Belated Part III [Curri....cu...lum... what ? ]

It's way overdue, haven't blogged since I think 21 Feb of something in that order.Sorry to all the millions of fans.. wait.. hit count less 10, right, it's been overdue, live with it.

* I was phoned by the IT manager, asked if I wanted to come in for an interview.
* I replied in the positive, he told me 45 min SQL test, 45 min 1:1 interview, him and me.
* I said, excellent, where abouts ?
* He said : Soho, just off Oxford Street.
* I said no problem, could you email me a link to what your company does.
* He did. I had a look at the site, the salary looked decent. I was keen.
* Went for the interview. Got the test, forgot half of the little SQL I knew, had a great 1:1 interview. Spoke kewl and that's about it, they had another guy come in and he would phone me back.


The thing that now goes and throws a spanner in the works is this. I had that interview on the Wednesday, on the Thursday I had an interview with a consultancy firm. This however was not for employment, but for a different kind of matter. Limited companies.

Now those who are here and have done some homework ( I didn't, not enough anyways), will know what the Limited Company idea is.... a matter of taxes as such.. being that I still want to hopefully get a job in this country I think I'll leave that at that for the moment being.

I went to the consultancy, they got me interested in looking at the contract market and so Thursday started making life difficult, cause.. well.. let's just say that the permanent position wasn't looking so nice anymore. Especially with NI (National Insurance payments, different kind of tax.. )

The 1:1 interview guy was going to phone me back on Friday to let me know if it went ok or not and they wanted me to come back for a 2nd interview. To be honest, I was hoping he'd phone and go "Sorry Hendrik, but we've had a stronger candidate" Instead, he sent me an email, asking me if I would come in for a 2nd interview on Tuesday with him and the IT director.

This is where it goes pearshaped ( as if it wasn't already). I said yes, and here's why. I had basically had a quick interview at the consultancy, not really having a complete overview (they gave me the contract papers, which I took home to go and read, and I was still in the process, and was going to return to them on Monday with the papers).

So come Saturday I read through all the papers and the fine print (they call it fine print for a reason I realised here). And uhm. ya.. perm job.. not looking all that kewl at all now. So on Monday I get the complete haulover at the consultancy. I decide to take the risk, I've gone this far I might as well go all the way.. I had however, discussed all this with Grea, so there were no life altering decisions being made without her at the very least knowing and in most cases giving some great level headed advise about what might happen down the line.

So.. I email the guy of the permanent job, thanks but I have in the mean time received some information that shows that the contract market looks somewhat more interesting. (Or something close to that ? ). I was hoping.. really hoping.. he would email me back and say.. that's kewl, we understand thanks for your time and send me on my merry job hunting way.. uhhmm.. no. No even close.

The guy phones me up, asks me (very politely, he was ever the gentleman), why I might have changed my mind ? So now I know that most permanent positions and desirably filled by people who are going to stay a long while. First line of defense, run the 2 year-working-holilday-visa script. This basically puts it out that I am, by law since Feb 2004, only allowed to work a maximum of.. yup.. you guessed it.. 12 months on the 24 month stay that we are allowed in the UK.

Zodan thinks : "Zodan 1, Permanent job guy 0 ". Nope, he countered that one very elegantly with the "Offer him a work sponsor from the company after the 12 months"- script. Which really hit home hard, as in very very hard. I have to mention here that he did also (during the interview) very nicely throw in the 28 days of holiday on the job perk, excluding the time that the company closes (unofficially) between xmas and new years. Needless to say, this was also hovering in my head at the time.

I had to revert back to saying that I am truly sorry, but would like to use the oppurtunity to check out the contract market and basically burn myself in doing so.

He, yet again very politely, said that he was sorry to hear this as he thought I would have worked very well in their organisation. I wished him well with the other candidate for the job and that I would be one of the 1st people to subscribe to the business idea that they were developing. Which I'm sure I will, at least I think I will.

So ya. That in a nutshell has started the long haul towards getting a contract job. I think I'll fill in the rest of the details at a later time ( although that so seldomely [typo I think] happens that I might be lying here).

I've been at the contract search for two weeks now, of which the 1st week was basically getting my CV up to standard for the UK market, way different than how things are done in SA, and then getting up to speed to how to actually apply for jobs. Things I have learnt in the last 2 weeks I believe will help me in huge leaps and bounds when we go back to SA, in working the market and knowing how to get that ideal job that we are all so looking for.

I want to post more at this time, but it's getting late, and I have interview no. 4 tomorrow morning with a huge company about 5 minutes walk away from Waterloo station, I want to land this one, not as badly as the one I had on Friday morning in Bechtel House in Hammersmith (would have been the ideal job, but more on that next time), but this would be a great financial boost if I can land tomorrow's job.

Hold thumbs people, interview = 10:30 UK time, for those in SA, that's still 12:30 that side.
Will tell you tomorrow who it was with :)

Later
Z