Went for an interview this morning at the employment office. They still wanted a final statement from EMBL. Excuse me hang on a second, I have given you copies of my contracts, which shows the times when each contract started and when it finnished. Isn't that enough?
"Yes but even though you show these contracts, you could have left before the time was up"
"But here is my last salary statement and the date on it agrees with the date on my final contract surely that is enough?
"Afraid not we need a proper statement of when you left and the reason for leaving"
Then we got down to the serious business of what my qualifications are and what kind of job I would be looking for.
"I see you have a M. Sc. in microbiology is that what you want to persue?
"Not really. I have not done wet lab work for the past 15 years. I have been involved in Bioinformatics and would like a job in that area.
"Bio what?
"Bioinformatics... it is a field that you use computers to work with DNA and Protein sequence data."
"So you are a Biochemist?"
"No I am not a biochemist"
The lady then scans thought he job opening at http://www.mol.fi and says
"Sorry we don't have anything listed under Bioinformatics"
"So there are no jobs for bioinformaticians?"
"I don't know since I don't know what bioinformatics is"
I take my life in my hands and ask her to open up the EBI website and to go to the SRS system. I explain about databases and DNA sequences and I even get her to display a PORIN molecule from the PDB database. I get her to view it with the MSDAstexViewer. The java window pops up and I get her to rotate the molecule and to view it from different angles.
"That is the kind of stuff that someone involved in bioinformatics would do. Does it make any more sence now?
"Not really... it looks very specialised, and perhaps not many people would be looking for skills like that?"
"So I have skills that nobody can use?"
"Well I will make a note on your records that you are specialised in bio... biowhatdoyoucallit"
"What types of jobs do you have then?"
"We have plenty of jobs in the cleaning sector."
Yep it may just come around to that, that I am over qualified for any job in Finland and I should take up a job as a cleaner. Not very confidence building.
"Can I ask you about E301?"
"We can't help you with that. That is KELA business."
"So what is the relationship between you and KELA?
"We give them a "statement" and then they decide wheather to pay you unemployment benifit or not"
"Well they want a E301 certificate and my previous employer says they can't give one and it is not relevant. I worked in the UK but was paid from EMBL which is based in Heidelburg Germany"
Her eyes glaze over. This is too much information for her. The Bioinformatician was a hard concept to grasp, an internationl organisation that has agreements with the British government, and does not pay tax is something she has never heard of. It sounds unreal. Bioinformatics is unbelievable, but this EMBL/EBI deal is a thousand times more difficult to understand.
Obviously the government offices are not briefed or equiped to handle such complicated cases. All they want is a E301 and they will be happy.
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