where does one look for (and pref. find) a job?

Or sales. :(:(

The best way to get jobs in those areas is to network, sez conventional wisdom and it is probably right.

and please, those sectors sound as appealing as 4 day old mushy peas - why am i likely to do that? is it typical of what I do or have got (BA Hons English Lang & Ling A level Media Studies, English Lang & Lit and French).

(Actually this isn't true - one of my graduate intake left to become an airline pilot!)

I am very bad at networking i.e. I find it easy to socialise but am always drawn to people who would be most useless in terms of my career advancement.

Mark when dog l said he was bored of £6 an hour I assume he didn't mean "...and now I want EVEN LESS!"

Also, check out some of the recruitment consultants that cover those areas, such as Phee Farrer Jones or the Davis Company. You can find the numbers in the first few pages of Monday's Guardian or in one of the trade titles like Media Week or Campaign.

When you're going to interviews, particularly if you don't have much experience, you'll have to convince them that you know something about the industry. From that point of view it's useful reading the trade titles and the aforementioned www.mediaguardian.co.uk website.

Funniest thing I've read today by a mile.

i'm checking the mediaguardian site now.

So go me! I'm really pleased about this as it's my first real proper job (as opposed to doing dronework). It's also nice to be offered a job and the employers actually sounding interested and excited for me to join for once, as opposed to being all "Oh yeh, you can have the job but only if you work extra hard/take a pay-cut/kiss my arse and beg me".

So yeh, all those looking for jobs, it only takes three years of toil, but you'll get there in the end.

And part of that is knowing the corporate zeitgeist and reflecting it back.

Where I work, the big interview question is 'What does leadership mean to you?', which until recently had to be answered with 'a strong focus on delivery', or you failed.

Now they're obsessed with 'charisma' and 'dynamic leadership qualities',so you need to be armed with examples of how people were spellbound by your sheer personality into achieving more (and obviously you shouldn't be caught delivering anything yourself - but through others).

Affectian, the answer is basically money and location. I live in North Herts and there are basically three types of entry level job there: admin, sales and shit shovelling. I ended up picking sales, not so much out of choice but because I am a weakling who couldn't handle a shovel and also I freak out at the sight of manilla. That, and sales pays okay compared to the other options. That said, I'm not a salesman. I can do it but it's not my life's calling. I'm pleased to be a trainer though, seeing as it's helping people out and, well it's sort of a nice direction to be going in right now.

I searched and searched for media jobs, which I haven't yet struck off my list of options for the future, but everyone needed at least three years experience in the field and you have to be called Toby and drive a particular kind of car with a particular registration to get in. That or you could work for them for £3 a year (and pay for your own travel), so that kind of put me off and I needed the dough quickly. That said, since leaving uni I've never ever had any money, despite working solidly in various jobs so travelling up to London to do an internship is out of the question.

For now, I'm going to leave writing as a hobby. I enjoy it, but I'm no Simon Reynolds so for now it's all about working on little projects like my nebulous comedy script (remember that? that's right, the shit one) and maybe some music reviews and Ilxian rants. I was going to apply to write for the 33 1/3 series of books (SAW2 by Aphex Twin - yeh I know you hate him) but I think I've pretty much missed the deadline for submissions seeing as I got all caught up in this new job and stuff.
I stopped seeing the girl upthread some time ago, but at least I moved out of my Dad's house and started sharing a fairly nice house with some mates.
So, well that's my life as it stands.