Job woes/wins

[Ellmeister]

Eeeeew Deloitte. Worse than Zell!

[Charlie]

I've just been offered a job interview! It's for a Graduate Scheme with Deloitte (Risk Consulting).

 

Better start cramming...

 

Awesome. Good luck! My brother started there a few months ago in the strategic management consulting (I think) side. He went through the grad scheme at KPMG before moving to Deloitte.

[Zell]

That's awesome @MindFreak!

 

I've just been offered a job interview! It's for a Graduate Scheme with Deloitte (Risk Consulting).

 

Better start cramming...

 

Awesome mate, best of luck with the interview.

[Jimbob]

Best of luck in the interview.

 

I worked out, based on the leave i have to use up that over the next 10 weeks i'm in for only 4 full weeks. The other 6 are either off or in part of the week.

[Sheikah]

Good luck with the interview, smash 'em dead.

[bob]

Good luck with the interview, smash 'em dead.

Don't do this. It will significantly reduce your chances of getting the job.

[MindFreak]

Wow. My boss just offered me a master in IT from IT University in Copenhagen. It will be a 2.5 year's program that will end up giving me a(nother) Master's Degree. Completely free, but any time spent on it is free time, meaning that I have a full time job (37 hours a week here in Denmark) and a half time university study on the side. From others I've heard that it will amount to probably 15 hours a week at most, so it's quite demanding on my spare time. Also, and this is the reason for turning the offer down (if I do that), my girlfriend and I have started the talk: marriage, baby, all that. She is just now finishing her university studies, becoming a medical doctor in two weeks and starting up her first job in two months. So the timing is both great and horrible. I know that it might be available again in a couple of years but then there will definitely be children and that would complicate stuff as well.

 

I genuinely don't know what to do but I'm extremely flattered by getting the offer!

I gave my answer to my boss yesterday: yes. So I'll be starting September 1st and only for 2 years rather than 2.5 as I could avoid some introductory courses because I already have a master's degree from university.

 

Hopefully I can manage to take two courses at the same time (15 ECTS) while maybe going down in working hours on the job (from 37 to perhaps 32 or 30) so I'll get time to do everything. I had to cut down some things like gaming and training so that will be at a minimum for the next two years but hopefully it'll be worth it jobwise, moneywise and happiness-wise.

[Ashley]

A week on Tuesday the exam board 'season' kicks off (or Wednesday technically as the system jobs begin over night) and all hell is going to break loose.

 

Currently sat trying to get the compensation rules working. I did a hell of a lot of work to try and get it ready testing while I was off for two weeks, but it seems I'm the only person across the whole college who understands it (not worrying at all) so it wasn't done.

 

I found a problem but then I had to apply it to all the possible places it could be (~30), which involved amending one record, adding another record...and then do it across two environments. Then realised that fix caused a problem elsewhere. I think I've now found an ultimate one. Just trying to list all possible scenarios to test and think I've got 10. So off I go to do that...

 

Sundays eh?

 

-edit-

 

Up to 15 scenarios and that's ignoring some very unlikely ones (someone would have to fail at least one module, but not have it condonable towards their intended degree, not meet the requirements for their exit degree but can condone to meet the exit degree and I can't even think when/how that will happen so can't be bother to account for it).

 

This testing is proving to be useful as I'm finding and fixing problems as I go along but my brain is hurting. I've now got to go through 34 records to fix them all one-by-one. Each one needs to be updated in a similar way, but there's slight variances so can't just mass update.

Edited May 31, 2015 by Ashley

[Happenstance]

Ugh, I hate going back to work after having 4 days off. 3 days is fine but 4 seems to be the point where I start moaning lol

[jayseven]

Work is going well! Since my promotion I've kind of been defining my own job. I've had a finger in a lot of pies -- I get to go to a conference for a legal thing next week (which I'm sure will just be a drag), and I get to go to court on behalf of my company as well (people aren't paying bills)... and I should be put on a course that will be fantastic for my career too...!

 

Ultimately it's a SME which is trying to be bigger but is very behind in a lot of ways, but I've reached the level where, I think, I'm on track to be a very responsible part of the company. I've just been asked to look into another part of the business - so yeah! It's going really well. I'm excited to see what I'll be doing in a year's time considering the amount of responsibility I'm currently given. The difficult thing is trying to concoct a scenario where I can say "hey, so I want to get paid more money to do this job" without having to play they "I'm looking for another job" card. I don't see how I can get a payrise (in the future) without threatening to leave. Anyone got any advice? @Charlie?

[Ashley]

Quit twice. That's how I got my last promotion.

