After a very wise talk with Anne last night, she quite rightly pointed out that "you should get out more"...
Despite the fact that this can be very obvious advice, its easy in the frustration and concentration of trying to find a job to resolutely confine oneself in ones make-shift office, mine being a kitchen table in flat 40 :-) Close to the coffee machine, close to the bathroom, no window though...:-P
Lucky for me I had plans to attend two conferences today.
Lucky for me both of these were at Earls Court. Whats the chances that the two conferences that you want to attend are at the same venue (albeit different entrances).
Lucky for me continues a little further down the page...
So this morning I headed off to the Technology for Marketing and Advertising (TfMA) conference at EarlsCourt 2 and the International Confex 2009 (Events conference) at Earls Court 1. First thing was first...
T-F-MA...
I've been to quite a few technology conferences in my time and this one jumped out at me as yet another. Funnily enough though somewhat lighter as it was directed at the Marketing and Advertising groups. I entered, was given a Event Guide. Spent around 20 minutes going through the event guide and trying to find anything that interested me. Anything that connected me to the event. Having looked online at their website I was intrigued with a number of different aspects but well there it was far more difficult to really answer the question "So why sir are you here? What are you interested in finding out"... Ahhhh yes I thought, I found a Mobile Marketing Association section. Something they were pushing quite hard. I've worked at a company that creates platforms for Mobile marketing applications. I entered the GREEN zone.... welcomed by a middle aged man who the minute he heard that I was interested in finding out a little more about the potential but stating that I was unemployed headed for the hills with a "Well, I wish you the best of luck"... a smile quirky smile and off he went to hide behind a number of other Stall salesmen.
What I always find funny at these major conferences is that sometimes there are plenty of people at one stall but nobody talking to them. The company has clearly overestimated their demand. This is made even more comical when they insist on placing the team in a tiny little cubicle the size of an American bathroom stall/cubicle... some part of me thinks that they probably send their staff their to be laughed at and punished for some work-related issues.
At other stalls there is loads of empty spaces and only 2 sales people. Sometimes these people look like Mongolian herdsmen in large open plains... nobody dares tread into the large stalls as they fear the wrath of the herdsmen looking over... other times these two poor salespeople are left with enough people that are intrigued by the size of the stall and obviously think that by splashing more they have something more important to say... not often the case.
So to make a long story somewhat shorter, I walked around but really couldn't for the life of me identify how I could benefit any of these companies or how I could sell myself in this situation.
Lucky for me there was CONFERENCe number two...
International Confex 2009
Whereas the T-M-F-A was full of Suits... suits and more suits... (seems like IT nerds always wear suits very rarely and its very easy to tell at these events)... the International Confex, a conference/exhibition for the Events industry was viewed a larger mix of casually and overly formally dressed people...
Upon entering after having paid my £20 entrance fee... I was welcomed by Willy Wonka who was standing beside a bunch of little Oompa Loompas... now what can I say... anytime I see an OOMPA loompa I know I'm in for a good time... so away I went...
At this conference at least my story was clear. I was interested in Sports events... Bending the truth a little I mentioned to a lot of the people that I was speaking to that I was starting up a Sports Event Management company... not totally impossible but quite unlikely... nevertheless I had far more opportunity to converse with a range of different people. This conference was fun...
While wandering I spoke to among others a spokesperson for Knebworth House, a very posh looking castle/estate... I'm potentially looking at the opportunity to assist a guy in industry to bring a sporting event to the UK and this location would be very kool...
I also found an "Advice Center" with loads of useful brochures, magazines etc and a friendly lady who managed to set me up with a career consular... a recruiter from a recruitment agency
Lucky for me she had a few minutes free and could see me
Lucky for me i had a copy of my CV in my bag.
She took a look at it and called my CV "impeccable" and was quite impressed and said she would see what she could do... first bit of positive encouragement I've gotten for quite from any source of employer/recruiter etc... then again all the recruiters that have looked at my CV have not been able to find a single thing wrong with it...
So basically I had a good look around before coming on back to finish my day here...
That leaves me with my two stories of the day though...
My London Tube Story of the Day
I don't know what it is about me and the TUBE but it seems like every time I go on it I get an incredible story... here's my incredible story for the day...
While riding on the Piccadilly Line southbound from Kings Cross to EarlsCourt a Japanese male passenger entered somewhere around Green Park... carrying a huge backpack, a bottle of water, a plastic bag and a newspaper he scuttled around to find a place to sit... finding one between two girls...
He sat down... put the bottle of water between his legs, started fidgeting with his stuff tryin to get his backpack off and his bags in the right place when he squeezed his legs together... OOOOOPS... SQUUUUUIIIIRRRTTTT... the woman sitting next to him gets a ray of water straight in her face...
The girl sitting next to this Japanese guy couldn't stop laughing politely into her hand... the girl whom the guy had squirted looked slightly annoyed, a proper posh blond girl in her 20's... and the Japanese guy looked embarrassed and slightly stressed but very apologetic... they were both soon laughing it off though... but the site of a ray of water arching through the sky over the aisle in a subway train and striking a woman in the face is priceless...
London Story number two
Standing outside the CONFEX debating whether to pay the £20 entrance fee... I notice a woman sitting on the steps looking incredibly similar to a famous person... her facial movement and hair, the most uncanny resemblance but I brush it off... thinking.. nah.. what would she be doing here, and what would she be doing outside on the steps ?!?... So I enter the conference and while looking at a schedule for speakers... I notice her name... I'm like... damn .. that really was Ruby Wax.
