Well, that's it. Filled in. Mailed.

Gulp. Again.

Remarkable that, for what was essentially the same form it wasn't that easy to just cut and paste. It must be a deliberate conspiracy for example to list education with columns in a different order. Novelties this time included listing recent courses and having to have a reason for leaving every past job. Hard enough. Particularly hard to come up with a 'positive' reason for why you want leave your present position. Talk of "pushes" aside, I don't actually want to leave but am attracted to this one by the salary! I don't think you're supposed to put that though. And what's that bit on the ethnic origin form about 'media' between 'name'/'post applied for' and 'date of birth'?

How close I came to leaving "I feel University X would..." when I meant Y, I'm not sure. But I did proofread the thing reasonably carefully. Hard to ask anyone else to do it when time is running short, I didn't want to announce it this time round, and besides I'm the one that's usually asked to do the proofreading. A sadly geekish eye for spotting italic fullstops I've been told - which isn't true. (Though I have been known to spot two spaces rather than one on printed pages.)

The fact I could cut and paste most of the material even if it was a bit awkward, meant that I probably finished the thing a day or two ahead of when I might have done otherwise. Which gave the option of putting it in the mail. Still might email it tomorrow just to be sure.

Woke up this morning in the early hours as a result of a nasty dream. Not quite a nightmare, but certainly not pleasant.

I'd just been through the interview process at uni # 2. No tour; no preliminaries; no 'visit with the team'; just fifteen minutes in front of the panel. And the realization that they were interviewing me with no paperwork in front of them. I've no idea if that's because I'd not sent it in or because they didn't have it.

Perhaps it's my subconscious telling me not to bother. Or perhaps it's telling me to get on with the forms. Who can say?

This is the first of two 'back-dated' posts as I've been out of reach of the internet over Easter.

It occurred to me that waaaay back I learned from Traveller (it's a long story, don't ask, but yes it is spelt the English way) that there are four ways to motivate characters. The push, the pull, the gimmick and the enigma.

I've worked out that I have a pull (the rather attractive salary), a push (the rather... but no, I don't talk about that even with myself so let's skip that one), and an enigma (the rather interesting question of what would working in such a similar/different place be like), which only leaves me to wonder if there's a gimmick involved too.

I'll let you know if it comes to me.

It occurs to me to add that I will probably not be telling colleagues about the application this time round.

The week I didn't get the last job, we had a team meeting on 'staff development'. I thought about it for some time and decided I would talk about the beneficial development involved in appraising your present job, skills etc and applying for a new one. Even if I then had to admit that I'd been turned down.

I heard later that some around the table that morning had been a bit shocked by my even applying to leave. It might have been a good rumor-buster, but I suspect a low-grade explosive device let off in the room might have had less impact.

Oh dear.

What's it been? All of a couple of weeks.

I made the mistake of trying to clear my desk today and one of the outstanding items was the job supplement of my professional monthly. Idly flicking through it before trashing it, I spotted a job at the university just up the road in the other direction. Pretty much the same job again, somewhat different subject area. But not unrelated to what I do presently.

On the grounds I couldn't not apply for the last one, I don't see how I can not apply for this one.

Couple of problems though:
Firstly, there's all the emotional energy to put into it once again. While I may be able to cut and paste stuff from the last application, it's still going to take some doing.
Secondly, having not got the last job there was a certain relief about not having to change and in the taking stock of my present position and making some direct comparisons with the 'competition' did allow me to see some of the upsides of it more distinctly.

Well, I've asked for and printed out the forms...

(Though recalling the farce that the other place made of not being able to receive straightforward emails, it was interesting to note that this place emailed me four different documents, three of which had identical file names which made saving them fun!)

So much for thinking it was the end of this blog though.