Ethical Companies – The Blog

I went for an interview today, in London.  Being somewhat fed up to the back teeth with congestion charging, and extortionate parking charges I elected to take the train.  In the past I’ve done this via Virgin Trains, but not being in any great hurry (plus it’s a lot cheaper) I elected to use London Midland instead. I was pleasantly surprised. The journey took just under 3 hours, despite stopping at several places en-route, compared to Virgin’s 2 hours 20 minutes, and at under half the price …. Ok, so it’s not all good, I went in non peak time etc, plus if you miss the 15.46 back you have to wait until gone 18.00 before you can leave Euston again, but under half the price of Virgin’s equivalent off peak rate …. The trains are clean, comfortable (no plugs for my laptop, but “oh well”) and not packed senseless either. Can’t fault ‘em.

Anyway, I digress. Like I say I went for an interview. As I left the train it felt like a wall of sound, and I thought “ahh London, I recognise the sound and the smell” …. Nothing changes though, Euston Road (A40 ?) was bumper to bumper, Tottenham Court Road was bumper to bumper, but only in one direction (it’s one way, duh). Little has changed, the Church Of Scientology is still peddling …. Whatever it is they peddle (I’m not au fait with the organisation, but I am aware they attract a certain amount of criticism, and that Battlefield Earth by their founder L Ron Hubbard is a truly “naff” film). Apart from a scattering of Starbucks, it was much the same as I remember it …. Overpriced electronics stores, assorted junk food emporiums, a couple of pubs and a lot of students and/or NHS staff (University College London Hospital is there). However, with time to kill and being 1pm(ish) I had my heart set on saveloys and chips …. But alas the Tottenham Court Road fish and chip shop is no more ! And I’ll be damned if I’m walking all the way to Fryer’s Delight on High Holborn (aka Taxi Driver’s Delight). So, already the fish and chip shop fades from my mind, I can’t even remember the name of it now ….

Anyway, I’m still digressing. The interview, was for an eCommerce company, it seemed to go well, he sounded genuinely interested in what I had to say and seemed like a nice chap all round (for an MD !) So if I get the job, I guess I’ll be seeing more of London. I just hope I can find a fish and chip in walking distance of Tottenham Court Road for my lunchtimes ….

Steve

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Spotting mistakes in job descriptions (yeah, sad life I lead or what ?) But seriously here’s an example of one I spotted today on a job specification:

“Proficiency in English spoken & written is required”

Hmm, so let’s see they want proficiency in English, but are unable to show it in their job specification ? A couple of commas in that sentence (and a full stop at the end wouldn’t go amiss ) However, the job looks interesting so I will be applying. I’ll try not to comment on their grammar if I get to the interview stage !

Steve

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I applied for three different roles at a leading “communications equipment” company.  All three roles were for the online/eCommerce department and were as follows: Commercial Manager, Trading Manager, Head Of Online.  I received two rejection emails (not enough experience/skills/hair/personality/whatever) and one invitation to interview.  Guess which one I got the interview for ?  Yes ….  The Head Of Online.  Explain that one ….

I didn’t go to the interview as I couldn’t afford to go to Dublin with just 2 days notice, so asked if they could offer another time and heard nothing back.

Steve

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This morning I went to an interview. Nothing stunning about that in particular, the interview was at 10am and was in Edgbaston in Birmingham near Five Ways. I knew I was going to be flustered though because it meant travelling on the M6. Yes I know there are such things as “trains”, but at 8am in the morning when train trips cost a zillion times more than they do after 9.30am my desire to investigate getting from Congleton train station in Cheshire to Five Ways station in Birmingham wanes. Actually I say 8am, but I strongly suspect in reality I’d need to leave significantly earlier than that ….

Anyhow, the M6 it was. It was a slow start, it takes a good twenty minutes just to get on the M6 from where I live and despite being half 7′ish the A500 was slow for no apparent reason getting down to junction 15. I then proceeded to work my way down towards the point where the M6 turns into the toll road at varying degrees of unsatisfactory speed due to:

• Too many lorries.
• People hogging the outside lane despite nobody being anywhere nearer than a mile ahead of them.
• Yet more lorries.
• Roadworks.
• And some more lorries.
• Average speed cameras.

Unsurprisingly the M6 crawled down to a snail’s pace at Hilton services, like it always has done.  But, wait a minute ?  Wasn’t the toll road supposed to take all this “strain” ?  I thought the whole idea of the M6 Toll was to make driving past Birmingham way more pleasant (arguably much more pleasant than driving into Birmingham !)  I can only assume the following:

1. The M6 Toll was designed and built to solve the M6 congestion past Birmingham.
2. Then the price was set and people were unprepared to pay this much.
3. Ergo not as many people use the M6 Toll road as had been intended.

