18 month plan
I often cite through my blog how happy I am with the way I have my life set up and it is indeed true. How I earn my living, where we live, all of it is absolutely perfect for the stage our family is at.
However, nothing stays the same, and so here I am at 43, almost exactly half way through my working life, with one career already behind me and the focus currently very heavily on bringing up the boys and being the house husband - with the DJ'ing as a very welcome way of earning money during hours which don't impact too heavily on the parenting.
We have a lovely home which we rent from a friend, could not ask for more. Though things are changing, there are a lot of new homes here and people moving in, so it's not quite the little oasis in the centre of town that it always has been but I can live with that for now.
But I do need to start thinking ahead about changes in the future. After all I am 25 years away from retirement and really don't see myself lugging speakers around doing discos when I am 60+. Talk about the oldest swinger in town. I'll leave that to Funky ;-). But when it comes to career options, I am not going to be happy just doing some job for the sake of doing a job - I've never worked in a factory in my life, have few practical skills, in short, there's not a lot that I can really do. This isn't meant to sound elitist, but having had an academic, privately educated background, practical skills were never really considered a priority in my youth when it was probably expected I would have some glorious high paid job that would mean never having to get my hands dirty. In reality, my life was nothing like that.
I am one of those people who is not particular good at most things and in addition to that, has no motivation whatsoever for doing any sort of job, or anything come to that which does not interest me. It is absolutely pointless me doing it. This doesn't sound like I am doing a great job on selling myself, does it. However - the point is - I may be mediocre at best at 95% of things - but I am incredibly skilled at the other 5%. When I am good at something, and I'm motivated by something, nobody can touch me.
Job wise - well there is one thing that I have a huge aptitude for, and that is analysing data, and drawing conclusions from it. Yes, it's easy to look back at Nielsen and laugh about my ups and downs, but there was not a person in that building who could touch me when it came to data analysis and presenting the results to clients - when it came to the big boys - and I mean big boys, I've stood up in front of the boardrooms of some of the biggest companies in this country in my time e.g. Tesco, BAT, the list is endless and the recommendations I've put to them in the past - well, I could value some of them at millions.
I can look at any table of figures, block of numbers, and draw conclusions from it - and people wonder why I am so successful at betting on the horses - because I can read a racecard and a betting market and instantly see where the value lies.
The reason I left Nielsen? Nothing to do with the actual bare bones of the job, I just could no longer bear being in an organisation where my brilliance at what I did went unrecognised. I didn't want to "play the game", I just wanted to do what I was good at, but it did not work out for me in the long run.
When I re-entered the job market in 2005 I was frustrated by my inability to find a new position that would fit my criteria - I had other jobs, but none measured up to what I was looking for. Also I found that having a CV and applying for jobs was pretty much a waste of time - it's impossible to get across to people the sort of person you are and what you want to do - and all the standard advice for writing a CV just didn't feel like me. In short I don't believe you can summarise a human being on one or two sheets of A4 paper. I have ditched my CV now and never intend having another one. My CV, well it's me, the person.
In all that time between leaving Nielsen and starting at the probation office, about 18 months (during which I did various work on temporary contracts), only one job sprung out of the paper at me, and this job, I really did fancy. It was for Thames Valley Police and it was a part time post based in Banbury, about 3 days per week, analysing crime statistics and making recommendations based upon them - absolutely right on the nail when it came to my skill set. They gave me a project to prepare for the interview - a simple set of stats of crime figures for a few months in Oxford. I prepared an amazing presentation for the interview - the kind of thing Nielsen clients pay huge sums for. I got right into these stats and made all sorts of "deductions" - good for a policing job, huh? I noted that certain crimes got worse as the nights darkened in Autumn, and also other certain types of crimes had a spike in early autumn - these were related to students and I even recommended an awareness campaign among new students in Oxford away from home for the first time (bicycle theft and such like). In short, I played an absolute blinder and blew away the interview panel.
But did I get the job? No, it went to an internal candidate, but the HR lady who rang me after told me how impressed they had been by me.
Not long after that I got the job at the probation office, initially as a fairly bog standard admin person, but I soon expanded my role into analysing offender statistics and the bosses there were very impressed by what I did. In the end though, I decided to leave, Claire wanted to go back to work after the baby was born, and I saw an opportunity with the DJ'ing - something else I knew I was good at - putting my encyclopaedic knowledge of music to good use. Which I certainly have, because here I am 5 years plus later. In fact it has been so long, some people don't know me as anything other than Jason the DJ and have no idea what I did in my former life.
But - plans need to be made. September 2014 is a significant date in my long term planning as that is not only the date that Jamie will start school full time, but it is also the scheduled date that St Edburg's moves to its new home on Kingsmere - out the other side of the Premier Inn somewhere. Too far to walk daily from here, and I am totally against driving children to school. I also don't want to move Ollie to another school due to his issues - he still has a SENCO in place for his autism and to uproot him elsewhere - well I am just not willing to do it.
