The Beginning

From dictionary.com:

"Schadenfreude - a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction when something bad happens to someone else".

Neid zu fühlen ist menschlich, Schadenfreude zu genießen teuflisch: "To feel envy is human, to enjoy schadenfreude is devilish." (Arthur Schopenhauer)

Wikipedia lists 21 translations of the term and several references to it in popular culture (including the obligatory Simpsons episode). It seems appropriate to begin this new blog by setting the tone, as it were; having returned from my travels around the world - a thoroughly great experience filled with daring escapades, intrepid adventures and a vast amount of boxed wine - I find myself unemployed, skint and living with my parents.

The time has come to find myself a career - but in what? I have no work experience and very little idea of how to go about finding a job that I won't find soul-destroyingly dull (unfortunately this seems to apply to most careers out there and at the least, any involving numbers). Having settled upon publishing as something I could probably deal with (all you have to do is read books, right) I intend to ignore the average starting salary and insanely competitive nature of the field, and make my first steps towards Goal Of The Year: moving out of chez Rendall.

It's not all bad though. Despite the fact that the vast majority of my friends from home are decided on their careers and either on the first stages of them, or waiting to finish uni and begin training on ridiculously high starting salaries, I have an ally. Sarah is trying to get into production and has three years of unpaid work experience to back her up yet is finding it impossible to get a pay cheque out of anybody. Basically no one will give her a paid job until she's had a paid job. We came up with the idea for this blog yesterday over our second coffee of the day, after laughing about how distant the getjealous website seems to me now. We hope to track our trials and tribulations, and of course the number of free coffees we receive due to our unswerving loyalty to Caffe Nero.

Right, back to that recruitment website...