single word as they are marching and blowing away the waste below my window those awful people just threw away in the streets.
5.) Those bloody E-scooters! Yeah, even in a provincial town like the one I’m residing in, E-scooters can be found cluttering the sidewalks. The middle of the sidewalks, of course. Lying around hindering everyone and everything, having to step over them or making a big detour. I can only imagine the horror in way larger cities like Berlin with those useless scooters being thrown down by likewise useless users who are unable to prop them up like well-brought up human beings.
6.) The news! Oh boy, why can’t I stop reading the news? When they tend to annoy me on a daily basis, wanting to start screaming and tearing my hair out?
Just take this idiot of an economy minister who wants to forbid gas and oil heating in Germany. Which planet has he dropped down from? Or which asylum escaped? Not to mention their brilliant ideas of only producing electric cars in the near future. Yeah, get real! Rare earths are exactly that … rare. And the “zero emission” fantasy is a fantasy as well. I really seem to be surrounded by the stupidest people. The climate activists? Don’t get me started on them! Should I ever encounter one of them I’d tear them from the streets, bloody hands and all and sentence them to heavy prison sentences and paying expenses for police, repairs and everything else. Bloody terrorists! And don’t get me started on former tennis star Boris Becker, who just should have stayed in jail. Or all those other Z promis and influencers.
Alright, I’ll stop right there before I need A) a large bar of chocolate, B) a huge cup of Earl Grey with plenty of sugar or C) my special friend to calm down.(Or all of the above!)
Have a great weekend! And less annoyances for your working week ahead! Toodleoo!
Let’s start again, shall we? Alright, where were we? Personality test and the question to myself who I am! Organizational skills – check! (Covered not for the first time in the course of my blogging years, most recently when writing about my moving back to Austria preparations!)
Anyway, before I stray from the subject AGAIN, because my lists, home organization and everything in those regards is one of my favourite subjects, I’ll finally return to the personality test. Frankly, I was quite annoyed having to go through one of those “psycho tests” and even though the result was pretty accurate, there were questions which were utterly stupid and not one of the answers would fit.
The first part of the test were questions which had to be answered with clicking on the “right” picture. Like “What’s typical for you?” 1.) You clothe quite individually (as in weird) 2.) You collect exceptional things 3.) You buy the latest gadgets 4.) You follow the latest fashion. Gee none of those things! My clothing style is classic, colourful, elegant but doesn’t always have to be according to the latest fashion. I’ve always worn what I liked rather than the absolute latest fashion and have my clothes many many years since everything will be back in fashion at one time anyway. Collecting exceptional things? Do books count? I don’t think so. Is it already collecting if I have 20 sets of bed linens or some more tea sets than usual? Latest gadgets? I think I picked that one! After all, I do have the Apple collection of iPhone, iPad and MacBook, even though I do not exchange them whenever a new one comes out. That would just be stupid!
Another one of those questions I could have kicked to smithereens was “Someone addresses you in the street. Your first thought is … “ 1.) He wants to rob you. 2.) He wants to help you 3.) He begs for money 4.) He considers you attractive. What the hell? Really? My first thought would be “He wants to ask for the way!” Of course, this was not an option. Besides, you can already guess by the kind of person approaching you whether he is going to ask you for money. Me needing help? Why the hell would I need help just walking? Maybe if I were cluelessly looking at a map, wondering which way to go, then one might wonder if I needed help. And, oh, yeah, would you just approach someone on the street because of attractiveness? I would be horrified. I guess I still picked the ridiculous attractiveness answer. And I suspect this was just a point to show how insecure or self-confident you are.
Part 2 was all about quick reaction, being a team player or lone wolf. With expressions, you had to move to the left or right hand side of the screen.
Part 3 was the most annoying and in the end I was so pissed off that I just didn’t care anymore and just clicked on something when it came to the numbers. I guess, I did better with the clock and shape stuff. Anyway, what made me so incredibly angry? I hate, hate hate hate logical number and shape games where you have to continue a row of numbers logically or pick the fourth picture of shape collection. You had 10 minutes and the clock was ticking, of course. And of course, with this psych game they wanted to check how you could deal with a stressful situation and your analytical skills.
Part 4 was built up like a project and how to manage it. In this case a sports competition with me being the trainer and how I would act in certain situations. Like … the weather is awful, would you have your group train anyway, train them even harder, skip the training and have hot chocolate instead because injuries would be unproductive, …
Well, I was glad when I was finally done with this personality test which then told me what I already knew. That I’m diplomatic, empathic, a team player, bloody organized and disciplined, performance-oriented with clear goals and that I don’t like tasks which are not structured. Gee, could have told them!But of course, they want to have “proof” by psychological specialists.
Whatever, I got through it, but thinking about it, I still roll my eyes about some of those ridiculous questions which absolutely didn’t have a logical and fitting answer to choose. My advice, though? If you know well in advance – or suspect – that the company you are interviewing for will require you to do a personality test, prepare. Just like a previous acquaintance of mine who did tons of sample logical tests weeks in advance, training exactly those “continue the row” situations. Well, I was not prepared, but if I had known, I would have tried out some of those tests just to get used to them. Frankly, it’s not my kind of everyday pastime pleasure to do logical puzzles. I have way better things to do …
Having to do a personality test for one of those large companies during the job search process I was wondering … who am I? Well, it’s obvious that I am organized to the hilt and reading articles or whole magazine issues of “how to declutter” and “how to organize yourself” just make me smile. Cause, I’m already doing all that. And I briefly wonder, what made me the way I am? Is it something learned? Inherited? In my genes? Probably a mixture of all the above. I do remember my parents being quite organized. My mum more than my dad. I remember my mum having file folders for insurances, household expenses, contracts, etc. – divided and labelled. Because, since my dad was away on business a lot she had to take care of everything. (The way I do now, and I might be even more structured and detailed than my mum!) In those days – when one still used to pay more with cash than with any kind of card – my mum also had a special box, lovingly remodelled by my dad by adding separate compartments which were labelled “cleaning products”, “food”, “hairdresser”, “gifts”, etc with a special amount of money distributed at the beginning of the month for the expenses of the month ahead. Of course, my mum also had a calendar book in which she entered the daily expenses to keep track. (Me? I’m a bit more up-to-date, but I do collect every receipt until my big end-of-year accounting, keep track of my monthly food and drugstore expenses, as well as Amazon, of course and enjoy updating my lists on a regular basis.)
My dad? He was organized as well, even though you wouldn’t have seen it on his desk, which was usually piled high with stacks of papers, newspapers and magazines to work through and cut out interesting articles or funny pieces to use for ingenious gift-wrappings or gift certificates. Not to mention recipes he wanted to try out one day. (Some of those stuck-on-paper and put-into-transparent cover scraps are still in my own recipe file folder. Yep, a real folder, to thumb through, not the online version.) But, you should have seen his tool cabinet in our storage room, our well-organized little cellar compartment, his suitcase and car trunk packing skills using every tiny bit of available space, his great travel planning without navigation system but plain old maps … so yes, I think, my parents taught and influenced me. And I’m lucky to have had such great role models.
Gee, that’s not quite what I had in mind when I thought of the title for this post and what I wanted to write about. But that’s often the way when writing, isn’t it? Straying from the subject. Thoughts, memories pushing their way through your fingers onto the paper – or keypad. But, well, since I’m a little low on halfway interesting writing ideas, I’ll just make this a two-parter … have a great and organized weekend! Kudos!
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