By Anne making me realise I should get out more, she might have inevitably given me more funny stories of my times out n bout in this crazy town...
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
ANSWER me THIS!
"Tell me what you WANT to do? What drives you? If you could do ANYTHING, what would it be?"Thats what an American I contacted about an opportunity in Sports wrote me in a mail. Short but sweet. Sound easy? (I don't think the answer to what drives you is a chauffeur, a trucker who doesn't know you've jumped in his trailor or anything like that, but I may be wrong) Its a question I've had the chance to dwell over for quite a while but its not easy. Try answering that question in no more than 75 words and at the same time selling yourself so that you can get a job.
While I'm often not concise in my writing (its easy and fun to write more and more and more... snorrrrrrreezzzzzzzzz), I like this short direct approach. The problem is that by leaving so many dots out of the equation it places far too much importance on the imagination of the other person. Reminds me of a common saying in traffic... "It's not how good you drive because all it takes is one idiot on the road". Funny thing is there are quite a lot of idiots on the road. Bad drivers. But even that can be down to perception.
Now, I realise that it would be best to be an optimist in the situation and trust that the other person understands exactly who you are in as few words as possible. What they are looking to do is to identify with you. Or to pigeonhole you. Thats not strange, we all do when we meet someone we don't know. For me I find it a struggle trying to get someone to identify with the fact that I've moved and lived in 10 different places, that I've been educated in international schools, that I like Chelsea and don't like Liverpool possibly related to the fact that I don't like Tomatoes...
So they are looking to identify with any of those things... But in 75 words, there is still a possibility to arrouse the attention of the other person. We live in a world where time is money. Its not only that though... as humans our concentration levels are as limited as can be. To emphasise the right words at the right time is key in the hunt for a job. This may be in writing, over the phone or in person. This is my challenge!
I'm probably not alone though in wanting to say as much as possible hoping that some word will rouse the interest in the reader, the prospective employer. If I said something like buttox I'd surely rouse the interest but probably not in a good way. That is unless of course I had created a new buttox muscle fitness device, marketed it, sold it in large quantities to the European, Asian and lucrative American markets. The Buttmaker 2000... as seen on TV...
Now the answer to the question will differ depending on what stage a person is at in their life and what mood they are in perhaps. I refuse to believe that most people are driven by the pursuit of money-making though. People want to make money so that they can experience certain things but deep down inside I think there is something else that pushes them. Imagine if people instead of writing their title on business cards wrote what drives them "To help others" (perhaps a teacher or a doctor), "To win" (perhaps a banker or a jockey), "To create" (perhaps a DJ or a gardener), "To enjoy"; "To be different"; "To be secure"; "To be stable" ... there are plenty of different drives. These aren't even great examples...
Now all that has been said before by many so I'm not pretending to be super smart or insightful or anything. Its just interesting how even if you've thought about what you want, how difficult it sometimes is to explain.
I'll leave you today with some pictures from London on Saturday in what was probably (don't have the statistics but according to my outer thermometer lodge on my left arm) the warmest day of the year so far... The pictures were taken on a walk to Angel along the canal and there's a picture of Ben and I with beers at the York at Angel.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
"I'm sorry, we didn't receive your CV"
Not surprising really that its tough to get a job if you get the words "Sorry, there must have been a hitch in our system because we didn't receive your CV last week as you said." as a reply to "What did you think of my CV"
Following up on an application I sent last week out to a company seeking a Swedish speaking marketer for an online digital media campaign, I received that comment above. Now the recruiter rectified the problem immediately and gave me excellent service and really tried to help me out. As with all the recruitment agencies I've spoken to, they seem to be very scared about presenting candidates without exact relevant experience. Its not enough that you've handled customers before, you have to have handled left handed customers who have green eyes and short black hair and who like long strolls on the beach, coconut fudge sundaes and books by Les Franklin (whoever the hell that is.. its a made up name so if there really is an author named that... WOW... what a coincidence :-))
What was nice was the kind and good service this recruiter gave to me. The first such good service from a recruiter I've had. Now I realise that they probably have their fair share of "how the hell can this person be applying to this" especially with things as they are and people not only able to focus on getting jobs that they have done in the past... but its no fun sitting on the receiving end of a bunch of negativity. Funny thing I've noticed is this... its often women who are sitting in the recruitment agencies that I'm calling about jobs that have been posted or about possibly having interviews with the recruitment agencies. Its often guys who call me from recruitment agencies that are looking for sales people, telemarketers etc who have received my CV from monster and who have picked up on the fact that I speak Swedish and I could call and talk to Swedes from here. To be perfectly honest, if I wanted to speak to Swedes on the phone as a telemarketer I'd have stayed in Sweden... but I am lookin to use my Swedish as an advantage in other interesting roles. Have no problems calling to Sweden in more than a telemarketer type or role.
A professor of mine Joey Reiman at Emory told us... you have to call 5 times, you have to email 5 times. And you will always get a reply on the 5th! I think this could be quite cultural. This might be generalising quite a lot but I think if a Swede got 5 telephone calls or emails from the same person in a short space of time they would get extremely ticked off. I think that if you contacted an American man who was watching some NASCAR 5 times in the same evening... it could get quite nasty but generally I think business people in the US might expect to be pestered cause they've got them little blackberry's with them and convenientely read the mail but have far too many more important ones to answer so they forget about it until they are sitting at home or at the office... in London with the Blackberry culture this'll happen too in places but instead of 5 I reckon its more likely to be around 3ish. There is still that courtesy/ polite way of looking at things here. Nevertheless... its all about constantly following up on things...
