This Business and Moment...

Nice one AH!

I've just got back from Guadalajara, which was really quite fruitful. Need to deliver on some things now post that trip but I'm in Portugal with the family for a week so just working from pool side with a view of the sea. I'm so tired and looking forward to getting home in a way. Trying to hire some more staff to deliver on all of these commitments I made in Mexico lol
 
Back at my desk... it feels nice. I love being away with family and that but I can't have this feeling of being more productive. I can't not work while I'm away, I always have too much to do.

On a side note, where I contract at Novartis, my wife has been trying to get an admin role here for ages (not because she loves admin, she loves making cakes and worked in the NHS for 8yrs before we moved over here, but because it's a solid wage for what you do!) but it's been impossible as it's like an old boys club, where, if you don't already have novartis experience they won't consider you. Unless that is, you know the hiring manager very well and can get around some of the BS. Luckily being here for eons has helped me get to know people and so I knew a hiring manager for an admin position and got my wife an interview. She interviewed there and got offered the job while we were in Portugal last week!
It's a 6 month contract on 37CHF (30GBP)p/h with hopeful chance of perm role at the end! Bonus! Now to get child care sorted for the kids...

TL;DR - wife got a job.
 
Anyone good at dev and fancy working on a project with me? :P Some people I was working with have decided to go a different direction and I don't think it's one that would be much use, but would love someone that is good with APIs, oauth, bit of nice front end in something like react.js or node.js
It's essentially a way to rollup all photo/ picture providers in one place; so you just auth with your accounts from, say: Photobucket, Flickr, Imgur, iCloud, Google Photos etc. and have them all rolled up in one site. Ideas on top of that with clever ways of sorting and moving between accounts on our UI, as well as an easy way to embed/ link etc. your photos to other sites.

Anyone fancy joining? :P
 
Phate said:
I suck at dev but can provide hours of entertainment if that helps? :D
Click to expand...

Hours? Are you sure...? :P

AHarvey said:
Sounds interesting @randomshenans My coding is very rusty and tbh, mostly basic html/css and currently jumping in Python/Django, but, when it comes to software design and ideas, top notch :D
Click to expand...

I'm about the same. I could probably knock up a RoR site, and connect to the APIs, but wouldn't know how to do everything and then make it nice, and besides, the amount of ******* about it would take me to get that lot done, someone else could do in 10% of the time lol
 
So we were on a recruitment drive earlier this year which nearly broke me, but off the back of that I did get 2 really good people. Tristan and Mehdi, our Data Systems manager and Senior Software Developer respectively. They're both being really good and I even brought Tristan to Mexico with me to visit unis / schools when I was there this month. It was nice for him to see the front end of it all and out from behind closed doors. It's good actually as my founding partners are being less reactive at the moment due to new jobs. Which I expected, but I need the resource.
So, on that, I'm currently interviewing more people. I have 3 people on the data science side who look really good and 2 on the software dev side who all tick all the right boxes for us. I'm trying to palm off all of the interviewing now, or as much as I can as I don't want it breaking me again. Really hoping to get another 3 people out of this.

I also had an email from someone who currently works at TechStars accelerator but was interested in being a sales manager for us. She's US based and has good account management experience. Spoke to her on the phone today and she has agreed to come on part time up until October on a commission only base. Which, to be fair, I can't say no to. This is something that would be REALLY what we need.

On top of this we're full on with a total rebranding at the moment (sneak peak:
ok5z7f0.png
Old

vs.


New

eRTSydn.jpg

We have a really great promo video coming, new site, new marketing material etc. So I'm being kept busy.
 
haha I'm the worst for emotional roller coasters at the best of times, let alone doing what I do. But I think that's kind of what I do what I do, I couldn't have it any other way really. Weird personality.
Sometimes I would be happy to not see or talk to anyone for days.

Had a great 1 day in Lisbon though, missed you ;) it's a great city, I'd love to go back.
 
Kreeeee said:
Luckily you don't live in Switzerland as childcare here costs about the same as your wife's wage per hour :p
Click to expand...
Ha yes, it is. I know a lot of people who have their kids in swiss daycare and it's anywhere from 2500-5000 per kid per month. Mental.

malachi said:
Whats Switzerland like to work and live this days?

You may recalled my post from the start of the year about me moving from the UK to progress my IT career further and Switzerland has been recommended to me. Since then Ive earned my MCSA in Windows 10 and ITIL Foundation. Now studying for my Server 2016 which Im hoping to take my first exam end of September.
Click to expand...

Money is still good, costs are higher. Nice quality of life though.
 
Wife went off to work this morning. I'm in the study and of the list of things she's left me to do, done none of them. BUT, I have finished off my Ryzen build, just need to install the OS now.
Might sort some more office things out today, too. May even get some work done... maybe...
 
Oh man, I want to do Vegas with you :P

Working from home day 3 of daddy daycare... I made them american pancakes for breakfast, then while my 3yr old did some painting, I did some too.

