Posts Tagged ‘Life’

Reflection on poverty

Posted in 'General, My Life' by James on October 14th, 2008
Reflection on poverty

We tend to throw around the word "poverty" a lot nowadays but do any of us really bother to think about it? I mean, do any of us think about its effect on the world and on us as humans? I for one, don’t! I mean to be totally honest, I very rarely think about the one billion or so people living in absolute poverty around the world!

Not to place too huge a blame on western society but its probably western culture and education that has left me and others so apparently callous and uncaring. Yes, schools teach you about poverty and how massive a problem it is but you don’t hear any teachers or the government telling us go help, no, of course not! This would not benefit the economy!

But then, is this massive issue of poverty something which can be solved with a few extra helping hands? I really doubt it!

Almost one half of the world’s population live under two dollars each day – what an absolutely pitiful amount! How did we, as a species, let it get so bad? Surely evolution is not just about survival of the fittest, surely there is some instinctive drive to help others! If there is then how on earth did we let it get so bad? What happened!?

Maybe we should all pass the blame on to ignorant generations of the past and then forget about it, or maybe it is, in fact, the governments fault (isn’t everything!?)… Maybe every single person on the planet is to blame, even the ones living in poverty! I don’t’ know!

My first “real” job

Posted in 'General, My Life' by James on October 5th, 2008
My first “real” job

Having left school in June I needed a job to make some money over the summer. I was going to settle for something tedious and in-my-view boring like waiting tables at the local restaurant or working at the nearby supermarket, but instead I decided to go further and look for a job which I would actually enjoy.

I’d already been designing websites (mostly personal projects) for about two years, and I’d earned quite a bit off freelancing, so it made sense, since I had the skill set, to look for jobs in the web development/design industry.

Searching online for "web design" jobs yielded rubbish results. Most of the jobs listed were freelance focused or not based in the UK. I would have been happy to adopt a couple of freelance jobs but nothing is more valuable than real industry experience, and that meant getting employed properly for the summer.

After even more searching I eventually came across NMA’s "top 100 interactive agencies". I started at the top of the list, visiting each agency’s website, having a look at their client list, and seeing where they were based. I ended up picking eight agencies, all based in London. I wasn’t looking for "vacancies" because I knew I would be unsuitable for any official listed job. Since I was only looking for an internship to get me through the summer I figured it would be best to simply send some emails explaining this amd hope for the best.

After writing my CV and emailing the applications nothing much happened. Obviously I had to give it a bit of time, so I did…