Novel approach

as seen in the Telegraph.

(Actually I am always wary about newspaper stories like this. Don't trust journalists).

A rare contact

It's been quiet. OK, I've been quiet.

I have been thinking about a new job though, for a few reasons:

• I'm bored
• I'm worried about the viability of the company although it is doing better (well, less shockingly bad)
• I'm worried about the cutbacks they are doing in our IT department. They are closing offices and want to centralise functions in a very boring town.

Here's why I am bored:

I was crafting an email to various people around the world asking if they had done something, and gently advising them that if they hadn't done it things would get nasty for them from the business.

Which is true.

But I crafted it very carefully taking into account the differing cultures who would receive it.

In all, it was a well balanced non-threatening email getting the point across. And it seems to have worked.

Good.

But, that is all I do. Oh, and Powerpoint presentations.

Sure, it is very important to be able to communicate well but I need to start learning again.

On Thursday I received a couple of emails (one via LinkedIn) from a recruiter for a specific client.

My details seemed a good match, he said.

These days I'm working a lot from home so on Friday I called. Then sent him my latest c.v.

Then waited for him to call back.

Then waited a bit more.

Then went to the beer garden.

I will call him on Monday.

Forgot

It's been a very long time since I went to the American German Business Club.

This evening I went.

Interesting talk on Smart Grid which is about network intelligent power delivery.

I asked a question related to energy trading: I forgot the word "derivative" but remembered the word "disintermediation".

At last

No, not phone calls from recruiters who said they were going to call me.

For years I have been looking for a domain name which would only accept the three initials of my name.

My full name seems to be impossible for most people to spell.

A few days ago a colleague at work mentioned a new TLD called .tel.

This morning I looked at it and found that the domain I wanted to use with it (that is, the three initials of my name) was free.

This is rare, a lot of domain administrators won't accept just three letters.

I grabbed it.

And now I have a .tel domain name.

There's more to .tel than just domain names but basically for people wanting to contact me it's a one-shop stop which is easy to spell out.

Another quarter

Last week was the last chance my employer had to make me redundant until June.

This is because under my German contract the minimum notice they can give is six weeks before the end of the quarter.

It's not nice living like this but at least I have an income.

However the notice period works both ways so now I can't resign either until June.

Cynicism is the evil twin of realism

Today my new boss had a meeting with us all, although I had to dial in as he works in another country.

He made it clear that the de-layering of my previous boss was not a reorganization and he had no plans for further redundancies.

He actually stressed this.

I know this guy and he seems a pretty decent chap.

Nevertheless my c.v. is at the ready.

Following my own advice

If I am going to/perhaps will soon need to find another job then I should at least follow my own advice.

So, I've just renewed my membership of the American German Business Club in Munich.

Tuna and pasta in a spicy tomato sauce

Yesterday one of my favourite recruitment consultants phoned me (favourite because a few years ago he recruited me for a job in Munich).

I had phoned him on Tuesday and sent him my c.v.

He said there were a few potential opportunities he was developing, some in Europe and a couple in New York.

Wow, that would be very good for me.

Obviously I would have to look at things like visas and healthcare. He didn't think getting a visa would be a problem at my level - which was nice to hear.

Anyway, he will get back to me.

Following the recent theme for post titles, guess what I had for dinner last night?

Sandwich

I was tired today.

But I looked at my emails and found that I had been contacted by someone recruiting for a large, international telecommunications company.

They're looking for someone to set up a new, senior role dealing with projects and programmes, a bit like a project office.

We talked this evening when I got home.

It does sound interesting and I do seem to be a match (the recruiter found my details from LinkedIn).

Now, the job is in Frankfurt and I live, and have established myself, in Munich.

And it is not that international (currently I have a global role).

He's putting my name forward but I will have to think.

Still, this week I made no applications and received one bite.

I also had one curry and one sandwich (tonight) and it is only Tuesday.

Curry

The big thing for expats to do in Munich, and not just British expats, is to eat curry.

Mmm, curry.

Reminds them of home, or, if they are not British, someone else's home.

And when I say "them" I mean "me". And my fellow expats, quite a few of whom are American.

So yesterday I had a curry with a couple of friends.

Now Germany has a reputation for efficiency. Unless you live there. Take mobile phones.

Whilst I was waiting for my curry (lamb special) I noticed that I had a voice mail message on my mobile.

It was my boss asking me to call him.

It was 8pm and my boss would only leave a request like that at such a time if it was truly urgent.

I call him.

"What's up?" he asks.

"Um, I was going to ask you that, seeing as you left a message for me to call you".

"I called you in the morning".

Ah, German efficiency at its best.

I explain that I will shortly have my face in a plate of curry and he suggests we talk the next day. No, I will feel less anxious if we talk there and then.

So he tells me that he is leaving the company. For another job but he was basically forced out and got lucky. Also, he is not being replaced but "delayered".

Hmmm.

The boss is an all-round good guy and I am shocked and exasperated. Also, the company isn't doing great (English understatement).

There comes a time when you just know the game is over. For me it was between the poppadoms and the lamb curry.

Scammers

I wrote about this a few times some years ago but now the BBC have picked up on the trend to scam people looking for jobs.

That Sunday feeling

Hmmm,

There's an American German Business Club meeting coming up mid-week. I am a member. But not sure if I want to go to it.

There is a Xing.com dinner the week after. I am a premium member but not sure if I want to go.

I think I am having a severe case of Sunday.

Maybe it is the lack of curry. Will rectify that soon.

job hunting blog of the week

Despite my recent foray into international political analysis I actually want to remain doing what I am currently doing.

Which is as little as possible for as much as possible.

Which is, of course, project management.

