Mark J Winter's Blog

A short time ago in my blog I mentioned Greg Dion from ‘100 cups’. To refresh your memory (or tell you for the first time, depending whether you’re new to me or not) he’s set up a campaign of his own with the goal of meeting 100 people for a cup of tea. While a lot of us use sites like Facebook & Twitter it’s slowly taking over the way we interact. I for example would much rather just write on someones wall than call them. It’s not so much laziness but taking advantage of convenience. It’s getting to the point where I probably take advantage of it a little too much. That’s why I agreed to meet Greg and help him reach his goal.

Over a cup of tea at the Shakespeare’s Head in Carnaby Street we spoke about our goals and a little about ourselves. It was a welcomed break from the computer and a great experience to be part of something so great in it’s simplicity. If you like Danny Wallace and/or Dave Gorman then definitely check out Greg and be one of the 100 cups.

It’s always good to talk about ideas you have and today was no exception. Greg asked if I’d contacted any radio stations. I have to an extent but not in a great depth. He suggested that we take a short walk towards BBC radio and ask to speak to someone who could help us. That short walk later (which was actually not so short) we ended up at ‘a’ BBC radio building. Radio 2 & 6 to be exact. After explaining to them what I was up to they redirected me to BBC radio 1, I gave them a card and we went on our way. After a repeated conversation in the 2nd BBC building we finally found Radio 1 HQ and were informed that the BBC “don’t do that sort of thing”. A little bit strange but I suppose 2 guys wandering in throwing something like this at them must come across a little odd. I left them a card and we left the building. Greg then spotted a woman about to enter the building and we got talking to her. She’d just started work there and said a good bet would be to hang around and wait for a DJ to walk in or out. Fearne Cotton was due fairly soon and we might be able to catch her. Unfortunately I didn’t catch her name but thank you lovely lady for the tip.

Now, here’s where I’m a tiny bit disappointed in myself. I didn’t wait around for Fearne. The thought of me stopping her, explaining myself and asking for her help was more daunting than I could handle. So, Fearne, if you ever see me know that I could’ve been that weirdo screaming ‘get me a job’ but instead saved you from such an ordeal. Paint me yellow, call me chicken etc I just wasn’t feeling right about it.

All in all we handed out a load of business cards and got networking face to face. In a way it was a meeting of both of our campaigns. The ‘getting a job’ aspect for me and the ‘real life interaction’ for Greg. A proper good result.

Oh yeah, I forgot… I know this probably seems irrelevant and somewhat stupid but whilst looking at a map on my phone a man asked us if we were lost and gave us directions. When does that ever happen? What a nice man.

I just received an interesting tweet from my friend Araba (Can I call you a friend?I’ve not seen you for years and we were friends in 6th Form… I’m gonna go with friend). She tweeted “One thing I’m interested in - It’s all good asking people to help but what are YOU doing?”

I suppose with all my campaign blogged and tweeted about I fail to mention the efforts I’m going to in order to find a job. As much as I’d like someone to win the money, I’m not one to put all my focus on one thing. I’m looking for jobs also. It’d be a little bit disappointing if I found myself a job after the amount of success this has generated. That said, I’d take any relevant job.

I’m doing all the usual job application sites, checking them on a daily basis. Emailing companies asking for placements. Anything I can think of really. There’s an equal effort going in to the hunt as there is the campaign. I’m not trying to pay others to do all the work for me, it’s a concept that’s escalated into something bigger than I imagined. Something I’d like to see all the way through.

Hopefully that clears things up a bit.

I’ve just finished editing my campaign video. Based on the concept of simple Mathematics Me + You = Job is designed to drum up support as well as giving a thankful nod to my supporters so far. Apologies if you didn’t make the final cut, I chose the first couple of hundred and whittled it down from there. Thank you to everyone and keep spreading the word around, I’m receiving some fantastic leads. Watch the video and try spot yourself here.

In my last post I mentioned creating a flyer available to be printed and sent to companies to spread the word of my job search.

I’ve changed the concept to be a PDF to be emailed. I realised after some brainstorming with my mate Ashley that it’s a lot of ink to be printed and people would be less inclined to go to all the effort. You can almost hear the sound of “You mean I’ve got to get an envelope, stamp AND post it? This guy is having a laugh”.

Using Acrobat Pro I’ve created some fields that can simply be filled in on the computer. You can then email to anyone and everyone. You can download the PDF along with a basic ‘How to’ text file cleverly entitled ‘How to’ and that is available here

So, forward it to any company you like. Friends, family, anyone. You might not want the 10% but undoubtably someone else will.

Last night I decided I’d go to bed around 11.30ish which was a welcome change from the recent ‘1am job search in pants’ routine I’d got myself into. The only problem with going to bed over an hour earlier than you’re used to is while your body is tired your mind isn’t. Or worse, the other way around. Although I’d rather have slept straight away I’m kind of glad I didn’t as my mind wandering lead me to some more ideas for the campaign.

I’m all too aware that every application I’ve written has been rejected or ignored. Bringing myself to someone looking to employ doesn’t seem to be working. The alternative will be to help them along in taking notice. As we’ve learned from mass protestors and individuals with signs, a group tends to make more of an impact. So, me painting a ‘Give me a job’ sign and marching around London is, if anything, only going to get me sectioned. That option goes out of the window.

I’ve already emailed many companies that I’ve found online, most of which have replied and regretfully turned me away. Most of these people congratulated me on my portfolio and wished me luck. Most of these people offered me advice. I’ve taken from this that the best approach is to contact a company directly. I find this strange as you’d think someone looking to employ would be more inclined to respond.

