Andrew Aigner-MuehlerLIVING OVERSEAS from my eyes.. THE NEW BEGINNING
January 26th 2008 05:00
THE NEW BEGINNING
As mentioned in the previous chapter, I had quit my job at the Southern Junction, hoping to resurrect my stay in London. My new housemates were also happy I was staying, I must say Duane gave me bit of a hard time on that matter, to tell the truth, I don’t really blame him.
Anyway on Tuesday 18th September I went into Kelly services on The Strand and enquired about employment, I sat their recruitment test, to see how my computing skills are like. Kelly’s got back to me that night and asked me if I was interested in being a shifter lifter at the Court Funds Office. That following Thursday I started work their reporting to Steven Johnson.
My job at the Court Funds Office, which is part of the Lord Chancellor Department was to tidy up three storage areas, record their storage onto database, label & number all the boxes and then send to Hays. Anything over a certain age I had shredded. Within three months I had organized their storage and filing back to a reasonable standard including clearing and emptying the storage areas at the old Public Guardianship Office across the road. While being the shifter lifter for the office I was also a back up to Ian who looked after the mailroom and sign in sheets.
Getting closer to six months with the C.F.O, they must have thought I was a valuable employee so they bought me off the agency, put me on a monthly paid flat wage. There was also no more work for me at the current time in the storage areas. I had also emptied out all the individual offices of old files, I had no work to do, so they decided to give me another title and promote to account assistant, because there were two of us doing a job, Sharon and myself, which was just too much for one. Most days we had all the work done by lunchtime and then after lunch it was try too keeping yourself from being bored. Ok, from keeping myself being bored, I used to play solitaire, that’s right! I use to play solitaire, used the governments money to email friends and family and then it was time to go home. Yeh! It was a job I was at work for forty hours and most of the time only did around fifteen hours of work, but there was a lot of time too I actually busted my guts, when I had to do Ian’s job, plus my shifter lifter position and all of the accounts work which was allocated to us, because Sharon decided to take a day off as well, that was full steam ahead, I even ate my lunch while working because I couldn’t stop and eat, but I managed.
My managers didn’t really mine when they seen me slack off and didn’t have any work to do because there were always days each week when I was over loaded with work and they knew I was a valuable employee, especially with the job I done with storage.
The following year on new years eve, was unfortunately my last day at the Court Service, I had a fallen out with Steve, who started to racially abuse me a little too much and little jokes we had weren’t no longer jokes. I put it down to stress because a year or so later, he had a heart attack and was off work for a long time and I what I know off, he is now retired. The Court Funds Office was a fun and good place to work, everyone got along well, I was sorry to leave and they were sorry to see me go. If I didn’t quit, I think they would have sponsored me to stay in London and god knows what would have happened with the next few years.
After a few months of working with the Court Service, my opinion of London changed, and started to love the city more and more. I also started a part time with a catering agency. Working for Appleton catering agency is where I got the chance to see a lot of London working museums and corporate events on the evenings and weekends, to help subsidise my travels back to Dublin, Cyprus, Austria and Australia for vacations and not to mention one of my favourite hobbies, in the pub exercising my arm, which was my version of the gym.
This chapter is just the new beginning to my stay in London, but has also helped me out with my future. No way in the world I would have received a job like this in Australia, working in the accounts department for a government department, but my boss Samantha Watts had enough faith in me to promote me to the position and give me the chance to prove myself. The position with the CFO also helped me out in getting jobs with Environ UK who I was with for the four remaining months of my visa and also Beaches in Hervey Bay. Also doing catering with Appleton helped me in getting a job with People Now when they went bust, all of my years experience doing jobs for People Now have helped me out in getting a job with Levy Restaurant at the Rogers Centre in Toronto which is better known as the Skydome.
My advice to any one out there, if you cant get experience or a foot in the door in the industry you like to enter in your own country, pack up and move to the United Kingdom for a couple of years, if your too old for a working permit, apply for a student visa, you’re never too old to apply for a student visa. It will be the best thing you have ever done with your life. The English employers are so happy to train new staff and are so willing to give you a chance. Working for a employer in London and showing that on resume or CV goes along way back in any other country and is highly regarded.
