Job Interview

I seem to be writing a lot about my job and my career lately, but I guess not much else exciting is happening elsewhere in my life. Last Monday, I went to Groningen for a job interview as a BI consultant, which would be my second meeting with that particular company. Not that I was seriously looking for a new job, but I was just curious.

During our first talk, I had to fill in a psychological test, and we discussed that at Monday. According to the test, I have a dominant personality at work, and that I get my motivation from my desire for status and authority. I also take decisions without taking other peoples' feelings and emotions into account. My first thought when I read this was "What a asshole!", and then "I'm not anything like that, am I?" I was probably feeling overconfident when I filled in the test, I couldn't think of another explanation.

On Thursday, they called me back, and said they were not going to follow up. They said the talks were very positive. It's just that their functions are related to the technical side of Business Intelligence, while I was much more interested in the business of it. Can't really argue with that. Even though I like doing all the technical stuff, the job would have much less meaning for me if I couldn't relate them to the business. But I'm not too sad about it, I wasn't going to leave Vodafone anyway.

We also had some goodbye lunches/dinners at work lately, because we had some people (including some consultants) leaving us. Which is a shame, because they were good at their jobs, and because they were really nice and fun people. And with the move to Amsterdam coming up, I think there will be more goodbyes in the coming year. But I guess that's just the way it is, so there's no sense in thinking about it for too long.

Moving to Amsterdam?

I wanted to post this earlier, but somehow I've postponed it till now. Some of you may have heard it already, but the department I'm working for at Vodafone is moving from Maastricht to Amsterdam, which is about 214km away. The rationale behind it is that we are too far away from the Randstad, away from most of our customers and external parties, and because it's hard to hire specialized personnel (since most of them don;t want to live/work in Limburg). There are going to be two "waves", one in August 2008, and one in August 2010, with a total of about 400 commercial/marketing functions moving to the new location. We won't know for sure who is in which wave until the 1st of December, though the general opinion is that our department at least is going to move in 2008.

For a lot of people, this came as quite a shock. There will be a lot of people who will decide not to move with the company, especially those who have a family with kids. I haven't decided for myself yet what I'm going to do, but I think there's a good probabillity that I'm going to move to Amsterdam as well, though my opinion on that is changing from day to day. There's only a problem regarding my apartment. I just bought it 9 months ago, and after some thought, I decided not to sell my apartment in any case, since I would make too much loss on it. If I am able to rent it, then the choice for Amsterdam would be easier.

Apart from what it means for the people directly involved, I think this is a bad thing from a socio-economic point of view. The general trend is that companies are moving their commercial headquarters to the Randstad. Even Philips, which I've always associated with Eindhoven, moved their HQ to Amsterdam a few years ago. One of the main reasons is that all the students want to work there. But then again, since all the companies are moving there, you are more or less forced to move there as well if you happen to work in that field. It's just a vicious cycle.

Still, for me personally, this might not be a bad thing necessarily. I', always thinking about the possibility of working elsewhere, so it's not like that I feel particularly attached to where I live. And if it's somwhow possible, I'd even like to work abroad as well in the future. The only difference is that I thought that I would stay here for a couple of years at least before I start looking someplace else, so this is basically just speeding up the whole process.

Busy week

I had a conversation with two different consultancy firms, just to test the market and what I'm worth. To be honest, I thought I was all over the place during the conversation. But they told me that they were positive about me. Perhaps I sounded more authentic that way, and not I was just telling a story I prepared the night before. Anyway, they were going to talk things over and come back to me. I already told them beforehand that I have no intention of leaving my current job. If they still make me an offer despite that, it’ll be an indication that I have a good position in the market. If not, then I know I have to there’s still work to be done. Either way, it’s win-win for me.

Anyway, work has been both very fun and very frustrating lately. On the one hand, I’m feeling more and more confident, and as such I’m not afraid to engage into discussions with others (something I had trouble with in the past). I have some ideas in my head concerning reporting, but I need to find a way to organize and structure them. Although our department has exceeded expectations lately, I feel that we barely scratched the surface of our potential. It’s exciting to be a part of that. The only downside is that there are so much more things I want to do than I actually have time for.

