Occasional Unsuccessful Applications

"Thank you for applying for the position of Runner Pool - Manchester. We have carefully considered your application and regret to advise that your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion."

Thanks very much BBC, for advising me that my application was unsuccessful. Oh hang on, it was only on this occasion. In that case, BBC, on what occasion will my application be successful?

If I'm honest I am a little gutted about this. I know that I will get many rejections while applying for jobs, but knowing that I tried my absolute hardest in answering the cryptic questions the beeb seem intent on setting, has knocked me somewhat. It was a runner pool for crying out loud, who exactly are these people looking for?!

Perhaps I should stop obsessing over getting my first job at the BBC. There are other broadcasting corporations out there, believe it or not. Saying that though, they are launching their production trainee scheme 2010 next week. If my predecessor at Fuse FM can get on it, surely I am in with a shot too?

Despite this set back, I am feeling slightly more sane than at the time of my last post. I think its something to do with the sun shining today. It might also have something to do with the fact that I caught the mouse last night. On a glue trap. Not the most humane method I know - but the damn thing was too clever for conventional traps. Not too clever for some brazil nuts sprinkled on a slab of glue though eh, mr mouse.

I got my exam results back too, a few hours after receiving 'the email' from the BBC. They were good, thank god. A 68 and a 63, two sturdy 2:1's. I think I had been hoping for a cheeky first in there somewhere, but that's me in a nutshell: optimistic. Realistically a 2:1 is great, especially considering how much time I spend on my course, or rather, how little time.

As far as the dissertation is going, well, it isn't. I had my presentation last week though. I wish I could say how it went, but the fifteen minutes is a blur to me. I remember saying the words 'interaction' and 'facebook' a lot. And gesticulating too much. But that's about it. I'm giving a talk this week to second year sociology students, to prepare them and encourage them with their own dissertations. I will tell them that's its fun and exciting, to study something you love, and that its not as scary as they think. This is of course, a lie.

Teapots, Tantrums and Mice.

I have reached melting point.

Once again I have bitten off more than I can chew and the times when I am not busy I spend moaning about how busy I am. I am not a fan of this person I have become. She is tired, grumpy, almost always hungry, pessimistic and prone to tantrums.

An example of one such tantrum, is when the other night my house mate caught me rather aggressively man-handling my chair out of my room at 3am, with the utmost certainty that it was this chair the mouse was using to get onto my worktop. Yes that's right, I have the mouse from hell inhabiting my room. Most mice, you would think, are in search of food. Oh no, not this mouse. This mouse takes casual strolls across my furniture and stares me out whilst perched on my hat stand, fully ignoring the lump of cheese attached to the trap on my floor.

To add to this, Fuse FM has started its 20th broadcast, and once again I am plunged into a world that I both love and hate. This is what I want to do, just not whilst doing a dissertation, working and job hunting at the same time.

God, listen to me. Even I'm boring me. I want to go out. I want to drink so much that it takes me four voicemails just to tell T that I love him. I want to watch Eastenders and Channel 4 documentaries about pregnant women without feeling guilty about it.

On the plus side, T bought me a teapot for Valentines (despite agreeing we're not going to do presents...but anyway). This is quite possibly the most exciting thing to happen to me in the last few weeks. It comes with a cute cup and I have even resorted to hanging milk out of my window in a plastic bag so that I can have teapot-tea when I like. If it wasn't for said teapot and the steady supply of hot tea it brings me, I fear it may have been me hanging out of my window in a plastic bag.

Despite my moaning however, the last couple of weeks have been good on a journalistic level. I have produced two video reports which can be found here, implemented Fuse's 'Hot Topics', and achieved our first ever live bulletin.

I just hope that all this hard work pays off. I have yet to hear back from the BBC, which worries me a little. To be honest I have been somewhat slack on the ol' job applications of late. There are just so many and they are all so epic. BBC North has opened its applications for Media City, the Mecca of the broadcasting world, all you need to do is upload your CV.

Right, should probably get on with writing my CV then.....