I find it hard to believe that the hundreds of vehicles I saw between junction 12 and junction 7 today were actually going into the Birmingham conurbation or down the M5.  I’ve used the M6 Toll road at that time of the morning, there’s not much traffic on it ….  It has to be the cost ….  I refuse to pay £10 to use a road ONCE, when I’ve already been subjected to road tax.

I don’t know what the answer to the M6 congestion problem is.  The only thing I can suggest is scrap the toll charge on the toll road and make it just another motorway, but that’s not very likely to happen so I’m all out of ideas (aside from nukeing Birmingham perhaps, and that seems extreme !)

Anyone got any bright ideas ?

As for the job interview, don’t ask how it went.  I don’t know, I really really don’t know.  It seemed to go alright but I’ve thought that before and not been offered the job, and I’ve also been to interviews where I thought I hadn’t got the job and been offered it after all.  If I get offered the job I’ll let you all know here on the blog, it looks good and I feel confident that I would enjoy it so fingers crossed I guess ….

Steve

PS over two and a half hours from ST8 to B15, only 55 miles; not good in my opinion.

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Interview coming up tomorrow, general manager for a well known eCommerce firm that sells computer components and peripherals etc.  Will let you all know how it goes.

Steve

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As you may recall, I went for an interview in London this Wednesday just gone.  I went in plenty of time, and thought I’d walk from Euston Station to where the interview was being held, and en route grab myself some lunch.  The interview was just off Theobalds Road so I found myself in the Holborn/Southampton Row sort of area.  I did contemplate a McDonald’s (I must have been hungry) but it was packed out and I didn’t fancy standing in a queue with a heavy bag (laptop etc) for 20 minutes, followed by nowhere to sit.  Then I decided wanted a sandwich, and I just fancy something simple, like cheese and onion or egg and cress….

Hmmm, so I looked at Pret A Manger, Itsu and a couple of other places.  I looked at Subway (somehow Subway just doesn’t “do it” for me, I don’t know, I just never like the look of it.)  I even look in a couple of newsagents in the chiller cabinet ….  Sigh, coronation chicken in pitta bread, houmous and rocket salad, and weird combinations.  When I finally found cheese and onion it had sodding mayonnaise in it.  When I want CHEESE AND ONION I just want, bread, butter, cheese, onion.  That’s why it’s called “cheese and onion”.  Mayonnaise does not belong in a cheese and onion sandwich, end of ….

I never did get any lunch.  Spotted a chippy on the way out, should have gone in there.  Couldn’t be any worse than some of the chip shops up my way (Stoke On Trent).

Steve

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999 call for jacket left on bus.

Manchester Police have released recordings of people calling 999 for non ememrgency calls such as:

The operator says: “I can’t put you through on the emergency line, is it something you want to report ?”  The man replies: “Yeah, it’s nothing major. I’ve just got a bus from Wigan town centre, going home and I’ve had a £420 jacket that I’ve left on the seat.”

Now Manchester Police are naturally a bit fed up with all this nonsense and want to do something about it and are running 999 day today on 09/09/09 (well that’s imaginative).

Now I’m guessing that this a problem that isn’t restricted just to Manchester (after all there are inconsiderate people wherever you go) and actually happens nationally.  So here’s some radical suggestions to solve the problem for our country’s police forces:

Try making yourself contactable for non emergencies.  Nobody has the slightest idea what number they need to call to contact the police in a “non emergency.”

• Try having police stations open when crimes are committed, Congleton is open for about half an hour a week (I suspect Biddulph is even worse) or something similarly stupid.
• An occasional copper around town might be a good idea.  I did actually see a copper in the local supermarket this week to promote the “rat on a rat” campaign, she was there purely to promote the campaign but I assume she would have stepped in if someone had try to pinch the buy one get one free toilet rolls ?
• How about a national number for non emergency calls we can all remember ?  666 or something ?  Surely with modern telecommunications technology it could route the call to the nearest awake available policeman to the caller’s location ?

I haven’t got the foggiest idea what number to call for the Police other than 999, I could Google for it (and have done in the past) but you don’t get through to your local police station, you get an “area” switchboard, when all you really want is to talk to a copper NOW.

Steve

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09/09/09: from The Beatles to the apocalypse, 10 things to look out for on Wednesday.

Apparently this Wednesday (09/09/09 or 09/09/2009 if you want to be awkward) is a day of amazing significance and apparently marketing men will be so excited they might actually stop trying to think of ways to sell a load of old crap we don’t want quality merchandise for 24 hours.  Then there’s the numerologists, who apparently love this sort of thing.

