overlap

It's been pointed out in the last twenty four hours that I'm becoming observably more brazen about a certain issue, and also that I'm somewhat cagey and and don't give a lot away. Both are true. Elsewhere I was talking about how I got where I am today, so I'll stick that below, since I've already typed it up anyway. But if there's any questions that occur, I'm easy to email or you're welcome to leave anonymous comments here... * Starting point - crap grade degree in non-vocational subject, only remote hope at that point was teaching my degree subjects - complete non-starter * Three years of short-term and/or temporary unskilled agency jobs - washing up, gardening labour, emptying bins, that sort of stuff - interspersed with signing on * Eventually moved to another city, which was the crucial breakthrough, being in an area that was more used to training schemes, I got on a course. But they screwed up my claim along the way, so despite having been six months unemployed (and thereby qualifying for training course eligibility rules), I had to sign on for another six months before I could start the course. * Six months of course later, I had a freshly minted NVQ (level 2, Using IT) - that's the sum total of my job-related qualifications. A certificate for spending six months playing with DTP using Quark Express and and other things from the era of Mac OS 6 or 7. In real terms, the equivalent of having been in school nativity play if what follows without much further training is finding yourself on the stage in West End. * Went to ropey agency, said I'll take anything in an office - I'd had enough of emptying bins * One year of longterm temporary paper-pushing project for big insurance company, turned up, kept my nose clean * Real job vacancy in same company, applied and given it on the spot - first ever permanent job, aged nearly 29 * Nearly two years of that, learned lots by working on my own initiative, by which point I needed to leave before I killed someone * Vacancy for current job came up in the nick of time - I over-fitted the bill, and got given a job better than what I applied for, though I didn't know till I turned up on my first day (go figure!) * I'm still there, several years later, and credited with being far more knowledgeable than I truly am, mostly because I have the patience to do stuff that nobody else does, and the skill of asking the right questions in the right places, and a clear understanding of where I'm well off. That's right, I'm something of a got-lucky chancer, whose technical skills on paper don't amount to a lot. Fortunately, these days I have plenty of experience and the ability to sound like I know what I'm talking about, and to be fair I usually do. It could have turned out a hell of a lot worse.