Your Career/Job: Page 9 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Your Career/Job

Timbob

Invis, start your own business bro.

Burnwinter

If you're fortunate enough to really be able to choose your line of work, you're doing better than the vast majority who lack the privilege, the opportunity or the will to do so.

squallkid

Thanks Humble and Klaus.

First I got to wait and see which of my university applications pan out.

I suppose I'll make a career choice depending on which university I get into because I applied to different schools to do different things, I applied to Duke to do Biochem but different subjects elsewhere.

invisibleman18

Tim TJ Mackey wrote:
Invis, start your own business bro.

Thought about it before. Just need an idea for a business, and some money to do it!

invisibleman18

For an update I've just got home from interview number 2. This time at the Treasury - government's lead economic and finance advisor. Would be a pretty awesome place to have on the CV but very hard to get into. Have applied to them a few times before and this is the first time they have interviewed me so that's a step in the right direction. Felt it went ok but again you never really know when you don't know what your competition is. Got another couple of interviews coming up in the next few days too so onwards and upwards I guess.

Have also met with 3 different recruitment agencies and they have each put me forward for different roles but nothing seems to have happened with them - 2 of the agencies actually put me forward for the same role, unbeknown to me, which was slightly embarrassing. Or rather I knew Agent 1 was putting me forward for it, then Agent 2 called me and said they had something I may be suitable for but didn't really explain it, and in my limited experience of dealing with agencies I didn't realise the same role would get sent to more than 1 of them, so I wasn't aware they were the same thing. Then this morning Agent 1 calls me again and says "I have just spoken to the manager about you and turns out Agent 2 has already done so." 😆

Biggus

Klaus wrote:
squallkid wrote:
I just want to be in love with my job.

Don't care too much about the money, I just want to wake up in the morning happy to go to work instead of sitting up the night before dreading the next day at the office working with a bunch of cunts I can't stand.

It sounds like the right approach to me. Don't be afraid to look for alternatives if it doesn't turn out well. It's a bit of a cliche thing to say, but it's your life and your time. You've only got a limited amount of it. Don't spend years and years on something you don't like just because it could be worse.

Klaus is right Kid, speaking for myself, extensive experience has taught me you can stand boring work on crap pay if the people you work with are good fun.
But no amount of good pay doing interesting work can compensate if you hate the assholes you work with.

Claudius

Invis, you need to manage recruitment agents very closely. They can mess you up.
A few rules
1) go with very good ones. you'll know this from reputation and referrals
2) be very clear about what you want
3) INSIST that they do not talk to a company without first having cleared it with you. The last thing you want is companies that think you have applied for jobs when you have no knowledge of ever having approached those companies.

Burnwinter

Recruitment agents, or as I like to think of them, used human salesmen.

invisibleman18

I can't really see the point of them. Why do organisations bother with agencies when they could just advertise on their own website and not have to pay someone a fee? Presumably it's because they can't be bothered going through CVs themselves so prefer to pay someone else to do it, but then I thought that was the whole point of having an HR team isn't it? Seems an unnecessary extra step to me. They've never done anything for me either - in the last 3 years of doing this, this is the first time agencies have ever even asked to meet me.

Anyway that particular role the 2 agencies had is at a government department I definitely do not want to go to (for reasons it's not worth getting into here) and it is also yet another fixed term contract and I am absolutely fed up of having to do this again every 6 months. But the manager wants to meet me on Friday for an "informal chat" whatever that means so no harm going to see what happens.

Burnwinter

Yeah, they're a bit of a joke. Coming from the other end of the process, the ones we use do a poor job of screening candidates, I've been interviewing juniors the last couple of days and I don't know how you even dredge up a graduate engineer who doesn't know Pythagoras' theorem.

invisibleman18

Well another agency put me forward for a job at another energy company (at a significantly higher salary than I'm aiming for) and I now have an interview next Wednesday. Got a friend who works there so am meeting him on Monday for any tips he may have.

Also another interview on Tuesday at yet another Government department. It's more a graduate role which should really be a couple of years below me but got to keep all the options open and while it may be a temporary step down it would at least be a permanent job with a clear progression path.

Anyway interviews seem to be flowing in now, so surely something positive will come through eventually.

Rex

Good luck Invis! Glad to see you keep your spirits up!

invisibleman18

Thanks. I guess the best thing is to view the next week as having several good opportunities rather than feeling fed up with it all.

invisibleman18

Just had this "informal chat" and they seemed quite happy with me as its a pretty similar job to my previous one, so they said to think about it for a few days and then let the recruitment agent know what I thought about it. Thing is it's yet another fixed term contract and I'm fed up of having to do this every 6 months. I just really want a couple of years off job searching and interviews, is that really a lot to ask for? I want to be able to sign a lease and rent my own place instead of having to flat with 6 other people and maybe plan a nice holiday for next summer instead of having to save all my money for when I'm unemployed in a few months. They say it's likely to become permanent etc, but I've heard it all before and then the team I was in got restructured and disestablished.

invisibleman18

Ok so the recruitment agent called me and said they would be happy to offer it to me at xx salary, I said I would like the weekend to think about as I was still unsure about the fixed term nature. She calls back 10 minutes later and says they will now offer me yy salary which is a 30% increase on my last job. It's was never really about the money anyway more about security, and it's actually 20% higher than what I told them my salary expectations were! Too much to turn down really and while it's annoying it's fixed term again, I guess there is nothing to stop me looking while I'm there as you can always hand in notice if you find something else. And it's more solid public sector experience and all that. There are those other interviews coming up but this is real offer and the others might not be. Bit like in the Premiership when people talk about having games in hand, I always prefer points on the board. A game in hand is quite different to 3 points.

invisibleman18

It's actually quite funny, it basically is the same job I was doing previously. The team was then disestablished and the work was transferred to this agency who decided they didn't need someone in my role so I finished when my contract finished. Now 7 months later they've realised they did me and are having to pay me 30% more. They could have had me at the same previous salary last June. 😆

banduan

and you work for these people? 😃

Biggus

Burnwinter wrote:
I don't know how you even dredge up a graduate engineer who doesn't know Pythagoras' theorem.

😆

Burnwinter

@Biggsy 😆 I'm afraid the real answer is: India. Despite the obvious issues with such discrimination, I'm contemplating asking the recruiters to screen Indian candidates because so many of them have a very poor educational foundation.

@Invis Aw yeah.

invisibleman18

Still not sure whether it's the right thing to accept another fixed term when I ideally didn't want to again. Fed up of constantly living in limbo and having to do this again every 6-12 months. But I suppose it is a good job and after the last few months of unemployment I wasn't really in a position to turn down a 30% increase on my last salary. So it means I'll be able to go for other jobs at that sort of pay level and it also finally drops the "assistant" or "graduate" words from my job title so shows career progression. Have to try and look at it in a positive light I guess. At least it gives me an income for at least the next year and I can stay in Wellington and not yet have to go back and sponge off the parents.

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