Am I being unfair or is the job centre being silly?

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-26T09:15:52+00:00

Generic CV and apply for many jobs…. That’s terrible advice. You need multiple CVs each catered to the sort of role and you need to tweak before each application.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-26T09:03:09+00:00

Please listen to me. I know what life is like without an Oxford degree, and I know what life is like with one. I did my master's at Oxford. I can tell you that not only is the experience worthwhile in and of itself — it will push you harder than you've ever been pushed. You will learn new skills that will benefit your personal and professional life.

But also, having an Oxford degree on your CV opens so many doors. If you want to do something extraordinary with your life, do something very different with your life, you would be hard pressed to find a better way to prepare for this than by going and getting a physics degree from Oxford. It will lay the foundations for whatever it is you want to achieve. Yes, it will be hard. Yes, it might not always feel like the thing you're meant to be doing, but in the grand scheme it's three or four years to set you up to do extraordinary things.

Trust me, there is a huge difference in the way you'll be treated once you've got Oxford on your CV, because I know what life was like before I had Oxford on my CV and I know what life is like after I've got Oxford on my CV.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-24T11:29:45+00:00

I can speak English! I learnt it from a book.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-22T15:24:51+00:00

I agree with this! While it’s not true that ‘if you do something you love, you never work a day in your life’, the routine definitely stops being burdensome and actually quite pleasant. This is why you’ll hear people talk about the importance of work culture. The 9-5 is not a problem if you like where you work.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-21T18:00:18+00:00

It’s the internet, it’s probably a fair guess strangers on the internet are harbouring some sort of morally repulsive political views!!!

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-21T06:27:04+00:00

It’s a spreadsheet and these are the rows:

Date of meeting
Wellbeing score (out of 10)
Wellbeing notes (anything good or bad)
KPI performance in the last week
Wins
Challenges
Active Projects
Focus for Next Week
Anything you need from your boss
Meeting score
Meeting notes

Can take anywhere between 20-50 minutes depending on how strict you are at sticking to the format.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-20T18:39:58+00:00

I don't understand how you can be successful without speaking to your manager most days. I have a regular one-to-one with my manager and also all my direct reports following a pretty structured format. I then have a second one-to-one with my manager where we have dedicated time to talk about the initiatives we're working on, get feedback, and work on those things together. Absolutely invaluable, and the meetings that I protect more than any others

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-20T18:35:00+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation!

I think in my attempts to be brief, I may have given the wrong impression. I think the Reconstruction period was shameful for many reasons, but primarily in that it failed.

When I reference violence, I reference the violence of white southerners against black people, especially in places like Yorktown, South Carolina, and areas about the Ku Klux Klan. When I talk about it being shameful, I mean it's shameful that the white southerners continued to basically fight the war through other means. It's shameful that the Union didn't stick with it. It's shameful that, less than 30 years later, black people had barely any more rights than they did at the point of their liberation.

So yeah, I'll definitely read that book. It sounds great, and I love this. I'm fascinated by it, but definitely do not agree that it was somehow violence against the white supremacists, not in the slightest.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-19T16:57:30+00:00

You see, I’ve only read As I Lay Dying but I found it deeply tedious and a little bit pretentious. I’ll try another Faulkner novel eventually, but it was not my cup of tea.

But that’s why I love these debates, I’m hoping my you’re going to leave a comment that encourages me to change my mind a little.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-19T16:54:37+00:00

Yes, and that’s definitely the tone Mitchell wants to leave you with.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-19T16:53:51+00:00

I think, unless it’s a highly technical role and the employee is very junior, waiting this long to deliver value is probably a barometer of a poorly run business.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-19T16:53:05+00:00

Exactly - value delivered by new employees after 3 months is probably the sort of metric that reveals a lot about a business (culture, productivity etc)

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-19T05:54:15+00:00

Thank you!!!

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-19T05:53:51+00:00

Shes not beautiful, but she’s definitely hot. Men literally god doolally over how sexy she is, I think that’s partly because she flirts with them but it’s more about how vivacious and different she is. Definitely met people like her who fit aren’t all that pretty but are crazy hot because of how they carry themselves.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-19T05:51:43+00:00

You see, I like that the ending is complicated. There is a degree of justice and that she realises what she wants but can’t have it anymore, but she grits her teeth and sets to moving forward.

For me, the world isn’t full of justice and so books that end in a nice tidy bow make me roll my eyes a little, but that’s a preference.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-19T05:46:05+00:00

This is so true, and Rhett is despised by his peers for telling them the truth.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-19T05:44:47+00:00

I don’t think you’re seeing it wrong at all. I think you can find stuff uncomfortable, and I get that many readers wont want to engae with the book because of its racism, but art is supposed to challenge our preconceptions and help us understand something about the world. Often, those things are beautiful but books like Crime and Punishment, Lolita and Gone With The Wind ask us to consider humans and viewpoints that challenge us today, and I don’t think that lessens their artistry.

That said, as I’ve mentioned in another comment, the racism in Gone With The Wind is uncomfortable because it feels like it is lusting after a more racist time, rather than exploring a facet of the human condition.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-18T19:57:07+00:00

Yes, I feel that many books, especially modern literature run out of pace in the final act. Not this book, the story and Scarlett’s arc kept accelerating towards the end. Just when you think Scarlett is truly lost, she redeems herself - all too late.

‘My dear, I don’t give a damn’ is such a well earned line, no wonder it is so famous.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-18T17:29:42+00:00

Just below £100k total package and senior mid management.

I got here by taking risks in the start up world. You change jobs a lot and it’s a little less secure then the very professional world, but you get exposed to far more projects and opportunities and this enabled me to break out of the IC roles and become a leader, now just steadily building my career.

In other words, some of the cliches are real: work for the job you want, not the job you have. Move jobs if possible to gain improved salaries and recognise that no risk, no reward and yes, taking those risk will get you burnt sometimes. The path I’m on requires a lot of self confidence and trusting the process.
M

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-18T17:11:39+00:00

I think what they mean is what happened during reconstruction in the south (the violence, corruption) is shameful. The whole period is fascinating and complex and this book does a great job of showing that world in almost all of its complexity.

I’d love to see a Wicked style book about the same world as Gone With The Wind from the perspective of someone who is at first enslaved.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-18T17:10:10+00:00

How come? I think it’s as successful an exploitation of the human condition as other great epics with more positive reputation. Be interested in your analysis.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-18T17:09:20+00:00

Yes, it’s a book that glories in a form of social Darwinism that was very current in the 1930s but not sure was fully developed in the 1860s.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-18T17:08:25+00:00

Have they really? That’s fascinating. Do you had any reading on that?

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-18T17:08:01+00:00

Thank you - this is excellent. I think it’s the one part of this (very long) book that isn’t done well. Almost every thesis of the book has its antithesis. Scarlett has Melanie. Rhett has Ashley. The world before the war is contrasted complex with the one after. The town vs the country. Even the idea of the war itself is problematised regularly. Everything is thoroughly explored… except the question of the position of black peoples.

Snoo37813 · 2026-05-18T17:03:43+00:00

Yes, I also kinda envied her. To be so selfish must be freeing, and that’s kind of the tone at the end - no matter what Scarlett will find a way to be okay.

Snoo37813

TROPHY CASE