Several things are predicted, some obvious due to advance knowledge (Beatles stuff being released etc) and some whimsical and unlikely (banning cats on the internet for a day).  BUT here you go, hot off the press, some insider knowledge from yours truly, from me.  What will happen on Wednesday is the following:

• The binmen will collect our bin.  As usual David (step-son) will neglect to put it out the night before despite his mum asking him to do so at least 5 times.  I will of course be running up the side of the house dragging the bin to the pavement nanoseconds before the binmen arrive to take and empty the blasted thing.  We will of course also have the obligatory “which bin is it that goes out this week” discussion.
• I will trawl Monster.co.uk and Jobsite.co.uk for a new job, as per usual, and my inbox will as usual be filled with polite versions of “sod off and quit applying, we don’t want you”.
• It will rain (well in Britain that is, it’s a foregone conclusion).
• In fact pretty much the same stuff as any other weekday.

Oh and Derren Brown is going to do a “stunt” with the National Lottery and “predict” at least 5 of the 6 numbers drawn; yeah right ….  My step sister Helen once told me some years ago “I know a man who knows the numbers in advance, he wins every week”, snigger, I didn’t know what to say to her ….

Steve

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As many of you already know I am currently job hunting; looking for an ecommerce management/operations type role.  However, if the current job market is anything to go by there’s clearly little chance of the UK crawling out of the recession anytime soon.  I’m not short of qualifications, education and experience so I can only assume the vast majority of positions advertised on the various job websites are either for non existent roles OR they are looking for people who don’t actually exist ?

So to any recruiters reading this, give us a shout if you have a suitable role on 07903 627086

Steve

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A scruffy dilemma – BBC News Website

I’ve been reading the article above and it reminded me of some of my own experiences at interviews.  I guess I’ve never been a particularly conventional sort of person and I’m sure this comes across in my dress and at interviews.  I can “scrub up” as well anybody and do own 3 suits (which get dug out for the necessary occasions).  I don’t even mind wearing a suit, it neither bothers me or excites me, it’s just “clothes” at the end of day.

Coming from an academic background of social and postmodern psychology I am acutely aware of communications theory and how we perceive people on different levels as well as the conventional “listening” to people.  So I’d like to think I’m not too guilty of making prejudicial judgements when I was a employer myself.  So reflecting upon this today I did suddenly realise that YES I probably have made some unfair judgements to potential employees when interviewing people, from my time as a transport manager and later as managing director of Retrowarez.com

As we get older we either get less prejudiced and more tolerant or in some cases we may go the other way (think Alf Garnett style).  On the whole I am a pretty tolerant sort of person and all bar one exception I pretty much have no prejudices; and my sole (possibly unfair depending on how you look at it) prejudice is more about a certain part of society’s actions and not about the actual people.

I’ve employed lesbians, gays, ex drug addicts, a current drug addict (a great girl who is now squeaky clean and looking really well, I am so pleased for her and I bump into around town now and again), men with tattoos on their necks and knuckles, coloured people (is it politically correct to say “coloured people” ?  Steve Wilson says I should say “non whites” but that sounds a bit weird in my opinion) and all sorts.  I’ve never employed any Eastern Europeans but there wasn’t that many around in my transport manager days as there is now, and I don’t think any ever applied for a job at Retrowarez.com. The thing I’ve learnt is not to “assume” that these sort of people are “trouble”.  Anyone can be “trouble” given the right circumstances/provocation.  Think Fred West, fairly regular looking sort of guy, probably dressed up real smart for interviews….

It’s not just how you dress either.  Your CV can also create prejudices in people’s minds if things don’t appear “conventional”.  Non standard education routes or qualifications, living in an area perceived as “rough”, being married/a smoker/over a certain age/whatever can all cause prejudices.  All I can say is recruiters are missing a trick, there’s got to be a lot of unconventional but talented people out there.  But they are not all like this ….

I recently applied for an ecommerce manager role in London, £50000 to £60000 a year plus bonus and other bits and pieces.  The application process specifically asks for no CVs.  Instead they ask a series to ascertain the sort of person you are, and how you think and act.  I answered all the questions absolutely truthfully.  Some of the more “quantitative” questions (there were only a few) asked what formal qualifications and/or training I had the role so I answered truthfully and said “None” but went on to detail my 7+ years “hands on” experience of running a .com and I’ve been shortlisted and from the reply I received I reckon I’m well in the running.  I’m really impressed with this company and even if I don’t get the job I’ve been left with a favourable impression and when I do get a new job, even if it’s not with this company I am now a lot more aware of their products and likely to buy them as a result.

Like I say recruiters are missing a trick, on more than one level, in my opinion.

So, am I scruffy ?  Anyone who knows me and has seen me, let me know please

Steve

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