Odds and Sods

I've changed my profile thing. There's something about my current plight and the phrase "They not only refuse to applaud mediocrity, they howl it down with morose glee" that is either deeply ironic or pathetic. So off it comes. 

I was in HMV last week. Not buying (too skint) just noseying. A couple of things stood out. Firstly Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" was £16. Remind me again why CD sales are failing? More surprisingly the new Manic Street Preachers album on vinyl was £18.99.The fight back against mp3 starts here. 

Speaking of mp3 I read yesterday Amazon had made a mistake, offering downloaded versions of albums for 29p. Leaving aside the choice of albums available, 29p is still too expensive for these low resolution facsimiles. 

I've discovered Spotify. My reservations still stand about streaming with adverts, but I'm kidding myself that it's just like a commerical radio station, but I get to pick the playlist. If it was a real commerical radio station though I suspect it would be taken off the air. I'd end up barricaded in my studio as the police broke the doors down.

Northern Ireland is now in "holiday mode". The job vacancies have packed their bags, rubbed on the factor 15 and headed south for a bit of sun, foam parties, cheap cocktails and casual sex with strangers. They'll return in a couple of weeks feeling both elated and slightly ashamed, wondering where the money went and what the strange rash is. 

 

  

The Specialist?

Still looking. Things haven't moved. One of the things that I get from talking to the agencies I trust (well up to a point) is that the skills that used to benefit me, are now actually a disadvantage. People don't want generalists in IT. They want specialists.

A generalist? Er? Well that's a good question, I suppose the unkind way to describe it s "jack of all trades, master of none"  Really though (without using terms like "helicopter view" or other phrases from the Management Bullshit Thesaurus) is that I see everything. I understand everything - at a level higher than the client, but less than a specialist. Unlike a specialist though, I see how all the specialisms fit together and how they shape the "whole" (or "hole" if you prefer. And yes it does sound like I'm talking out of it).

The majority of the jobs I see are aimed at specialists. Some I've a good chunk of what they ask for. Now given that I'm working on the assumption that the worst a potential employer can say is "no" I'll stick my CV in anyway, So far, at least, the results have been predictable. (Or rather I assume "predictable" as most of the companies who advertise online can't quite stretch to an automated acknowledgement receipt, let alone an email saying "cheers for applying but piss off". So if I haven't heard in a day or so I figure it as another another rejection. I did get one nice response from an agency saying (in words to the effect of) "stop applying for jobs with us. We don't want you. Ever". I'll reveal the name of the shower of shit responsible for this gem once I'm happily re-employed) So what to do?  Keep plugging away. I've considered doing a couple of courses in an effort to add some shine to the CV, but I've been strongly advised against this (wear sunscreen), which has dampened my enthusiasm for spending the couple of grand (I don't have) on the course I planned to do. 

So I'm left  to just get on with it. No choice really. But it is disheartening when the only opportunity the Jobcentre could conjure up today was one 60 miles away (in Omagh), for a temporary, part time IT support job, requiring fluency in Mandarin.

Like I said. "Specialist"   

Careers Advice?

Anyway I was going to post something here about how small, seemingly inconsequential decisions can have unforeseen consequences, But it I couldn't phrase it in such away that it didn't sound like a 90's TV movie about chaos theory. And no matter how much I'd like to, I can't lump the blame for my current predicament on a butterfly flapping it's wings. This thing is little better. I've been stewing over this for the past week or so and I just can't get it to make the point I'm trying to make. But I thought I'd post it anyway

I've applied for more jobs, via the new modern wonder that is the "internet". I have to say that as a tool for job hunting, the internet is unsurpassed. Well up to a point. In the very old days my job hunting would have consisted of waiting for the Belfast Telegraph to be delivered on a Friday evening. Now? I can look for a job any time I want. I'm not restricted to Northern Ireland anymore either. With all this choice, I hear you ask, why haven't you got a job yet?

Well there are a couple of answers to this, The first is that this choice isn't all that it seems. A couple of weeks ago I applied for job via one particular site. There was the usual vague spec on the description, an e-form to fill out and a place to upload a CV on. 

Roll on an hour and I got a phone call. They've got my CV and the agency want me to come in for a chat. In passing they tell me who the job is with. Now I'm someone who likes to be prepared, so I did some digging. An hour or so later I'd found the original job description the agency distilled their ad from. So far so good. Anyway after a long meeting they said thanks but no thanks, however they'd "keep their eye out" for something else. 

Of course I was a wee bit disappointed. But that's the breaks.

A day or two later I'm looking at another job site. I spy a job. "This looks good"  and clicked on the link. Strangely though it looked very familiar. Mmm. One quick phone call to this different agency (who weren't interested in me at all) confirmed it. Same job They'd just amended the Job title.

You know the old thing about not spotting something obvious until someone points it out? As far as I can now tell this same job is on a national job site 4 times and on a regional job site 9 times. Each one is subtly different but the meat is the same - a spectfic requirement for knowledge of a pretty obscure application, exposure to some fairly esoteric procedures, based in Belfast, all with the same salary range. Now either Belfast has become the cluster point for the obscure and esoteric (possible I suppose), or these 13 jobs are in fact, the same one job. 

Now I can understand the rationale behind this. It makes perfect sense to have multiple agencies chasing candidates, each one knowing that they are competiting against another agency. Nothing like a bit of competition. But I'm not sure that it's good for prospective candidates. Sometimes the choice is no choice at all. Okay maybe I've been naive about job hunting, perhaps I don't understand the realities of what it's like for the agencies, I simply don't appreciate the demands their clients make, The bottom line is I don't care. It's waste of my time and energy trying to decipher if the job I'm applying for is a reheated version of a job I applied for previously. Worse is that several of these competing agencies are in fact, one in the same.  

I'd say there were steps that could be taken to make things more transparent. Agencies should be made to name names ie. state in the ad who the job is with. At the moment it's usually treated it as a secret, only to be revealed on the pain of death (Name, Rank and Company who added job reference NI8901). This attitude serves no useful purpose. Secondly if I was using an agency or agencies to recruit then I'd insist they stick explicitly to the job description and job title I've defined, rather than let them apply their own interpretation to what you meant by a vague term like "Manager" 

To be honest this has been a pretty sharp learning curve. Now that I think about this - really who prepares you for the pitfalls of job hunting? Isn't it just one of those things that people do when they have to? Yeah I've bought a few advice books books on the subject and dug around the net, but the advice is so vague to be useless How do you find out the tricks and tips of looking for a job? And through it all whose advice should I listen to? Theirs? Mine? Stuff on the internet? Perhaps as one (er) philosopher said 

"Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth"

And there's the problem. Everyone knows. Everyone has a view. But no-one actually knows. Hell this is starting to sound like me dishing out advice as well.

So I will

"Wear sunscreen"