The Job Saga continues…

This week, despite the fact that it’s been Christmas, and Christmas ought to be a time to turn off your laptop and bury it under wrapping paper and turkey until you are forced to dig it out again by the start of the New Year and an inbox explosion, there has been an endless stream of emails, calls and conversations going regarding my Singapore job hunt.

            The client that I asked for a reference came out of the woodwork and tried to get me to work for him, before deciding that he needed another three months before they would be ready for me. The job that sparked up just a couple of weeks ago progressed, sending me a low value offer with huge potentials depending on the company growth and development, and the role that I have been working on for the past four months (four months and endless interviews) called me on the day I was expecting a final response to tell me that they had an internal candidate who they had to give the preference to, so feedback would take longer to make it’s way to me.
           Not exactly the best start to the Christmas holidays, but with so many potentials up in the air, I am sure that at least one of them is going to pan out nicely for me. I really bloody hope it does anyway! Despite the fact that everyone told me I wouldn’t be able to secure a job before I made the full move, I am desperate to get one sorted, and to prove all those people wrong too, if possible!

Saturday Skype

Normally my Saturday Skype sessions occur fairly early in the morning (before lunch at least) and they are fairly relaxed conversations about nothing much with The High Flyer. That’s how Skype calls should be!

            Over the past few months, with interviews taking place with America, Singapore, Australia and Germany, I have started to use Skype more as the work tool that I know it probably always ought to be, so I’ve become used to having to be a bit more professional and up together on these calls than I have been in the past. However, this weekend was the first time I have had to embrace a work call on a Saturday.

            At half five I had a call scheduled with one of the jobs that I have been interviewing for recently (the more recent one – not the one that has been dragging on for over two months already), so despite the fact that I was still fairly hung-over, and our house was full so I had to take the call from the comfort of my bed, I had to try and get my mind back into super-professional mode (with the inevitable aid of a huge cup of tea).

            I was worried that the call would require my brain to work it’s way through a string of tricky ‘final round’ questions, and that he would expect me to have prepared fabulous questions for him. Thankfully, rather than it being another interview round, this call was a very informal offering of a job, with a quick run through of basic info that he wanted to ensure was factored into the full final offer breakdown that they would be sending me in the next few days.
           Hurray! I’m still yet to hear back from the company that has taken two months to work through the basic interviewing process, but this chap (from a small start up data company that would offer me an impress chunk of equity if I were to go and work for them) has been so keen and efficient that I think I’m currently a lot more tempted to go and work for them. He ran through the work Visa first round checks with me whilst I was on the phone to him, and it sounds like he’s going to go out of his way (even more than he already has done) to make sure that I’m happy with the final offer than he provides me with in the next few days. It’s a shame that I invested two months of work in the other company now, because I have a feeling that this super keen, super smart chap might be the sort of boss that I need in a new market….great times!    

Warm up lunch

It’s just over a month until I move my little life out of London and over to Singapore, and I am starting to get a bit worried about it all. I have to leave my friends and family. Who’s going to look after me when I’m being completely and utterly ridiculous about everything? Do boys understand the importance of Happy Crumble, and can you even stomach happy crumble over in that heat? So many things to consider!

            Luckily, from my last trip over there in the summer I know that there is at least one girl in the little expat circle that I have met already, and that she is going to be more than adequate as a drinking / eating / life sorting buddy. Even better, she’s in London for the month for a mixture of both work and Christmas. Now that’s perfect timing!

            Although Liv’s got plenty of plans to be out of town over Christmas, and has been spending a lot of time catching up with old uni and school friends, as well as her family, after a fair bit of back and forth we finally managed to book in a sneaky lunch.

            Nothing too exciting – just a lovely light lunch at the Whole Foods off Piccadilly, catching up on what’s been going on since I left, what else I need to do to properly prepare myself for the move, all the essentials. It was a lovely, reassuring little catch up, until we bid farewell to each other and she hugged with the words “So, I’ll be seeing you in Singapore next month then!”

            SCARY!

Another day, another interview

This time it was a round two and three interview combined apparently. Two countries, two people, two sets of questions, all bundled up in one fairly intimidating Skype call.

            With Germany on one line and Australia on the other, this morning was a successful, if slightly intense, continuation of the interview process that I started out on next week. We talked about cricket (I absolutely made up every reply - let's see if I got away with it), work, industries, traveling, plans for the next few months, and they also asked the dreaded questions "Tell us, in your own words, what you think our company does." I realise that for most people this must be the most obvious question, and one that you could respond to in a heartbeat, but if you don't work in online media or have any background on the many different levels and styles of data service providers then I promise you, this is one mountain of a challenge to encapsulate in a nutshell. I think I did it - it made sense to me and it made sense to them, but my God I had a good old panic before that portion of the conversation got underway. 

            It seemed to go fairly well, but as always, it’s just another case of waiting for feedback. There's also still no news from the other company either. Double whammy for waiting. Classic.

Starting as I mean to go on!

I’m going to get a new job this week – it’s not a guarantee, but I am going to seriously try!

