About my experience on Employable Me

If you missed me on Employable Me last night, you can catch up on BBC iPlayer here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09k7wlj/employable-me-series-2-episode-4

The experience was a life-changing and eye-opening one, and I thank everyone who has seen it so far. I was inspired by an autistic acquaintance of mine who had appeared on the first series of Employable Me, and when the second series was making a casting call I applied, wishing to showcase my talents for political analysis that I have been developing since I started this blog four years ago. I was so pleased when I was accepted for the series, given that a few months prior I had failed to complete a graduate diploma in applied psychology and wanted to find a new path that was more suited to me in the long-term and more achievable for me than becoming a chartered psychologist. Even in undergraduate psychology I was very passionate about politics (and how psychology could be applied to it), but had never had the option to switch to a politics course.

At the time I had already made plans to move from Hertfordshire and further up north, which as I later learned also took me a further distance from where many political jobs are currently based-Greater London. I was therefore pleased when Rushcliffe Borough Council gave me a job as a counting assistant not only for the county council elections but also for the general election. I give my thanks to Charlotte, Katherine, and Allen for their hard and responsible work during this count and for giving me the chance to excel. Having been the Green Party parliamentary candidate for Hemel Hempstead in 2015, it was exciting to get a view from the election staff's side as well as the candidate's side.

I enjoyed working with the film crew all through the way and particularly the conversations I had with Nancy, who not only discovered my potential but also shared some interesting and important stories with me. She is the best psychologist I have encountered and her CIC, Genius Within, is an inspiration to so many and has been very supportive throughout.

I also had a good time with Erica, Nicola, Marve, Kerie and others who appeared on Employable Me and who had their own great stories to tell, and I am glad to have caught up again with Erica in particular these past few months.

We have so much to share to this world out there, whatever obstacles we must overcome or whatever disability we have.

Comments

  1. Unknown19 December 2017 at 21:03

    Your talents are immense Alan it surprises me that potential employers are yet to see this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. PAUL WADY20 December 2017 at 09:14

    You are a classic case of a gifted person who will end up creating their own niche work. Find things only you can do. I think it’s a cliche of our autistic kind. Then you become a specialist and an expert in the job market.

    ReplyDelete
  3. mosmosmos20 December 2017 at 22:55

    Alan, really enjoyed the way you came across on the show, and you gave a really good account of yourself. If I was an employer, I'd take you on in a heartbeat.

    I suffer from Aspergers myself, although clearly don't have the same degree of autism as you I'd guess, but clearly enough for my girlfriend to say "that's you!" on more than one occasion.

    I hope you find the roles you are looking for and I'm sure your appearance on the show has done a lot of good as you clearly came across as exceptionally intelligent and analytical with a completely different way of looking at problems. In my work, that is pretty much my USP, my autism allows me to think around problems and issues a completely different way to everyone else and come up with solutions, and it's a really fun way of working.

    All the best and good look in whatever you end up doing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous21 December 2017 at 22:21

    Nice one on challenging EON about their investment in renewable energy.
    It shows how arbitrary what is correct can be that one guy didn't like cardigans and at EON - nobody wore a tie. There are lots of organisations that recruit people with autism for skills like yours Alan. Check out http://auticon.co.uk/careers/ - they have a range of analyst jobs - starting off in the junior / graduate positions where you'll end up making a lot of money.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous21 December 2017 at 22:23

    Your haircut looked really smart Alan.
    Just remember to always check your shirt is tucked in.
    (wearing a jumper is good way to hide untucked shirts) and you will do grand.
    Keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Robert Lindsay25 December 2017 at 10:30

    Alan I really enjoyed the show and your part on it. Pleased to be able to give you some employment, albeit part time, at the Association of Green Councillors.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Robert Lindsay25 December 2017 at 10:30

    Alan I really enjoyed the show and your part on it. Pleased to be able to give you some employment, albeit part time, at the Association of Green Councillors.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan B25 December 2017 at 20:49

      Thank you, Robert. I enjoy contributing to their hard work. Please PM me further details. Alan.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My analysis of local by-elections from 22/11/18

Readers, the results of this week's British local by-elections were as follows: Enfield LBC, Bush Hill Park: Conservative 1540 (52.4%, +12.7%), Labour 828 (28.2%, -8.3%), Liberal Democrats 313 (10.7%, -0.8%), Green 127 (4.3%, -6.6%), WEP 79 (2.7%), Independent (Oyaloyu) 50 (1.7%). [UKIP did not stand] Westminster LBC, Lancaster Gate: Conservative 913 (47.2%, -1.5%), Labour 684 (35.4%, -1.0%), Liberal Democrats 275 (14.2%, -0.7%), Green 62 (3.2%). Windsor & Maidenhead UA, Datchet: Conservative 525 (56.0%, -3.1%), National Flood Prevention Party 223 (23.8%), Labour 121 (12.9%, -9.1%), Liberal Democrats 48 (5.1%,-13.8%), Green 21 (2.2%). Wirral MBC, Upton: Labour 1490 (61.3%, +3.1%), Conservative 705 (29.0%, +0.4%), Green 151 (6.2%, -0.5%), Liberal Democrats 83 (3.4%, -0.8%). [TUSC did not stand] All changes are since May. The open divisions in the Conservatives, which resulted in a failed attempt to call for a vote of no confidence in Theresa May by the European Researc...
Read more

On the 2020 Serbian election: Why a boycott will only worsen things there

First of all, I apologise for the recent hiatus; however elections are still postponed or on hold in many countries, including the UK. Serbia, however, was able to proceed with its 2020 general election amidst this crisis. Its overall result proved reminiscent of Hungarian elections under Viktor Orban's tenure (2010-present), since the leading national-conservative coalition, the SNS (Progressive Party of Serbia) coalition led by Serbian President Aleksander Vucic (Ana Brnabic is the Serbian Prime Minister, and the first woman and openly homosexual person to hold that position), polled 61.6% of the vote, giving them as many as 191 seats out of 250 and a majority of as high as 132, almost unheard of in any country with proportional representation. Press freedom has endured significant curbs since President Vucic first came into power as Serbian PM in 2012 (he became President of Serbia in 2017), as have civil liberties of Serbs in general. Nepotism and corruption in the Serbian ...
Read more

On the French local elections of 2020: Vive le surge de vert!

The French local elections finally concluded yesterday, having been originally scheduled to take place on 15 March; they were postponed due to the effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.  The most sensational story of these elections was the many triumphs by the main French Green Party, Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV). In major French cities (those with more than 100,000 people), EELV captured the mayoralties of Annecy, Besancon, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Strasbourg, and Tours. They also performed impressively in the munciipal elections for those cities as well. However, in the midst of all this triumph there was one notable setback for them: Eric Pollie, the first Green Mayor of a major French city, decided to contest the mayoral election there as an "Independent Left" (divers gauche) candidate instead. Furthermore they narrowly missed out on unseating former PS leader Martine Aubry from her post as Mayor of Lille; in the second round she held on by 227 votes, a sig...
Read more