Marcellicous life

DIARY of a “jobseeker” - 5 - Frustrated!

So… I managed to create and present a wonderful presentation. The presentation took place a week ago and I thought it went well. 

One of the the two other contestants withdraw his application after receiving the presentation guideline. The other one failed to hand in the presentation on time. I was the first person presenting though and so they decided to have first round interviews again.

Of course I was not happy about that because it clearly indicated that I was not convincing enough for them to hire me directly. They wanted to see if someone better is out there.

So for one week I was in the waiting mode writing emails back and forth with my recruiter who communicated at all times that I am the strongest candidate. Long story short: Today I learnt that I am OUT because two of the new candidates were stronger than me :-(.

I did not tell you guys yet, that my dad runs his own business in Germany. Since a long time he tries to get me in there, but I did not want to do that for many reasons:

I wanted to do my own thing, I did not want to depend on him and I also did not want to work for him because I am not so interested in the industry he works in. Another reason is, that my sister works for him already.

There has always been some sort of competition between her and me (Coming mostly from her side of course). She works for and with him for more then two years now and it took a while until they got along and had the tasks distributed in some good way. It was hard work for her to get accepted business wise from my dad, especially because he always was very very keen to have me. I think, that I am my dad’s preferred candidate which is not a nice thing to say but it is the case unfortunately. The reason for that might be that he sees more a mother and housewife in her that he does in me. With regards to my dad: We have a love hate relationship and clash every other week in such a way that we would not speak for a month or so. - Therefore I am not sure if it is the right time to go and work with him at this time. 

On thing is for sure - if I go and work for him and with them there will be a lot of tension! My sister will feel undermined if I raise to the management immediately because she had to start at the end of the food chain, but I don’t want to start at the bottom, because I would be bored to death and lose motivation quickly. I know that I have to learn every aspect of the business but there are different ways of doing that. - I promised both of them that I will start working for our company if it does not work with this job. The problem here is, that I really thought it will work out. Hmm…

They know already that it did not work out and asked me when I will start working for them. - Of course I then would need to move back to Germany, leave my flat and my boyfriend behind in London during the week at least. 

I really don’t know what to do. - Although it is clear that I want to work asap because I am to bored to not work but if I’d stay in London I would start with the interviewing processes from scratch again, which means that I earliest would be hired in about 6 weeks. 

So or so, I will need to get myself together and take a decision in the next days. Stay in London or Germany?  I will keep you posted about what will happen next in Marcellicicous life of course. Comments are welcome as usual. 

Peace and L<3ve,

your Marcellicious. 

I am also trying to learn cooking finally

So I’ll follow some keen cooks and use my leisure time for something sensible. - But let’s get started with some food purchasing theory as per below:

DIARY of a “jobseeker” - 4 - Interim Report

OMG, I just received an email from the recruiter stating that I did get through to the second interview, and OMG the below is what I will need to prepare:

Considering your past experience and a potential career at xxx please present on the following topics:

Slide 1                    My Vision

Slide 2                    Economic influences and the future of outsourcing

Slide 3                    Marketing Plan – short to medium term

Slide 4                    Fulfilling marketing plan

– follow up on opportunities and grow business

Slide 5                    Your methods of client retention/management

Slide 6                    A potential client has given us the following information:

                                  30,000 contacts per month

                                  Average contact resolution time is 3.5 minutes

                                  Fully loaded seat cost per month is £1400

                                  Service hours: Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm

Develop a pricing model proposal for the client showing revenue and number of staff required to service this client.

Slide 7                       My strengths

• Each candidate will be expected to use the above titles to demonstrate their knowledge, skills and ideas.
• Each presentation should last 20-30 mins
• Each presentation should not exceed 7 slides
• Candidates are expected to make assumptions about our business where information is not available
• Each slide will be classed as a skills category and a scoring process will be used by the interview panel

HELP HELP HELP - my blog will be on pause for the next couple of  days. However do not hesitate to HELP HELP HELP  if you can, LOL. - Thanks for your understanding and stay tuned.

Your Marcellicious

DIARY of a “jobseeker” - 4 - The interview

I finally had my first interview today - YEAH -

It has been 12 weeks since I am without a job now. In reality it has even been a bit longer, because I was put on garden leave for 3 weeks.

Well anyway, let me tell you about my experience today:

The interview lasted for 2 full hours and I was pestered with questions (which can be expected of course). I thought I did pretty well, but then they pulled out their joker card:  A general knowledge test! - I not only had to name current country leaders of European countries, differentiate between member and non-member countries of the EU, but also prove my knowledge on world capital cities and abbreviations of world currencies. Some math was included as well. HELP! Generally I think my GENERAL knowledge is OK. - But do you have the name of the French Prime Minister on top of your head or know what the capital of Canada is (no, it is not Vancouver or Quebec)? - Well, I was not sure about it either at least.

My mind was going mad and I just thought that I cannot spoil this so far “well going” interview with my “lack of general knowledge” (At least in the area of their questions :-).

So the temptation was high, me being alone in the room with my I-phone AND instant Internet access. I was bit reluctant to take advantage of my magical device in the first place, because I am not a friend of cheating, but then… thinking of my test results, of what the other interviewees did and how much I want the job, I CHANGED MY MIND :). - And I think I did pretty well in my general knowledge test after all.

If these questions had been about essential knowledge I’d need for this job, this would not have been the case of course. WHY? - Because I then, after all, would have only cheated myself and would have set up myself for failure. It would have been pure stupidity and it would not have helped anyone. Apart from that I genuinely think that I am a good candidate for this job, if not the best. - OK, I did not meet the other candidates of course, but I just think I would be able to do a very good job overall.

Still, is cheating ever OK, really? Is cheating OK, if you don’t harm anyone with it? Is cheating OK if others do it as well, or have the possibility to do it? Is it OK to open a door through cheating? I am not REALLY sure. But well, for now I feel OK that I cheated on this one at least.What are your thoughts on that one?

To put it in a nutshell, I will find out in the following days if I will be invited for the second and last round of interviews. - I don’t know with what mean idea they will come up next of course! - Anyways, gross your fingers please.

On another account, I still have this interview for this translation company tomorrow morning. So what ever happens I am positive for today. -AND- on top of that, I was lucky today because a bird sh** on my head, which means according to a Russian proverb lots of luck and money in the near future. Let’s hope it is true.

Your Marcellicious