Friday, 8 June 2007

Off To London!!!

Had my informal interview/appointment with Cornwall College today. This was the appt to discuss the new HR position opening and for me to get a feel for what the position entailed. The appt consisted of the recruiter from Concorde Recruitment who'd I'd interviewed with before and the Payroll Manager (not sure of exact title). We gabbed in an on campus coffee shop for over an hour while I got a sense of what the upcoming position would entail and they got a feel for me. Unfortunately, this is a payroll position. Although I loved doing payroll at home, I was getting bored and was working towards an HR designation. Currently, the payroll department is in disarray and short staffed. They pay approx 2500 employees (a huge jump from 1400 at Jacques!) and it sounds as if the dept is just in an uproar right now. The Manager is very straight forward and to the point, so wasn't shy in telling it like it is. I get the feeling I would have to learn fast and get the complete baptism by fire introduction. That sounds very daunting and I'm really not interested in a payroll position, but the challenge is appealing and would be a great experience to learn UK payroll. My gut is telling me to take the position if it is offered to me. It's my foot in the door at the second largest employer in Cornwall and closes for Xmas holidays - that's a sweet deal. Another beautiful thing about the UK is that 4 weeks vacation seems to be the required minimum! Excellent! Plus, bank and stat holidays. Not too shabby. At the end of the interview they asked if I would be interested in working in a full time temp capacity as a trial basis until they see how I work out and I see if I want to stay. I said sure. It's something they are trying to clear with the director at the moment, so I should hear from them in a few days. Not getting my hopes up though.

Yesterday, Concorde called me again about another position available at the College! Unfortunately, the position is in St. Austell, an hour away. It was for a Training Coordinator position which sounds interesting. I had to say no - too far to commute. Apparently, the ladies I interviewed with a few weeks back for the Client Services position, passed my CV on to another dept at the college. The job posting was closed and they called asking me to apply. This must be a sign I'm meant to work there! haha.

Keith finished up at lunch time, so he, Simon, and I jumped on the 2:40pm train to London. Arrived around 7:30pm. Took us quite awhile to find the hotel as I only had the directions, not the map. We couldn't find some of the street names, so we had to improvise and eventually found our way. It's such a bizarre feeling to be in a city you have absolutely no bearings in with no idea where you are. We stayed at the Central Park Hotel near Hyde Park. The hotel was pretty good, not a palace, but it was clean and roomy for a hotel in the UK. We took a walk and grabbed some grub at a noodle bar. After dinner we checked out the sights around the area, and I drug Keith in and out of several souvenir shops. He loved it!

1 comment:

Shay said...

Good luck with the job hunt, sounds like an offer is fast approaching.

Glad to hear you had such fun at the souvenir shops - hehe