Curri...cu...lum... what ?

Man I didn't think this through properly. And that's just the honest truth.

Honesty is the best policy so here goes.

You remember how in English Second Language ( those of my buddies who didn't do the honourable thing and had 1st language : you suck) you had to do those Creative Writing assignments which involved creating a CV and covering letter for the dream job you just spotted in the newspaper. Ironically enough our example in highschool was of a reporter.. figures.

Anyways. Wondering how I can phrase this.. I was always told that I was gifted at school ( by the teachers, bah.. what they know.. they just mark your papers), but somehow I think I spread my "gifts" to thing on doing a lot of different things.. and on the honesty side again : I wouldn't change a thing, I had a blast, especially in final year.

This did however mean that Zodan wasn't what you'd call an A student.. not a bad B one at times, but not the par excellance (as my typos show).

So when I had to go to my 1st job interview (ever) in Jun 2003, I had a fairly basic CV which did the basic thing of highlighting some (completely irrelevant) "achievements" from school and stating that it took me a little longer than what it should to get a 3 year degree.. a B.Sc for that matter, which isn't something to sneeze about.

The fact that the interview was being organised by someone that had met me some 2 years before and had found out that I can (apparently) do some ASP coding had nothing to do with it, I got into that interview completely on my CV (uncross my fingers at this point).

The fact that they company being mentioned (Flatspin) was in dire need of another developer to fill the needs of a very lucritive client, and that I have a cunning nack in making people think that they need the few skills I have to survive in the IT industry, yet again has nothing to do with the fact that I worked for them for the subsquent 2 and a half years. Honest.. nothing (uncross legs at this moment).

Oh before I forget, give credit where credit is due : Oct thanx for the initial CV template mate, couldn't have gotten anything down on e-paper without that one, and it looks classy too :)

And so we continue, [yup I talk a lot, ask Oct and Micon, and especially anyone that's played the boardgame Risk with us, verbal diarrhea], I digress.

So back to the present,or rather, not just yet. Over the months of December 2005 and Jan 2006 I had the time to update and change my CV, scope out what was available online in the line of jobs for ASP (classic, 3.0, not .NET) blokes like myself, with a little (enough to be very very dangerous... DELETE comes to mind) SQL experience, some DTS (again.. wonderful the things that happen @ 2:00 am in the morning when you are working from home on the launch date of a HUGE database driven website and you've missed a tick on that list of tickboxes before clicking continue.. uh hu.. I can see Oct feeling the enema (typo no.. million and counting ), very little PHP (no seriously, very very litte.. I know the open tag starts with
Lost my train of thought.. right. But being that I was on "holiday"the CV updating only really started getting into swing in about the last week of being in SA. That time when everyone else around you is going "Did I leave the gas on ? No, I'm a squarrel..." and is running around organising everything regarding clothes and the likes for the big trip to another country. So time for CV updating was, spent on something else.. most of the time.. and then there's Discovery channel on DSTV.. and and and... you catch the drift.

Don't get me wrong. I did do some work on my CV, but when I got here that all changed.

Run back almost a month now : We land in the UK, cold, tired and annoyed at the food.. (yup, we flew cattle bunk style, although with Virgin, which I heard was better than most.. especially Air Namibia ? )... and not in the mood for anything else but to put my luggage in a cupboard and put my head on a pillow, after a decent shower though as well.

We had landed with the impression that the house we were going to pay rent to live in was already online and that the cost of that would be covered by our rent, only to arrive here and find out that both the broadband and phone line had been cancelled because the owner closed the accounts before going over to SA... uhm.. strike 1.

After about 2 weeks of hassle, and finding a provider that does unlimited downloading (it's important, if you can get it why not.. and still only pay 14.99 pounds per month) we finally got online here @ home. Before that... yup, Inet cafés. If you ever come to the UK and you are here to try and find a job.. your first Inet cafe visit should be to do only a few small things.. email/sms your parents (or whoever you deem NB in your life) that you are ok and living the high life...second.. use the web to find a jobsearh centre near you (this all being if you don't have inet at home in the 1st place, but being that you are in an inet cafe that negates the above fact.. that verbal d word coming to mind again.. yup, same here).

Jobsearch centre : Free inet, free phone calls to companies to organise interview and free faxing, and in our case.. just 200 metres away from the house.. literally. I can pull up a Google Earth pic, but it's going to be to much hassle now.

Looking at the time I think it best that I get down and dirty at finishing the CV now, I need to have it working for me in about.. oh.. 7 hrs time ( and that includes me beauty sleep, which should be like 9 hrs in the UK).

L8r
[Z]