It’s been a while since I’ve sat down and worked on the website – mainly because I haven’t been able to find any free time over the past 8 weeks. There are a few reasons for this. I’ve been at work (job sharing – of course) – working a variety of day/late/night shifts. When I am at work, my childcare is used up so I don’t have the luxury of a child free day to sit down and do any work on this website (I didn’t realise how much ‘work’ websites needed!)

The third, and probably, biggest reason is that I’ve been growing another human. This, I’ve found, has been the biggest hurdle of them all. Whilst looking after the toddler and working mostly whilst she’s in bed, I’ve also been ploughing through the extreme fatigue, extreme nausea and extreme panic at the thought of having another child to look after!

Thankfully the news is beginning to sink in and the feelings of wanting to crawl in a small, dark hole for the day are passing so I thought now, more than ever, is probably a good time to put my own website to the test as full time employment slips even further from my grasp!

I’ve just finished my last Directing job and REALLY would like to find myself an Edit Producing job in the next few weeks. It needs to be an Edit Producing job that an employer agrees I can job share on, one that’s not too far from home, doesn’t have too many late nights and one that lets me get home before 6pm at least 2 days of the week! Easy (?!)

To begin with – I’ve got to find myself a job sharer. Luckily I have a website full of people wanting to buddy up..I’ve just got to hope it works! The plan is to go through the wonderful members on my site and find one that fancies a job share with me. The website isn’t as ‘smooth’ as I’d like it to be..so I might have to re-build a bit along the way but so far, I can contact members directly and hopefully kick off a simple chat about whether we are a compatible pair. At the moment, members are able to visit the talent section of the site and view members by job role. They can then follow each other and send direct/private messages to one another. As a basic function I’m pretty happy with that but I am trying to open up a discussion board so it’s a little easier to start the process in finding a job sharer – especially one that’s needed quite quickly like in my case.

Just to put the pressure on I’m going to be keeping this blog up to date about how I’m getting on. I’ve been very keen to get in touch with more employers about offering a helping hand when it comes to getting more part time contracts through their HR departments but that in itself is a huge job. This way, I can start approaching individual employers who are advertising (full time) positions and begin to get an idea of what the main issues are when it comes to employing freelancers on a more flexible basis..

Like most freelancers, I have a big gap to fill before going back to a job at Christmas and I really, REALLY want to work but I really, REALLY, can’t consider full time jobs, it’s impossible.

I’m going to begin by applying for full time jobs, along with my job sharer (tbc) and explain to employers that we’ve sorted the week out between us, we’ve got it covered and we’ll deliver the goods, just as well, if not better than just one full time freelancer. This is what Share My Telly Job is about after all. I really feel that it’ll just take one employer to give it a whirl..then we can start building up testimonials, ironing out any issues and building the confidence of the people with the jobs to get more job sharers through the doors!

I don’t expect it to be easy at all, but this is a very real situation. I need a job, I can’t work full-time, so I have to hope that I can find employers who are willing to help me continue to work and manage my (growing) family.

I’ve decided to blog about the whole process in the hope that it helps other mums and part-timers out there work through the issues they face when looking for flexible employment in telly. I’m hoping to provide helpful, firsthand feedback from employers..if it’s a no, then it would be great to find out why and if there are certain things part-time freelancers can do to help in their search for more flexible working contracts.

Sounds easy doesn’t it?! Lets see!  Ideally, I’d like a 5-6 weeks contract, Edit Producing or Gallery Directing, to start in the next few weeks. One that I can share with someone, for 3 days a week – it needs to be in London and I can only do 1 late night out of the 3…simple..

First stop…sharemytellyjob.com…I need to find myself a job sharer! Wish me luck..