            Not only am I hoping to hear back from the first company that I started discussions with, but I’ve got a second round of interviews for a new role lined up for this Wednesday (i've warned them that I'm waiting for an offer to come in, so they're merging rounds two and three for me in an interview with both Germany and Australia), a call with another new potential tomorrow and an up-in-the-air discussion that I need to pin down.
             My Monday morning kicked off with an 8am call to Australia, and I have a feeling that there are going to be plenty of other early starts and late finishing this week too, so I’ve started as I mean to go on – let’s just hope I manage to keep up the momentum!

Round Five – apparently it’s necessary

That’s right, round five of interviews with the same company, but it sounds like this really ought to be the final stage of the process (I’ve definitely said that before during the past few months).           

            Having interviewed with the HR department, the country manager, the department director and the company’s CSO, today was the turn of the VP for all international activity.

            It’s very hard to maintain your enthusiasm for a role when it’s the fifth time you’re having the same conversations, not least when you’ve been ill for the past week or so and you’re working a cough that sounds as though you’ve wracked up some serious damage through years of heavy smoking.  Still, onwards and upwards!

Having arrived at the office address provided by the HR department (and confirmed further in the email thread with them) only to discover that the company changed offices earlier that week, the interview didn’t get off to the best of starts – I was ten minutes late, flustered and the cold power-walking had definitely stirred up the cough that I had deliberately woken up early to try and settle.

Luckily, a 9am start is pretty aggressive in the world of online media, so my interviewer was happy to get a little extra tea drinking time prior to my arrival. The interview itself was fine – nothing ground-breaking or particularly success to write home about, but it went well, and towards the end it was made clear that this was certain to be the final round of discussions to be worked through. Two of the chaps that I had spoken to before are really driving the process, and with the ‘strategic issues’ that I was warned about previously now cleared out of the way, all that’s left is a simple yes or no response. I’ve got a call with HR on Friday, which will just confirm this, and then I suppose I’ll be sitting, waiting and hoping to hear more. That’s right, the wait continues!

            

Two months today!

It is exactly two months today until I arrive in Singapore, dragging two bags and probably a lot of teary snotty rags behind me from the plane out into the stunning sunshine and heat.

            Having spoken to Nick this afternoon, it’s all starting to feel a whole lot more real. The flat is now being lived in, the cupboards are full of glasses and plates (our glasses and plates) , the balcony is equipped with furniture and night lanterns (our furniture and lanterns) and the bar in the corner (our bar) is starting to take shape!

           Eeeek!

Waiting for my window to open...

It’s been another full week since spoke to the Executive team during the application process for the job that I am really hoping to get in Singapore, and I still hadn’t heard back from the HR department. There was only one thing for it – on Thursday evening I sent them a note to let them know that I would be calling for an update on Friday at 6pm (their 10am), so hopefully they would be ready for me.

            Having stayed at work late I gave them a call and set about trying to get a clearer idea of what’s going on. In essence, it sounds like they want me to come and work for them, and they are keen to get something signed off. However, apparently they were supposed to have recruited a number of new members to the sales team before they found someone to do the role I would be working through, so the CSO now has to meet with the CEO to work out whether or not it would fit with their company strategy. It sounds like the CSO likes me, but now he has to try and persuade the boss man that it’s worth a change in company plans. Hmm, I probably won’t hold my breath there.

            Worse, it turns out that each company are only able to have a certain number of team members working in Singapore on the International Work Visa, so once the CEO has been persuaded that they need me, the application then gets handed over to the Singapore legal world to debate. Hmm, I suppose it might be tine to head back to the drawing board and make a new plan of attack. Sad, sad times.

The life box-up continues

Whilst I don’t have a lot of free time between now and the 23^rd January when I’m due to be flying off to Singapore, I’ve been using the occasional free evening or early weekend morning to get my life packed away and either into storage or ready for shipping.

            It’s been slow and steady progress, but now the dry vault has been emptied and swept ready for use, most of my books have been boxed up and transported down for storage, and a couple of other bits and pieces have been gathered up from around the house and bundled into the vault. Three and a half boxes have been sealed up ready for shipping, and the majority of my wardrobes have been striped of any clothing, shoes or bags that can be either binned or taken to the charity shop.

            I’m working to get myself down to the bear essentials before Christmas so that I can make sure everything is in it’s place by the time I will be teary and confused about life when it gets closer to my time to fly. Not long now! 

Everything crossed

And I mean everything!

            It’s done – the fourth and final (I very much hope) round of interviewing for a job that it turns out I am grossly under qualified for. So now it’s just a case of cross everything and hope for the best.

            The call went really well – everyone who I have met from this company has been enthusiastic, passionate, interesting and keen to discuss all my ridiculous questions and interests in detail. I’ve left (or hung up on) every interview with a positive feeling, and even yesterday when it was confirmed that they were considering me for a Director role, which is something that I thought I was a good few years away from being ready for, they sounded like they wanted to carry on our conversation further, and to discuss their tech and data solutions (which I had way too many questions about) in more detail.

            They do say that men are more likely to apply for jobs above their experience whilst woman hang back and wait until they feel that they would be suitable for the role, so I suppose I’ve accidentally pushed myself in the man remit with this application. I know that I can do it. I just hope that the executives who I chatted with yesterday can see that too.

            I said that a move to Singapore would be a career grower, and that it was a decision fuelled by emotion but hopefully supported and justified by industry demand and the potential to step up. I just really hope that this job comes through for me, and that I get to both have my cake, and eat it too. Please keep everything crossed for me while I wait…again!