For those of you, however, who need a bit more specialisation in your job hunting blog reading, and wonder what the world looks like outside of your town, I suggest you look at this blog. It's about searching for an international affairs position.

In fact book mark it if you like, even become a follower, I won't mind or pout. Just make sure you come back to this blog too.

How to get a job in Munich

A friend contacted me as he knows an English man looking for a job here.

Unfortunately this was during the time of my kidney stone so I was a bit distracted.

Nevertheless I wrote the contact some advice, which I've paraphrased here:

- http://toytowngermany.com/: the main forum for expats in Germany. As well as giving social opportunities there are resources on finding jobs here. OK, I got disenchanted with it but for getting into the expat-in-Munich scene it is very good. Ignore the stupidity and bitchiness though.

- Internations: a "smarter" set than the Toytown crowd, this forum organizes gatherings which are quite good. Except they do turn into cattle markets a bit. Nevertheless, it's part of your networking armoury.

- LinkedIn: enough said

- Xing.com: like LinkedIn but more of a German focus. Also does good real world networking events.

- www.gulp.de: a very good website for IT people in Germany. I found my current job through it.

- Michael Bailey Associate, http://www.mbade.com/: a very good contractor agency

- www.Monster.com: obviously but still good

- www.jobserve.co.uk: also obviously but still good, the first contract I took in Germany was advertised on these two sites

- German: unless you have a gun no-one will to speak to you in German. It is very frustrating. There are lots of courses teaching German but quite a few are considered a joke. Check out Toytown for recommendations.

- Not being able to speak German: don't worry about it. German companies will only recruit fluent German speakers and it will take you a while to get there. Unless they have an international reach in which case the most important language to have is English (at Siemens the operational language in English not German).

- German c.v.(Lebenslauf): I've found that using my usual English c.v. is good enough as I apply to internationally-minded companies.

- International companies: there are loads here but a lot, including my one, have hiring freezes. Which leads me to:

- Süddeutschezeitung: the weekend edition has a jobs and career supplement. Some jobs are in English. But the big thing is it shows you which companies are hiring, and therefore doing relatively well, and therefore might be candidates for speculative applications

- American German Business Club: www.jambit.com/agbc, I'm not American, I'm not German but that is no hindrance to joining (a former, recent president of the Munich club was also British). Not as good as it sounds for networking but still worth a go.

shocking story

So I wake up and talk to TUJHGF (the ultimate job hunter's girlfriend) in the US over ooVoo.

Yesterday she went to a career fair and heard a speaker tell of a friend who had a lifetime's ambition to work for ...

....

....

Accenture.

That's right, a lifetime's ambition to work for Accenture.

This story has ruined my day.

Silver

Last week was distressing in so many ways:

• I still had a kidney stone which was causing discomfort and pain.
• BA relegated me from Gold member status of their Executive Club frequent flyer scheme to Silver status.
• SAS relegated me from Gold member status of their frequent flyer scheme to Silver status.

Why?

Because I've only made one flight this year.

I'm a global project manager damn it. I should be flying every week.

Instead I have to be grateful that I have a job.

Hmmm.

The Spanish question

What do you do when:

• you're a mate of the job hunter with no name
  
• you've been living in Spain for, oh, maybe a decade
• you have a professional interest in linguistics
  
• you have a two year old bi- or trilingual kid?

Easy answer: you start a blog of your own, eventually, about your son's language development.

Recovery

This blog is by no means dedicated to the tedium of having a kidney stone.

I went back to work last week albeit with a couple of morning hospital appointments where:

1. they inflicted a lot of pain leaving me too exhausted to go back to work in the afternoon
2. they told me, the next day, that it is no longer a problem any more.

So, no kidney stone. But it's taking a few days to recuperate and I think companies are more likely to give a bit more lattitude to sick employees than sick freelancers. It's not just that I've been away but when at work I've sometimes lacked energy.

Anyway, there's a project starting in Delhi and I have other things to do at work so I should soon get back into it.

Political analyst

Never have I written about my desires to become a political analyst.

Why?

Because I never wanted to be a political analyst: it just never occurred to me to be one.

But maybe I should.

I seem to have spotted something which no-one else has ...

Why is Norway a cause for concern these days?

Here are the top reasons:

1. it has vast reserves of oil
2. it has been involved in a known and serious attempt to produce WMD and has large reserves of a required component
3. its environment makes counter-insurgency operations difficult
4. its ruler is a man who is in his position, not by election, but by the "Grace of [a Middle-Eastern] God"
   
5. quite a few of the men have beards.

So why has Norway, or Al-Norway as I think we can more appropriately call it, decided to give the new US President the Nobel Prize for Peace? He probably hasn't worked out how to adjust his office chair yet, let alone work out who is who in the Middle East War process.

Obviously Al-Norway is trying to head off an invasion by the Coalition of the Willing in The War Against Terror.

And they knew that being a member of NATO wasn't sufficient cover.

So, if I can work all this out over a cup of tea maybe I should change careers.

Bounce back

So, last week I was off work because of a kidney stone.

This week I went to the office, mainly to drink their water, but by Wednesday morning I was exhausted.

I suspect I had an imbalance in my electrolytes (of course I have no right to have such a suspicion, hardly an area where I've had any training).

I couldn't go into work. And by the evening I was seriously considering taking myself back to the hospital the next day for them to check me out.

Anyway, come the next day (today) and I felt ok. I went to work and was relatively productive.

Now the thing is I had put my name down for a Xing networking dinner event tonight. And paid 50 euros - non-refundable.

But I am not going.

Despite being a good place to meet other business contemporaries in Munich, and being one of the few opportunities I get to practice my German, to go from a state of almost seeking medical attention, to a state of attending a formal dinner, in less than 24 hours, doesn't seem right.

Oh well.