Anyway… I’ve gone on enough. Now for the next step in the campaign: I’m working on flyers that will be available for download. To help you along in the process of winning 10% of my first months wages I’ll provide you with a flyer and a space to write your Twitter name. All you have to do is print it off, fill in your Twitter for reference and post it to any Graphic Design company that you wish.

When the company become inundated with references they’ll soon remember my name. Either that or they’ll be sick of the sight of my face and contact me to beg for mercy. Obviously I’m hoping for the first option.

Now, the downside of this approach: If a company receives more than one flyer and I get the job there can only be one winner. To be as fair as possible I’ll ask my hypothetical boss which name came first. Should he/she not be aware of which flyer came through first then I will ask him/her to randomly select a name. 

You can print off as many flyers as you want and send them to as many companies as you like. The more you enter the more chance you stand in winning.

Let’s broaden the world of Graphic Design listening and find me a job.

Last night I decided to contact my local newspaper (Ilford Recorder) to try get my story printed. I sent them a list of links such as the articles in The Drum Ugly Baby and my recent interview with Charlotte Reid. Hopefully they’ll get back to me and I can get everyone in Ilford on my side. The last time I was featured in the Ilford Recorder was for my Year 6 Christmas production of Pinocchio where I played the loveable Father Geppetto. I wore my dads red and black striped BBQ apron backwards and a pair of massive glasses with the lenses taken out so I looked like some kind of Reg Holdsworth. Embarrassingly enough, my Nan has the photo framed at her house… So, with that in mind, I think it’s time Ilford Recorder did a follow on story. The tale of a wooden boy coming to life is nowhere near as heart warming as this one. ‘One man in search of employment with the intent to reward the fellow man’. Move over Disney, there’s a new storyteller in town.

What I failed to comprehend was the scale of things. This morning I spoke to my friend Danny in Dubai who mentioned contacting ‘The Metro’ or ‘London Lite’. Why didn’t I think of that? Ilford is big. Sure. But London… London is a hell of a lot bigger. It’s the home of my future job. It is where I want to be. It’s the bloody capital. Thank you for that Danny. An excellent idea that I’ve taken on board and followed through with. Within minutes of emailing the Metro I received a reply. Before you get as excited as I did, don’t. Kylie Martin who is in charge of general enquiries is on maternity leave. Congratulations to you on the new baby, Kylie Martin. I didn’t lose hope. During the next minute I found another email address to contact and did a lightening fast copy & paste from the previous email. I love a good shortcut. Assuming no one else is in the process of having a baby I’m on to something. Thanks again Danny. If this goes out it could be the biggest advertisement yet.

“We only said goodbye with a kernel panic, you crashed about 12 times, you go back to Apple and I go back to my old Mac…”

Ok, perhaps that was extremely nerdy of me but I’ve got my MacBook back and I can get on with some designing finally.

It’s been 2 weeks and the result Apple came back with is ‘nothing wrong with it’. Bit weird. Apparently they couldn’t recreate the problem so they couldn’t find anything to fix. After changing my contact details with them (Wrong information meant I wasn’t informed) I took the laptop home and played out the last 40 minutes of it’s life   with ‘The Strokes - Is This It?’ on the way home. It’s been on for around 5 hours now and I’ve not had any problems. I’d say ‘fingers crossed’ only it’s really hard to type like that. So, wish me luck.

After spending last night visiting my friend Ashley we worked our way firstly through the tough task of KFC. We shook out some of our frustrations with some improv Guitar/Keyboard then got onto the more serious business of my search. I’ve felt a little bit down with it all recently and Ashley was at hand to verbally kick me back into line with some straight talking logic. Within seconds he’d introduced me to 2 new websites worth of jobs. A minute passed and we’d already scan-read job titles that suited me perfectly. He even suggested I just apply for the senior roles with my favourite logic of ‘what have you got to lose?’ The chances are that I’ll get turned down or ignored but there is that possibility that I’ll be considered for another role. Being the Englishman that I am, I love the idea of the underdog winning.

I’ve also decided that I’m going to look at creating iPhone Apps. I’ve got a couple of ideas that have been floating about for ages but I’ve never wanted to go near them as I find coding daunting. I might as well try though. I mean ‘What have I got to lose?’ Right? …This’ll be after job searching. Employment comes first.

After 2 weeks without a Mac and various phone calls to the Lakeside branch of Apple I decide to see if I can track my repair status online. Sure enough, you can. It was fixed 5 days ago. I’m quite annoyed as I’ve had ideas pile up that I haven’t been able to work on. I’ve been using my old Mac (gave it to my Mum) but it’s not got any CS, the trackpad is the old version and… well, it’s just not as good. When you get used to something it’s hard going back to older models. It’s like me trying to use a PC now; it’s confusing. 

What’s even more frustrating is I might not even be able to collect it until tomorrow as my parents had their car stolen. We’ve got my Mum’s car but she’s got to go back to work in preparation for tomorrow’s GCSE results. I couldn’t have timed this any worse.

All of that aside I’ve decided to dedicate a larger portion of this day to searching for jobs myself. I’ve taken a couple of days rest from full on job hunting as I didn’t like feeling as bad as I did. I’ve got enough ideas to get to work on as soon as I get the Mac back so I might as well get on with the basics now. Makes sense.

