Mis-start

I rose quite early today, not much later than I do during the working week.

This would give me time to do some job hunting, some studying and work on the business venture (I should be having a conferene call later this evening).

Didn't have a totally clean shave though. The reason was I'd dropped my electric razor. Although there was no noticeable damage it would no longer work.

So I rushed into Oxford Street and bought a new one. I also bought a ladle, to give my life some sort of meaning.

Another Friday

And apart from an interview which was postponed I haven't done much on the job searching front.

If you want excuses here are two:

1. another busy week at work, there isn't any other type
2. I've had a throat infection which has worn me down.
   

No worries

I was emailed today by the agency that the meeting (I never call it an interview) tomorrow has to be postponed. Maybe the interviewer had heard that the hotel had moved the sofa in the foyer.

Notification

I mentioned to my boss, in an email, that I wanted to take a long lunch on Friday.

She replied that this was okay as long as it wasn't for an interview!

Ah.

I went over to chat with her and stressed that I was committed to this assignment until it finishes at the end of May. I also advised her that the interview is a bit of a long shot as I applied for the job over 18 months ago.

I then reiterated that I wouldn't quit this assignment prematurely.

Absolutely. Apart from the fact that a friend recommended me for this job (one who also knows me professionally) this is an interim assignment and that's the deal. So, there's no question of me leaving prematurely unless it was in both sides' interest. Which I doubt.

Shoes update

My number one shoes have been repaired and are ready for interview inspection.

Another qualification

The BCS has started a qualification in ITIL infrastructure management.

It's suitable for people who are ITIL service management qualified (like me) and CCNA qualified (like I was until it expired in November). Another impetus to requalify in CCNA and study for this exam. It'd be a good refresher on the basics of ITIL service management (it seems to link into its processes).

But ... damn it, that means more studying.

Prep

Every Sunday I polish my shoes for the week ahead.

And on Thursday I'll be polising them again, the night before the interview for the job in Prague.

Whilst polishing them today I notice that my no.1 shoes, the ones I would naturally wear for an interview, had worn out.

I'll try to get them repaired tomorrow.

Blast from the past

Friday was becoming a bit like Thursday on the job-hunting front. That is nothing much was happening. Except a lot was happening in my current job (can't remember exactly what though).

Then my mobile did something it seldom does. It rang.

I couldn't make out the caller's own name or name of agency, as she had a slight foreign accent. Plus I was struggling to put on my Bluetooth earpiece.

She continued to talk about arranging an interview for a job in Prague for a very large company. I told her that a year ago I had been to that city for an interview with the same company. She said she knew that and confirmed the name of her agency.

Ah. It was the same one. We both laughed when I said "but that was a year ago".

As readers will recall it took at least six months from applying to the agency before I got a face-to-face interview in Prague. It was then at least another six months before I concluded that nothing was ever going to happen. I wasn't too impressed with all this. It was quite expensive for me even though they did pay for the flight.

So when the agency called again and asked if I could fly to Prague (at the company's expense) on Tuesday for another interview I was hesitant. Not least because I am really busy at work and can't just drop things.

I asked for a bit more notice and she said she'd get back to me. I also advised her that I wanted to complete this interim assignment which ends on May 31st.

A little later she called back. She advised me that the company's recruiter was in London next Friday and that he'd be happy to meet me.

That's much better. Although I'm normally very keen to fly to great cities, especially business class at other people's expense, I don't need to see Prague again.

Also, when I flew over to see them a year ago it turned out that the interviewer had also flown in from London just to see me. Do have to question the cost efficiency there.

As this interviewer hasn't seen me before he asked that I meet him at a certain famous hotel. In the lobby. On a sofa. Just to make sure, the agency sent me a link to the hotel's web page which shows the sofa in question.

No risk of anything going wrong there.

Another day at work

I want to make every day a networking day. But not today.

Another small step

Today I called a recruitment consultant I've used before, on both sides of the desk. Told him I was available from the end of May so, hopefully, we'll keep in contact and develop opportunities nearer the completion of my current assignment.