So September 2014 - may well see us upping sticks and moving - and with both kids at school sees me free to potentially work again - I would love to get my teeth into some juicy figures and go and show some people what they mean and how they should act on them. It's something I just love doing - but I'm not going to do it unless it's exactly the right job for me - a square peg in a round hole I won't be. That job with the police would have been perfect for me - perhaps something like that will come along again, but I am not going to go down the conventional route of applying for jobs - it is not as if I am that desperate - but I am going to keep my ears and eyes open and talk to a lot of people, build up my contacts and who knows what may come up?
What would be the perfect job for me? Well something that maybe involved 16 hours a week, analysing stats for the Police, Probation service, NHS, Cherwell council, maybe a private concern, who knows. Wherever possible I'd work from home, and present the data back as required. I'd be worth my absolute weight in gold. I'd love it, and they would love what they got back.
I am just waiting here for someone to come and find me, like I say I don't want to go looking for it right now, but I'm open to any suggestions that might come my way. If they don't, they don't, but I am not going to try and flog a CV around - I am just not that desperate for a job. I sometimes think we have got it all the wrong way around - why should employers have all the power? I don't want to go and try and persuade someone to let me work for them - I want them to come and try and persuade me to work for them. That's how things work in the celebrity and sporting world. You don't see the likes of Robin Van Persie writing job applications when it's time to move clubs so why should it be any different for us?
I guess I'm in a more comfortable position than most as I'm already earning a reasonable living - but I'm open to suggestions. I would imagine if any offer of work were to come my way it would be from somebody that already knows me.
Some ex research people set themselves up as "consultants" charging thousands a day - not my style really. Such people can be found everywhere and quite honestly it's all flash suits and flannel from what I can see. I can do 10x what they do at one tenth of the cost.
Maybe this blog comes over as arrogant or over-confident - if it does, I apologise, that wasn't my intention, I guess it's just a case of planning ahead. September 2014 - what will I be doing and where will I be then? Time will tell, all I can say is that time doesn't stand still and I need to thing of the future, however good things might be right now.
This is also not a "Gissa job" yosser style plea, I haven't fallen on hard times, I'm just laying some groundwork for my "18 month plan". I don't even want or have time to take on a job before September 2014, but no harm in putting a few feelers out now.
Life's good - amazing in fact, but no matter how good, you can always go for even better. If someone out there wants me, and can inspire me, and the price is right, well, I can't miss such an opportunity.
If you have enjoyed reading this blog, please take a look at my books on Amazon (Paperback & Kindle), where you can read lots more of the same! Click here.
Jason xx
However, nothing stays the same, and so here I am at 43, almost exactly half way through my working life, with one career already behind me and the focus currently very heavily on bringing up the boys and being the house husband - with the DJ'ing as a very welcome way of earning money during hours which don't impact too heavily on the parenting.
We have a lovely home which we rent from a friend, could not ask for more. Though things are changing, there are a lot of new homes here and people moving in, so it's not quite the little oasis in the centre of town that it always has been but I can live with that for now.
But I do need to start thinking ahead about changes in the future. After all I am 25 years away from retirement and really don't see myself lugging speakers around doing discos when I am 60+. Talk about the oldest swinger in town. I'll leave that to Funky ;-). But when it comes to career options, I am not going to be happy just doing some job for the sake of doing a job - I've never worked in a factory in my life, have few practical skills, in short, there's not a lot that I can really do. This isn't meant to sound elitist, but having had an academic, privately educated background, practical skills were never really considered a priority in my youth when it was probably expected I would have some glorious high paid job that would mean never having to get my hands dirty. In reality, my life was nothing like that.
I am one of those people who is not particular good at most things and in addition to that, has no motivation whatsoever for doing any sort of job, or anything come to that which does not interest me. It is absolutely pointless me doing it. This doesn't sound like I am doing a great job on selling myself, does it. However - the point is - I may be mediocre at best at 95% of things - but I am incredibly skilled at the other 5%. When I am good at something, and I'm motivated by something, nobody can touch me.
Job wise - well there is one thing that I have a huge aptitude for, and that is analysing data, and drawing conclusions from it. Yes, it's easy to look back at Nielsen and laugh about my ups and downs, but there was not a person in that building who could touch me when it came to data analysis and presenting the results to clients - when it came to the big boys - and I mean big boys, I've stood up in front of the boardrooms of some of the biggest companies in this country in my time e.g. Tesco, BAT, the list is endless and the recommendations I've put to them in the past - well, I could value some of them at millions.
I can look at any table of figures, block of numbers, and draw conclusions from it - and people wonder why I am so successful at betting on the horses - because I can read a racecard and a betting market and instantly see where the value lies.
The reason I left Nielsen? Nothing to do with the actual bare bones of the job, I just could no longer bear being in an organisation where my brilliance at what I did went unrecognised. I didn't want to "play the game", I just wanted to do what I was good at, but it did not work out for me in the long run.
