Who Am I?

Now that you’ve read the introduction to the new section of my blog it’s time to finally introduce myself.

Hi. My name’s Julian. I’m 41 years old. I’ve been unemployed since January 2008. Yep, I know, that’s a long time.

I’ve had long periods of unemployment before in my life, most notably about twenty years ago. It got to the point back then that I actually considered joining the army just so I could get a job, that was until I managed to get on to the government’s Target Retail Training program in February 1995. To cut a long story short I basically worked my backside off for three months, earning an NVQ Retail qualification, before being taken on full-time.

The job lasted for just over seven years, until June 2002. Various events in my personal life and events at work led me to suffering a nervous breakdown. I was diagnosed as being clinically depressed a short time later.

My illness lasted for nearly three years. I was declared fully fit for work in February 2005. Since that time I’ve had a few jobs, working as a steward for Norwich City Football Club, at my local paper shop for a few months until head office shut it down, and for one of the larger branches of Boots on a short-term Christmas contract.

That job finished in January 2007. Since then I’ve done a bit of voluntary work at my local RSPCA charity shop. At the moment I do a few hours of voluntary work at the RNLI Henry Blogg Museum here in Cromer. Don’t worry, I’m breaking any laws! The Job Centre rules say I’m allowed to do some unpaid work!

I’ve also been on a few of those work placement programs that the government has run over the past few years, programs run by companies like Action 4 Employment and SeaTac.

So why am I writing this blog? Well, it’s quite simple.

There seems to be a wide-held belief that single unemployed men with no dependants have nothing to worry about. Nothing could be further from the truth as far as I’m concerned.

It’s my hope that by writing about my experiences in my attempts to find work I’ll be able to show people that unemployed people don’t spend their time sitting in front of their televisions watching the likes of Jeremy Kyle and This Morning.

Some of us do want to work. Some of us hate being unemployed, and maybe this blog will show that those of us who don’t have dependants like husbands, wives and children need as much help as those that do.

I’ll be writing about some of the things I’ve done over the past few years in my attempts to find work. Some of you may find it interesting. Some of you may find it eye opening. Some of you will probably say that I’m nothing more than a whiny git who should get off his backside and find a job. Either way I hope that you’ll find it interesting.