All change please, all change.

You might've noticed that I've been a bit quiet on here for the last few weeks. I've had a lot of things going on, and today-tomorrow everything changes for me.

First off... I've got a job! I'll be working as Receptionist/Publishing assistant (Publicity and Marketing) at Souvenir Press. This is initially a one year contract to cover maternity leave, but who knows where this will lead. It's my first day tomorrow (Monday), so as I type I'm currently very excited-nervous. I feel like my job-hunt went on for ages, though really it was only a few months, I suppose. But it's such a relief to know it's over now, and that I can take a break from looking for jobs for a while! I'm also really thrilled to have this opportunity to join Souvenir Press - the company is celebrating its 60th year of independent publishing this year, which is quite a landmark! I'm looking forward to getting stuck in - fingers crossed tomorrow goes well!

The other big change round here is that I've properly moved in with my boyfriend. My parents brought me over to the flat this afternoon with a car-full of stuff (mainly books and clothes, if I'm honest), and I've spent most of my time since then trying to find space for everything. There's a home for most things at the minute, but we'll see how things go. I've just remembered that I need to go and rearrange my books in a bit, because my parents put them on the shelves, not realising that I at least have some sort of system...

Phew. So all this change is quite exhausting. I'm going to sort my books now.

Post-interview thoughts.

I had my first Real Job Interview on Tuesday, for an Editorial Assistant position in a London-based publishing company. I wanted to put down some thoughts about the process and how I think it went.

Before the interview I'd been sent a copy of their latest catalogue to have a look through, which was very interesting and stylistically similar to something I'd worked on in a previous internship, which I found encouraging and made the whole thing seem slightly less scary. I emailed a couple of people I've recently worked with asking for advice, and had spent a lot of time on Google and reading The Bookseller looking for recent news on the company etc.

I feel like I prepared as well as I could have. As it was, they interviewed me for about 45 minutes, including a proof-reading test. While I was talking to them, they seemed very positive, and even though I asked a couple of, er, difficult questions regarding the state of the market and the state of the company they were very honest with me throughout. I left with a good idea of what the job would (realistically) entail and the nature of the company. I also left feeling that I had given a good account of myself. Of course, I also left with lots of self-doubt: was I enthusiastic enough/too nervous/ too inquisitive/ too shy/ too modest etc. etc.

(And when I say I left with lots of self-doubt I mean that I left with enough doubt to reduce me to tears later that evening which probably puzzled my boyfriend quite a lot, especially when I'd already told him that I thought the interview had gone pretty well.)

But enough of that. Overall, I felt that the interview went reasonably well. I couldn't have prepared any better than I did, but I think that I need to learn to control my nerves so that I can be enthusiastic about what I'm talking about, rather than terrified. With regards to the job, I know that I would be good at it. I know it won't pay so well, but it's something I really want to do, and with a company that had a very nice feel to it. I desperately want this job, but at the moment I have to wait to hear if they want me back for a second interview.

I'm keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed. I guess I just have to wait and see.

What a difference a day makes!

When I woke up this morning I was all ready to write a blog for you about the changing nature of my job-hunt. I was getting to the point where I was sure I wouldn't be ending up in a publishing-related job this time, and had already been expanding my job search to include more local jobs, admin or receptionist type work as I've got plenty of experience.

This is still very much the case. But then mid-afternoon I had a response for a job I applied for about a month ago, and had almost assumed a rejection. Instead I was invited to the "first round" of interviews, which immediately made me very excited and very nervous. This is the first interview for a "real job" that I've had since leaving university. And while I've had job interviews before, they've all been for short-term/temporary positions, rather than a full-time, permanent vacancy like the one I'm going for now.

And while I'm being very realistic (or, if you prefer, pessimistic) here and thinking that I'll be up against a lot of excellent candidates, and that it's very unlikely I'll get the first job I interview for, it has done my confidence and enthusiasm a world of good.

If you've been job-hunting for a while (I'm up to a few months now, though in that time I have been busy doing work experience placements), and you've repeatedly failed to even get to interview stage, you'll know how disheartening it can become. So even if I don't get this job, this will all be worth it for helping to boost my enthusiasm for the whole job-hunting process once again.

So. I'm busy trying to balance optimism with realism and excitement with nerves, and the interview isn't until next Tuesday.

If anyone's got any super interview advice and/or tips, I'd love to hear them! And in the meantime, I'll be going preparation-crazy in the next few days.

