A first...

It was a very productive weekend, all told. On Saturday, my parents and brother came over to talk about the website we're currently developing which is due to launch in open beta in October. During the meeting, Jess gave me a call to tell me about a volunteering opportunity with Save the Children.

The role was to work on the digital media side of the Campaign to End Child Poverty in the UK. Trouble is, Jess said, that the application had to be sent online by midnight on Sunday. I thought I'd check it out and see whether it would be right for me: as it didn't specifically call for a writer as such I was keen to know what the day-to-day responsibilities would be. I saw that the job required blog writing and an awareness of social networking among other things.

I couldn't get started on the application right away as we'd arranged to go to a friend's gig and stay at their place in north London. We got back early afternoon on Sunday and I got straight to work. I knew my CV needed to be amended as I hadn't looked at it - let alone updated it - since April this year shortly after my employability course with Reed in Partnership. I was really conscious that it shouldn't run over two pages without needing a magnifying glass to read the tiny font. I spent a long time on making it just right for the application, but whilst doing it, I was able to appreciate how much I had achieved since I was last employed. I have clients! Sure, they're not paying clients but one day there will be clients that pay me for my work. I've got back into radio after an absence of six years and it's been really good fun!

Once the CV was done I moved on to the application. I expected it to be quite challenging, but to be honest, it was mostly straightforward. Filling in personal details and the equal opportunities bits was easy. I just had to remember what I learned in the employability course on how to write a good application. I went through the essential skills part of the job description and related them to previous experience that I'd gained in past employment. It took some time to think of the right examples but I was pleased with the end result.

I submitted it 20 minutes before the deadline, which was an achievement in itself. It dawned on me just after I'd finished that I hadn't applied for a job in over a year. A couple of years ago, I'd got so sick of looking around for another job and signed with countless agents for jobs that offered very little in terms of my personal satisfaction. My heart wasn't really in being a PA at all. Now I'm going for jobs that will give me great experience in terms of my future career as a writer. And that's really exciting!