Today’s thanks goes to James Walters who suggested some ideas for the campaign. I’ll be looking into those soon and hopefully get a bit of a boost in support. Things have fallen flat over the past week but now I’m feeling a hell of a lot better I’ll be back drumming up support and searching… How many times do I say the word ‘searching’? It’s quite annoying after a while. Searching, searching, searching. Note to self: Use a thesaurus. 

I think searching and promoting all these long hours have caught up with me. Yesterday I felt awful. Still not so great today. I had to cancel on a friend from my old college. I hate having to cancel, especially at such late notice.

This morning I’ve taken things a little bit easier and started the day helping my Dad mend the shed roof. After that near fiasco with the rotten wood I had some lunch then went back to work… I soon realised a shower was probably necessary first. It was.

I’ve joined updated my LinkedIn account by creating a new profile on ‘Behance’. Thanks for that tip, James Walters. LinkedIn seems to be a really useful way of having an online CV and creating your own network. That said, it’s such a big website with so many possibilities because of this that it comes across a little bit daunting. I’ve decided to create my Behance profile first as per James’ advice.

I should mention that I still haven’t got my MacBook back from Apple. I tried calling Lakeside yesterday but got no reply. I think this is day 11 or 12 now. It’s really quite frustrating not being able to use my own laptop. The best example I can think of is if you break both arms and have to get someone to scratch an itchy nose… Ok, it’s not as drastic as having both of your arms broken but it’s annoying. I use my laptop a hell of a lot.

I have to say, the past few days have easily been the most draining of this whole campaign. I tend to wake up a couple of times in the night and it’s got to the point now where I’ve got a phone in my hand, checking twitter and email for job links before I’ve even regained full consciousness. I don’t know whether to be proud of that dedication or disturbed. It’s quite a heavy workload but I’m enjoying the challenge and hearing from everyone. Knowing that people quite literally all over the world have heard of me and are continuing to forward the search with others complimenting me. I’m still attracting the odd bits of negativity but that’s to be expected. Anyway… the campaign continues…

Yesterday, as I mentioned I went to visit my friend Ashley to talk about creating a video to boost my followers. He’d just got back from holiday so it was good to see him again and nice to have a little break before we got working again. After laughing through possible scenarios we could have in the videos we moved onto the more creative ideas. I had the idea of initially creating a Film Noir short where everything was sad looking, deep and meaningful with a sense of mystery. I soon realised this would probably look quite pathetic and not ideal for what we’re doing. Ashley had the idea of doing a mock charity advert. You know those ones like RSPCA with a sad looking animal that ends up frolicking about. It was a funny concept but I didn’t want to portray ‘sad and needy’. I’ve had a few comments mentioning that already so I didn’t want to push that too far. I’ve not intended to be sad and/or needy by any means. This was supposed to be a creative approach of networking and I think it’s going fantastically well.

Eventually we settled on a ‘Jigsaw’ idea that Ashley came up with. We brainstormed it out and were both really happy with the final concept on paper. Then the power went out. It was a massive power cut. Houses, streetlights, shops were pitch black. Jess, who I mentioned near the start of the blogging lives around a 10/15 minute walk (I’m rubbish with estimating distance) from Ashley’s and she was in the dark also. After around an hour sitting in the living room by candlelight with the Roberts’ talking about when Ashley & Charmaine were younger while Ash read jokes from Sickipedia the power finally came back on.

This is when total disbelief set in. One of the first adverts to come on TV was for a Car (I forget which make). Their setup was that of a Jigsaw. It was our idea. So close to the point I’d suggested having a piece missing, exactly the same as the advert. Neither of us had seen it before so that idea had to be thrown out of the window. By this point it was around midnight so we rescheduled the video brainstorming and Ashley dropped me home. I slept for nearly 11 hours straight and I feel much better. I know it’s not healthy to sleep for that long but I really needed it. Back to the job hunt.

By the way, I’ve purposely not gone into too much detail about the video idea. I didn’t want to ruin it, even if we didn’t use that idea. Whatever we come up with it’ll involve similar ideas I assume.

I’ve just got home from London and checked Twitter to find a card has been found already. Congratulations Marianne Cantwell for being that person. Thank you for the comment ‘THE best find a job campaign: I just found @markjwinter’s card on bus check it out (beats a CV!)’. I’m bloody happy with that. I always liked the Number 8 bus journey to my Grandparents, now I have even more of a reason.

It’s already reached Nottingham, Plymouth and Santa Cruz. Perhaps that’s what The Thrills were singing about all along. I haven’t heard this in ages, I somehow lost it both from my iTunes and CD collection. That said, I remember hating the CD when it first came out. A slow grower but this is one of the better tracks: http://bit.ly/a06Jhu

My friend Ashley just text. We’re on for the video tonight. Brilliant.

Mum needs her laptop back now so I’ll be working via iPhone for a while. As long as I’m not reduced to carrier pigeon, I can still search and advertise from there.

I decided today that I needed a break from the computer. My friend Jamie took the day off work to work on a project and give blood. Separate tasks. I’ll talk more about that shortly.

I’m testing tumblr out for my iPhone and I’m on a jolty bus so excuse typos etc.

Whilst Jamie looked for places to place his project I took the opportunity to also use the day and scatter some of my business cards around. Keep an eye out for those. We also stopped off go la tasca for lunch which is always a winner in my books. Bloody love. When Spain won the world cup I tried to start a rumour that la tasca were offering 50% off to celebrate. It never kicked off. Much like Spain’s first game if I remember correctly. I know nothing about football, I hope that was clever of me. I since discovered ‘vouchercloud’ for the iPhone which offers 50% off and various other deals for other places. I’ve never eaten so much tapas until I found this app.

