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Temporary Assignments
LIke most people, I have had periods of uncertainty in my career. I have always made the most of these 'lulls' in my working life, to try something different.
Benefits Agency - 1996
I returned to Ipswich after living in Cambridge for three years, in the summer of 1996. I left the Trading Standards Service temporarily, and applied to work as a casual Administrative Assistant for the Benefits Agency. Remarkably, and lucky even for me, I was promoted on the afternoon I started, to cover staff absence in the finance team. Within the week I was promoted for the duration of the three month contract, and I spent the rest of my time working on the 'Direct Payments' department, sorting out deductions from benefits to cover unpaid bills. Not the most glamorous role, but someone had to do it.
I could have stayed in the Benefits Agency for 12 months but the opportunity to be reinstated to Suffolk Trading Standards came up and I decided to carry on my career path as an Advice Officer instead.
Cambridge University Development Office
- 1999
I returned to Cambridgeshire in 1999, relocating with my husband who had been offered a job in Cambridge. I was offered the position of 'Fundraising Researcher' for Cambridge University Development Office in July 1999.
The job involved a whole lot of snooping around - on the Internet, in the newspapers, company reports, in Debrett's and even in Hello Magazine. I was looking for information about anyone with a Cambridge connection, or who might have a link to the University, which I would then use to compile confidential briefings for fundraisers.
The fundraisers were top class schmoozers who took the information we researchers provided and used it to entice potential donors to lunch, to special University events, even to the Cambridge -v- Oxford Boat Race. I really enjoyed the research and briefing part of the job although the endless
duplicated filing of copied newspaper articles on dot.com millionaires got a bit tedious.
The contract wasn't renewed after the first year - in fact I left to work for Flag just before it ended, having been unceremoniously demoted on the grounds of not having a degree.
CUDO Website
Cambridge University Education Department - Xcalibre Project
- 2001-2
This project came up just after I had been made redundant from Flag, in December 2001.
Xcalibre was a new web portal for teachers of gifted and talented students, giving them information about books, lesson plans and websites, special events, places to visit and workshops for children aged four to 19, all linked to the curriculum.
The role I took on was to edit and upload submissions from often grammatically and editorially challenged academics, make them sound better, and publish them to the developing new site. The editing was interesting, but uploading hundreds of submissions onto a website one by one proved to be laborious at times.
The position was part time and short term, and I left in March 2002.
Xcalibre
(currently being re-designed)
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