Malvolios Blog

I’ve been getting an increasing number of emails from agencies over the last few weeks. This is of course a good thing, since it both indicates that the market is starting to pick up again, and people think my CV is worth following up on.  So clearly a cause for celebration. Or is it? Firstly, [...]

Read Full Post »

Middle management are totally barking, especially in the public sector. You may remember me talking about a role close to me the week before last that’s unfilled because they are demanding specific technical knowledge. It’s just been advertised again, and – get this – they’ve tightened the requirement. So that’s now around six weeks this job has been looking for [...]

Read Full Post »

Saw a job the other day where one of the mandatory criteria was a “demonstrable history of long engagements with frequent renewals”. Fine, except the role was for my kind of skill set and all about identifying weaknesses in process and correcting them, or introducing new (hopefully better!) operating practices. So I would love to [...]

Read Full Post »

Disappointed we didn’t get a repeal of IR35, equally disappointed at the number of people who fail to see what has been achieved. Glad to see the raise in fuel expenses and the action on the fuel duty, disappointed it’s being funded by smacking the oil companies. Glad he’s bitten the bullet on merging NICs [...]

Read Full Post »

Had an interview recently for a fairly senior role. All went jolly well, came out feeling moderately confident and then heard nothing. OK, another one bites the dust and, as usual, no feedback from anyone means you have no idea what you were lacking and need to improve for next time. Thinking back on this [...]

Read Full Post »

Been away for a while now, mostly working for a very demanding client in the frozen North followed by a PM stint in what was probably the most chaotic programme I’ve ever worked on (and I’ve  worked on a few…). I got the job done, somehow, but towards the end I was doing 10 hour [...]

Read Full Post »

So one week of fairly solid job hunting down and time for a progress report. Phoned up about 9 roles during the last week. Spoke to four people; as usual the other five exist in some inaccessible limbo land where nobody can reach them. All four liked the CV and thought it was relevant. It’s been [...]

Read Full Post »

Well, trying to, anyway. Have had a nice two weeks basking in the sun and doing absolutely nothing, now recently returned home to start looking for the next gig.  My God, isn’t that a depressing exercise… Basic parameters are something reasonably senior, preferably a bit difficult, ideally within two hours of home:  having had six months [...]

Read Full Post »

End of contract, so I might have time to update this blog a bit more often: let’s face it, I couldn’t do it much less often! Except I’m off for two weeks in the sun  first. Then job hunting starts in anger – see you then!

Read Full Post »

Two hoorays in fact. Or three, if you count it being Friday First one: last time for a long time hanging around this miserable excuse of an airport.. Right now I have three loudspeakers shouting at me about a flight to Dusseldorf – and I’m in  the quiet area… Took 20 minutes to get through security [...]

Read Full Post »