Wol's Riverbank tales: Part 3 Restoration

GeorgeUK

Got everything crossed for you Wol.
Just hope you weren't too honest about what you thought of him

Gemmzie

Good luck today Wol

Numpty_Monkey

Hope the Interview went the way you want:A:T

Tixy

Good luck with the trip in to London and the interview - hope its going well Wol.

taka

I hope the interview went well Wol (and today's journey was far less stressful!).

Wol2

Hi Hunnies I'm home :cool:

Many thanks for all the good wishes everyone :beer::beer:, they;re much appreciated.

Horace - I swear by caustic soda and boiling water (poured at arms length**) ....it shifted the (rather gross ) blockage in my sink a treat last week.........
*** it spits/bubbles so be careful about bending over the sink to watch :cool:

Angie - great to see you back and hope you had a good holiday :beer:
LT - hopefully Douglas isn;t white otherwise he'd probably be feeling a bit insecure today :rotfl:

Lula - I think I'm going to bite the bullet and join you for A-F March......the only wine left in my house is now mixed with the chicken stock and currently sitting in the freezer (stock a la Nargle ). So as long as I resist the urge to toddle into the village and buy another bottle, I should be OK :cool:

Right well I must go now.......:whistle::whistle:

......Ooops - I guess you all want to know how the interview went :rotfl:


Well, Fortune was smiling on my travel plans today - I had already decided to go the long back route through the forest to Gatwick (owing to roadworks on the main road) - which was a good job as just after I set off, the radio announced closure of the main road owing to an 8 car pile up on the ice:eek:
Train was on time into Victoria ....and Central line was running..:T..oh goodie, I thought, I will have time to get a cup of coffee before I go in :j

ooops :doh::doh::doh:

...........Me and my big mouth ...........Central line was suddenly suspended owing to someone being taken ill at the very tube station i was heading for so we ended up stuck in a tunnel for 15 minutes outside Liverpool Street station which did not do my claustophobia any good at all :eek::eek:....I so HATE HATE HATE travelling into London :mad::mad:

Still, I arrived with 10 mins to spare for my 30min interview with Mr Nice But Brisk...(and no, I didn;t say anything George :silenced::silenced:...especially not the "s" word...:rotfl:.....) ....Some bits went well, some bits not so well - the latter being when I didn;t understand the point of their question - e.g. Them: what are the 3 big problems facing the NHS at the moment.....my first thought - only 3? There's a damn sight more than 3 that I can think of.....which 3 are they wanting me to say and how long have we got? insert confused smiley...wish i had the equivalent of predictive text in my brain :rotfl::rotfl:

Unfortunately though, the job is not what I thought from the advert:( - and would be the equivalent of me stepping back 5 years in terms of career progression :( and basically ending back up at square one. I thought they needed someone of my experience to set up something prestigious that would become a benchmark for future programmes - . Apparently however, they have already set it up and just need it taken over and administered/delivered.:(.So I think I'm way too overqualified for what they want :cool:....and in any case, past burnt fingers have taught me that I don't do "administering other people's fiascos" unless I have the authority and independence to be able to change things if it don;t work :D

So I appraised them at the end of the interview that, if successful, I would want to re-negotiate the T's and C's ..saying "I think you should know this before you shortlist as I don;t want to waste your time unnecessarily if what I would want is a deal breaker for you".......let's see if they still call me for second interview

Despite all this, MY main objective was achieved - got the chance to sell another idea on behalf of one of my clients to the interviewer (Horace you would;ve been proud of my two minute elevator pitch :cool:) and now have their business card to follow that up.:D.........(and if something comes of it i might be able to get the client to reimburse my expenses today if I play my cards right :cool:)

Quite a lot of client work hitting the decks at the moment from the existing programmes that end on 31st March..got another new one today...... so going to be very busy for the whole month:). Also got the offer of more private work from April onwards today..:T. so feeling quite positive about continuing to stay self employed. Even if my public sector work dries up in April, I reckon with a bit of effort at promotion , including setting up a website .(:eek:).I might be able to generate a substantial amount more private business to replace it:eek:..(at the moment I do nothing in terms of promotion and get all my contracts from people I already know:cool:)

So mission accomplished for today.....must toddle off now to raise February's invoices or I wont get paid.

Back later
xxx

Karmacat

Wol, that sounds seriously good - and I'm *so* glad you didn't box yourself in by under-representing who you are and what you can do. As you say, the self employed work is fine at the mo, even without any promotion - keep doing what you're doing!

Numpty_Monkey

Well done on letting them know your T&Cs:T

Tixy

Wol2 wrote: »

So I appraised them at the end of the interview that, if successful, I would want to re-negotiate the T's and C's ..saying "I think you should know this before you shortlist as I don;t want to waste your time unnecessarily if what I would want is a deal breaker for you".......let's see if they still call me for second interview

Hi Wol

A shame that the job isn't what you expected, but I just want to say very well done for letting them know now about your expectations at the end of the interview. I think it takes great courage (topped with a lot of common sense) to actually value yourself enough to say that at the interview stage. Whilst you don't want to waste their time you also don't want to waste your own valuable time either. I think it will tell them a lot about you.

Well done on the pitch on behalf on the client, two birds with one stone and all that (the stone being that blinking trip into the city!)

From meeting you just once and talking about work I can imagine that with some self-promotion you would easily find enough private work to keep you more than busy - enough to cherry pick the best projects hopefully and stay away from the troublesome clients even :j. Sounds like you are going to be very busy for the next couple of months.

I have managed to fit in 3 days off work this week (though no doubt will be putting in long hours when I return).

Erm, your shindig, would I be welcome, please?

Wol2

Tixy wrote: »

Hi Wol

Erm, your shindig, would I be welcome, please?

But of Course you are Tixy....:kisses3:...and in case anyone else is not sure.......

Wol2 wrote: »

And I just want you all to know that this diary and all your wonderful support has been acknowledged by my psychotherapist as a major contributing factor to my reaching the turning point this last couple of weeks.I have never before in my life received any support like this ..I am truly truly grateful.....and I am determined to throw the most massive shindig to celebrate in the summer so i can say thank you in person to you all.:A:A:A

xxxx

Just Pm me your email address everyone so I can send you the official invite plus maps etc etc

........the piggies are getting very excited because at piggy parties it is apparently considered polite for guests to bring a small portion of dandelion leaves..so Beechie is looking forward to acting as doorman in July (greedy guts )......but don;t worry I'll make sure there's a ready supply outside the front gate...:shhh:.hopefully he'll never know ...

xxx