Yesterday on my "Todo list" that I try to write every morning, I wrote "1 hour brainstorm about other opportunities". So thats what I did. I started a group on Facebook called Lon-doers. You see I hear from a lot of people that "Lots of my friends are in the same situation" etc etc. If that in fact is the case that there are a lot of people struggling to find something to do, why not find a way of connecting these people together. Never before (in our generation) have so many clever and intelligent people been without a job. One typical question you'll get from interviewers will be "what did you do with the time between jobs". If there are any other people out there that want to DO something... and might want some friendly ears or some expertise, some contacts, my idea was that that could be the place to go. I started it on Facebook because I knew I could ask my friends in London to join and/or invite others they knew that are in similar positions. If successful I'd like to make it independent of Facebook but obviously it depends on how many people find it useful. Its still in its infancy but we'll see if some people join that want to work on some "un-paid" projects that they themselves think up. ie. organise a fun day in the park for loads of people... organise an afterschool event for kids... start a little company doing something...
Over the past few weeks I've spoken to or met up with a few old friends... some of whom have laughed and commented, I remember those crazy Christmas stories you always wrote... and those summer stories. It got me thinking. Now that I have a little more time on my hands. Now that I need some way to let my creativity run free... why not start writing a little... some short stories... with me Short is often not that easy though.. always becomes longer than expected:-)
Anyway... so what I've done is I've set up a new blogpage called KraiseeCookie (Click here to go there) where I (under my pseudonym Jayes) will write a few stories when I have the time, when i have the creativity, when I have the craving. You're more than welcome to read along.
About this pseudonym... I've always wanted to have a Pseudonym... thought a little about it today and pressdo.. I came up with Jayes. It stands for Ja (yes in Swedish) and Yes (yes in English) :-) Positive and Positive!! :-D
Before I go I wanted to mention some "Sport industry" news...
Today the IOC (International Olympic Committee) announced an agreement with the Sportfive agency for the broadcast rights to the 2014 Winter and 2016 Olympic Games. For a significant number of years the European Broadcast Union were in charge of it but now it is Sportfive who will sell this on to different channels around Europe. Imagine not being able to see the Olympics on Free-to-air tv channels like BBC in the UK or SVT in Sweden. Thats not going to happen because the IOC require whoever buy the rights that it is shown on free-to-air channels. This little deal though is probably a huge blow to the EBU... interesting how things change... nevertheless, there's still plenty of money in sports... but as the recruiter said yesterday ...
Sports is something everyone wants to get into...
Is it really? I haven't met anyone who has given it an honest chance ... I don't know anyone close to me in it... sure it sounds more exciting than selling dishwashers (no offence to any dishwasher sales people of course) but I think there's more talk and less action regarding sport. It's often a dream... and never becomes reality!!!
Following up on an application I sent last week out to a company seeking a Swedish speaking marketer for an online digital media campaign, I received that comment above. Now the recruiter rectified the problem immediately and gave me excellent service and really tried to help me out. As with all the recruitment agencies I've spoken to, they seem to be very scared about presenting candidates without exact relevant experience. Its not enough that you've handled customers before, you have to have handled left handed customers who have green eyes and short black hair and who like long strolls on the beach, coconut fudge sundaes and books by Les Franklin (whoever the hell that is.. its a made up name so if there really is an author named that... WOW... what a coincidence :-))
What was nice was the kind and good service this recruiter gave to me. The first such good service from a recruiter I've had. Now I realise that they probably have their fair share of "how the hell can this person be applying to this" especially with things as they are and people not only able to focus on getting jobs that they have done in the past... but its no fun sitting on the receiving end of a bunch of negativity. Funny thing I've noticed is this... its often women who are sitting in the recruitment agencies that I'm calling about jobs that have been posted or about possibly having interviews with the recruitment agencies. Its often guys who call me from recruitment agencies that are looking for sales people, telemarketers etc who have received my CV from monster and who have picked up on the fact that I speak Swedish and I could call and talk to Swedes from here. To be perfectly honest, if I wanted to speak to Swedes on the phone as a telemarketer I'd have stayed in Sweden... but I am lookin to use my Swedish as an advantage in other interesting roles. Have no problems calling to Sweden in more than a telemarketer type or role.
A professor of mine Joey Reiman at Emory told us... you have to call 5 times, you have to email 5 times. And you will always get a reply on the 5th! I think this could be quite cultural. This might be generalising quite a lot but I think if a Swede got 5 telephone calls or emails from the same person in a short space of time they would get extremely ticked off. I think that if you contacted an American man who was watching some NASCAR 5 times in the same evening... it could get quite nasty but generally I think business people in the US might expect to be pestered cause they've got them little blackberry's with them and convenientely read the mail but have far too many more important ones to answer so they forget about it until they are sitting at home or at the office... in London with the Blackberry culture this'll happen too in places but instead of 5 I reckon its more likely to be around 3ish. There is still that courtesy/ polite way of looking at things here. Nevertheless... its all about constantly following up on things...
Yesterday on my "Todo list" that I try to write every morning, I wrote "1 hour brainstorm about other opportunities". So thats what I did. I started a group on Facebook called Lon-doers. You see I hear from a lot of people that "Lots of my friends are in the same situation" etc etc. If that in fact is the case that there are a lot of people struggling to find something to do, why not find a way of connecting these people together. Never before (in our generation) have so many clever and intelligent people been without a job. One typical question you'll get from interviewers will be "what did you do with the time between jobs". If there are any other people out there that want to DO something... and might want some friendly ears or some expertise, some contacts, my idea was that that could be the place to go. I started it on Facebook because I knew I could ask my friends in London to join and/or invite others they knew that are in similar positions. If successful I'd like to make it independent of Facebook but obviously it depends on how many people find it useful. Its still in its infancy but we'll see if some people join that want to work on some "un-paid" projects that they themselves think up. ie. organise a fun day in the park for loads of people... organise an afterschool event for kids... start a little company doing something...
