You work in a shirt with your name-tag on it

Friday was my last day in the book shop. After I finished work on New Year's Day, I was just about to get my coat out of my locker in the break room when I met the manager in the corridor. She said she was glad she'd caught me, because she wanted to talk to me. "I don't know what your plans are" she said "But if there was a full-time job available, would you be interested?".

I enthusiastically told her I would be -- sure the pay is bad and the hours aren't great, but I do enjoy the work, and I think enjoying what you do is very important. It turns out there wasn't a job she was offering me exactly, more that the current assistant manager is leaving and this could mean change for everyone. When I started the job, Jodie the assistant manager was moving back to Melbourne, and Kelly (lead book seller) was going for her job. In what seems like a collossally bad idea, the powers-that-be decided not to give Kelly the job, but instead someone from another store.

Now the usurper has decided she doesn't want the job any more (perhaps due to conflicts with the manager) and is going back to her old store and her old job. This time, if they give it to Kelly it means various others will be promoted up the ranks -- and there might then be a job created for me. I know from conversations about our plans now that the other Christmas temps weren't approached like I was, although they would all want the job if they were.

But it doesn't end there for me. Thursday evening after work I had a voicemail from a recruitment consultant, telling me vague details of a position she thought I might be interested in. I tried to return her call, but couldn't get through -- but emailed her when I got home to say yes, I would be interested, particularly because the job was stressing that the ideal candidate should have strong writing skills.

Friday morning at five minutes to 9 I was barely out of the shower and I got a phone call saying they would like me to submit a piece of writing for inclusion with my CV for the consideration of the employer. Since the job was for a medical college, they wanted me to write a few paragraphs about a medical issue that is in the news. Nothing much, they said, just a few paragraphs. Except I was due to leave for work any minute. So I did what anyone would do, threw some clothes on and got writing.

What I wrote on the "winter vomiting bug" that is closing hospital wards across the UK and over-running doctor surgeries was pretty nondescript. But in a brief moment of insight, I also included a much longer piece I wrote on the subject of Astigamtism when I was freelancing with the healthcare PR agency in Chelsea last summer. That job stands out for me now as quite significant, as I really hated being there. I was being paid something like £100 a day, and I was miserable -- contrast this with earning minimum wage in a bookshop and being happy. But it now seems like that job might have been good for something after all -- because the employer loved what I wrote on Astigmatism, and asked for a telephone interview that same day.

Turns out the job is "immediate start", which works out well for me since I told them I could start next week if they so desired. I had to hide in the toilets at work to take a call from the recruitment consultant in order to set up the telephone interview for my 20-minute lunch break that day. I didn't get the chance to eat much lunch, but the interview went well enough for them to want to see me this Monday.

I have good feelings about this. It seems like some kind of fate that the day I finish one job another should appear, paying much more and seeming well within the grasp of my abilities -- three days admin to two days report writing. Except today I need to try and practice my writing, since they'll be testing me on it tomorrow.

Of course, I can't get my hopes up -- even if I got it the job could suck, the people might be horrible, I might just not be any good at it. That's assuming I get the job, at all, but I have to remember to treat the interview as a two-way process -- for me to be sure that I want to work there as much as convincing them I'm the best thing since bread came sliced.