A couple of articles

Read these today:

An article in The Register about networking websites and a piece in
Computer Weekly about networking in general.

Funnily enough I never read Computer Weekly, I'm a Computing journal man myself. I was simply browsing through a spare copy at work whilst I was waiting for an application to install.

Incidentally, I'm in the LinkedIn site but haven't used it yet.

No. 1

Attentive readers (reader?, me?) will recall that last year I tried, yet again, to get a job in Duesseldorf.

The company could procrastinate for Germany and nothing came of it, again.

Well, today I phoned the agency and had a chat with the consultant about their requirements.

At the moment IT specific roles aren't available but they're hoping to develop these. That's fine. I sent off my c.v. to the consultant just now. Maybe, just maybe, they will define the suitable roles as my release date gets nearer. It's just possible but I'm going to work on other opportunities as well.

This c.v. counts as my first application for the year.

Sickening

Today, for the first time in a while, I looked at the Sunday Times appointments' page.

There weren't that many jobs. Worst, any that were slightly suitable didn't pay enough for me to carry on living in my current flat.

Also, I saw names of people and agencies I've contacted before. I got a slight sickening feeling that I'll soon be going through all that again. Well, actually it might have been hunger, it's almost lunch time.

New c.v.

Whilst others send me nine page c.v.s I can still fit in well over a decade's experience into two pages.

I added details of my interim role, condensed further some previous job descriptions and tidied up the formatting.

Although it's been over two months since I last looked at my c.v. the wording is too familiar. It makes proof-reading very difficult.

Compared to most c.v.s I've seen mine should be framed and on display. One thing I'm very keen on is putting nearly all the content into tables. It makes formatting so much neater and, of course, I don't make the tables visible.

I've seen so many c.v.s which don't do this and they look a mess.

Both sides of the desk

With my re-awakened job hunting efforts, I'm now hoping to recruit as well as hoping to be recruitied.

Our very good contractor had to leave for health reasons (couldn't handle the pressure, if you ask me, the Aussie wimp). It's important that we recruit a replacement quickly as we're going to be moving offices soon. In case you don't know, that requires an awful lot of IT involvement.

We're hoping our contractor will get fixed quickly (he returned to Australia as the health service is speedier there) and be able to return. Reality is we can't hang around and take the risk.

The first few c.v.s from agencies were atrocious. One was nine pages. Nine pages! As you can imagine, that means the English wasn't very good at all.

To be fair to all recruits I score each c.v. against a list of requirements. But in this case I ended up writing in the spreadsheet "gave up".

The other c.v. was shorter but no better. I asked our HR colleague to speak to the agency, one who really should know better, about this poor quality. They're supposed to screen c.v.s for us.

Meanwhile I used my network of contacts. This included meeting a girl in a nightclub, talking to her and giving her my card so that a friend of her's could contact me about the role. I'm so smooth.

Her friend duly sent me his c.v. In it he included the fact that he's in the International Brotherhood of Magicians and has taught himself to juggle.

The re-awakening

It's mid-February and my employment terminates at the end of May. Such is the life of an interim.

So, now I reckon it's time to ramp up my job-hunting efforts. Well, I couldn't really ramp them down.

This places even a greater burden on me. My job involves long hours, I insist on going to the gym (for me it's as basic a requirement as earning an income, any pleasure I derive from it is incidental) and am keen to go out and socialize - a compensation from the drought I recently had to endure for a few years.

And if I job-hunt then I update this blog. Oh the burden.

Another week at work

Another question

One of my few readers (and I thought I was the only one) asks "what is a propellor head?".

I recommend en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propellor_head which provides an adequate explanation (c.f. geeks, nerds, engineers - hang on, I'm an engineer).

I also think there may have been a cartoon character who had a hat with a propellor attached. This gave him vertical lift. It seemed not to need a counter-force to prevent the character from rotating in the opposite direction ...