Has it really been that long????

Greetings world!  I imagine some of you (assuming I still have a plurality of readers) thought/hoped I'd permanently disappeared from the radar.  This is (as I suppose is now self-evident) not the case.

A combination of circumstances (family bereavement, Royal Jubilee, closed libraries, lost wallet, cancelled A4E sessions, apathy, lethargy, inertia etc etc) conspired to keep me from you, but fear not (or possibly 'be very afraid!'), I'm back and raring to go!

I'm currently feeling somewhat boosted by a conversation I had earlier this week with a chap at a well-known two letter multinational computer company. (Think brown sauce, paying on the never-never etc!)  The boost came from the facts that (a) he was actually an employee of the company, not an agency, and (b) he assured me that he would put my CV in front of the appropriate managers straight away.

Unfortunately I made the basic rookie mistake of missing his name on the phone, and was too excited by the conversation to ask him to repeat it, so I'm a bit scuppered as far as follow-up calls are concerned.  I do, therefore, find myself wondering how long to maintain my level of buoyancy before allowing the life-jacket of optimism to be deflated by the slow-puncture of disappointment at not having received any feedback!

But enough negativity!  The North West Hampshire J.C. continues to inspire, in large part because the turnover of members seems increasingly to be driven by various individuals' successes in their search for the next step!  Hearty congrats (and hardly a hint of jealousy) to those who've managed to move on! 

We've also made considerable progress on setting up our skills-bank (via the use of a unique search-argument in LinkedIn, of which more later) and raising our public profile through the printing and distribution of some splendid glossy postcards.



The Wolversdene Club - Our New Home

 Our most recent meeting (at our new venue, Andover's Wolversdene Club) featured an intriguing presentation from Tony Field of Icon Business Solutions.  His observations revolved around treating the job search as a selling exercise, with yourself as the product. It was, for me, one of those special occasions when, although most of the factual content wasn't new, the abilities of the speaker and the angle from which he approached the information gave it a new resonance and really got the grey matter working.