Little prick

Two things I don't like

End of the week and the first thing I do this morning is get up.

Then I go to the local surgery for a blood test. Since my accident I've had to have blood tests on a regular basis, about monthly.

Ow. Despite frequent application of needles to my arms over the last two years I still don't like it.

When I get home I then use the expensive machine I bought to also test my blood. I'm running this in parallel with the surgery's testing for a few months. Once I'm use to self-testing then I'll take the machine with me if I get a job abroad.

Ow. The machine comes with a pen-like lance. It's spring loaded and stabs your finger to get a drop of blood. Just a little prick but it hurts an awful lot.

So that's two self-inflicted unpleasant things in one week: poking myself in the eye (to place and remove contact lenses) and stabbing myself to get blood.


Desirable advantage

An advert I saw today included the phrase "health experience an advantage".

Well, I've been in good health, I've also experienced at first hand NHS hospitals (although for some of this I was unconscious) and I've watched a lot of ER.

Somehow I don't think this is sufficient. So I don't apply.

A fews days ago I applied to an agency for a job whose advert included the sentence: "Financial services and specifically investment banking industry experience would be highly beneficial".

Well, actually I have three years' experience within a major investment bank. I phone the agency who tell me that the client has now mandated recent financial experience as a requirement.

Favourite agency

There's an agency near to Manchester which is my favourite agency. And the reason for this status is that they found me a contract job last year which ended in June this year.

I saw them advertising a suitable contract job so I phoned them up. We had a good chat and I emailed a slightly updated c.v. which they said they'd send over to the client.

Job of the day

There's too much to paste in here, so this is the link to one of its entries on the job Monster.

Apart from being from Nigeria there's much else to suggest it's a 401 scam. The extra-bad English and the non-corporate email and web addresses. The client company seems real but they may not be aware that their name is being used.

Of course it may all turn out to be genuine.

Shiny shoes

Today I saw a job advertised by the recruitment consultants who arranged an interview for me a fortnight ago (I've been awaiting feedback but the interviewing manager has been ill).

It was for a different client and handled by a different agent within the consultancy. It paid considerably more than the job for which I had had the interiew.

I was keen to talk to the original agent first, advise him that I was going for another job handled by them but that I was still interested in the company who interviewed me. Unfortunately I couldn't get through to him but was able to leave my contact details.

Just after lunch I contacted the agent handling this new job. He said he'd get back to me. A few minutes later the original agent phoned me.

Before I could explain that I had been trying to contact him as a courtesy he gave me feedback on my interview, which he'd received yesterday.

Apparently I'd interviewed very well. The client was impressed and had no doubt I could do the job. They also appreciated that I had done my homework and had asked them questions no-one else had asked (like what were they doing about their annual losses).

Just what I wanted to hear.

Going on ... they felt, however, that I was too "corporate" for them. Them being a multi-national company with a turnover in excess of £100m which has been going for 40 years.

They felt maybe I would be better suited to a consultancy. I laughed and asked if I could use them as a referee.

The agent telling me this was incredulous and I was a bit. But it's their decision and it was very good feedback. Apparently I hadn't done or said anything wrong in the interview.

It should be noted that the two people interviewing me were casually dressed. The more senior one was wearing a T-shirt with a logo on it. I, however, was wearing a tailor made suit, a Liberty's silk tie and, of course, incredibly shiny shoes.

I hadn't checked their shoes, so for all I know they were wearing sandalls.

In fact, when getting dressed that morning, I made the decision to wear a shirt with button cuffs, rather than use the gold cufflinks that I usually wear with that suit (it's a wide pinstrip suit which only uses braces [supsenders if you're American] rather than a belt). So, I had made the effort to be less "corporate" for them.

After the agent had finished I then told him the reason I had tried to get in touch with him today. He was fine about it. He said that he had no hesitation in considering me for other suitable roles and, moreover, he was going to have a chat with his colleague who was handling this other job.

About 10 minutes later his colleague phoned back , we had a quick chat and he said he'd send my c.v. to the client.

Snapped

Over two years ago, when I was made redundant from the energy company, the marketing manager said she thought I'd be snapped up.

Today, when I talked to an agency about a relocation project, the agent said the same thing. Being so flexible (permanent, contract, UK, abroad, whatever) she was surprised I hadn't already been snapped up.

And to be honest, I've been rather surprised too, for a very long time.

Well, as she was doubtful she was going to put forward my c.v. to her client, maybe she shouldn't have been too surprised.

Rest of the day

As you know I never look for jobs on Friday afternoon. Well I did today. It was that or study XP and I wasn't in the mood for studying.

In total I applied for seven jobs. Three may have been for the same job handled by different agencies but I thought I'd apply anyway. I may find out next week.

The total applications this week has been: 17. And I received three bites.