Over the past few weeks I've spoken to or met up with a few old friends... some of whom have laughed and commented, I remember those crazy Christmas stories you always wrote... and those summer stories. It got me thinking. Now that I have a little more time on my hands. Now that I need some way to let my creativity run free... why not start writing a little... some short stories... with me Short is often not that easy though.. always becomes longer than expected:-)
Anyway... so what I've done is I've set up a new blogpage called KraiseeCookie (Click here to go there) where I (under my pseudonym Jayes) will write a few stories when I have the time, when i have the creativity, when I have the craving. You're more than welcome to read along.
About this pseudonym... I've always wanted to have a Pseudonym... thought a little about it today and pressdo.. I came up with Jayes. It stands for Ja (yes in Swedish) and Yes (yes in English) :-) Positive and Positive!! :-D
Before I go I wanted to mention some "Sport industry" news...
Today the IOC (International Olympic Committee) announced an agreement with the Sportfive agency for the broadcast rights to the 2014 Winter and 2016 Olympic Games. For a significant number of years the European Broadcast Union were in charge of it but now it is Sportfive who will sell this on to different channels around Europe. Imagine not being able to see the Olympics on Free-to-air tv channels like BBC in the UK or SVT in Sweden. Thats not going to happen because the IOC require whoever buy the rights that it is shown on free-to-air channels. This little deal though is probably a huge blow to the EBU... interesting how things change... nevertheless, there's still plenty of money in sports... but as the recruiter said yesterday ...
Sports is something everyone wants to get into...
Is it really? I haven't met anyone who has given it an honest chance ... I don't know anyone close to me in it... sure it sounds more exciting than selling dishwashers (no offence to any dishwasher sales people of course) but I think there's more talk and less action regarding sport. It's often a dream... and never becomes reality!!!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Where is the love?
Let me start with last Thursday. My friend Emma invited me to a beer festival at Battersea Arts Center (on the SOUTH SIDE of the river... oooooo)... This is the link to the festival. Brewers and pub owners from all over the UK had congregated for a few days of beer tasting... they were ales and bitters... 3 pounds enterance charge, and approximately 1.20 per half pint... you were given a glass and there were kegs of beer stacked high on both sides of approximately 50 meters worth of space.
Now I've been to a few wine tasting events in my time and this crowd weren't as... sophisticated... there wasn't the same... swig, smell, look ... whatever bit of the crowd that you can make out from this video(as you can see in the video taken on my old school Z550i Sony Ericsson is of premium quality) is a little...different...:-P
So yea.. you don't see much really hehehe... but there were lots of men... men men and more men... it was like a GIANT pub... the same noise level, the same feel... only it was a huge pub.. with loads and loads of different choices... I drank a Sheepershaggers Gold... tasted like sheep piss truth be told...; I drank a Holy Joe... wasn't that bad don't you know...; and my favorite... a dark delight... it was just right...:-) there were lots of funny names... and lots of fat men behind the counter serving up these different ales... a great night out.. highly recommended for anyone that doesn't hate ales and bitters... apparantly they have these quite often... there's an organisation called CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) that hold a number of these events... managed to get home at not an all too late hour...
what can logically follow a little story about a Beer festival... why a little valentines day story of course... although we were semi-lethargic on Saturday following "a few beers/glasses of wine" here in the apartment... we (anne and myself and mathilda) went to the Tate Modern... was quite a slow steady wander... some good art... (I would recommend a piece called Eye, Nose and Cheek)
Anne and I then went to this "kick ass" bar called Café Kick which is very near Old Street (Shoreditch High Street) ... Anne loves the place cause they have AMAZING cocktails... and I love the place cause they have table fussball and show footie and its a really kool chilled place... so we get there and they are showing the England Wales rugby... I know that at the same time Chelsea are playing Watford in the FA cup... and its on Setanta... so Anne asked the barman if they're showing the game and he shakes his head and calls over to his boss to ask... his Boss was a big strong welshman who carried a great big smile.... he came over .. took one look at us... asked us if we were a couple... and then told us... "I'm going to make your valentines day"... he showed us down to the downstairs Lounge which they had set up to watch the game but as nobody had shown they had closed it again... there were candles and nice big comfy sofas... so we got the entire place to ourselves, watched Chelsea win 3-1... Anne got her Mojito... and we got to sit privately in comfy chairs... :-)
We had dinner reservations at a restaraunt called the Yard ... a great pizza place that do pizzas in Yards instead of circles...:-) I don't eat tomato sauce or anything tomato-ee... so normally the pizzas i eat are SUPER cheesy... but this time i ordered this awesome pizza that wasn't soooo cheesey it was called Crispy Duck and had some Hoi Chi sauce... some spring onions (I absolutely love Spring onions)... and cucumber... and probably something else I've forgotten.. anyway, it was great...!!! :-) so yea.. it was a good day all around...:-)
Today a friend of mine who I lived next to in Slovakia wrote an interesting Blog post ... he's currently travelling from Europe through Asia... in one long trip... through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan... I'd really recommend reading a few of his entries if you have the chance...interesting experiences... interesting how people do different things...