On the other hand, we had a lot of problems and issues with our data, and we have had a lot of trouble getting the IT department to solve them. It’s just so frustrating that these issues are remaining unresolved for a long time, so we either have to put our work on hold, or else come up with a temporary workaround. And all that extra work just costs so much time and energy.

It’s been a good week as well socially speaking. We had dinner at one of our colleagues’ place on Tuesday, which was a lot of fun. We are definitely thinking about doing that on a regular basis. And we are starting a new tradition with our “Friday afternoon drink”. The plan is to grab a drink every Friday after work. And coming Thursday, we are planning a dinner at my father and uncle’s restaurant. It’s unbelievable how much time I spend with my colleagues lately. It’s a good thing I don't have a relationship :-).

My cousins from Rotterdam also stayed at my place during the weekend. We stayed up till about 6 am playing drinking games and poker. We also played paintball on Saturday, which was a lot of fun. I particularly liked “The Maze”, where people can sneak up on each other, so you have to keep moving. It was a great weekend, though I was pretty beat at the end. I was also starting to get sick, though I felt better today. I was afraid I would have a lot of trouble staying awake at work today, but it went better than I expected. There were times I was starting to nod off, but I still managed to be productive :-).

Fortune Telling

I went to the Pasar Malam in the MECC today with Gwen and Lino, and there was a medium at one of the stands. I wasn’t planning to have my fortune read at first, but after hearing what she had to say about Gwen, my interest was piqued, to say the least, since she got so many things right.

The first thing she said to me was that I was the only one who really knew myself, and that no one else did. At first I thought that was just a general remark, but then she said that I am very closed toward other people, and that was before she even read any of the cards.

None of that was too shocking of course, but she went on in no uncertain terms. She said that I was someone who was very sure of myself. I know exactly what I want… as long as I’m alone. As soon as there are other people involved, I start to get very insecure. I have this huge barrier (she referred to it as a mountain) between myself and other people, which is something I already had built up since I was six. I almost never show my feelings to others, even though I am an extremely sensitive person, because I am so afraid of loss. That’s definitely true. I’ve always felt that the more you feel emotionally attached to others, the more you have to lose.

One of the funniest (though not in the haha way) things she mentioned was how people would take advantage of me when I was younger. That’s certainly what I used to think, that some people took advantage of me because I was way too shy to say or do anything about it. But that is something I would not let happen anymore, since I’d stand up for myself nowadays. I think it’s something I learned throughout the years, but it’s nice to have some sort of confirmation.

I also had to take care of my health, since I am inclined to feel tired the last couple of months. I do feel exhausted very often lately, though I have absolutely no idea why. But it’s something to keep an eye on.

She went on to mention my career. She said that I was contemplating a move toward something better (see this post), and that I can do so much better than my current position. I just have to rely on my self-confidence (the red thread throughout the whole story), which apparently I have in abundance. She also mentioned that I was thinking about having my own business, because I’m terrible at taking orders. I’m not sure about that one. Sure, I have thought about it once or twice before, but never in a concrete way.

I thought it was pretty bizarre when I drew the “Overseas” card. This is something I’ve never even mentioned to anyone else, but since I’ve been to the US, I’ve been thinking a lot about how it would be like to live there, if only for a couple of years. She did mention that it wasn’t the right time yet, but I kind of figured that out for myself already.

The strangest thing she said was that I had a very strong intuition, almost predictive even. Things I feel often have a tendency to come true. I don’t really notice it myself yet, she said, but once I do, I'm in for a shock. There’s no such thing as coincidence, she said. I honestly don't know what to think about this.

The last two cards I had to draw were more or less “answer” cards. The first card said that “I was ready for it”; while the second card said that “there were no guarantees”. But what is “it”? Does it mean the next step in my career (which coincidentally is also what my horoscope says)? Or maybe it just means that I’m ready for a relationship, but since there are no guarantees, I should just stop focusing on that. Or it could mean something entirely different in my life. I wished the cards were clearer in their answers.

In the end, it was a pretty positive story. The main conclusion was that I someone with a lot of confidence, though not around other people. As long as I learn to rely on that confidence, I would be able to achieve a lot, and I’ll even be able to break through my emotional barriers.