Archive for the ‘Life & Work’ Category

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Improving interview preparation and technique

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

The job market has picked up and there are rich pickings to be had! I’ve been offered Head of IT and IT Director interviews and I really want to sort out my preparation approach and interview technique.

I naturally gab and I’ve been told I like the sound of my own voice before now, and it’s true.  I suspect in interviews this gets the better of me so I am determined to improve how I prepare for an interview and how I come across:  the STAR method rules! (Situation Task Actions Results)

I intend to enhance the way I prepare for an interview but still include

  • Researching the company
  • Learning the JD
  • Finding out how the role fits within the organisation
  • Preparing STAR examples/answers based on the above

I’m also going to prepare and practice out loud, answering standard questions such as

  • Tell me about you
  • What can you bring to the role
  • How do you see the role within the organisation

I am going to practice saying other things out loud so that I learn to not over-speak in interview…I shall learn to listen to questions and answer them not waffle on!

I know I’m a pretentious twit, but hey…needs must..and if I want to improve my chances in interview, I need to practice!

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The Let's All Write A Novel Thread

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

I took a pile of books to my local Oxfam bookshop recently and, in a fit of counter-productivenesss, for every 10 books I donated I bought a couple of replacements.

Amongst the books I bought were some Penguin’s from the 1940’s/50’s and are true pulp fiction – the literary equivelant of a film noir.

I’d love to be able to write something more creative than a staff appraisal casting the subordinate in a surprisingly positive light, so I thought I’d suggest the old GCE English Literature, wet playtime game we used to play a couple of decades ago, but without such a draconian set of rules or Mr Harrison going on about how things weren’t as good as twonce they were..

Anyhow, in the style of a bad thriller novel, I thought I’d suggest we all take a few sentences or a paragraph each to see what we turn up..

So I’ll start then you lot take over!

The wind blew in from all directions.  He pulled his coat-collar up, took a drag from the cigarette he’d just lit and marched across the court-yard.  His faithful spaniel scampering ahead,he disappeared into the night.  Things would never be the same again…


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The Blogs What I Read Regularly

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

As well as blogging myself, I regularly read other blogs that just interested me.

These top three I always read and have done for ever are:

1.0 Random Acts of Reality which is written by a Paramedic based in London

2.0 The Policeman’s Blog which was stated by a UK-based office who later emigrated to work as a Canadian officer

3.0 Iain Dale’s Blog by, erm, Iain Dale who is a political blogger.

Recently I discovered Nee Naw, another paramedic blog, and so far this is my favourite post:

Address: PIZZA WORLD TAKEAWAY, 200 HIGH STREET, NE20
Diagnosis:  CALLER STATES HE IS THE KING OF ENGLAND AND WISHES TO GO TO PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL.
Special Instructions: CALLER WILL WAIT INSIDE PIZZA SHOP AS HAS ORDERED A PIZZA.
From: LONDON AMBULANCE SERVICE
To:  METROPOLITAN POLICE SERVICE
Message: PLEASE CAN WE HAVE YOUR ASSISTANCE WITH MALE PSYCHIATRIC
PATIENT, POSSIBLY VIOLENT, STATING HE IS KING OF ENGLAND AND WISHING TO
BE TRANSPORTED TO PSYCH UNIT.
From:  MPS
To:  LAS
Message:  SORRY, NO POLICE AVAILABLE AT PRESENT.  WE ARE ON CHANGEOVER.
From: LAS
To:  MPS
Message:  NO WORRIES - APPARENTLY PATIENT HAS ORDERED PIZZA WHILE HE WAITS.
From: MPS
To:  LAS
Message:  NO ANCHOVIES FOR US PLEASE.
Twenty minutes later.
From: LAS
To:  MPS
Message:  PLEASE CANCEL.  PATIENT HAS RUNG BACK STATING PIZZA NOW READY.
IS TAKING BUS TO LOCAL HOSPITAL.
From:  MPS
To:  LAS
Message:  WE ARE VERY DISAPPOINTED.  OFFICERS WERE HUNGRY AND LOOKING
FORWARD TO MEETING KING OF ENGLAND.
Source: NEE NAW

Nee Maw May become a regular! :o )

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The Snow is Finally Bad! Earls Barton is cut off…

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

I woke up today to find around 6 inches, or 15 cm, of snow in the yard! Wooo…

There seems to be a Plimsol Line when it comes to snow: below it everyone gripes about how we can’t run a rail network, that the councils don’t know how to grit the roads properly and so on.  Above it, Dunkirk Spirit and a sense of community arrives.

