Bracknell is undead

… as once seen written on the one of the many subway walls in that town.

It still is.

As always I had planned a lot of contingency time for my trip to Bracknell.

And thanks to our national railway system not one second was used up.

That’s very unusual.

So I was left with quite a lot of time before my interview.

What to do?

In Bracknell?

“Leave” is the usual answer.

But in this case I needed to eat lunch.

Many years ago I worked in that town for a few months. Sadly, not much has changed. I was hoping that there would be at least some minor change, for example, maybe they could have a Pret A Manger sandwich shop in the high street or Mall. Everywhere else has at least one.

Pret A Manger, however, would be too progressive for Bracknell. In fact, I didn’t even stumble across a Starbucks. I’m not saying that there isn’t a Starbucks in the town. That would be too unlikely. But I didn’t notice one and that is very unusual (not that I wanted to go to Starbucks).

Eventually I found a reasonable sandwich shop.

After eating there I walked to the office where I was going to be interviewed.

The office wasn’t actually in the town and would normally warrant a taxi ride but I did have a lot of time to kill.

I still arrived early and walked around the industrial estate for a while.

Anyway, when the time was due I went and had the interview.

It immediately transpired that the job spec. I was given was totally wrong. Damn, I’d been reading up on SAP over the weekend.

The recruiter was looking for a project manager, more a programme manager really, to help deliver a massive (and I mean massive) service implementation.

Well, I have some experience in the service delivery field plus, of course, project management. But the scale and complexity of this initiative was much larger than anything I have come across.

This was clear, indeed clear from my c.v. (which he had seen a few days before) and he said that this was his concern. Which is fair enough.

Still, the interview wasn’t too negative. I debriefed the agency immediately afterwards (another expensive call to Germany). It’s possible the recruiter will still want me. And, as I’m sure I interviewed well (especially as it wasn’t the spec. I’d expected), he may keep me in mind for other assignments. We’ll see.

Afterwards I went into London, met up with a few friends and had a few beers. Oh yes.