Link to Tiago's blog as he travels from Europe... through Turkey through Iran... through Pakistan and beyond. Click here
And finally some work-searching related stuff... what kind of people don't reply to mails? what kind of people don't reply to second mails... I know people are busy... and I know that sometimes its easy to forget, but to have sent out more than 15-20 mails to individuals with specific questions over the past 5 days.. and not to get one reply makes you wonder if people are actually getting my mail, but i've done tests to see if they get through to people and they do... so next time you receive a mail thats not totally preposterous and isn't asking you to do something totally ridiculous.. just send a reply... even if its just a .. "I'm really sorry but I can't help you."... this is the frustration I'm facing as I try to get through to people I know.. people I've met, people who have asked me to mail... etc etc....
a little mail (not a little male) will always make you smile!!! :-)
Now I've been to a few wine tasting events in my time and this crowd weren't as... sophisticated... there wasn't the same... swig, smell, look ... whatever bit of the crowd that you can make out from this video(as you can see in the video taken on my old school Z550i Sony Ericsson is of premium quality) is a little...different...:-P
So yea.. you don't see much really hehehe... but there were lots of men... men men and more men... it was like a GIANT pub... the same noise level, the same feel... only it was a huge pub.. with loads and loads of different choices... I drank a Sheepershaggers Gold... tasted like sheep piss truth be told...; I drank a Holy Joe... wasn't that bad don't you know...; and my favorite... a dark delight... it was just right...:-) there were lots of funny names... and lots of fat men behind the counter serving up these different ales... a great night out.. highly recommended for anyone that doesn't hate ales and bitters... apparantly they have these quite often... there's an organisation called CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) that hold a number of these events... managed to get home at not an all too late hour...
what can logically follow a little story about a Beer festival... why a little valentines day story of course... although we were semi-lethargic on Saturday following "a few beers/glasses of wine" here in the apartment... we (anne and myself and mathilda) went to the Tate Modern... was quite a slow steady wander... some good art... (I would recommend a piece called Eye, Nose and Cheek)
Anne and I then went to this "kick ass" bar called Café Kick which is very near Old Street (Shoreditch High Street) ... Anne loves the place cause they have AMAZING cocktails... and I love the place cause they have table fussball and show footie and its a really kool chilled place... so we get there and they are showing the England Wales rugby... I know that at the same time Chelsea are playing Watford in the FA cup... and its on Setanta... so Anne asked the barman if they're showing the game and he shakes his head and calls over to his boss to ask... his Boss was a big strong welshman who carried a great big smile.... he came over .. took one look at us... asked us if we were a couple... and then told us... "I'm going to make your valentines day"... he showed us down to the downstairs Lounge which they had set up to watch the game but as nobody had shown they had closed it again... there were candles and nice big comfy sofas... so we got the entire place to ourselves, watched Chelsea win 3-1... Anne got her Mojito... and we got to sit privately in comfy chairs... :-)
We had dinner reservations at a restaraunt called the Yard ... a great pizza place that do pizzas in Yards instead of circles...:-) I don't eat tomato sauce or anything tomato-ee... so normally the pizzas i eat are SUPER cheesy... but this time i ordered this awesome pizza that wasn't soooo cheesey it was called Crispy Duck and had some Hoi Chi sauce... some spring onions (I absolutely love Spring onions)... and cucumber... and probably something else I've forgotten.. anyway, it was great...!!! :-) so yea.. it was a good day all around...:-)
Today a friend of mine who I lived next to in Slovakia wrote an interesting Blog post ... he's currently travelling from Europe through Asia... in one long trip... through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan... I'd really recommend reading a few of his entries if you have the chance...interesting experiences... interesting how people do different things...
Link to Tiago's blog as he travels from Europe... through Turkey through Iran... through Pakistan and beyond. Click here
And finally some work-searching related stuff... what kind of people don't reply to mails? what kind of people don't reply to second mails... I know people are busy... and I know that sometimes its easy to forget, but to have sent out more than 15-20 mails to individuals with specific questions over the past 5 days.. and not to get one reply makes you wonder if people are actually getting my mail, but i've done tests to see if they get through to people and they do... so next time you receive a mail thats not totally preposterous and isn't asking you to do something totally ridiculous.. just send a reply... even if its just a .. "I'm really sorry but I can't help you."... this is the frustration I'm facing as I try to get through to people I know.. people I've met, people who have asked me to mail... etc etc....
a little mail (not a little male) will always make you smile!!! :-)
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Maybe...
Funny... sometimes you just don't feel like writing on your blog...
maybe its cause you don't have much to say
maybe its cause you don't have anything interesting to say
maybe its cause you have too much to say but no energy to write
maybe its cause you've eaten too many prawn chips and you're stomach is a bit eeeeky
maybe its cause you've spent the entire day working on completely reformatting your CV and been writing constantly
maybe its cause you don't have any good news and you don't want to be one more in the crowd that writes about bad news
maybe none of the above
maybe all of the above
With application after application sent out... tryin its best to win me a job... yet no response to any of them, this current job of mine surely is an extremely thankless one... if I had written half as much and half as well in a "real job" as I have these past few months I'm confident would have got some feedback... probably quite good... but conveniently companies now end every job description with a
I feel that this week so far has been a very good week for me, my confidence is up... my determination is unwavering... i'm ignorant of the distractions either side of this road to a job... and yet its only natural to question what it is you're doing wrong? what do I change? what can i do? where do i go? when do things change? yet i keep gettin back to that goal, to that vision... that guiding light...
Its interesting to follow a number of different stories as well though... friends who are unhappy at work, friends who fear the axe soon, friends who have never had so much work to do, experienced and qualified friends who can't get a job at mcdonalds... the times bring up a lot of surprises... there are a lot of changes occuring...
yet many things remain the same... this weekend my friend Anders came to visit from Lund... friendships don't have to change due to the times... it was great having Anders in town to just chill... it was a very easy weekend with fairly little stress...another thing that doesn't change is that people go to football games ...
One of the reasons Anders came to London this weekend was to watch football but with his brilliant timing many of the games were called off due to bad weather... Charlton.. a team with undersoil heating... Watford, another team with undersoil heating... both called off their games, these teams are in the championship (Second division of the English football league)... but Brentford... Brentford Football Club...the Bees in the League two (the fourth division in the english league) their ground was playable and Saturday was a beautiful day... Football doesn't change at its heart due to the times...the beauty of the game doesn't change at all... Brentford vs. Chester City was a great game of football. Perhaps too one sided as the game was effectively over after 45 minutes (3-0 final score and our hero on the day was Charlie MacDonald.. hattrick hero)... there was intensity, there was spirit, and heart... everything football is about... no diving or acting... just pure football...
In the crowd, the two extremes were easy to see.... two little boys sat infront of Anders and I screaming things at the Lino (Linesman)... rather rude... not as rude as at QPR but rude... and the great contrast was a few seats down... a little boy, a few years younger than the two hecklers...sitting with his mom and dad... stood up and said "Hey you two, thats not very nice, please be quiet"... no swear words, no indecencies... just pure innocence... absolutely lovely to see... After halftime though we witnessed two grown men stand up... exchange a few words and then suddenly pop... one of the men jabs the other one in the head... security rush in and yet its all still fairly relaxed... football is pure emotions in the uk... but the game can be so pure that its beautiful... the one who wants it more wins, the one who's more intense wins, the smartest wins...
Last week my former colleague Paul... from my time at Appium came to town... he for one has loads to do... together with a friend/colleague we enjoyed lovely Thai food for dinner... and we chatted and laughed at lots of different things... I am so lucky to have worked with people of all ages and become friends with people from other generations... Paul and his friend Ken were extremely supportive and offered interesting advice that few in my generation would have thought about... its funny though how minimal the differences in generations is though.. we can still chat about the same things we would if we were in a group of people the exact same age... its a great phenomenon and I hope that in my next work I am fortunate enough to work with people of many ages... (was about to say many shapes and sizes as well but don't really know how that really affects anything really)...
And then there is yesterday... we met up with Jimmy... Jimbo... we being a half dozen people from St. Johns international school which Jimmy also attended... Jimmy always spreads fun... he's a man that seems to follow his heart... he's an extremely talented chef who has worked at incredible restaurants and has a great love for Eastern food... its reiterates my pursuit of finding that something that you really enjoy doing... and doing it... sure there will be other problems, other things to fight... but you'll be doing what you want to... thats our generation in a nutshell...
And to end on a great note... Anne's been doing absolutely fantastically... She met some fantastic hair stylists on a shoot on Monday who had worked with famous talented people and who said fantastic things about Anne... tonight she's working on her first paid make-up job for a girl who's getting married in April... and next monday she begins working at a Soup restaurant called Nusa on Old Street to earn a little extra money... She's FANTASTIC!!!
And so... what turned out to be an... "I don't want to write day" has turned into a mammoth essay...
maybe when you get started you can't stop
maybe you have more to say than you think
maybe its all about getting started and letting it just go
maybe its refreshing to put you're ideas on paper
maybe only a few of you have actually managed to get this far
maybe tomorrow I'll get a job
Maybe...
maybe its cause you don't have much to say
maybe its cause you don't have anything interesting to say
maybe its cause you have too much to say but no energy to write
maybe its cause you've eaten too many prawn chips and you're stomach is a bit eeeeky
maybe its cause you've spent the entire day working on completely reformatting your CV and been writing constantly
maybe its cause you don't have any good news and you don't want to be one more in the crowd that writes about bad news
maybe none of the above
maybe all of the above
With application after application sent out... tryin its best to win me a job... yet no response to any of them, this current job of mine surely is an extremely thankless one... if I had written half as much and half as well in a "real job" as I have these past few months I'm confident would have got some feedback... probably quite good... but conveniently companies now end every job description with a
"Due to the large quantity of applications we receive we will not be giving feedback to individual applications. If you have not heard from us in the next two days/two weeks/two months your application was unsuccessful. Please do not take it personally but somebody else was more suited to the job than you this time"Why not chase them despite what they write on their sites... well because getting their contact details is very tough, calling a receptionist without a name of who you would like to speak to... equipped only with the fact that you'd like to talk about the Marketing Manager role... makes for an interesting conversation...
I feel that this week so far has been a very good week for me, my confidence is up... my determination is unwavering... i'm ignorant of the distractions either side of this road to a job... and yet its only natural to question what it is you're doing wrong? what do I change? what can i do? where do i go? when do things change? yet i keep gettin back to that goal, to that vision... that guiding light...
Its interesting to follow a number of different stories as well though... friends who are unhappy at work, friends who fear the axe soon, friends who have never had so much work to do, experienced and qualified friends who can't get a job at mcdonalds... the times bring up a lot of surprises... there are a lot of changes occuring...
yet many things remain the same... this weekend my friend Anders came to visit from Lund... friendships don't have to change due to the times... it was great having Anders in town to just chill... it was a very easy weekend with fairly little stress...another thing that doesn't change is that people go to football games ...
