I realise I haven't had the chance to write for over a week and some of you haven't found out what the surprise Anne was giving me was, how the interview went and lots of other fun stuff so I think in all fairness I'll have to start at the beginning...
As it will be long I'll put some headings for those interested in just one component...
Friday 1st May
The Interview
I had an interview at Huddle.net on Friday at 12.30... it was for a marketing and sales executive and was a very interesting role... albeit it a quite junior role, but great potential to grow and develop the role.. if you haven't used Huddle.net go onto their website here. It's a fantastic product which allows online collaboration, document sharing and project management online... It's a type of extranet/intranet hosted on the internet... great for companies and students trying to work on projects ... anyway...
So the interview consisted of me having 15 minutes to prepare a presentation on how to use Facebook and what's good about it... and then delivering it... after that we had a little chat and came to the conclusion that I was over-qualified for the role and that it wasn't quite the right role for me... gratefully though they recommended me to a recruiter called Pareto which finds sales graduate jobs... and an hour after the interview they called me up and invited me to an Assessment centre that took place yesterday...
After the interview I met up with John B and Carolina who were in town... it was fantastic to see them albeit for a short hour or two... but at 15.00 Anne told us we had to go someplace... and so we did...
The Surprise
Anne told us we were going to take the tube at Liverpool street but in fact we jumped on the Stansted Express and upon arriving there we headed right through the Security check without checking in as she'd already checked in before we got there and printed the boarding pass... I still didn't know where we were heading but I knew that we were going on a jet plane... :-)
We get to the gate as its boarding... and for the first time I realise where we are heading... the next picture MIGHT give it away...
That's right DUBLIN.... hence the Guiness (which I must say was absolutely fantastic... much better there...) YIPEEEE ... I've always wanted to go to Dublin... to Ireland... what a fantastic surprise...
Once we arrived in Dublin we were going to get a bus into the city where Anne had fixed accomodation... and as we left the Arrivals area and started looking for where to get the bus... there was KIERAN... my friend from Ireland who I met in Bratislava... Anne had sorted out for him to be in Dublin that weekend as well.. FANTASTIC!!! :-D Just gets better and better...
Here's a pic of Kieran and I at Bray Head... a beach just south of Dublin... :-)Anne had fixed a nice apartment hotel... not far from the center of dublin... and when we got there we were told there was a leak in the room we were supposed to get so they upgraded us to their nicest "Apartment"... but it wasn't so much an apartment as a HOUSE... three floors, the largest living room I've seen for a long long time.. enough space for 8 couches... and much much more... three fantastic balcony's and 3 bathrooms... very impressive... It was right next to Shelbourne Park (The grayhound racing track in Dublin) and within eyesight from Landsdowne road (rugby and football stadium)... which is being rebuilt... for some reason I had a sneezing fit in many pictures while in Dublin but in the following pic its Shelbourne Park in the background...
There was one more surprise and that was waiting at Messrs Macguire ( a famous pub in dublin)...by O'connell bridge... And that was that Edwina, another friend of mine from Ireland who I had met in Bratislava as well, was there too... Sooo many surprises :-)
So it was an absolutely fantastic weekend away... in which we got to chill with Kieran and Edwina, see some fantastic nature outside Dublin including in Bray and and surrounding areas... !!! We also saw this old monastary which had this tower built to protect them from the Vikings, if they heard they were coming they'd just climb up using ladders and then draw the ladders up so that nobody could get in.. clever... :-)
I can't thank Anne enough for a fantastic get-away, I really needed to get away... and what better place than Dublin and to see some friends too... I'm a LUCKY guy...!!! As you can see from below...
Sadly the surprise trip was over far too fast as always but fantastic memories and nice to get out of London a bit... THANKS ANNE... I was super HAPPY as you can see
This Week
The assessment centre
So yesterday I went to an assessment center with 48 other highly talented young people... an interesting day for sure made up of group assignments, presentations and one-on-one's... at the end of the day I was asked to join a group of 11 others into a seperate room where they told us that we had "unfortunately" gone through... the old trying to trick us... but the quality of the other 11 meant that it wasn't too hard to tell that this was the group that went through... it was quite strange though because I didn't think I did a great job... anywhoo... I was one of the 12 that went through out of a group of 48 and now they're going to look for jobs for me and put me forth to final interviews with some of their clients... so hopefully something will come of it...
Temp work
I also have an opportunity to do some temp (temporary) work for an ex-colleague of mine... who needs some help structuring some statistics among other things... So if nothing else it's been a good week... albeit for one thing...
Chelsea
Chelsea (my fav. football team) played against Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final and played really well but didn't finish off their opportunities when they had them and they were "kicked in the teeth" as you say when Iniesta (a Barcelona player) scored in the last minute of the game... whats worse is the referee ( a norwegian) had arguably the worst game of his life... he missed at least 2 clear penalties and some might argue a few more than that... Luckily football is just a game... although there is soo much money and politics that its often more than that... at first I was furious but when you really think about it... the referee is only human... there are psychological factors that come into account when you have to make decisions based on what you see in high speeds... imagine you had to choose who to employ by a 3 second clip of them walking... or decide what to buy for lunch by a 1 second taste while blind-folded... yes referees are trained to see certain things... and they are in many cases professional now meaning they get paid only to to this but when the pressure is sooo immense and perhaps you are having an off day, the repurcussions are huge... I think it is understandable that the Chelsea players were absolutely furious and enraged but what can do you... sport is sport, and although I often think that Chelsea are harshly done by a lot of decisions and fate has dealt them a lot of cruel blows... I am sure it is the same for most teams.. no matter what team you support you will think that you are hard-done by because that is what you remember most...
nevertheless, the lose was a low point of the week as it was sooo close and I think Chelsea fully deserve the Champions League despite what many people argue is a bought team... my worry is that this was our last chance to win it... there is a possibility that we'll be back next year but I think we had a real chance this year particularly with the boss we have.. Guus...
So that was a little update of whats been going on with me this past week... I think it is quite outrageous that there are sooo many terrific and intelligent people out there without work at the moment which is very clear having been at the assessment center yesterday... a real pity that young people and old people alike are struggling to get work... there's a lot of us out there... and I don't think the general public really understands that...
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