Adam Luke

Archive for the ‘Money and Work’ Category

Job Hunting

I have a new job. I’m reluctant to mention any specifics, so I shall give you some related information instead. Some stuff may appear on LiveJournal if anything I feel I should mention occurs, though.

My previous job was in a supermarket, where I was a “service assistant”, also known as a cashier. I survived there for over two years. To be honest, I’m still pretty traumatised by the tedium of it all. Some people can handle the job, and some even like it, but not me. I craved stimulation, and open spaces where I’d be able to stretch my legs. Eventually, it was noticed that I did a good job at refilling the confectionery at registers1, and I also had learnt where most items were located in the aisles. This meant I got to spend slightly less time confined to a tiny space, and instead got to refill confectionery and magazines at the registers, and collect loose stock and return it to shelves. When the supermarket’s online ordering system was introduced, I occasionally worked for that department, collecting products from shelves to fill customer orders. Preferably, I would’ve been able to do so more often, but our schedules didn’t really match.

Recently, I was job hunting. I didn’t find it too hard to get a job, and I even got one that I wanted. It makes sense, considering it’s the Christmas period and I have complete availability until university resumes at the start of March. Handing in résumés and cover letters can even be amusing. For example, at one store, the guy who was working saw that I was holding some paper, and was all “RÉSUMÉ? W’ERE HIRING! KTHXBAI!!”, barely letting me get a word in edgeways. I never did end up hearing back from them, though, despite their overenthusiasm.

To cut a long story short, I got a job elsewhere. My interview was on Wednesday, and I thought of good answers to questions afterwards. The person who interviewed me said they’d call the next day, which, of course, meant I spent the day angsting, and thinking “We’ll if they haven’t called by now, I haven’t got it”, Only to check my mobile phone and realise that I had two missed calls2, which then made me think “Frig, I probably got it, but now that they can’t get hold of me, they’ve given it to someone else”.

I seldom talk about my life in this blog, instead opting for more of a thoughts-about-random-topics approach. You now know why.


  1. Not like it’s hard to do a good job, but other people would just chuck stuff in willy-nilly, upside down, and back-to-front. I actually made everything look nice, and lined it all up perfectly.
  2. I keep it on silent, and it was on my bed so I didn’t hear it vibrate. I assumed they’d call my home phone number, as that is what was used to arrange the interview. Whoops.

Top 15 Things We Spend Too Much On

I had a different blog post planned for today, but there was an interesting link posted at Snark, entitled “Top 15 Things We Spend Too Much On“. According to this list, it would seem I’m not too bad with money. Below is the list with explanations pertaining to my life.

  1. Psuedo health products: not guilty. I don’t really need protein bars. For snacks, I’m more likely to have nuts (usually peanuts), which are a good source of protein anyway.
  2. Brand new technology: not guilty. I’ve always thought people who, for example, buy a new iPod whenever a new generation is released, even though they have a perfectly functioning one already, are a bit silly. I do have an iPod (my first and only one), however. It’s a fifth generation and I see no point in getting a new one. Other than that, I don’t really have any new technology.
  3. Bottled water: not guilty. I have a glass bottle that has a capacity of about half a litre. I bring this to university each day, where I can refill it when it runs out. Bottled water is one of the biggest daily wastes of money I know of.
  4. (more…)