[Ashley]

Sent an angry email to several people earlier that basically said "I'm sick of this shit and I'm sick of doing work because nobody else can be arsed" and ended up going to central tonight to drink it away.

 

So I've had better days.

[Ganepark32]

Really been feeling out of place in work recently. Have struggled to actually motivate myself to get on with things but it is somewhat understandable when there are so many uncertainties hanging in the air with regards to the department.

 

Trying to get a new supervisor sorted out is proving to be a right pain in the arse, it's pretty much been settled by my current, soon to be retired, supervisor that I'm to be handed off to the lecturer whom I don't get on with and don't want to work with as no other lecturers are apparently willing to pick me up this late into my Ph.D. Have at least agreed to sit down and have a meeting with the lecturer to get a feel for how things would be taken on but I'm not hopeful on its outcome. At least had one other lecturer say that worst case scenario they'll pick me up but only as a last resort kind of thing so really not the attitude that's needed.

 

So kind of stuck in a shitty position. But trying to look on the bright side, I'm teaching the Summer School psychology programme this year and for essentially doing 5 lectures and marking a couple of essays, I'm getting a nice £600 (and I know that of that £435 isn't getting taxed because the uni does it in a strange way but I'm not complaining). Actually looking forward to it as I'll be lecturing on biological psychology so it's something I'm really interested and involved in so hopefully that comes across to the students and they enjoy it.

 

But, issues have cropped up here. The person who was supposed to be coordinating everything hasn't given me all of the materials or sorted out payment (apparently we have to make a casual claim form for this rather than it being through the proper channels), forms or any of the online things and decided to go on holiday for 3 weeks, only to come back on the day before we start teaching This place is a bloody shambles at the moment but it seems people are managing to get away with half-arsing everything for whatever reason.

 

Have spent most of today redoing my CV and looking for jobs as quite frankly, I've had about enough of it all. Hopefully, things will either settle or I'll find a job that really interests me, but I'm hoping for the latter more than anything right now. Gonna try and set up a meeting with the careers services at the uni for next week as I might as well make use of them while I'm here.

[Sheikah]

Really been feeling out of place in work recently. Have struggled to actually motivate myself to get on with things but it is somewhat understandable when there are so many uncertainties hanging in the air with regards to the department.

 

Trying to get a new supervisor sorted out is proving to be a right pain in the arse, it's pretty much been settled by my current, soon to be retired, supervisor that I'm to be handed off to the lecturer whom I don't get on with and don't want to work with as no other lecturers are apparently willing to pick me up this late into my Ph.D. Have at least agreed to sit down and have a meeting with the lecturer to get a feel for how things would be taken on but I'm not hopeful on its outcome. At least had one other lecturer say that worst case scenario they'll pick me up but only as a last resort kind of thing so really not the attitude that's needed.

 

So kind of stuck in a shitty position. But trying to look on the bright side, I'm teaching the Summer School psychology programme this year and for essentially doing 5 lectures and marking a couple of essays, I'm getting a nice £600 (and I know that of that £435 isn't getting taxed because the uni does it in a strange way but I'm not complaining). Actually looking forward to it as I'll be lecturing on biological psychology so it's something I'm really interested and involved in so hopefully that comes across to the students and they enjoy it.

 

But, issues have cropped up here. The person who was supposed to be coordinating everything hasn't given me all of the materials or sorted out payment (apparently we have to make a casual claim form for this rather than it being through the proper channels), forms or any of the online things and decided to go on holiday for 3 weeks, only to come back on the day before we start teaching This place is a bloody shambles at the moment but it seems people are managing to get away with half-arsing everything for whatever reason.

 

Have spent most of today redoing my CV and looking for jobs as quite frankly, I've had about enough of it all. Hopefully, things will either settle or I'll find a job that really interests me, but I'm hoping for the latter more than anything right now. Gonna try and set up a meeting with the careers services at the uni for next week as I might as well make use of them while I'm here.

 

If you're looking to get out of the shitfest that is academia then I'd recommend applying for some medical writer jobs (they require PhDs). Stay in science but without the bullshit, and still fly around the world attending congresses. Just got back from Vienna myself, t'is nice.

[Ashley]

But, issues have cropped up here. The person who was supposed to be coordinating everything hasn't given me all of the materials or sorted out payment (apparently we have to make a casual claim form for this rather than it being through the proper channels), forms or any of the online things and decided to go on holiday for 3 weeks, only to come back on the day before we start teaching This place is a bloody shambles at the moment but it seems people are managing to get away with half-arsing everything for whatever reason.

 

As someone who has been in academia for 9 years in one capacity or another I can only say this - academics are fucking useless.

[ReZourceman]

I believe my near-decade long sentence as a call taking customer service assistant has come to an end, which is the biggest fucking relief ever.