Onto Jamie’s project: I’m not sure if it’s got a name but the concept involved a disposable camera and trust in the fellow man. On the side of the camera is a stamp and his address. Tied to it is a note asking for people to take a picture and relocate the camera and for the final person to post it. Also attached are strips of paper to tear off that have his flickr account linked on. I really hope this idea works, I’d love to see the pictures people take. Look for the camera around Covent Garden near the food court by the free magazines.

At 2 Jamie had an appointment to give blood so we went our separate ways. I visited my grandparents in Bow on the way home and helped my Nan learn Microsoft word and solitaire on her laptop. She’s proper good with things like that. After a lesson or 2 with her mobile she was texting like a champ. Even text speak. I don’t know about you but I’m impressed with her.

I’m now on my way home, still tired but pleased with the fact I’ve had a break yet managed to do some promotion. Later I think I’m seeing another friend to brainstorm ideas for a video. Watch this space. Me and Ashley work really well together so I’m looking forward to see what direction we’ll go with it.

I have not been this tired in such a long time. After a couple of days worth of feedback from web designers, wordsmiths and people in general I’ve taken everything on board and have completely revamped my online self. My sleep is now so messed up I had morning breath at lunch time. Revolting.

If my internet wasn’t so shoddy I could’ve done everything in a fraction of the time. Around 3/5 I’d estimate. My current hurdle is my MobileMe account which up until I wrote this sentence was telling me I needed to login more times than the stereotype child asks ‘are we there yet’ on a long trip. If I can restrain myself from smacking this computer I’m a shoe in for ‘Father of The Year’ when I have kids… I hope this comes across as jovial, I’m so drained I can’t even tell anymore.

Besides the dodgy internet I’ve had a few interruptions that have stopped me from getting into any good flow of work. I’ve had more stop starts than TFL… Anyway… today I’ve discovered ‘Flavor.me’ as I’ve already mentioned. I’ve obviously just signed up to Tumblr also. Flickr was my third and finally LinkedIn. I also signed up to some other sites that do the same things but realised I didn’t like them. These 4 offered me the best services for what I need so I’d advise you to save time and just use these if you wanted to host your information in the way I have.

I realised that I could recreate my website in a much more professional way using these services:

• Flavor.me - Host
• LinkedIn - CV
• Flickr - Portfolio
• Tumblr - Campaign Blog
• Twitter - Campaign Advertising

The only downside to all of this is the £59 I spent getting a MobileMe account to work hand in hand with iWeb. It wasn’t money wasted though I suppose, it works much better than Hotmail with my iPhone. 

My new website is currently pending, changing over to the original domain name but can be viewed here. It’s a definite improvement. My thanks goes to Steve Worsley for his in depth constructive criticisms and all the links that lead me towards the new site. Any more criticisms, don’t hesitate to contact me, I’m always looking to improve my work.

Today I discovered ‘Tumblr’. I’d heard of it before but never looked into it until now. Currently it’s crashing with everything I do so if you’re reading this now you know I’ve succeeded and managed to blog. If you’re not reading this on Tumblr, what the hell are you doing on my Mum’s computer? Get out of my house.

Earlier I received an email from a guy who was nice enough to offer lots of advice on my website. Or as it’s beginning to become more apparent, perhaps it should be called ‘webshite’. I always struggled with web design and have only attempted it at college prior to diving head first into iWeb. It’s become a lot more apparent that I should’ve not wasted my time. It’s not good for many reasons IE hard to navigate, doesn’t actually explain what the website is for. 2 big things you’d want from a website.

I took all of his advice on board and through one of the links he sent me I set up an account with ‘flavor.me’. I’m currently using the free service it offers, once my Mac is back I’ll have access to my original portfolio and can create all the JPGs from there. I’m slowly building up a list of things that need to be done when I get it back. It’ll probably take me a long days work to get everything sorted in brand but at least it will look good and consistent even before my Portfolio is seen. Currently the general comments have been ‘Portfolio is good, everything before that is not’. I just wish I could get on with some work. To top off the loss of the mac, I just found the receipt I signed for; £47. I don’t know how I overlooked that one. I’ll be out of pocket and even more desperate for a job.

More about flavors.me: it’s brilliantly easy. As much as I like working on a Mac and as great as I found iWeb, flavors.me is by far, so much easier and looks much more professional than I ever could have made a website look with the tools available.

Today’s good news, I was contacted by a guy offering to advertise me with his company. We’re currently in talks via email and I’ve just written some copy for him about me. I’ve just emailed a contact I made ‘Sarah Turner’ who is checking the grammar for me. She’s a lovely lady and a big help.

Ok, now I’m writing Monday despite going to mention stuff that’s happened since Saturday. I felt 100 cups needed it’s own section.

