Almost as soon as switch my mobile phone on this morning it rings.
Turns out it's not an agency but my good friend and business partner. We have a good chat about the business venture and I'm left with some homework to do (reviewing the financial model and finding venture capitalists). Hell, I may even update the blog I've been writing about this business.
After the call I get up and go to have breakfast. Again the phone rings and this time it's an agency.
Turns out to be my favourite agency.
Their client wants to have a telephone interview with me tomorrow.
I'm then finally left to have my breakfast in peace.
It's not just agencies
Sometimes jobs are posted by the end-user companies themselves, rather than going through an agency. I saw one today and shot off an application.
Perhaps I shot it off a bit too quickly as I hadn't added, to the covering email, my salary requirements as requested. "Bugger" as my comment puts it in my jobs database.
Tailoring
In the last few job hunting days I've seen adverts which seem almost tailor-written for me. They seem to require all of my skills, perhaps in different permutations to how I've used them. The job I'm being interviewed for tomorrow is one example.
This morning I saw another job which similarly wanted all my key skills. I carefully tailored my c.v. and shot off an email.
I was expected to call the agent this afternoon but she called half an hour later. She said that she'd seen a lot of c.v.s already but mine was the best!
She asked if I minded working for a pharmaceutical company; that's a standard question these days in the UK as there's a lot of violent anti-vivisection action. I found myself replying, "better than testing on humans".
[My prophalactic medication is a direct result of finding that it kills some animals. Perversely in this case what is bad for the animals is good for humans. The implication of me not taking it would be life threatening. BTW I know there's more to this debate than glib statements like that.]
Anyway, she said she'd put my name forward. She did warn me that they ideally wanted someone who had worked with the company before - well, who wouldn't - but I nevertheless seem to fit the bill.
I was sent the job spec form which was quite formally written. Except for one part which said the candidate "didn't need to be a techie."
Hold on
I'm making it a rule to hang up after listening to five bars of hold music (one bar if the hold music is Elvis). This way, I nearly hung up on someone just about to answer. We had a good chat and he sent me the job spec.
I matched nearly everything on the spec's detailed requirements except MCSE and server clustering. I have CCNA but that was only a non-mandatory requirement. Oh well.
Another job asked for three years' process development experience. I guess I have two years' but I still applied. It was for a job in Amsterdam so I'd be rather keen to get it.
Second worst recruitment agency in the world
This one earnt its title by actually getting me a job a few years back.
There were things about how it was done that I'm not pleased about. One of the recruitment agents had actually known me socially. Another turned up for a morning meeting bringing her cleavage with her. This shouldn't be appropriate, especially (or rather even) in the world of investment banking. Moreover I was in a very serious relationship at the time and didn't want to meet people dressed like that.
My dislike of them exceeds those rather relative complaints.
Still, they are big in the City and today they were advertising an appropriate job. So I sent my c.v. and called them. Their email system wasn't working very well and the recruitment agent I spoke to didn't sound very sharp. So no change there then.
Jobs of the day
Just snippets today.
After a formally written job description: "Detailed client spec available - CV's now!."
Another job said it was in the City, that is the London Square Mile but "based near to Canary Wharf". In which case it wasn't that near the City.
Busy
I thought I'd know by Friday if it was a busy week but I know already. Today I applied for six jobs - all before lunchtime. That's two more than yesterday.
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