Flat-hunting

This is quite an exciting (terrifying) time for me, all things considered. I have (unofficially) completed my university education, pending graduation in July. I am currently seeking full-time work in the publishing industry, preferably London-based, preferably an Agent's Assistant position. And if all that wasn't enough, my boyfriend and I are planning on moving in together.

I'm not sure when we first discussed it, but it's something that's become more and more likely as the months have gone on. It'll be a big change - while I was at university in Norwich, he has been doing his final year of study in Bath. And right after our relationship started a couple of years ago, he moved to London on a placement year. Closer than Bath, but a two-hour train ride between us still made things tough...

But we've talked about it a lot. And we've recently been looking at flats, which makes the whole thing all the more real/exciting/scary. We might have found the one we want, though, after all of this. Well, actually we found two, but one of them was just... in the wrong place. We'll see. As it is, of course, my boyfriend will be living there on his own for a while, because I'm unemployed and don't want him paying for me to live there.

But it's exciting to know that even if my job-hunt has ground to an unsuccessful halt because I've not found any jobs to apply for in the last couple of weeks, at least my search for somewhere else to live is going better. Who knows: maybe this means things will start turning around for me.

I'm feeling good. I'm feeling like pretty soon something will turn up, job-wise, and I'll be able start on this whole new chapter in my life.

Fingers crossed.

Conville & Walsh

Last week I completed a two-week internship with the above-named literary agency, based in Soho, London. It was a short placement, unpaid [for details on the debate regarding unpaid placements with a particular focus on the publishing industry, see here], and very different from previous placements I'd done in the industry.

First, a little background on what I've done:

• A one week placement at A.P. Watt - mainly admin work. Interesting first insight into the industry, made me realise this is the area I wanted to work in.
• A six week placement at Andrew Nurnberg Associates. A long placement with a varied, interesting workload. Well-organised and informative, supportive staff members during a difficult period of my personal life.
• A four week placement at Oxford University Press. Great fun, came into the team at a critical time in their year, when they had a staff shortage for various reasons, so got to do lots of hands-on stuff and get heavily involved in various projects.

Now that's out of the way, some thoughts on this latest two-week placement.

I started at C&W the week of the London Book Fair. This meant that for the first three days of my placement there were only two of us in the main office (plus the lovely finance guy but he was two floors up...). It was a very quiet few days filled with bizarre tasks - making party bags and buying olives, for example. But it gave me a chance to get to know the office, work out the postal system and where everything went, and I had the fantastic opportunity one evening to attend a party for S.J. Watson, author of BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP (released today).

If I'm honest, the party was one of the highlights of the placement. It gave me the chance to chat to previous interns (all of whom gave very positive comments regarding C&W), to other people in the industry, and it let me see a side of the job that I'd not had a chance to before. While I realise things like that won't be happening every day, it was certainly interesting to see that things like that go on, and how they tend to work.

Parties and merriment aside, I also spent a lot of time reading unsolicited manuscripts. There was one I read that I really liked (it was about clowns...), that wasn't right for the agent who had it, but I persuaded her not to disregard it completely and it was then passed over to another agent. I don't know what has become of it, but I was pleased that my opinions were valued.

I was able to get involved with some of the follow-up from the LBF, too. Lots of putting notes onto the computer system, complete with a crash-course in how NOT to make notes. Tip: make them legible! And then in my last couple of days I got to do some editorial work - one of the agents has a book coming out, and I was responsible for making the edits on the document in question. Again, a crash-course in handwriting translation.

In comparison to others I've done, it felt very short, particularly as my second week was only four days, due to it leading up to the Easter weekend. It was also completely unpaid, with no contribution at all made towards travel expenses. I was also irritated by the fact that, as they have an intern in every week of the year, they use them as a receptionist, managing the switchboard as appropriate. Perhaps it was just that I was used to larger agencies that had their own receptionist. But at the time I felt that they were taking the 'unpaid work experience' thing a little too far.

Minor qualms, anyway. Ultimately I enjoyed the placement, and was glad to be back in that environment, involved with the industry again. It re-enforced my desire to find a permanent job in the publishing industry, and everyone I spoke to there said I was going about it the right way. I guess I just have to keep my fingers crossed, and my eyes open.

To finish, I should say a big thank you to Conville & Walsh. They were great to work with, if only for a couple of weeks.