Other things that have happened to me in the few days that have passed include: An interview, an email entitled ‘work’, a potential apprenticeship placement and first semi-negative opinion.
The interview came from a ‘Charlotte Reid’. She was kind enough to interview me to spread the word of my campaign in greater depths. To find out more about me and my background etc. She’s lovely and I suggest someone out their looking for a journalist gives her a job: http://clreid.com/
Secondly, the email entitled work. I’m not sure if I can mention his name in case it’s a ‘conflict of interest’ or something but let’s call him ‘Annabella’ (First mysterious name I could think of for a man). Annabella asked me for a copy of my Portfolio which I’ve emailed to him. He’s hopefully getting back to me today with possible jobs from a recruitment agency he works for. If he wins me this job and himself 10% I think that’s a potential conflict of interest and I won’t risk anyone losing a job over it. I know how hard it can be to find one.
An apprenticeship scheme contacted me, I fit the bill of the type of employer they’re after and they offer to teach Web Design/Video Production. Brilliant. There are no downsides to this other than the money. It’s not going to be great… but it’ll give me more skills and hopefully act as a nice segway into helping me understand iPhone App coding. I’ve a couple of ideas for apps that could make some money. I just need the programming skills first.
On a sour note I was tweeted a ‘chutzpah’. Now, the guy in question said it was a good thing as it meant ‘wit, cheek and confidence’. I checked online and it said it was used, generally speaking, derogatorily. It’s best example was ‘One who kills both his parents then throws himself on the mercy of the courts for being an orphan’. I found this very comical. The imagery is brilliant. That said, not all that nice. Like I said, I was told it was intended in a good way and have accepted that. I just wanted to mention it for it’s fantastic example that I cracked up laughing at.
Finally, with a second plea for help… be on the look out for a Red Ford Orion REG: G68 VME. Mum and Dad’s car was stolen last night. There’s no reward in it, just the satisfaction that you’ve done a good deed and helped catch some bad guys.

It’s been a busy few days (It’s actually Monday, I’m catching up on the blog I should’ve done). I’ve been contacted by a guy name Greg regarding not a job… but a cup of tea. Co-creator of ‘2 guys - 100 cups’ Greg Dion is a fell campaigner. Only he has a job. 2 if my memory serves me well. It’s alright for some, ay. His idea revolves around the idea that things like Facebook & Twitter etc are slowly taking over the way we interact with other humans. Sadly, it’s true. I’m definitely guilty of favouring a quick text over an email. An email over a phone call. A phone call over any human interaction. That’s one of the biggest things I don’t like about myself; I’m rubbish at starting conversations. So bad in fact it’s embarrassing bordering cringeworthy.

Anyway… ‘100 cups’ involves the meeting of 2 new people; Greg and stranger (That’s me. My sweets are safe.). Over a cup of tea they discuss things going on in their lives, daily events, anything and everything that a conversation can be. Tea is the ice breaker. It’s a lovely idea and I think more people should do their best at making the most of conversation. I know I need to. Visit Greg’s (Co-creator, Stefan) campiagn here: http://www.onehundredcups.com. Contact him and tell him you love tea and his idea even more. It’ll be a brilliant thing to do.

Today I have received my first email of “I’m sorry your application has not been shortlised for an interview”. Considering the amount of jobs I have applied for I think it’s safe to say, generally speaking, companies don’t follow up with their potential new employees. This is why you should never wait around for anyone to respond. Even if it’s a sure thing (I’ve been lied to by companies, knowing they have positions available). It’s a little disheartening but I am in no way being negative about the whole thing. There are a number of good companies out there who take the time to reply, as I’d already mentioned, with an automated response. This has saved me so much frustration and given me that morale boost to keep searching. It takes a few minutes to group email a response and say ‘No’ in so many words. A genuine thank you to those who spare this time and understand the frustration in looking for a job.

I’ve just received a list of 5 or 6 jobs I should apply for from a friend I never see, Araba. Or Molly. Or whatever you’re calling yourself now, you’ll always be Araba to me. They all look pretty good and at worst, not too far out of my current expertise. I’ll get onto applying for those ASAP. Thanks, Araba. You’re the helper of the day, today. She also sent me a link to a guy who bought some names on Google, so when someone Googled their name they were linked to him. Very clever. I’m going to look into doing something similar. The only problem is, I have to think of what name/s to buy. I really hope it doesn’t cost too much. On an income of Zero there’s only a certain amount of things I can buy.
I’m not quite sure how I thought of it but I decided to edit Wikipedia’s ‘Graphic Designer’ page with information regarding my campaign. It’s relevant, there can be no argument… This was soon taken down but I managed to take a quick screenshot of it.
Danny Wallace. Danny Bloody Wallace. My first celebrity twitter endorser. Thanks to him I’ve made an excellent connection for a potential job. I’m waiting to hear back on Monday. Him and Dave Gorman are two great sources of inspiration for this campaign. Their adventures (Join Me, Yes Man, Are You Dave Gorman? and Important Astrology Experiment to name but 4) have encouraged me to push this campaign further and further. This is the biggest moment yet in ‘The Employment of…’. I can’t explain how great I feel about things after this. It’s great how this is taking off.

Overnight I’ve managed to get more followers on my Twitter feed than I have in a week for Facebook. Turns out adding around 500 people will eventually get some followers. Around 10% but numbers are still rising. I’ve seen people retweet my campaign and spoke to them receiving nothing but compliments. It’s a fantastic response and I’m thankful to everyone of you making the effort. Hello to NineIron who showed interest in reading the case study. This blog is ultimately the case study so far. Perhaps I’ll compile it all at the end and make something of it all.

Via Twitter I found lots of people advertising jobs (albeit the same one) but was a much senior role than I’m currently at. I also managed to find an apprenticeship scheme looking for someone that fits my description to do a day release learning Web Design/Video Production. I’ve emailed them showing my interest. The money isn’t all that great and seeing as I found it I’ll give myself 10% (I’d really like it to go to someone else. Show human kindness and spread the word) but it’s a job nonetheless. It also offers potential new skills which I’m always open to learning. I have an interest in web design; the flash side of things especially. It’s just the coding I’ve never got to grips with. Ideally I’d need someone to tutor me through it… Like some kind of apprenticeship scheme you might say.