One of the reasons Anders came to London this weekend was to watch football but with his brilliant timing many of the games were called off due to bad weather... Charlton.. a team with undersoil heating... Watford, another team with undersoil heating... both called off their games, these teams are in the championship (Second division of the English football league)... but Brentford... Brentford Football Club...the Bees in the League two (the fourth division in the english league) their ground was playable and Saturday was a beautiful day... Football doesn't change at its heart due to the times...the beauty of the game doesn't change at all... Brentford vs. Chester City was a great game of football. Perhaps too one sided as the game was effectively over after 45 minutes (3-0 final score and our hero on the day was Charlie MacDonald.. hattrick hero)... there was intensity, there was spirit, and heart... everything football is about... no diving or acting... just pure football...
In the crowd, the two extremes were easy to see.... two little boys sat infront of Anders and I screaming things at the Lino (Linesman)... rather rude... not as rude as at QPR but rude... and the great contrast was a few seats down... a little boy, a few years younger than the two hecklers...sitting with his mom and dad... stood up and said "Hey you two, thats not very nice, please be quiet"... no swear words, no indecencies... just pure innocence... absolutely lovely to see... After halftime though we witnessed two grown men stand up... exchange a few words and then suddenly pop... one of the men jabs the other one in the head... security rush in and yet its all still fairly relaxed... football is pure emotions in the uk... but the game can be so pure that its beautiful... the one who wants it more wins, the one who's more intense wins, the smartest wins...
Last week my former colleague Paul... from my time at Appium came to town... he for one has loads to do... together with a friend/colleague we enjoyed lovely Thai food for dinner... and we chatted and laughed at lots of different things... I am so lucky to have worked with people of all ages and become friends with people from other generations... Paul and his friend Ken were extremely supportive and offered interesting advice that few in my generation would have thought about... its funny though how minimal the differences in generations is though.. we can still chat about the same things we would if we were in a group of people the exact same age... its a great phenomenon and I hope that in my next work I am fortunate enough to work with people of many ages... (was about to say many shapes and sizes as well but don't really know how that really affects anything really)...
And then there is yesterday... we met up with Jimmy... Jimbo... we being a half dozen people from St. Johns international school which Jimmy also attended... Jimmy always spreads fun... he's a man that seems to follow his heart... he's an extremely talented chef who has worked at incredible restaurants and has a great love for Eastern food... its reiterates my pursuit of finding that something that you really enjoy doing... and doing it... sure there will be other problems, other things to fight... but you'll be doing what you want to... thats our generation in a nutshell...
And to end on a great note... Anne's been doing absolutely fantastically... She met some fantastic hair stylists on a shoot on Monday who had worked with famous talented people and who said fantastic things about Anne... tonight she's working on her first paid make-up job for a girl who's getting married in April... and next monday she begins working at a Soup restaurant called Nusa on Old Street to earn a little extra money... She's FANTASTIC!!!
And so... what turned out to be an... "I don't want to write day" has turned into a mammoth essay...
maybe when you get started you can't stop
maybe you have more to say than you think
maybe its all about getting started and letting it just go
maybe its refreshing to put you're ideas on paper
maybe only a few of you have actually managed to get this far
maybe tomorrow I'll get a job
Maybe...
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Quickie
Realise I haven't written for more than a week... I've just been busy I guess... Promise I'll write something a bit longer soon...
Quick update, had a great time this weekend with my friend Anders visiting from Sweden. It was a full on footie weekend which was fantastic... more to come...
Last week I managed to meet up with an old colleague of mine Paul from Malmö for some great advice and great dinner...
Now another week is upon us and I feel that February is promising more than January and December did!!! Is the tide turning?!? We'll see... more later...
Quick update, had a great time this weekend with my friend Anders visiting from Sweden. It was a full on footie weekend which was fantastic... more to come...
Last week I managed to meet up with an old colleague of mine Paul from Malmö for some great advice and great dinner...
Now another week is upon us and I feel that February is promising more than January and December did!!! Is the tide turning?!? We'll see... more later...
Monday, February 2, 2009
The day London stood still...
Productivity in London today was at an 18 year low. It hasn't snowed this much in London for 18 years. The entire bus system was suspended (for the first time ever), only the Victoria line was running in the Tube. London was absolutely paralysed by snow... the heaviest snow storm London had seen for 18 years meant that people couldn't or chose not to go to work... The mayor of London... BORIS Johnson declared that the congestion charge was also suspended to encourage people to get to work...
Coming from a country where snow is common it is incredibly entertaining to watch as the entire city comes to a grinding halt... Taking a promenad at lunch I walked through a park with no less than around 20 giant snowmen created all around and signs that others had been kicked over by young kids free from school... Every man "and his dog" (as the term goes) as the picture below shows was out building snowmen and playing in the snow... in our local convenience store, supplies had run out already at midday.. they had not received any new order because of the roads and thus people were fighting over bread...
The most incredible of these was the largest snowman I've seen... clearly a basketball player... the two on the left insisted that they had made it, but from the look in their eyes they were glory hunters who had just arrived and started telling people that they had made it, I think they had put the horns on the guy and thought that this was enough to justify being called the creator of
this monsterous snowman.
It also seemed as though everyone with a camera came out to take pictures... every person I passed had an SLR.. I shouldn't be talking here cause that exactly what I have but still...Taking photos of this rare occasion:-)
Walking back I wandered along the Canal with snow still falling...
