That sounds wicked @skaif - Good luck!
This Business and Moment...
- Thread starter randomshenans
- Start date
Soldato
Cheers, just got an email asking if I am free to talk over the next few days. Don't know why but not got a great feeling!
I did feel kind of overwhelmed as the questions were tough and based on experience (which I have but in limited amounts that I had to make sound big!), and I was the only other under 30 there rubbing shoulders with senior leadership etc which made me feel way out of my depth!
Either way it was a good experience and I can always reapply in 6 months time so not feeling too downbeat!
I think being younger is good, you can use the old "I can bring fresh thinking to the table" which I think is important in the setting of IT in schools, due to the speed in which the industry moves.
Soldato
Good point! Let's see how the call goes tomorrow!
I hate it when roles are advertised without salary/day rate, I ignore 90% of them regardless of how good the job sounds.
not so easy to do when they come up once in a blue moon.
Just ask the hiring manager?
Associate
- Joined
- 2 Jan 2010
- Posts
- 2,307
Having missed out on one internal promotion and been rejected before interview for a few external jobs I now have one interview on Friday and one on Monday. The former external and the latter internal. Putting more eggs in the external basket than I am in the internal one, I don't see my current employer being around in 5 years time.
Soldato
Still no call... Good news or bad news?
Associate
Been working at a secondary school as an IT technician for the last 10 years. Reached top of pay band and with the huge cuts to schools now sure how safe the job will be. So i've been waiting on the Openreach recruitment train to come over to East Anglia. Had a half day Assesment for trainee openreach engineer at Carrow Road in Norwich which i passed and have been given a start date of the 31st of July. So towards the end of this month will had my notice in.
Soldato
Just had the call, didn't get it.
Its ok, feedback was positive and I've been invited to apply again in the future once I have more experience.
Permabanned
- Joined
- 9 Aug 2008
- Posts
- 35,707
I hopefully have a job interview for gadget repairs soon. One of the lads I know told me to put my CV in to the boss and I think I'm going to get first refusal.
Soldato
Had my interview today, a competency based test that made me realise that although I know the basics there's a **** load of SQL stuff still to learn. Luckily, it's not a pass/fail, purely a way to judge current understanding. Actually text my wife after that test and said "won't have got this job!"
Then an hour long chat/interview, getting to know the business and them to know about me outside of work etc. Got on well with them both, fired a thank email over afterwards. Will find out Wednesday latest if I am through to the next round.
Fingers crossed because it sounds like a cracking place to work.
Then an hour long chat/interview, getting to know the business and them to know about me outside of work etc. Got on well with them both, fired a thank email over afterwards. Will find out Wednesday latest if I am through to the next round.
Fingers crossed because it sounds like a cracking place to work.
Caporegime
Best of luck Harvey 
Small update from me. I've been at my role for 4 months now and loving every second. The work is hard, the pressure is high...but with a fantastic team and attitude around me, we all crack on and really thrive. I am getting consistently well reviewed from customers. I am learning A LOT. It's interesting that through just doing my job I am filling a lot of gaps in my knowledge without actually doing extra training...
This week I have learned far more about the Office 365/2016 update channels and process than I thought I'd ever know about.
Got a 1:1 with both my V-Manager and actual manager next week just before I disappear for a couple of weeks. Really looking forward to hearing if any feedback has been given by my colleagues and putting processes in place to working towards full time employment.
The agency managing me hasn't been the best though unfortunately. Over promising, under delivering. So now I keep them at arms length and purely ask them for the bare minimum so they cannot disappoint/let me down. An example would be I had a meeting with my account manager from there to see how I am performing, we met in a cafe and he told me to "order whatever you want"
Now I took this as he's buying me lunch, that's nice of them. So anyway, I stand up to go and he says "have a nice day and don't forget to pay your bill before you go"
:/
It was only a few Euros, but they make several grand off me a month, its not exactly asking for much...still, I barely speak to them (no real need to) so less chance of being annoyed by them
Small update from me. I've been at my role for 4 months now and loving every second. The work is hard, the pressure is high...but with a fantastic team and attitude around me, we all crack on and really thrive. I am getting consistently well reviewed from customers. I am learning A LOT. It's interesting that through just doing my job I am filling a lot of gaps in my knowledge without actually doing extra training...
This week I have learned far more about the Office 365/2016 update channels and process than I thought I'd ever know about.
Got a 1:1 with both my V-Manager and actual manager next week just before I disappear for a couple of weeks. Really looking forward to hearing if any feedback has been given by my colleagues and putting processes in place to working towards full time employment.
The agency managing me hasn't been the best though unfortunately. Over promising, under delivering. So now I keep them at arms length and purely ask them for the bare minimum so they cannot disappoint/let me down. An example would be I had a meeting with my account manager from there to see how I am performing, we met in a cafe and he told me to "order whatever you want"
Now I took this as he's buying me lunch, that's nice of them. So anyway, I stand up to go and he says "have a nice day and don't forget to pay your bill before you go"
:/
It was only a few Euros, but they make several grand off me a month, its not exactly asking for much...still, I barely speak to them (no real need to) so less chance of being annoyed by them
Soldato
Just had a phone call about the position, they are trying to decide whether they need just one or two new people. If they decide on 1 I'm **** out of luck as it's been offered to someone else, but if there is a second position it's mine as they were really impressed with my interview. I feel my SQL skills let me down slightly but when you don't use it day in and day out it's difficult to know it inside out.
Disappointed that it's not a yes, but, I've a couple of weeks to wait now to see whether anything comes of it, and I hate waiting. On the other hand, it's the first job interview I've had for a technical position and nailed it on a personal level.