With my MacBook still away for repairs and no sign of it returning anytime soon I’m left to just search and apply at a basic level. No furthering my campaign by branding it all. No video. Just nagging people on Twitter to renag and Google Searches.

Some serious thanks needs to go James Kirkby for his help today. He gave me some great advice with using Twitter (A route I’ve avoided until now because Twitter confuses me. I don’t quite understand it. Now I know it works and people listen… I still don’t understand it. But I’m happy with that). I’ve spent the best part of a few hours adding people of the Design world in hope they’ll follow me back. Of the 500 people I’ve added (Manually by the way. RSI is thankfully that easy to type) only a handful are now currently following me. Although that sounds pretty poor considering my aching hands word has spread and taken flight to far off countries like the USA, France and even Brazil. I’ve received a good few contacts in London also, I’m just surprised how quickly a few words can spread like wildfire. e-wildfire. Follow this man for today he will forever be a Prince amongst Men: @jkirkby.

James’ other idea for me was to make a video. After my initial deep breath of taking on Twitter (I won that fight) the thought of making a video was something I was disappointed in myself for. Why did I not think of this myself? Here’s James’ campaign video: http://bit.ly/aSZ4c5  A brilliant idea. Sadly, with my Mac away for repairs and no access to anything Adobe I can’t get as creative as I’d like. That said, I’ve drawn up some plans. Even drew a crap cartoon of me with a beard. I looked like a midget with it’s scale… Again, if I rush the proportions are never correct. I’m going to create a personal background for my twitter account as well… I’ll have a lot of work when I’m back up and running.
So, Mr Kirkby, thank you for my biggest campaign boost yet. I don’t know much about politics but I reckon you’ve done more for unemployment than anyone in government ever has. Bollotics to you politicians. Bollotics to every one of you.

After a trip into Romford to get my Graduation pictures printed for my Nan and a while helping my friend Charmaine try fix her PC (It never got solved annoyingly) I’ve finally sat down to look for some jobs. Today’s been really busy and I’m knackered but pushing through it all.

Oh yeah, I should also mention, I bought a couple of CDs while out: Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (Which came cheaper because I’d bought) The Coral - Butterfly House. The Coral always have really great artwork to go with their albums. I like the idea of a montage of seemingly irrelevant objects. Each time you look at it you discover something new. They’re just such a great all round band which I think you can tell by the effort thats gone into the artwork. So that’s my Design eye for today; The Coral. One of my favourite bands, especially when taking their artwork into account.
The post came this morning (As it does every morning that you have post) and I finally got my business cards. They look fantastic (Thanks Cards Made Easy, you made my cards easy). I’ll have to start advertising myself places around London with these soon. Maybe something will pick up that way. Who knows?

 

This week has started far from good. After a horrible case of what I think is food poisoning (Old El Paso I’m renaming ‘Oh Hell, Pukehole’) and losing my MacBook for repairs at the Genius Bar I’m, needless to say, far from happy.

That said, in spite of these hurdles I’ve managed to apply to 2 jobs today… well, one job and one company a contact at my Dad’s place found for me. We’ll see if anyone replies to my emails this time. I might make a list of ‘Name & Shame’ for companies nice enough to reply or at least have an automated system in place (As I’ve said before, I think this should be a minimum out of politeness). It’ll probably just be a list I can look at when I’m finally employed so I can tut at every ‘Non-Responder’ individually.
Thankfully I gave my Mum my old Mac so I’ve got this to use as a backup. The only problem is it’s a little fiddly to transfer my iWeb files over and continue my blog… also, it’s an older version so I don’t know if it’ll even be compatible. Instead I’ve decided to keep notes as I go and update them for a mega blog when I get my MacBook back. Which could be as long as a week. Gutted.

I decided to take a bit of a break yesterday. After spending most of Friday dealing with a crash every hour or so I wanted to see how long my MacBook would last and didn’t want to risk losing any information. Luckily, I have’t experienced any problems since other than a delayed startup with a white screen this morning. I don’t know what that means but I’m hoping I’ll find out tomorrow at the Genius Bar.

I realise most people won’t be advertising jobs today so perhaps isn’t the best day to search but I’ve been contacted by someone so I thought I’d mention him. A guy named ‘Benjamin Jacques’ emailed me on Facebook offering some advice via his website: http://MeltingWaves.com/ and his Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/meltingwavesstudios Considering I’ve asked him to help advertise me, I thought it only fair to do the same for him.

He’s been learning Design for as long as I have only he started at the age of 15. I decided I shouldn’t feel bitter that someone younger is so much more successful than me, it’ll only make me feel old and useless. Everyone is getting old and I’m working on not being useless (IE The Employment of Mark J Winter campaign).

You all should definitely check out Benjamin’s links. He’s worked on some really impressive things and his following is also pretty remarkable. Credit to him and thanks for that little boost on a Sunday morning. All I need now is a Full English breakfast… and this week started out so well.

Well this is annoying; my MacBook has decided it doesn’t want to work properly today. I’ve had 2 grey screens so far this morning, both of which telling me to restart my computer in about 6 different languages. It’s meant that every update I’ve had to blog about has been lost. I’ve had a few positives this morning as well. So, here’s attempt number 3 at mentioning them…

Firstly, I’ve had a couple of new members to the Facebook group thanks to Jodie. Welcome, Keeley & Leanne and thank you for your help in trying to find me a job. Best of luck to you both in winning that 10%.

