Page 315 of 374

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2017 9:47 pm
by Tomous
No:1 Final Fantasy Fan wrote:For those of you in settled careers/jobs how do you look for work these days? Do you use Linkedin and sites like Reed and Indeed? Or do you go directly to company websites that you are interested in?

I'm want a change in my current role but just not sure how to go about it. So I have just updated my my profile at the above mentioned sites hoping that some recruitment consultant will approach me with a job...got one so far but it was no in a desired location.


What industry are you in?

I would suggest being a little more proactive and get in touch directly with 2 or 3 recruitment agents. Have a chat with them, get your CV over and they'll then contact you over roles as they become available. That's how it works in my industry (finance) anyway.

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2017 6:20 am
by Lotus
No:1 Final Fantasy Fan wrote:For those of you in settled careers/jobs how do you look for work these days? Do you use Linkedin and sites like Reed and Indeed? Or do you go directly to company websites that you are interested in?

All of the above. I check company websites (although not all roles are on there - they often give certain roles to preferred recruiters rather than advertising online/externally), check LinkedIn, check the bigger generic job sites (Reed, Monster, Indeed), check industry-specific recruitment sites, and I also know a couple of aforementioned specialist recruiters who I'd probably drop a line to see if they had anything. The longer you're in an industry the easier it is to find work as you make contacts and get to know how things are done. I've had old friends or colleagues contact me and ask if I'm interested in a role they have going, and I also get emails probably weekly from recruiters I've never head of targeting me with specific roles. Word of warning on recruitment agencies though, they'll pick you up and drop you as and when you need you; in my experience, anything bigger than one or two-man shows generally don't give a gooseberry fool about you, they just want the commission, and lack of contact with you, minimal effort in securing information or interviews etc is to be expected.

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2017 9:29 am
by Kezzer
Turned down the Belfast job. :dread:

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2017 4:00 pm
by Rocsteady
For the love of god, that job I was complaining about having done four interviews for got back to me today... and want me to do another interview. Said they have two final candidates and want to talk to me one last time before deciding.

Just make a decision Jesus strawberry floating Christ

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2017 4:44 pm
by Green Gecko
Surely there is virtually zero risk offering the job to either at this point? Just flip a coin lol

I dunno, e-mail them saying, "I REALLY want this job and I LOVE your company pls thx", that works.

You should get back pay for these interviews.

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:59 pm
by Rocsteady
I strawberry floating should, the amount of hours I've spent prepping and on their interviews and tests probably constitutes a full week of work.

It's driving me a bit crazy, I've given them an ultimatum of early next week to tell me either way if I have the job or not as i can't keep postponing signing a contract for the other place. Haven't gotten back to me yet since i sent it earlier.

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2017 8:23 pm
by Green Gecko
Generally speaking from a sales perspective people would rather have what they think they can't have or won't get if they don't get their gooseberry fool together.

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2017 10:36 pm
by Rocsteady
Yeah they’ve emailed me back now apologising for taking so long and informing me that they’ll get back to me by the end of Friday with an answer one way or the other.

Got the interview set for Friday afternoon, apparently it’s just a quick 15-30 minute chat with a couple more questions for me. God knows what they’ve still to ask me but at least it’ll be over soon enough.

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:15 am
by Green Gecko
You're working from heights. Other than a ladder, what do you need?

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:17 am
by Qikz
I am so glad I got my job after 1 interview. Jesus I couldn't have done what you're doing.

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:19 am
by Rocsteady
A pair of balls? Confidence? A helmet? A partner? I give up. All of the above.

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:25 am
by Green Gecko
Rocsteady wrote:A pair of balls? Confidence? A helmet? A partner? I give up. All of the above.

Lol, my answer was for real a risk assessment, spatial awareness, steel cap boots and ditto a hard hat.

Think I got it "wrong" though, asked twice just harder the 2nd time followed by an awkward silence like a trick question. I didn't get that job.

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:26 am
by Rocsteady
You gotta fight

For your right

To be an ultimately insignificant part of a giant corporate machine

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 7:58 am
by Kezzer
:toot:

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 6:48 pm
by Green Gecko
Client liaison question.. Do you prefer to be informed at the source by the expert or only passed the most essential details?

I.e. do you prefer to make an informed decision, or simply be told what to do?

Asking for clients that don't like longer emails (200 words or so) versus those with just a single sentence or essentially, "You're mistaken, this is the right information".

How do you compete other than on price alone if you're not giving your customer the impression you know what you're talking about, and am honest? And how do you avoid being curt on the opposite end of the scale?

It's weird because I get plenty of feedback saying thanks for being so informative etc.

I'm trying to break down my info into links to knowledge base articles (does anyone actually click those) and brochures (does anyone actually download and look at the PDF?)

