Meet Nikki our temp marketing assistant

It's time for Nikki to pop on board our TARGETjobs blogger. Please join me in welcoming here. I hope you enjoy her first blog.

Hey there! I’m Nikki and I’ve just graduated with a 2.1 in business and marketing from the glorious Swansea Uni. I have been working at TARGETjobs for one week now as a marketing assistant and will be here for 8 weeks. Previous to this job I have been doing what I feel the majority of my fellow unorganised and jobless graduates have been doing, which is essentially nothing. Slowly rising from bed around midday to make lunch only to accidently nap on the sofa to the distant grunts of Wimbledon on the TV. I spent the majority of my time awake sifting through job vacancies and applying for jobs which gave me some form of excitement. This lead to rejection after rejection with small snippets of hope brought on by the odd interview invitation.

Many of my job applications were centred in the place we all love and hate at the same time, London. For me, having grown up in a small farmer town in Somerset, London was a place of hell and unknown, but endless opportunities and excitement. However my ventures brought experiences which made me want to scamper back to Swansea.

The last time I went to London I was blissfully unaware to the fact that obtaining a seat on an 8am train to London Waterloo is on par with the likelihood in possessing an Olympic ticket to the Men’s 100m final. Consequently my unwise and inexperienced self spent the hour long journey forming delightfully painful blisters in my new gorgeous yet un-thought through shoes.

Toddling onto my 3rd tube change in what by this point I can only describe as agonising pain in the souls of my feet I decided the underground had matched up to my previous experiences of being unsettling, baffling and just plain smelly. However the tube itself is an absolute cupcake in comparison to a few of the passengers on it. I did not relish the fact that a stranger felt it an appropriate thing to place their arm on the seat behind me to then slowly move it down to rest on my shoulder. Combined with an interview in no more than 8 minutes time, nerves like I don’t know what and an already inappropriate amount of sweat under my full black suit, this ‘closeness’ from a complete stranger was less than appreciated. I felt my reactions were somewhat lacking and instead of doing what most normal people would do and politely asking the gentlemen to remove his arm I simply sat there quietly praying for the next tube stop to be his.

After having spent the previous day solidly in preparation for my ‘dream job’, following the instructions to be up to speed with the company’s ten websites, my next endeavour involved the interview. Having spent over £40 on travel into London, a 2 hour commute each way and a slight jog down their offices, its perhaps a slight understatement to say I felt a little dismay for it to all combinate in an interview beginning at 10am and ending at 10.03am, to which they ended the interview pretty much offering me the unpaid, futile and rather dull job. I put this down to a steep learning curve and began to realise unlike most who love and hate London, I simply hate it.  

After that I began searching for a job that involved me and my car for transport. Then came an opportunity at TARGETjobs, the job responsibilities sounded exciting and challenging, the location in south Oxfordshire was perfect and when the unexpected email arrived inviting me to join the team, needless to say I was more than excited. After only being here a few days I’ve already settled in well to the relaxed, friendly yet hardworking team here and it’s undoubtedly a safe statement to say I’m very much going to enjoy working here this summer.