The second bit of good news came from my Dad. He works in the print industry and spoke to the guys in sales, asking them to keep an eye and ear open for me (Just one mind, they’ve got to cross roads and things like that, it’d be dangerous and rude to ask for both). So, I’m hoping with some contacts in the print industry I’ll get somewhere. I mean, if you’re going to find a career in Graphic Design, this seems a fairly intelligent way of going about it.

I found a job advertised in Design Week for a company looking to expand it’s London office. They’re after both Graphic & Interior Designers which is handy because my friend Jess who has been helping me is an Interior Designer. A bloody good one at that. She’s managed to secure a job to keep her going but I’ve forwarded it onto her as well. If there’s anyone out there who is looking for an Interior Designer, please get in contact and I’ll set you up. 

I’ve had to cut my job search very short today. My MacBook has been constantly reporting errors, forcing me to reset. I’ve spent hours trying to backup everything before having to completely reset it via the start up discs. 1 job applied for. Nearly 2 until I realised it was in Leicestershire. I’m not sure my Oystercard could get me there.

It’s nearly midnight and I’ve spent all day trying to reboot my MacBook. I haven’t had a reset warning for nearly an hour but I’ve booked an appointment at the Genius Bar just in case.

Thursday morning and after being rudely awakened by the dustmen I try to get back to sleep. Only I can’t as I’m now singing ‘Parklife’ and incredibly annoyed that the lyric is ‘Wednesdays’. To be fair, I don’t think Phil Daniels is from this area. A short while later I get back to sleep. These late nights of job searching and updating this blog are shifting my sleep patterns, I should sort that out. 

When I woke up for the second time I had Danny Wallace in my head for some reason. He is a good looking guy but at the same time I hope it wasn’t one of ‘those’ dreams.

I decided that the man famous for his true stories such as ‘Join Me’ & ‘Yes Man’ was a possible advertisement route I should take. So I decided to join his forum and link people the group, promising I wasn’t trying to steal his followers. I’ve also posted my group on his Facebook page. I hope you don’t mind, Dan.

While I’m here I feel I should do a good deed. There’s a guy on the Danny Wallace forum looking to get an army of Rubber Ducks, write contact details on them and sail them away on their merry travels in the hope to make new friends. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any contact details so I can’t advertise him. I’ll get onto that though, it only seems fair. Watch this rubber ducking space… Oh, and this isn’t detracting from my job search, it will take seconds to email him and ask.

If you don’t know who Danny Wallace is, check him out. 

Todays lunchtime search consisted of placing an advert in the Ilford Recorder and promoting some word of mouth via my friend Jodie. She emailed everyone on her contact list a link to the group. Thanks, Jodie. Let’s see how far this’ll take me.

I’m struggling to find many new jobs day in day out. Adverts stay active for weeks, sometimes months at a time so I’m now finding jobs I’ve already applied for. The slowing down of the search is seeing me slowly work my way through a bag of idiot food when I really should be eating something substantial instead of making a meal of a snack.

I just spoke to my mate, Dan (Not Danny Wallace). He works with Heating and Ventilation and is currently at a Uni doing whatever a H&V guy does (Note to self: Remember what Daniel does properly). Apparently he got talking to one of the guys at the Uni and there’s possibly some job vacancies there. I’ve asked Dan to pass on a copy of my portfolio. I’ll have to burn another copy off. I’ll post more on that one tomorrow. 

In the mean time, here’s a picture of our boiler in thanks to Daniel for helping my cause.

What I’ve failed to mention on the Facebook group is that I went to college for 3 months at the start of this year. I’ve no idea why, it was an important part of me advancing myself in my career prospects. As I’m sure I’ve said already at some point, I’ve worked in the industry before on a marketing team for a property consultants. Unfortunately I was made redundant (staff cutbacks etc). 

A short while after this I signed up for ‘Shillington College’. Shillington offered the exact thing I needed; a short intense course designed to teach you all the necessities, quick tricks and leave you with a great portfolio at the end of it. I didn’t want to spend 3 years at University, that would’ve been pointless (Not just because I don’t drink but I didn’t want to wait that long). 

If you’re in my situation with some existing skills or you just want to learn a trade fast, definitely check out http://shillingtonschool.com/ there’s colleges dotted all over the globe. London & Manchester in this country, a couple in Australia and a fairly recent New York one. One of the Australian staff contacted me today about the group offering to put the word about a little bit. I figured I should mention them as there’d be no way I’d be anywhere close to getting back into work without their help.

The reason I’ve just remembered to mention my college is I received a message from them today. One of the lecturers in the Australia college (originally from London) liked the group and posted the link to her wall for me. Result. Thanks for that, Jen. I also decided to contact one of my London lecturers to see if she wouldn’t mind doing the same.

After this confidence boost I decided I should try advertise myself in a few more ways. I mean, there’s only so far word of mouth will take this group. This morning I posted an advert on both ‘Gumtree’ and ‘Craigslist’ asking for people to join. I’ve also been working on some business cards. I figured if I leave them lying about all over London, someone is bound to pick them up. Hopefully I’ll get more attention than the people who give out those phone cards by Tottenham Court Road station. No one really wants the card so do them a favour, take one and recycle it. Only do this every other time, there’s bound to be some people out there who genuinely want one. I mean, there must be, right?

For anyone who hasn’t realised yet, I’m a big Futura fan. Hence carrying the font through onto my business card design (see left for front and back).