 

I have been promoted to a Contact Manager (aka team leader) which means meetings, interviews, development, planning, coaching and support. Which is a big step up for me, but gee-whiz am I relieved to be out of call handling all the time, and this is proving to be a great change already (found out yesterday and already started a few things) that will grow my skills and give me a bit more a "work challenge" rather than how it's challenging to be yelled at for no reason.

 

It obviously means a pay rise and holiday buff (1 day extra...not world changing but the holiday was very generous anyway) so yeah....pretty/quite over the moon.

[Goafer]

This image has been making my colleague laugh for about a month now, to the point where it's basically become an office meme.

 

We've recently started printing mugs and she asked me to design her a mug featuring her now favourite phrase. Here is a mockup of the result, which should hopefully be printed very soon:

 

 

[Ganepark32]

If you're looking to get out of the shitfest that is academia then I'd recommend applying for some medical writer jobs (they require PhDs). Stay in science but without the bullshit, and still fly around the world attending congresses. Just got back from Vienna myself, t'is nice.

 

Thanks for the heads up on this. Had a quick look yesterday evening at this and seems like something I'd definitely be interested in doing as the academic nonsense is what's really starting to get to me and really making me think it's time to jump ship. So yeah, thanks for that, gonna keep my eyes peeled over the next couple of weeks and hopefully see if anything up here comes up and apply for it

[nightwolf]

This image has been making my colleague laugh for about a month now, to the point where it's basically become an office meme.

 

We've recently started printing mugs and she asked me to design her a mug featuring her now favourite phrase. Here is a mockup of the result, which should hopefully be printed very soon:

 

 

I need one of those. Shame my work would be upset about it.

[Ashley]

Where does one search for jobs? Tried sites like Reed, Indeed, Guardian and Monster and the categories they use are really broad. I think it comes down to me feeling like I'm not qualified for anything specific, other than what I'm currently in and dislike. Le sigh.

 

Last night I wrote down the 8 different options I'm considering and scored them out of five for financial security, emotional well-being and career impact. And yet the one with the lowest score, quitting work and just buggering off on holidays, is the one I most want to do right now.

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

Personal past favourites are the lesser known recruitment boards like: Job Search, Adzuna, CW Jobs, Total Jobs, - Linkedin also has a good filter for jobs.

 

But having experience with Rec agencies... I probably wouldn't bother. When i was looking for a new role I just did a Google search and looked at companies who were employing directly with a strict no agencies culture - I emailed the Director directly in a non-formal way; he called me in for an interview the following week and a half day assessment the next, then got the job.

 

Hate recruitment Agencies with a passion.

[Ashley]

Cheers. I just wasn't aware to start outside of jobs.ac.uk

[Beast]

I need another job. Pronto. And I'm going through positive thinking modes right now so after my holiday and my birthday, I am hunting like a motherfucker for the job of my dreams. Why do I constantly find jobs that are brilliant at the start and then change to shitty, horrible, Hitler-like managers/supervisors? I'm sure it's a conspiracy! pmsl.

[Jimbob]

Sigh, back onto the phonelines which i thought i had left permanently back in September 2014. Was told as we are only back-up, that we wouldn't be under call centre motives or restrictions. Hehe, that was a big fat lie. Already being pressured into banging out the calls (have over 1,000 in the queue), something i am not happy and comfortable with doing. I know this is going to be for 6 weeks (yes, that long). And it will feel like 6 weeks as well.

 

And to top it all off, my lunch and milk was stolen. I do hate working with some people here.

Edited June 23, 2015 by Jimbob

[Will]

Where does one search for jobs? Tried sites like Reed, Indeed, Guardian and Monster and the categories they use are really broad. I think it comes down to me feeling like I'm not qualified for anything specific, other than what I'm currently in and dislike. Le sigh.

 

Last night I wrote down the 8 different options I'm considering and scored them out of five for financial security, emotional well-being and career impact. And yet the one with the lowest score, quitting work and just buggering off on holidays, is the one I most want to do right now.

 

I would say if you can afford to bugger off on holiday then do it. A change of pace and time to refresh is sometimes exactly what you need to focus on what you want and how to best make it happen. I was absolutely shitting myself when I quit work to randomly move here but six months in I've made progress I never thought I would be able to in Japanese (though I still suck at it) and know exactly the kind of role I want when I start working properly again.

 

If the options you have are career directions I'd say you couldn't go wrong with directly contacting people in those areas and just asking if there is anything available or coming up. Many people are happy to help out people who show a bit of initiative in that regard.

 

I'm with King_V, I hate recruitment agencies with a passion from the job hunt side, they're only good if your trying to find people and there is money in it for them.