The main road throught the village (just on the right above), was completely unusable and so rather moan and gripe, people came out of their houses and cleared it all away.  The local florist had a delivery of fresh flowers from The Netherlands everyday and the delivery lorry couldn’t make it into the village proper, so everyone mucked in and helped Lee, the florist, by carrying his stock to the shop.

In a nearby farmer’s field, there are hundreds of kids and parents sliding down the hill and building the world’s largets snowballs!  Usually there is the distant hum of traffic and industry, but today there is only the noise of children’s laughter!

It is days like this I am really glad I left the big shiney city for rural Northamptonshire.

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ITV are losing the plot

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

Lord Lew Grade must be looking down on his nephew, Michael Grade wondering what has gone wrong with the UK’s third main channel, ITV1.

My personal view of ITV1 is that, well, I don’t have one as I don’t really watch it anymore.  7-9.00pm every night is a non starter for me as all they show is soaps, the so-called documentaries they show leave you pining for the classic episodes of Survival and well, if there is something you want to watch, the picture quality is so poor it’s pointless watching.

I have freeview cable, Sky Plus and an traditional analogue ariel.  Surprisingly, despite having a widescreen tv, if I watch ITV1 at all, I generally watch in on analogue 4:3 as the digital 16:9 is so appalling!  Last night, however, I watched the Everton v Liverpool coverage on the Sky box and was horrified when in the middle of an Everton attack, the cut to adverts! For goodness sake….!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  To make things worse, Everton scored when the ads were on. Doh!

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ITV used to be the lead commercial broadcaster in the UK – no longer! If I was an advertiser I would question whether to invest my marketing money with them!

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The Snow In Earls Barton Isn't All That Bad!

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

I nipped out with my camera and took a shot down into my village, Earls Barton in Northamptonshire, just as the heavy snow arrived. 2nd Feb 2009.

More snowy pictures of Earls Barton are located here.

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Terminally Bored

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

Having been made redundant last year, the daily trudge of failure in finding
a new position in the current economic climate has started to wear very
thin.

I spend a couple of hours in the morning going through the emails from job
sites, making calls, etc all, it seems, to no avail.? I have tried to make
looking for a job not my job, so to speak, but I find the daiuly trudge of
job-hunting and the stuff I do, even watching, television, so boring!? I
need to find something to do that is free, Winter friendly (i.e. not
undertaken in the cold) and vaguely interesting.

My house has never been more sorted, I have hours of decent stuff on Sky
Plus to watch but I find it all so very tedious to sit there and watch. I’d
even developed some websites to sell http://www.bugsnvans.com and have
on in development  http://www.resources4bloggers.com  but I am so
terminally bored I can’t be bothered.

Not sure what I am going to do about this, but I need to change something
soon!? Getting a job would help?

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The World's Worst Bestman…

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

You shouldn’t laugh, but you will.  And you will feel bad. Then watch it and laff again.  Guaranteed.

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Related Blogs

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If you're gonna rob, son, make sure you wear a mask

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

An seemingly less than intelligent criminal was caught by British cops when he was caught on CCTV breaking into a car in the UK.  This in itself would normally be fairly amusing, but the idiot did not wear a mask and to compound his “Bang to rights” mode had his name and date of birth tattoed on his neck in full view of the watching officers.

At Bristol Magistrates’ Court in England’s South West region, Aarron Evans admitted his guilt in breaking into the honeytrap car which had been left to attempt to capture villains on the job.  Mr Evans was sentenced to seven month’s porridge.

“Criminals won’t be tolerated in Bristol and we will keep catching them and bringing them before the courts.” said Supt Ian Wylie of Bristol & Avon Police.

“We get such excellent images from these cameras that there is often, and never more so than in this case, no doubt who the criminal is.”

If Mr Evans had killed himself in the process, he would surely be up for a Darwin Award but must surely merit an Honourable Mention!

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This Will Drive You Mad…

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

Parts of your brain make your appreciate the beauty of a young lamb gamboling around the meadow, other parts make you thrill at the excitement of a game of football.  I suspect the part that makes below work is the part that hides your car keys from you when they are in plain site.

While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.

Now, while doing this, draw the number “6″ in the air with your right hand.

Your foot will change direction.

You will say something like “No way!”

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