Testing Times!

My thoughts this week have centred on one thing only ... The Interview.  A few weeks ago, I succumbed to a whim to submit an application to join the editorial team of a magazine.  Amazingly, they sent me some back copies and a couple of challenges to see how I would react to submitted material, and this week I got to meet some of them at an interview, which was held in central London.  Since it wasn't far from the library of the Society of Genealogists, and the train times gave me some slack, I decided to combine the two destinations, and spent some time before the event at SoG, again pursuing some indirect Lancashire ancestors (with little success, I might add).

With some time to while away afterwards, I decided to walk the almost two miles to King's Cross station, and as I did so, I reflected on past interviews, how long ago they were, and how successful. My last successful interview was almost twenty years ago and, as I recalled the circumstances that had surrounded it, I began for the first time to wonder whether it was actually a successful interview, or if I'd been 'any port in a storm'!

At the time, I was coming to the end of a temporary job following a few weeks of unemployment.  I had made a number of unsuccessful applications for a permanent job, and was also listed with my Institute as looking for work.  It was through this latter route that, while sitting at my desk one July afternoon, I received a call from an accountant in Cambridge.  One of his clients was enjoying an upturn in business and was looking to appoint a management acccountant; he'd got my name from the Institute and was I interested?  After a few more questions, an interview was arranged for a couple of weeks hence.

The interview was successful and, after a brief holiday, I joined him at the beginning of September, by which time - so great had been his increase in trade - he'd found a larger office, and also engaged another accountant who started alongside me.  In the course of his business as a tax avoidance specialist, he created numerous limited companies each of which had many formal requirements to be fulfilled meticulously and monitored.  For this he needed accounting skills, and I now wonder whether our qualification and availability were the principal, if not the only, criteria that led to our engagement.

The Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban

As a relaxation after all this excitement, I decided yesterday to take advantage of the fine weather to explore my local bus network and, using a succession of services, visited St Albans, the see of our diocese, where I spent three hours or so wandering around the city centre in general and the cathedral in particular.  By then I was yearning for a seat, and glad of two hours' bus ride to recover.  'What is it I see in these places?' I wondered, as we drove along. After all, one cathedral or stately home is much the same as the next, generally speaking.  It's only to the enthusiast - which I'm not - that the intricate differences matter.  A few pictures and a souvenir or two and I'm ready to move on.

On my desk at the moment, metaphorically, are the plans for the next three motorhome trips, which will absorb my time and finances for much of the summer.  This realisation, coupled with the inherent difficulty mentioned recently in parking the vehicle in an urban setting, will temper the adventures I'm planning now for the coming months.

By the way, this latest interview was successful only in that I was not engaged for tasks that might prove to be beyond my skills, abilities and experience; there'll be no reduction in my free time for the moment.