May

2

Found a Job.

May 2, 2007 |

Hi, as many of you know, I had been looking for a job for the past two months or so; I signed up to a bunch of job vacancy search agents, read hundreds of offers (no, I don’t want to be a recruiter), applied to a few vacancies, and interviewed for two positions. The first one was a weird interview with a Bank in Milton Keynes to join their risk analysis team, and although they gave me very good feedback they turned me down. The second one was with a reinsurance company to join their ReMetrics software development team. I had a series of three interviews with them, and they just got better and better as time went by.

The first interview was a bit awkward; a one on one with the man who would be my boss. It was a very brief interview and I left a bit disappointed about the interview. I was surprised to find to find out that he had wonderful feedback about me. With hindsight I can tell that the guy had already made up his mind about me and this was just a formality, that needed to get out of the way in order to go on with the more fun second interview.

The second interview went much better. I met the same person as before and two other people, including one of the people that I would be working with. This meeting felt much better, there was genuine interaction between us and among themselves. I also got to see the good rapport that had developed between the people that work here, which made me realise that this indeed was a good company. Again, I received very good feedback and they scheduled a third meeting.

The third meeting was a one on one with somebody from Human Resources, again they questioned my ability to perform in the different aspects of the job, and I think I gave excellent examples of my experience. Related my maths tutoring experience with the training and consultancy aspect of the job, my Enbridge and LJ experience with working in an office and I reassured them that I really liked working in a team, despite doing a PhD. In fact I argued that one of the reasons why I hadn’t managed to finish my PhD before my March deadline was that working alone from home had seriously decreased my productivity because I was alone, had nobody to compare notes, etc. I left there feeling very good about myself and if you noticed carefully you would have spotted a slight spring on my step.

Finally, this morning I received word from them that they had made an offer that was within my salary expectations and my recruitment consultant was instructed (I feel important saying that) to accept it.

On a sad note, I won’t be a kept man any longer… :o(


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