I'm just desperate to get into a proper tech company where I can learn, grow and can see a real future because I'm very limited here.
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Phate that sounds bad, as you say it's only a little thing but it takes the pee. I have a real dislike for agencies, it's usually always about the money and never about the people. Sounds like you're really enjoying it and being pushed though which is great!
Disappointed that it's not a yes, but, I've a couple of weeks to wait now to see whether anything comes of it, and I hate waiting. On the other hand, it's the first job interview I've had for a technical position and nailed it on a personal level.
I'm just desperate to get into a proper tech company where I can learn, grow and can see a real future because I'm very limited here.
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Phate that sounds bad, as you say it's only a little thing but it takes the pee. I have a real dislike for agencies, it's usually always about the money and never about the people. Sounds like you're really enjoying it and being pushed though which is great!
Caporegime
Indeed mate. I had a meeting with my manager today and it went very well. Got a glowing review. She said the feedback shes received has been excellent and its as if I have been working here for a year, not a few months. Shes aware of me wanting to become full time employment and we discussed about what to do to work towards that. She also said I am a "natural" with this kind of work and believes I am not working at my full potential. So when I get back from honeymoon shes going to get me involved in some projects to push me more. Bring it on
Those who aren't aware, I used to commute 155 miles a day. I did a 9 day fortnight which kind of made up for it as I'd get every second Friday off, although they used to be busy as I'd save up everything I want to do till then. My day used to go something like this:
Wake up 0600
Leave 0630
Arrive at my desk for 0800
10 minute lunch, at my desk
Leave around 1630
Home around 1800 - later if traffic is bad or I need to go food shopping.
I dropped £50 a day to take a job 4 or so miles from home which I started on Monday. Current routine as follows:
Wake up 0600 - 0640 or so. If my GF stays over she leaves at 0600, so I'm not too bothered.
Leave home 0715, arrive at work 0755. That's a short walk, 20 minute bus, Costa for a takeout, then a 10 minute walk to the office.
Hours lunch pretty much when I fancy. I don't have to take it, but I like the break in the day.
Leave 1600, home by 1645 or so.
I can also work from home, which I'm doing tomorrow morning as I have an Ikea delivery. Another bonus is I can do whatever hours I fancy, as long as I do 7h they are happy. So 10-6, 9-5 etc with an hours lunch, or skip it and even less time away from home.
So far so good, the hours are much kinder and I have so much more time to myself. I'm also far less stressed as I don't have to put up with muppets on the road. Soon I'll be cycling which will cut commuting time down even more.
Work wise it's good, been given a task to upgrade our Exchange Org (two DAGs, 5 servers, 4 sites) from 2013 CU5 to CU16, which involves writing the plan, creating the CR, doing the patching, any pitfalls etc. Unfortunately the upgrade work has to be done on a weekend, but I don't mind so much as I can do it from home if I wish and I'll get paid for it. I've been told there's many more projects coming up which will keep me busy, such as upgrading the ASAs, adding a new blade and configuring it for our VMware environment etc. The previous job was boring, there was literally no work to do beyond writing architectural documents which was as boring as sin.
I was initially doubtful, but no way in hell would I return to where I was for the extra money!
Wake up 0600
Leave 0630
Arrive at my desk for 0800
10 minute lunch, at my desk
Leave around 1630
Home around 1800 - later if traffic is bad or I need to go food shopping.
I dropped £50 a day to take a job 4 or so miles from home which I started on Monday. Current routine as follows:
Wake up 0600 - 0640 or so. If my GF stays over she leaves at 0600, so I'm not too bothered.
Leave home 0715, arrive at work 0755. That's a short walk, 20 minute bus, Costa for a takeout, then a 10 minute walk to the office.
Hours lunch pretty much when I fancy. I don't have to take it, but I like the break in the day.
Leave 1600, home by 1645 or so.
I can also work from home, which I'm doing tomorrow morning as I have an Ikea delivery. Another bonus is I can do whatever hours I fancy, as long as I do 7h they are happy. So 10-6, 9-5 etc with an hours lunch, or skip it and even less time away from home.
So far so good, the hours are much kinder and I have so much more time to myself. I'm also far less stressed as I don't have to put up with muppets on the road. Soon I'll be cycling which will cut commuting time down even more.
Work wise it's good, been given a task to upgrade our Exchange Org (two DAGs, 5 servers, 4 sites) from 2013 CU5 to CU16, which involves writing the plan, creating the CR, doing the patching, any pitfalls etc. Unfortunately the upgrade work has to be done on a weekend, but I don't mind so much as I can do it from home if I wish and I'll get paid for it. I've been told there's many more projects coming up which will keep me busy, such as upgrading the ASAs, adding a new blade and configuring it for our VMware environment etc. The previous job was boring, there was literally no work to do beyond writing architectural documents which was as boring as sin.
I was initially doubtful, but no way in hell would I return to where I was for the extra money!
Caporegime
Awesome Chris, glad it's working out so far.
I couldn't cope with a long commute (particularly at the moment) it would do my head in. Longest I've done is to Luton which on a bad day was over an hour and a half....NOPE
I couldn't cope with a long commute (particularly at the moment) it would do my head in. Longest I've done is to Luton which on a bad day was over an hour and a half....NOPE
Soldato
Agreed, I once commuted 7 miles from east london (Ilford) to hackney and that could take an hour and a half!
My commute now is a 10 minute walk (incidentally I live in Luton!) to a local school and I couldn't be happier!
My commute now is a 10 minute walk (incidentally I live in Luton!) to a local school and I couldn't be happier!
Soldato
Think I'd have cycled that in 20-30 mins. I'm a 13-14 minute walk from home at the moment, and while excellent for the commute the hours don't make it any better than a long commute.