The Dilemma

Do I chose between a tablet PC or the new DigiMemo A402?

I have the previous version but that was for A5 page sizes. This one is A4.

What to do?


...


...


I know ...


Get both.

Typing

You're probably now clearing your PC of clutter and getting comfortable, expecting to read months of my journal as I search for my next job.

But what about me? I have to write it.

On a near whim (well, as near as I get to a whim) today I bought an ergonomic keyboard, the Mircosoft NEK 4000 one.

So far it feels good, although it will take a bit of getting used to. It would be useless if I didn't touch-type though.

I bought the German version because, well, I'm in Germany and have to use umlauts (ä, ö, ü) a bit more than usual.

I'm buying it now because, realistically, I could be spending quite a while in my Munich flat, bashing away at a keyboard, applying for jobs. So, it may as well be a keyboard which doesn't cripple me.

Clarity

My client (I'm a contractor) tells me that they won't be able to keep me on beyond October. Though, they will try.

But for now at least, my contract ends when October does.

Do I need more clarity?

Hell no, I need another job.

Regular readers will know that, for someone like me, it's strangely difficult to get another job. Well, it's even harder now that I'm in Munich.

First of all the language. Not everyone here speaks English.

Secondly, well I'm not exactly in the land of low unemployment.

But I like it here, for lots of reasons, and am determined to stay.

Slowly getting back into the swing

Look, if I start regularly updating this blog, will you start regularly reading it?

Will you? Will you?

After work I finished updating my cv. I then emailed it to a couple of people (both recruiters, both on openBC).

I did some other things as well and then it was 23.25 and therefore bed time.

More tomorrow.

CVs for Germany

In case you've forgotten I'm now in Munich.

My assignment will probably finish at the end of October.

Then I'll need another job in Munich ... I've decided to stay here for various reasons.

Now, Germans can be a bit picky about c.v.s (or lebenslauf as they call them). In fact they often like photos as well. Amazing.

But I don't want to work for predominantly German commpanies so I'm hoping my current c.v.'s format, which I rather like, will be suitable.

Times New Roman

Be careful with the fonts you use on c.v.s. Not everyone, apparently, likes Times New Roman.

Faceoff

Well, I tried to join Facebook, the new social networking phenomenon.

But I couldn't. Facebook needs you to register against work, school or college. I chose "Work" but it then tried to match my email address against a known employer. But I never use my work-time email addresses. Besides, I'm freelancing at the moment so that wouldn't really be appropriate.

Looks like I'm going to miss out

JASPER

Monster hasn't given up on me even if some of the readers of this blog have.

They sent me an email about JASPER, their online analytical tool.

Today I took it and, well I wasn't amazed but I was impressed. It seems to have identified me quite well, from a work perspective.

By the way, it reckoned I am a "visionary".

Job advert of the week

"...

Dubai Project:

We are looking for contractors able to work 18 hours day 7 days a week.

The company will pay for accommodation, flights, transport etc.

Looking for immediate starters for all areas of construction and IT ...."

Need I write more?

What do you mean you missed the point? 18 hours a day, seven days a week. Oh, and Dubai.

Routine

Difficult to write much on this blog.

I'm into a bit of a routine ... a not-job hunting routine.

OK, I went to an openBC event and sent a few follow up emails.

But otherwise I haven't done much job hunting. I have just joined the Colando club but I'm not really sure what that's about. Seems a lightweight LinkedIn/OpenBC for Muencheners. Might find out.

As well as the going-to-a-job-routine I've started going to the gym.

I found a very nice one in one of the main areas of Munich, about 20 minutes walk from my hotel.

I chose it mainly because it takes monthly payment. I won't mention how much I pay because I'd have to admit to myself how much I paid.

But it is very big, it has lots of training equipment, two punch bags (two!), sauna etc.

First time I used the gym I basically trained as hard as possible. Then, to reduce the chance of post-training muscle ache, I went to the sauna.

Once I found, it which isn't easy these days when I'm not wearing contact lenses or glasses. Before going in I read the instructions on the wall outside, which were written in German and English. But they were pretty standard sauna guidelines.

The sauna was very hot and I'm a bit out of practice.

Eventually I noticed that the other people in the sauna (it's not packed as hardly anyone goes to the gym) were completely naked, not even covering themselves with towels. One of them clearly needed to lose weight as he had man-breasts ... oh hang on, those were women's breasts.

Then it seemed there were more breasts but my double vision had kicked in so I'm not sure how many women were actually in the sauna.

So, I find myself, a Englishman, in a sauna, with totally naked Germans, men and women.

!

And I'm wearing shorts.

!!


In England you cover yourself up in communal saunas or they call the police. So, I'd brought over the baggy shorts I used to wear in my local gym's sauna in England.

But instead I suffered the embarrassment of being clothed in a room full of naked people. Very wierd.

After the sauna, I showered, in the usual way (i.e. naked), in the men's changing room. When I finished I turned round to find a cleaning woman brushing excess water from the shower area.

Don't these people have any sense of decency?

The next day I went to the shops and brought a big towel.

I'm also thinking of asking the gym for a discount: well it's not like I can see anything.

Netverking

So on Thursday I went to the openBC networking event in Munich.

The invitation said that it was dress-down and I consider it good manners to do what's asked on the invitation. Anyway, I can be pretty smart in (some) casual clothes.

Nevertheless, despite the informality it's important to create a good impression. So, I decided not to drink anything.

After about 45 minutes at the event, I hadn't really spoken to anyone.

Eventually I realised the problem. I hadn't had anything to drink.

One bier later and everything improved. I started talking to people, even in German (!) and exchanged cards.

Buoyed by this I had another bier.

Then I made a radical, but sensible move.

I went home.

These days I'm not a big drinker: so it could all have gone terribly wrong.

This afternoon I emailed everyone from whom I had received business cards.

Keeping it open

Like most rational people in this world I prefer using openBC.

Although I haven't used it that much.

But on Thursday they're holding a networking event in Munich. Which is home to openBC (I think) and currently home to me (pretty certain about that bit).

So, yesterday and today I went through the list of attendees, seeing if there was anyone I should definitely look out for.

I found a couple of people from interesting companies.

It's actually quite an informal event (they say on their blurb) so no hard sell.

Actually I'm a bit short on business cards and haven't found any company who can create them here. No doubt they exist, I'll just have to look harder.

Some more news

My boss had a quick work with me today.

Apparently they've given up looking for replacements for me and another contractor from within their organisation (they were obliged to continue looking).

That means I should be staying in Munich longer than April.

My liver will be so happy.

But I'll continue to update this blog. Why?

• Well, they can't sign the new contracts straight away and things can go wrong (all good project managers are pessimists).
• This is the ultimate job hunting blog after all so it will take more than a trifle thing like a job to stop me from updating it.

What do you mean, you've stopped reading this as it's never updated?!

Hotel

Yesterday I moved from my rather disappointing hotel in Giesing into a rather lovely hotel in Schwabing.

It’s 232m from where I used to stay in a flat many years ago when I worked around the German-speaking countries.

That’s good and bad. But not too bad as I’m not very sentimental.

Today I asked to extend my stay in the hotel to the first week of October. I’m assuming my contract won’t be terminated beforehand but if it is I only have to give a week’s notice.

It was really important to do this booking as soon as possible. In July, I think, it’s the World Working Class Latent Homosexual Championship, also known as the Football World Cup (I think) being held in Munich.

(Now, let’s be honest here: I haven’t seen much football at all, nor had much association with gays, but it’s obvious isn’t it).

The price of the room during this period goes up quite a bit. But I don’t see a choice. I’m just glad a room was available. I guess the price of a haircut will also go up during this time as well.

It’s a very nice hotel and has no pretensions on being an apart-hotel (well, as far as my room is concerned).

And the bed is big enough for four people at a squeeze (girls, apply by email)!

Some news

Last week my manager had a word with another contractor (who had joined on the same day) and me.


Apparently the company had screwed up with their internal recruitment process. They hadn’t completed it – and their policy is that they always exhaust internal sources before recruiting externally.

So, the manager had to give us notice that our contracts would be terminated on 14th April.

Oh Cuntly Cuntington (you’re not still reading this at work, are you?).

The manager stressed, however, that he thought it very unlikely that the contracts would be actually terminated. His procurement department had spent six months beforehand failing to find anyone internally (and I’m not surprised) so he strongly doubted that they would find anyone in one month. And that’s all he’s giving them. If they don’t get someone within March then he keeps us.

Good news for the readers of this blog, bad news for this blogger.

For a start, I can’t get a flat until the situation improves.

I’m not going to go all out job hunting. Well, after work (I’m contracted for a very un-German 45 hour-week and I do more than that) I don’t have time.

But I will do some below-the-line hunting and try to make use of openBC (a business networking tool – like LinkedIn – which is popular in Germany and is, in fact, a German company).

Hotel

For the first four days I stayed in a rather nice hotel.

But I couldn’t stay any longer as they were booked out.

So I moved to another hotel which looked really good on their web site.

It was an aparthotel.

People should note that Germans use the term aparthotels for:

• Normal hotels


• Hotels which have self-contained utilities such as a kitchenette


• Hotels which are falling apart

This hotel fitted into the last two categories.

Also, this area of Munich only has one restaurant. And the kitchenette isn’t up to evening meal cooking. Or lunchtime cooking either.

Anyway, on Saturday I’m moving to another hotel. I’ve already checked it out (well, I’ve learnt not to judge hotels by their web site). It’s in Schwabing – an area I know well - and there are lots of restaurants, bars and cafes.

Germans and Austrian

Germans (and Austrians) will be pleased to hear that my German is better than I thought.

Don’t worry though, this isn’t going to become “Das ultimat Arbeitsuchen blog” or something.

I even registered in German.

For people in free countries I should explain. Germany, like most European countries, loves forms. Well, forms in German.

They like their people to fill them in wherever possible. They also rather like foreigners, who aren’t tourists, to do the same.

So, on Friday I went to the place where this is done.

I’ve heard some horror stories about this place. People having to stay for hours, or keep having to return.

It took me only two hours. Apparently that’s a world record for registering in Germany.

I think what helps is being smartly dressed, being English (when it comes to being a bumbling Englishman, Hugh Grant is my understudy) and trying to speak German.

I tend to apologize for my poor German, in perfect colloquial German just to confuse them, and after that I tend to be treated quite nicely

So I registered, in German!

I would have appreciated the option of doing it English but the people at the place where they register foreigners don’t speak much English.

Briefly

As I alway say, just because I've got a job doesn't mean I stop blogging.Well, I admit, there was a pause. And there'll be a brief pause after these posts too.I'm in Munich. I work a lot. It snows and there are lots of Germans. Indeed.

Look Ive been busy o

Look I’ve been busy, okay?


Busy #1

Saturday was spent shopping my arse off if that’s possible.

I went to Brighton and bought loads of things, including:

Thing #1 a suitcase. Normally I like to shop around, see the best value for money, which in my case means the most compartments etc. In this case, the suitcase had two criteria to meet:

Suitcase criterion #1 It had to hold a suit and other things.

Suitcase criterion #2 It had to be not purple.

There would have been a third criterion, namely it had to have wheels, but all suitcases come with these.

Thing #2 contact lenses. This should have been easy. Just go into the opticians, as I’ve done many times before, and ask for some contact lenses. I did this and they said I had to have an eye check-up as it had apparently been two years since this had last happened. No check-up, no contact lenses. I looked upset so they said they’d do it in 20 minutes. Just as well really as my prescription has changed quite a bit.

I bought loads of other tings as well.

Busy #2

Packing my arse off (what?), or Sunday to give it its usual name. This was spent throwing things out, packing the other things and trying to find a hotel in Munich. Which I eventually did.

Busy #3

That’s today, travelling to Heathrow, flying to Munich and checking into the hotel.

Brings you up to date.

Now, I don’t have ready (or cheap) internet access. But you’ll be using an RSS reader for this site (won’t you?) so you’ll know when it’s been updated.

Remember, just because I’ve got a job doesn’t mean anything to the ultimate job hunting blog.

For you, Englander, zer vaiting ist over.

I know I had to wait for the contract but I also had to do something in town.

But the timing was critical. If there was anything contentious in the contract there’d only be a short period of time to sort it out (remember Germany is an hour ahead).

This resulted in me walking very quickly to town and back.

Upon my return I found an email waiting for me.

It contained the contract.

I read every line of it (10 pages) but it was fine.

I emailed an acceptance back so it’s a done deal. Tomorrow I’ll print it off, sign it and fax it to them as well.

I start on Tuesday.