I’ve just sent the business cards to a printers for a quote. I’ve used them once before on a freelance job and they came back with really good quality. The order process was nice and easy too. Take a look if you’re after some reasonably priced prints: www.cardsmadeeasy.com/ I’m speaking to my contact Zaynab, she loves the business card design. A second result for today. A fairly productive Wednesday I would say.

A hatrick of results. I found one of my lecturers on Facebook who moved to the new New York college to teach. She’s agreed to pass around the group to some contacts of hers in the UK. Hopefully that’ll lead to somewhere and generate some interest. I’m still a bit unsure about putting pictures of people on here as I know not everyone wants their face plastered about. Instead, in homage to my lecturer for helping me out here is a picture of some holly. No prizes for guessing her name (It’s Holly by the way). Thanks, Holly. Really pleased everything is going well for you over there also.

Before lunchtime all I’ve managed to do is chat to a contact in the Hyde Park area. I’m slightly disappointed in myself for not getting out of bed sooner and making more of the day but after exchanging a few messages I managed to send my ‘Interactive Portfolio’. It’s a PDF copy of ‘see. speak. hear.’ that can mostly be seen on here.

I’ve also skipped breakfast which means I won’t be concentrating as well as I would usually. Although, I have had a glass of Orange juice (there’s a ‘from concentrate’ joke there somewhere). There’s me drinking from my Micky Mouse glass I’ve had since as long as I can remember. Micky’s skin has faded away it’s that old. Now any liquid you pour inside colours his skin. I think that’d make a good design for children’s cups. A range of cups for a particular kid’s TV show. That said, it’s probably already been done. My ‘new ideas’ aren’t always new to reality. 

I’m going to take a shower, try wash away the failure of Tuesday.

I got a reply from Louise (My contact in Hyde Park) as I was shopping in Tesco. After some orderly buying and a last minute panic I got home to read her reply to see. speak. hear.

Firstly, the good news, she likes my work. To quote “Your portfolio looks great - and it’s definitely of the same standard if not better than the good ones I’ve seen this year.” Eat that, university goers.

Bad news is she echoes the sad state of affairs it is for employment, especially in the Graphic Design industry. Louise did make an interesting note of University students having an edge over me as they build up contacts in their education through tutors pimping out their star pupils. 1 - 1, Uni people.

Although this didn’t lead into a job I’d like to mention that Louise has been one of the few to actually reply to an email I’ve sent. There’s many potential employers who won’t bother at all. I understand most people are busy but if it was me I’d have an automated system in place at least. I can take knock backs but being ignored is one of the worst things to deal with. Well done, Louise and every other person who takes time to make an effort.

I got a reply from Louise (My contact in Hyde Park) as I was shopping in Tesco. After some orderly buying and a last minute panic I got home to read her reply to see. speak. hear.

Firstly, the good news, she likes my work. To quote “Your portfolio looks great - and it’s definitely of the same standard if not better than the good ones I’ve seen this year.” Eat that, university goers.

Bad news is she echoes the sad state of affairs it is for employment, especially in the Graphic Design industry. Louise did make an interesting note of University students having an edge over me as they build up contacts in their education through tutors pimping out their star pupils. 1 - 1, Uni people.

Although this didn’t lead into a job I’d like to mention that Louise has been one of the few to actually reply to an email I’ve sent. There’s many potential employers who won’t bother at all. I understand most people are busy but if it was me I’d have an automated system in place at least. I can take knock backs but being ignored is one of the worst things to deal with. Well done, Louise and every other person who takes time to make an effort.

Ok, so this isn’t exactly Day 01 of me job searching, I’ve been doing this properly for a good few weeks now. However this is Day 01 of me documenting my search. If you’ve found this via Facebook you’ll know I’ve offered a cash prize to anyone who can help me get a job in Graphic Design. Anything from simple word of mouth to buying fireworks that spell out ‘Graphic Design companies of London, employ Mark J Winter.’ Although I imagine that would cost a lot so for your sake, don’t do that.
Today started with a healthy breakfast which is turn is supposed to spark a good attitude for job hunting. I even sat at a table to eat which is also supposed to be better for you. Porridge reminds me of prison (I’ve never been there, I’ve just seen it on TV). If I’m to be healthy for job searching I’ll have to find alternatives as I don’t want to get sick. That won’t promote a good attitude. Orange Juice and a cup of tea also took part in the wake up.

Brilliant. My first contact for a job came whilst writing this blog. My very best friend Jess sent me a link from the Guardian website. Graphic Designer with a keen interest in the Music industry? You couldn’t write a more appropriate job for me. I’m a Graphic Designer. I like music. I could be that Graphic Designer with a keen interest in music.

While applying to this job I’m listening to music. See, I’m already the ideal candidate. It’s not something I’d usually listen to but iTunes shuffle will often have that affect. Black Sabbath - Crazy Train. Could this be a sign? You’d have to be crazy to get on a train during the rush hour period… which happens when you’re traveling to work. Lets call me crazy and see where this leads. Destination Jobsville. Here’s hoping.

Because I think I could get into trouble blogging about the companies I’ve applied to I thought it best not to mention names or include photos of their Logos. Rest assured, I’ve applied to 4 jobs prior to lunch. That has nothing to do with the fact there’s little to eat in the house. I have no time to cook when job hunting.
Here’s a picture of me wearing a ‘One size fits all’ Mafia hat my Mum got my Dad for a fancy dress party. Today this is my ‘Job hunting hat’… Well, it is for as long as it’ll stay on my freakishly large head. One size fits all indeed.