As mentioned in the previous chapter, I had quit my job at the Southern Junction, hoping to resurrect my stay in London. My new housemates were also happy I was staying, I must say Duane gave me bit of a hard time on that matter, to tell the truth, I don’t really blame him.
Anyway on Tuesday 18th September I went into Kelly services on The Strand and enquired about employment, I sat their recruitment test, to see how my computing skills are like. Kelly’s got back to me that night and asked me if I was interested in being a shifter lifter at the Court Funds Office. That following Thursday I started work their reporting to Steven Johnson.
My job at the Court Funds Office, which is part of the Lord Chancellor Department was to tidy up three storage areas, record their storage onto database, label & number all the boxes and then send to Hays. Anything over a certain age I had shredded. Within three months I had organized their storage and filing back to a reasonable standard including clearing and emptying the storage areas at the old Public Guardianship Office across the road. While being the shifter lifter for the office I was also a back up to Ian who looked after the mailroom and sign in sheets.
Getting closer to six months with the C.F.O, they must have thought I was a valuable employee so they bought me off the agency, put me on a monthly paid flat wage. There was also no more work for me at the current time in the storage areas. I had also emptied out all the individual offices of old files, I had no work to do, so they decided to give me another title and promote to account assistant, because there were two of us doing a job, Sharon and myself, which was just too much for one. Most days we had all the work done by lunchtime and then after lunch it was try too keeping yourself from being bored. Ok, from keeping myself being bored, I used to play solitaire, that’s right! I use to play solitaire, used the governments money to email friends and family and then it was time to go home. Yeh! It was a job I was at work for forty hours and most of the time only did around fifteen hours of work, but there was a lot of time too I actually busted my guts, when I had to do Ian’s job, plus my shifter lifter position and all of the accounts work which was allocated to us, because Sharon decided to take a day off as well, that was full steam ahead, I even ate my lunch while working because I couldn’t stop and eat, but I managed.
The following year on new years eve, was unfortunately my last day at the Court Service, I had a fallen out with Steve, who started to racially abuse me a little too much and little jokes we had weren’t no longer jokes. I put it down to stress because a year or so later, he had a heart attack and was off work for a long time and I what I know off, he is now retired. The Court Funds Office was a fun and good place to work, everyone got along well, I was sorry to leave and they were sorry to see me go. If I didn’t quit, I think they would have sponsored me to stay in London and god knows what would have happened with the next few years.
After a few months of working with the Court Service, my opinion of London changed, and started to love the city more and more. I also started a part time with a catering agency. Working for Appleton catering agency is where I got the chance to see a lot of London working museums and corporate events on the evenings and weekends, to help subsidise my travels back to Dublin, Cyprus, Austria and Australia for vacations and not to mention one of my favourite hobbies, in the pub exercising my arm, which was my version of the gym.
This chapter is just the new beginning to my stay in London, but has also helped me out with my future. No way in the world I would have received a job like this in Australia, working in the accounts department for a government department, but my boss Samantha Watts had enough faith in me to promote me to the position and give me the chance to prove myself. The position with the CFO also helped me out in getting jobs with Environ UK who I was with for the four remaining months of my visa and also Beaches in Hervey Bay. Also doing catering with Appleton helped me in getting a job with People Now when they went bust, all of my years experience doing jobs for People Now have helped me out in getting a job with Levy Restaurant at the Rogers Centre in Toronto which is better known as the Skydome.
My advice to any one out there, if you cant get experience or a foot in the door in the industry you like to enter in your own country, pack up and move to the United Kingdom for a couple of years, if your too old for a working permit, apply for a student visa, you’re never too old to apply for a student visa. It will be the best thing you have ever done with your life. The English employers are so happy to train new staff and are so willing to give you a chance. Working for a employer in London and showing that on resume or CV goes along way back in any other country and is highly regarded.
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