The morning started late as I had been up watching the Superbowl... Sunday was really a Super Sports Sunday.. Australian Open tennis, Chelsea-Liverpool and the Superbowl... turned out to be a bad day for the teams/individuals I wanted to win. Wanted Federer, Chelsea and the Cardinals to win, and I got none of what I asked for... :-/ At least the first and the last were good games. I'll skip talking about the Tennis or Soccer and just focus on the Superbowl.
Here is one of the biggest annual sporting events held every year. What makes it odd is that it is a sport that only one country really plays (or at excels at) but yet gets a global audience. It is an incredible spectacle... Fireworks, confetti, big bands... before the game, they welcomed in the Crew of the flight that landed in the Hudson a few weeks ago... the Captain and the rest of the crew came in, stood there in the middle of the field just to receive recognition... its a sport event that is so much more than that... not to mention all the money spent on ads... I haven't had a chance to watch all of them yet but after having looked at around 15 this is the one I clearly laughed hardest at... :-)
I'll leave you with this today... because my head feels stuff... I think I'm getting a cold because I do not feel too good at all.. nor dos Anne so its going to be a lot of tea for us over the next few days...
Coming from a country where snow is common it is incredibly entertaining to watch as the entire city comes to a grinding halt... Taking a promenad at lunch I walked through a park with no less than around 20 giant snowmen created all around and signs that others had been kicked over by young kids free from school... Every man "and his dog" (as the term goes) as the picture below shows was out building snowmen and playing in the snow... in our local convenience store, supplies had run out already at midday.. they had not received any new order because of the roads and thus people were fighting over bread...
The most incredible of these was the largest snowman I've seen... clearly a basketball player... the two on the left insisted that they had made it, but from the look in their eyes they were glory hunters who had just arrived and started telling people that they had made it, I think they had put the horns on the guy and thought that this was enough to justify being called the creator of
this monsterous snowman.
It also seemed as though everyone with a camera came out to take pictures... every person I passed had an SLR.. I shouldn't be talking here cause that exactly what I have but still...Taking photos of this rare occasion:-)
Walking back I wandered along the Canal with snow still falling...
The morning started late as I had been up watching the Superbowl... Sunday was really a Super Sports Sunday.. Australian Open tennis, Chelsea-Liverpool and the Superbowl... turned out to be a bad day for the teams/individuals I wanted to win. Wanted Federer, Chelsea and the Cardinals to win, and I got none of what I asked for... :-/ At least the first and the last were good games. I'll skip talking about the Tennis or Soccer and just focus on the Superbowl.
Here is one of the biggest annual sporting events held every year. What makes it odd is that it is a sport that only one country really plays (or at excels at) but yet gets a global audience. It is an incredible spectacle... Fireworks, confetti, big bands... before the game, they welcomed in the Crew of the flight that landed in the Hudson a few weeks ago... the Captain and the rest of the crew came in, stood there in the middle of the field just to receive recognition... its a sport event that is so much more than that... not to mention all the money spent on ads... I haven't had a chance to watch all of them yet but after having looked at around 15 this is the one I clearly laughed hardest at... :-)
I'll leave you with this today... because my head feels stuff... I think I'm getting a cold because I do not feel too good at all.. nor dos Anne so its going to be a lot of tea for us over the next few days...
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Don't stop ... believing....
So the last two evenings Anne and I have been out with friends of mine. As the night slowly became more and more hazy and the hours drifted on by... a song was played that always gets me going... a song I first heard while partying with my Swedish friends "på näset" (thats another way of saying Skanör- Falsterbo, where we have our summer house)... Oddly enough nobody else that was left (a group of around 10-12) had ever heard the song, seemed like I was the only one in the entire place that was belting it out at the top of my lungs, got up and started dancing like mad!!! And what song would this be... DON'T STOP... BELIEVING!!!!!!!! by Journey... a golden oldie!!! Come to think of it... arguably it should be my theme tune at the moment... and while singing and dancing on the chairs, I couldn't help but remember this great clip from Family guy...
We were out last night in Shoreditch at Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen to celebrate Alex's (my friend Gemma's bf) birthday!!! Huge group of people came and we occupied an entire end of the bar... lots of fun people... many of which I had met at the Christmas party at Gemma in December!!! The night winded down at 2ish...
Today offers a plethora of Sport... it began with me watching the Australian Open tennis final between Nadal and Federer which Nadal won... Great first four sets... it continues with Chelsea playing Liverpool in the Premier League at 4pm UK time... any of you who enjoy speaking football with me will know that Chelsea is my favorite team in the UK and Liverpool my least favorite by miles and miles and miles. It promises to be an interesting game... and finally tonight its SuperBowl XLIII at 11pm UK time... I have seen the last 5-6 SuperBowls live... and I will definitely try to watch it tonight as well...
We were out last night in Shoreditch at Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen to celebrate Alex's (my friend Gemma's bf) birthday!!! Huge group of people came and we occupied an entire end of the bar... lots of fun people... many of which I had met at the Christmas party at Gemma in December!!! The night winded down at 2ish...
Today offers a plethora of Sport... it began with me watching the Australian Open tennis final between Nadal and Federer which Nadal won... Great first four sets... it continues with Chelsea playing Liverpool in the Premier League at 4pm UK time... any of you who enjoy speaking football with me will know that Chelsea is my favorite team in the UK and Liverpool my least favorite by miles and miles and miles. It promises to be an interesting game... and finally tonight its SuperBowl XLIII at 11pm UK time... I have seen the last 5-6 SuperBowls live... and I will definitely try to watch it tonight as well...
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