When I re-entered the job market in 2005 I was frustrated by my inability to find a new position that would fit my criteria - I had other jobs, but none measured up to what I was looking for. Also I found that having a CV and applying for jobs was pretty much a waste of time - it's impossible to get across to people the sort of person you are and what you want to do - and all the standard advice for writing a CV just didn't feel like me. In short I don't believe you can summarise a human being on one or two sheets of A4 paper. I have ditched my CV now and never intend having another one. My CV, well it's me, the person.
In all that time between leaving Nielsen and starting at the probation office, about 18 months (during which I did various work on temporary contracts), only one job sprung out of the paper at me, and this job, I really did fancy. It was for Thames Valley Police and it was a part time post based in Banbury, about 3 days per week, analysing crime statistics and making recommendations based upon them - absolutely right on the nail when it came to my skill set. They gave me a project to prepare for the interview - a simple set of stats of crime figures for a few months in Oxford. I prepared an amazing presentation for the interview - the kind of thing Nielsen clients pay huge sums for. I got right into these stats and made all sorts of "deductions" - good for a policing job, huh? I noted that certain crimes got worse as the nights darkened in Autumn, and also other certain types of crimes had a spike in early autumn - these were related to students and I even recommended an awareness campaign among new students in Oxford away from home for the first time (bicycle theft and such like). In short, I played an absolute blinder and blew away the interview panel.
But did I get the job? No, it went to an internal candidate, but the HR lady who rang me after told me how impressed they had been by me.
Not long after that I got the job at the probation office, initially as a fairly bog standard admin person, but I soon expanded my role into analysing offender statistics and the bosses there were very impressed by what I did. In the end though, I decided to leave, Claire wanted to go back to work after the baby was born, and I saw an opportunity with the DJ'ing - something else I knew I was good at - putting my encyclopaedic knowledge of music to good use. Which I certainly have, because here I am 5 years plus later. In fact it has been so long, some people don't know me as anything other than Jason the DJ and have no idea what I did in my former life.
But - plans need to be made. September 2014 is a significant date in my long term planning as that is not only the date that Jamie will start school full time, but it is also the scheduled date that St Edburg's moves to its new home on Kingsmere - out the other side of the Premier Inn somewhere. Too far to walk daily from here, and I am totally against driving children to school. I also don't want to move Ollie to another school due to his issues - he still has a SENCO in place for his autism and to uproot him elsewhere - well I am just not willing to do it.
So September 2014 - may well see us upping sticks and moving - and with both kids at school sees me free to potentially work again - I would love to get my teeth into some juicy figures and go and show some people what they mean and how they should act on them. It's something I just love doing - but I'm not going to do it unless it's exactly the right job for me - a square peg in a round hole I won't be. That job with the police would have been perfect for me - perhaps something like that will come along again, but I am not going to go down the conventional route of applying for jobs - it is not as if I am that desperate - but I am going to keep my ears and eyes open and talk to a lot of people, build up my contacts and who knows what may come up?
What would be the perfect job for me? Well something that maybe involved 16 hours a week, analysing stats for the Police, Probation service, NHS, Cherwell council, maybe a private concern, who knows. Wherever possible I'd work from home, and present the data back as required. I'd be worth my absolute weight in gold. I'd love it, and they would love what they got back.
I am just waiting here for someone to come and find me, like I say I don't want to go looking for it right now, but I'm open to any suggestions that might come my way. If they don't, they don't, but I am not going to try and flog a CV around - I am just not that desperate for a job. I sometimes think we have got it all the wrong way around - why should employers have all the power? I don't want to go and try and persuade someone to let me work for them - I want them to come and try and persuade me to work for them. That's how things work in the celebrity and sporting world. You don't see the likes of Robin Van Persie writing job applications when it's time to move clubs so why should it be any different for us?
I guess I'm in a more comfortable position than most as I'm already earning a reasonable living - but I'm open to suggestions. I would imagine if any offer of work were to come my way it would be from somebody that already knows me.
Some ex research people set themselves up as "consultants" charging thousands a day - not my style really. Such people can be found everywhere and quite honestly it's all flash suits and flannel from what I can see. I can do 10x what they do at one tenth of the cost.
Maybe this blog comes over as arrogant or over-confident - if it does, I apologise, that wasn't my intention, I guess it's just a case of planning ahead. September 2014 - what will I be doing and where will I be then? Time will tell, all I can say is that time doesn't stand still and I need to thing of the future, however good things might be right now.
This is also not a "Gissa job" yosser style plea, I haven't fallen on hard times, I'm just laying some groundwork for my "18 month plan". I don't even want or have time to take on a job before September 2014, but no harm in putting a few feelers out now.
Life's good - amazing in fact, but no matter how good, you can always go for even better. If someone out there wants me, and can inspire me, and the price is right, well, I can't miss such an opportunity.
If you have enjoyed reading this blog, please take a look at my books on Amazon (Paperback & Kindle), where you can read lots more of the same! Click here.
Jason xx
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