Time For A Change

[bramblerose]

That sounds incredible! Well done nine!

[ParisGal]

Bravo!

[AshleyX]

Amazing, Nine. So chuffed for you.

[Derek Nimmo]

So cool Nince - congratulations!

[nineseven]

Thanks all. It's such a relief. I just had another call for them and it will be solid, regular, ongoing cheese-related writing work.

[Rosa]

I'm really pleased for you, nine!

[Loralei]

it will be solid, regular, ongoing cheese-related writing work.

This is basically the dream Well done!

[Arrietty]

it will be solid, regular, ongoing cheese-related writing work.

This is basically the dream Well done!

It is definitely a dream job, I have massive cheese envy

[cluefree]

YES NINCE! I am jealous. Will you show us the cheeses regularly please?

[Hobbes]

That’s really does sound amazing, well done Nine.

[wendy james]

wendy, tell us more (if you like)!

I’m not sure how much there is to tell! I’ve been told to write my own JD at the end of the secondment, and am working on a rebid for an existing contract. I’ve no clue what I’m doing but I’ll be spending the first couple of weeks meeting people currently delivering the contract to tease out what we could do better. I’ve managed to wangle a two day course on writing bids mid-September. I’m throwing myself into it and hoping for the best.

I told J (my LM for the secondment as she’s still covering my costs - she’s the one who thought of me and is my LM’s boss) that I don’t want to go back to working for LM, no matter what. He’s been quite petulant* about it all, and I feel a bit sorry for my team I’m leaving behind (even the difficult ones!) as he’s a terrible manager. It didn’t bother me *too* much as he was very hands off but they need more support and direction than he’ll give them. He told me that I was being poached to punish him, and has made comments about “you’ll be back” whilst miming handing me back a pile of work. This is because he is very much not a doer, unlike me. It’s been a weird few weeks watching him try to swerve me giving him actual work to do once I’ve gone!

*I think he was hoping to move off our contract but he’s stuck there for now. Maybe if he wasn’t so shit, he’d have been approached for another role.

Enjoy your cheese nine!

[Ella77]

Oh wow, that’s fascinating. So you and your former boss are now peers? Sounds like he’s struggling with that and trying to put you “back in your box”. I hope it turns out to be permanent (if you want).

[wendy james]

Possibly. He recruited me and J has taken me, though it’s more of a sideways move than being a peer in that particular team. They have a really weird relationship anyway, but most of it is in his head. He’s one of those people who likes a moan but never actually does anything about it. And I guarantee she’s 80% oblivious and 20% doesn’t give a shit.

[nineseven]

A box of cheeses and chutneys just arrived

[Edith Bacon]

[Glint]

Good tasting, nine

[H1ppychick]

I hope they’re good, otherwise how annoying that would be.

[nineseven]

I've had one of them before and it's really good. Fingers crossed for the others. Liking something has never stopped me writing copy about it, mind

[olive]

I’ve had first interviews with both companies I have spoken to recently so I’m going to try and keep my moaning to one place.

Role 1 is the more interesting of the two. The interviewer liked me personally and our 45 minute scheduled meeting ran to 2 hours instead. He has some concerns about my experience translating to the US market so had set me some homework for another meeting on Monday. I have to write a route to market strategy. This is in addition to the many other hoops I will have to jump through. It’s an international company launching into the US so a big job with a very lean team so I think it’ll be hard work with big expectations and I suspect the hiring manager won’t be easy to work for but the role sounds great.

Role 2 is the same as my old job in the UK but managing a bigger portfolio and much bigger team. It doesn’t fill me with joy but it’s 100% remote, company is flexible and has unlimited PTO which is very attractive. Plus they want to launch in the UK which is why they’ve been keen to speak to me and it gives me a nice route home eventually. Unfortunately I have to sit a CCAT test which is numerical, verbal, logical reasoning which is 50 questions in 15 minutes and I am awful at these. I haven’t scored above 30% yet on a practice and the benchmark is 50%. I’m too slow at the numerical (ratios, fractions, % etc) and rubbish at the spatial awareness/ patterns ones.

Both have really long processes, multiple interviews, testing, presentations and panel interviews along the way. Apparently Mr O said this is quite common in the US.

TLDR: I’ve had 2 interviews and the process is very long and intense.

[Loralei]

That sounds very intense, Olive! Good luck with the process.