I've Been Googling...

Googling is the thief of time.

One Google search leads to another, to another, to another. Youtube is the worst for this: 'related videos' make us all like magpies searching for the next unsuspecting person to fall over. If we put all those hours together and collectively chose to employ them for useful jobs - we'd all, well I'd probably have a job for a start.

Anyway. I don't. I'm still unemployed. I'm still waiting to hear back about applications I've sent and so to kill a bit of time I do a lot of Googling. It's not mindless Googling. I don't sit there and type in 'how many people have face-planted on Youtube?' or 'how many carrots are there in Belgium?' - I use it to try and find jobs.

At this point I will inform the reader that my internet browser is Google Chrome and I downloaded it in Italian making everything about it Italian. 'Change it!' You may say. I could. But when a page doesn't load, I quite like the message that pops up and says 'Uffa!'.

So this design feature of my Googling means that it will prioritise Italian things - including job searches, so I have to write 'uk' at the end of everything and scroll through half a dozen pages before I find anything useful.

But I'm unemployed, so I have the time to do that.

Have these labours been fruitful? Have they furnished me with a job that I have applied for online?

No. I'm still unemployed - I've just said that. Do keep up.

What my Googling has done, however, is give me a couple of playlists. To be fair they're just lists, but like radio playlists, I have an A list and a B list. I check my A list every day; I check my B list every week or month.

In the interests of community spirit, I'm going to share some links with you...
First of all I'm going to show you my A list:
1. BBC Writersroom
I'm a keen script writer - it's one of the things I fill my time with during these long days of unemployment. BBC Writersroom post a list of opportunities for writers and updates it regularly.
2. Ideas Tap
Ideas Tap is essentially a magazine/website run by people passionate about arts. There are loads of interesting articles and loads of people who have got their foot in the door in the industry and willing to share some of their expertise. The page I look at most frequently is their jobs board. They list everything going in the creative sector and it's rarely boring and 'office-y'.
3. Not From Concentrate
If Ideas Tap gives you all the lower-end arts jobs, Not From Concentrate's job board gives you all the higher-end stuff. They show you the cream of the broadcating jobs - the ones that tend to look a bit more interesting.

My B list isn't really that extensive or comprehensive. It's constantly in flux, but the one I use most often on it is:
Grapevine Jobs - they list all the media jobs at the not-so-well-known production companies. To be honest I've never applied for anything I've seen there, but sometimes a flash of inspiration is all you need.

Before I hit Google once more, I'm going to say one last thing about Google searches and job sites.

They're rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrubbish.

If you're doing a Google search my advice is to search for sites that have done the searching for you. No matter what you put into the search tab on a job site, you always - WITHOUT FAIL - get jobs to work in marketing and/or a call centre. They're not specific enough to give you what you want in the time you have available. Realistically if you get 2,000 search options and most of them are call centre marketing jobs, then you're looking at one relevant job per page and even then you might not want to apply for it.

If there were a 'No Marketing or Call Centre' search option on these things, I'd use them every day. There isn't though. And so I don't use them.