ninety days notice

Went to an interview yesterday for a job that was advertised internally at work and got the job. :-)

Been really poor at updating this the last week, but just been so busy. Everything seems to be all happening at once…you know how it goes. Quick update then. Right, so since the last post…I completed the Reddish Vale application and got it in a couple of days before the deadline.

A job was internally advertised at work, which I’ve spent the last day or two completing an application for and I have a couple of more interviews lined up over the next couple of weeks, including for the job at JD Williams that I applied for a few weeks ago. According to the job-spreadsheet of doom, I’ve now applied for 25 jobs, interviewed for three of those and there’s five more that I consider “open” at the moment.

So, I don’t think that’s too bad. Heading into the final month now, hoping something might get sorted out in the next couple of weeks…otherwise I think it’s time to up my game (again).

Task for the next week - interview prep & research.

Simon Walker - The World according to me: Big Society or as its known in twitter world #BigSociety

simonwalker:

So what is it?

Some would say its a view of the world where people like Miss Marple run our communities with a brisk Womens Institute type manner for the good of all. Some would say that in some areas of Britain that view would work. Im very aware of village communities that are supportive of…

Last Monday (aka Valentines’ Day) marked the half-way point (T-45 days) and I feel like I’ve hit a bit of a wall. The interview last week went fairly well, at least I think it did! Not heard anything back yet, so will follow that up on Monday. 

There’s a job been advertised internally at work that I could apply for. It’s certainly something applicable to me, I could do the job. The only problem is that it’s part time, only 21 hours a week. Even on the same salary, that’s nearly a 50% paycut straight away…and it’s not like part-time techie jobs are easy to come by so it’d be really difficult to find a second job to make up the hours with.

On the one hand - a part-time job is certainly better than no job, 50% salary is way better than JSA, it’s only being advertised internally, it’s something I know I can do, at an organisation I’m familiar with and care about. On the other hand - it’s not enough for us to get by on for anything other than the short-term, and I’d feel really, really awful if I took the job on, started struggling for money and had to leave for something else soon after starting.

So, I don’t know. I’ve got the application pack. It doesn’t close until March 4th, so I guess I just need to think it over for the next week or so.

In the meantime, came across a job at Reddish Vale Technology College, a school I’m fairly familiar with. So that’s the task for today.

I was thinking about linkedin yesterday. It’s a site I’ve only ever really dabbled with recently…and I’m not sure I really get it. I mean, I know how to navigate around the site and how to technically use it. The thing I find hard to understand is the social ettiquette of the site!

Facebook is fairly clear-cut - connections are mutual, both parties have to agree to be friends so there’s almost an unwritten rule that you don’t befriend people you don’t know some other way. Twitter is almost the opposite - connections aren’t mutual, but the general focus is more open. There’s an implication that tweets are intended for the world at large, much more so than Facebook updates so randomly following a stranger is OK.

My problem is - where does linkedin fit in here? Quite clearly, the site is about people’s networks. There’s immense value in those networks - the site goes to great lengths to show that to you. That’s fine with people you know, that part fits with the Facebook model. It’s also fine with friends-of-friends, introductory sort of stuff - it’s obvious that’s what the site is for…but there’s a line where the connections between you and the person you want to contact are iffy at best.

I guess what I’m grappling with is, where does the “network” end and the “are you stalking me?” begin? Where’s the line between “I want to be in your linkedin network” and “I blatantly just want access to your contacts”? :-) I find it hard to see exactly how the site is pitching itself socially.

It’s interesting in a way, it’s pushing a boundary somewhere. I think it’s fascinating how technology raises questions about things like this. Admittedly, could really do without the threat of unemployment to think about those questions but still… :-)

Bit of a mental afternoon yesterday so didn’t have chance to update about the interview at UK Grid. I think it went fairly well, place was amazing, everyone was really nice. They said there’s a few more people to interview, then they’ll be inviting people back for a second interview with HR. Just need to wait and see what happens next. Also, work my arse off on the HR stuff because I know that’s where I always let myself down.

One thing that struck me was how noisy it was inside the datacentre. I suppose in retrospect, duh, there’s hundreds, maybe thousands of servers in a massively air-conditioned room - of course it’s going to be noisy.

Hope it works out, looks like a really interesting place to work, good opportunities for the future and a really forward looking organisation that I’m sure are just going to grow and grow.

T-49

3.5 hours of Pilkington in the background, 10 pages of scribbled notes. Head well and truly mashed.

Heard about the job I interviewed for at eventura last Friday. I didn’t get the job, though did get some really useful feedback from their HR department.

Have another interview this Friday for UK Grid. Really excited about it, looks like an amazing company!

Blimey, what a title that is. Quite Impressed myself! :-) 

So, the interview then. It was for a “first line technical support” at a company called eVentura, a technical and business consultancy company based in Bolton. A little background to the story here:- I know someone who already works there, that’s how I heard about the job (social networking FTW here). I’d applied a few weeks ago, and hadn’t heard anything back so was kind of starting to write it off. I should also add at this point, I get a LOT of spam. A hell of a lot, this is a count of the last 30 days…

…combine this with my perhaps-too-much-faith-in-google when it comes to checking this mess, you can perhaps guess what happened. I missed the original email, my guess is that it’s in that mess of a spam folder somewhere. Fortunately, the guy I know who worked there got in touch with me with a “what happened to you?” message, and to cut a long-story short, I got a second chance.

Lesson one:- always follow up an application. I’m particularly poor at this, if I don’t hear something back, I take it a little personally, plus there’s a little voice in me that goes “don’t be annoying! don’t bother people!”. I clearly need to get over this and work out a follow-up, because if this job had been anywhere else, it’s unlikely I would’ve found out I’d missed out and even then, may have not been given a second chance.

The interview went OK, I think I did alright with the techie parts, where I think I let myself down is with “soft-skills”. It’s not that I don’t have soft-skills, it’s that I really suck at selling those. My approach to job interviews is far too factual - I really struggle when the question is something like “explain how do you work under pressure?”. This is something I need to work on.

Lesson two:- work on selling soft-skills!

Lesson three:- research way earlier! Think I’ve already mentioned this in terms of trying to get organisation names from recruitment agencies (I have tried that and not had much success so far). This interview was on short notice, and although I did manage to find out quite a lot yesterday before the interview today - I would’ve preferred to have done more and been better prepared. Researching earlier means hedging your bets a little I think, but it seems like it’d pay off.

Have an interview this afternoon at Eventura. It was a bit of a mix-up & last minute thing, but hopefully been able to get a good enough grasp of the company.

Any recommendations on job sites? So far, I’ve found jobserve and jobsite to be particularly good, fish4jobs and totaljobs full of spam, junk and blatant scams. The government’s own directgov/”jobcentre” site is a nightmare and barely fit for purpose. It’s 2011. A website shouldn’t be that bad anymore.

Webrecruit are doing some interesting stuff, especially on linkedin - though haven’t quite got my head around it fully yet. James Caan (of Dragon’s Den fame) has put some money and input into it.

I reckon there’s MASSIVE potential for someone to do something akin to eharmony but for jobseekers. Take more of an online dating approach to online job-hunting - making suitable matches based on compatibility rather than just advertising vacancies. Make it a 2 way street, more of a conversation. Surely that benefits both sides massively? As a job seeker, I’d pay a subscription for something like that in a heartbeat. Especially if it came with some kind of guarantee like match.com does.

Any other suggestions?