Light

Today I applied for two jobs. And both were based in Belgium (yes, I know) and were relatively long shots.

For overseas jobs I change my line for degree qualification from "BSc Honours ..." to "BSc (with Honours)...". Otherwise some foreign recruiters might think the university only gave me the degree because I was a good egg.

Neither of those recruiters have called.

But

I did however have three bites.

I saw a job readvertised from over a week ago. As usual I had sent my c.v. straight away then phoned (the agency was in London). Never got through.

When I saw it today I phoned immediately and spoke with the recruiter. He was concerned about my career gap but I talked him through it. In the end he said he'd send the c.v. to his clients.

Two other recruiters phoned and each discussed two roles.

One recruiter phoned about a refurbishment project in London. I'd forgotten all about the application (made yesterday) and he sounded surprised that I was surprised. Like I only apply to one job ever.

There was no IT involved in this project at all. Moreover you really need experience in the construction industry or things could go terribly wrong (breach of health and safety etc). The agent was a bit surprised when I told him this and suggested he look for property PMs.

I did however offer to forward the job details to a former colleague who has more appropriate experience.

He also mentioned a freelance helpdesk manager role in London. This is more up my street and I asked him to put my name forward. The pay isn't very good but it is a rolling contract and it pays more than I'm earning now.

Better was to follow in the afternoon. Last week I applied for a role with an agency who didn't publish their telephone number.

I more or less forgot about them but they called today. They discussed two roles with a major company; one in the South West of England and one in London. They're sending over the details and I think I'd be suitable for both assignments.

You may not recognise my accent ...

... it's called Educated.

My surname doesn't sound very English. And the reason for this is that it originates from the Indian sub-continent. Of course, now it is English but that's mainly due to me. Well, actually it's because I refuse to consider myself as anything other than English and most people who know me agree. I've even been asked if my Christian name is actually an Anglicized version of some other name. It isn't. My real first name is John.

Without the expense of public (i.e. private) school education I've ended up rather well spoken. I don't drawl, like a lot of public school people, but neither is my accent as crisp as a Sandhurst graduate (British Army's officer academy, a bit like West Point but grander). Too soft. A lot of people think I did go to public school but I advise them that I didn't need to.

An Englishman only has to open his mouth for another Englishman to immediately hate him.

This accent can be advantageous. For example, when I phone an agency it can totally change the impression of my application. There's no hint of foreigness and it reinforces the professional image of my c.v.

Like, today, when I phoned the agency handling the Amsterdam job his impression of me changed and he was happy to put my c.v. forward.

The accent can also be disadvantageous. Nowadays in Britain it's considered bad form to discriminate on race, religion, gender, disability, sexuality or weight. But, for some reason, a lot of people discriminate on education and accent.

If you're well spoken you're quite likely to be mocked. I've seen this happen on popular TV programmes. I'm sure I've been discriminated against because of my accent.

Still, it's the only accent I have (I even use it when I'm speaking German or French) and I'm keeping it.

No idea

Before posting this blog I thought I'd upload a graph of my applications over the last two months. This would show just how clever I am.

I was using Picassa's Hello, as recommended by Blogger, but I'm not really sure what has happened. I may investigate tomorrow.