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 8:40 pm
by Kezzer
Green Gecko wrote:Client liaison question.. Do you prefer to be informed at the source by the expert or only passed the most essential details?

I.e. do you prefer to make an informed decision, or simply be told what to do?

Asking for clients that don't like longer emails (200 words or so) versus those with just a single sentence or essentially, "You're mistaken, this is the right information".

How do you compete other than on price alone if you're not giving your customer the impression you know what you're talking about, and am honest? And how do you avoid being curt on the opposite end of the scale?

It's weird because I get plenty of feedback saying thanks for being so informative etc.

I'm trying to break down my info into links to knowledge base articles (does anyone actually click those) and brochures (does anyone actually download and look at the PDF?)


Tricky question! I think it depends, usually if I am doing the digging I prefer to have the information at the source from the expert. However, I often appreciate receiving only the essentials so long as they satisfy the question!

And to be a total hypocrite: I hate crafting long emails! (so much so, I have sent diagrams to get the point across!)

Usually though, with any correspondence I send out I try and do the following:

Recipient: email@address.com
Subject: Grabs recipient’s attention!
Attachments: Things.pdf or overivew.docx


friendly greeting to recipient,

The purpose of the email,

<necessary information>

Short, direct sentences to get the point across and paragraphs with clear, informative topic sentences.
If I have a complicated message that can’t be addressed in a few sentences, I use bullet points and attachments. (why?)

* They’re easy to read
* They help highlight key details
* They prevent your email from looking like a wall of text

</necessary information>

A friendly sign-off.



As longs as the final message is tactful, polite, and effective it will be absolutely fine.

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 9:04 pm
by Rocsteady
I found when you helped me a little with my website the in-depth information you gave was really useful. I think on a more day to day basis there's a balance to be struck, though, and in your case i would err towards shortening your correspondence.

It's a large part of my job to communicate ideas clearly - if you want you can send me an example email and i'll have a look and shorten/reword it to how i would convey information.

I think Kezzer's example is good, I often use similar tactics.

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 10:56 pm
by Green Gecko
Thanks guys that's really useful. In fact, I may just print that off and force myself to look at it for every email I write until I get the point, lol

Sometimes I use bullet points. I tend to sign off with "next steps: " or "summary" followed by actionable bullets and decisions, for the long emails. But I don't always remember.

The system I use is pretty useful because I can press a button to convert an email into a knowledge base article, and I write such (good I think, I've done blogging before) that I can just make a few edits to make it not specific to the client. Next time, I can just post a link to that information like, "read/forward this when you have a few minutes for a full explanation, any questions just ask".

Other times I think it's good to just read the whole email to extract the 1 thing they want to know. Other time I break it down into quotes and respond to each thing (ugh).

I bring it up because a customer just turned me down because they missed a detail in my email explaining how my solution was better than what they were expecting if I just do this bone thing, needs this simple preparation done that takes 5 minutes, zero cost thing that I do half the time anyway, without which, they (for some reason) thought it was impossible. So it was a bit odd they missed that and wrote off the whole solution. I mentioned it 2 or 3 different places.

For me it works being a bit chattier because I often get into a sales rapport with people who are more conversational. So my best customers tend to be people than businesspeople. Maybe I should save that for after I've secured a sale, so I'm not wasting my time. I've tracked an insane amount of time on emails in the past (hours upon hours per client).

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:31 pm
by Rocsteady
Ohmygod.

Just when I thought the process couldn’t get any more ludicrous, their HR department offered me the job earlier. Then when I queried the fact I was meant to have an interview a bit later in the day they said they weren’t aware - so I’ve now been told the offer was in error and, having done the fifth interview, will have to wait until Monday to hear back if I’ve actually be offered it or not.

Think I strawberry floated the interview a bit today, the questions were basically strawberry floating identical to those asked before so I gave a very similar overview since, y'know, I spoke to the exact same two people last week and already answered all of the questions. strawberry float this gooseberry fool, honestly.

Re: The Work Thread

Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2017 4:53 pm
by Qikz
This entire week has changed the way I view where I work entirely. strawberry float it this is going to sound arrogant but once again I did 30 more tickets than anyone else and I dont think they appreciate just how much effort I put in. Im going to more than subtley ask for an update on my promotion and if they dont give me a clear answer then I think I might have to start looking around if next week is the same.

I feel so stressed out and nobody seems to care. Argh. I want to like working here. I used to love it. Maybe its just the sudden influx of bullshit thats driving me over the edge. Its probably just the monotony of work getting to me so thatll be the same anywhere.

Ill likely get over this but for now im on my way home and I quite frankly dont give a damn. I just want to relax.