:D
20766181_109652943070901_7311646359277273088_n.jpg



Now trying to catch up on real work... apparently I'm supposed to clean and do all the house jobs as well as work from home according to my wife! :/
 
Haha I was considering this... we have a large open space of floor, but wasnt sure if they actually did anything like vacuum :P

Back on topic; I have been speaking to a Sales person, who would like to join us on commission only, heard from her last night and she's really keen so we're going to run a trial for 2 months until Oct and see what she can do. Should be good, I hope!
 
Phate said:
You don't sound like anything I thought you would. :D

Serious congratulations to that.

Side note, my previous nightmare manager strikes again it seems...

Me becoming FTE is subject to passing a background check. Which includes my employment history over the past 7 years. I submitted everything my end a week and a half ago now.

Anyway, the background check company called me to say that the airline had not replied and if I knew anyone there I could speak to. So I told them yes as I am good friends with the head of HR (who is also a genuinely good person as well)

To cut a long story short she managed to find out that the company had emailed my old manager and he didn't respond to the email.

Now it could be a genuine "saw it, will reply later" got busy then forgot scenario. But naturally I think the worst in this guy.

Either way, this lack of response is holding up the background check. So Maria replies on my managers behalf and also calls the company to see if anything else is needed, so thats another tick in the box. It's lucky we were able to get this resolved fast as this could have jeopardized my getting the role!

What a ****!
Click to expand...

Ah, hopefully that's the last time you need to deal with him!

Hahah what did you think i'd sound like? How's it different? Thanks! Had a great meeting tonight too with a uni out there and their head of continuing education and they really want to get a contact sorted. It'll start small but a great uni name, so hopefully...

Also being interviewed for an educational podcast tomorrow, so that's a nice bit of free marketing.
 
HungryHippos said:
Sounds like it's all going well random - couldn't be an up-front interviewy type person myself, back end hiding away in an office somewhere for me lol.
Click to expand...

It's slowly, hopefully, making progress, but there is always so much to do and it all seems to be really important. Yet these last 2 weeks I've been super productive and the team seems to have kicked back... WHY YOU NO WORK 100000hrs a day!?
I wouldn't say I was that type, but I've kind of been forced into it. I still get chronic sweats. It's a nightmare! But the more you do the more at ease I kind of become... kinda.

blairw said:
Top Tip - never actually put your managers contact details, direct all reference requests to HR at stage one... no company is going to give anything other than a factual reference (date of employment, absence etc!)



You do sound a bit posher than expected haha... mind you up here in Scotland anyone from outside here sounds posh :D
Click to expand...

Haha that's my TV voice... tbh that's what I sound like unless I've had a drink and then I'm a bit less so.

I've been chatting to our new sales manager tonight about kicking things off, I like her but time will tell how she manages to deal with the education side of things. I remain hopeful.
I had an interview for an Edtech Podcast Saturday night, so that should be out in 3 weeks, too. Also, someone high up at nmc.org (basically like a Gartner for education stuff) I met in Austin and we were drinking loads throughout the week. She's a hoot. Anyway, she's written the Horizon research report for K-12 Analytics and mentioned us in there as well, so that's massive brownie points.

Just been looking for Sao Paulo flights tonight for Sept. That should be good if I can make the most out of it. There is a company there I know that has a lot of Unis they're partnered with, so hoping we can get them to "host" us and open up some Uni doors while we're there. I found a company (http://www.futureeducation.com.br/quemsomos) who are kind of like an accelerator based there, so I've reached out to them to see who I can tap up for some free networking or insight into the market and contacts.

I'm also speaking at a online learning conference in Orlando in Nov and supposed to be going to the Reimagine Education Awards in Phily in Dec as I'm one of the judges and it would be good PR but I think my dad is coming over to visit... I thought my travel was over for the year but it appears it'll never be over!
 
Basher said:
Just out if interest, why are you focusing on the Edu market for the technology? Sure private orgs. have far bigger pockets for this type of stuff? I know we spend an obscene amount on enablement.
Click to expand...

Great Q: it was more to do with (ironically now, when you think about it) market share capability for the number of institutions using certain LMS's - When we were in the accelerator, to put yourself in the best position they wanted to see your ability to hit the biggest market share possible with what you're doing. And, with Blackboard and Canvas plugins, we cover ~60% of the Higher Ed market from a platform point of view.
No 2 integrations with corporate software could bring us that market share, as the LMS space is much more segmented there.

Obviously, like I said, it's ironic, as chasing individual corp LMS's and developing for them would probably bring us a bigger deal quicker, and therefore allow us to grow to the rest... but you know! If we got a deal with a corp client, we'd develop it for their systems and it's not out of the question, it's just that we have all the expertise in the education specific space now, and time wise, it'd take a considerable effort to switch. That said, I have a number of warm leads to chase on the corp side, and will always try and work any angle I can.

You are right though. And it'll come and be a specific part/ product we offer eventually.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom