Spete

The first week has been done. Bit odd, after basically being unemployed for over a year, but it doesn’t feel strange. Good thing I kept my ‘working rhytm’ going (get up early etc.).

Quite weird, being back in good ole’ Ireland, but somehow it felt like a warm blanket. I felt at home immediately. Maybe I’m just meant to be here.

Found a cheap flat last week. The building itself (and the surrounding buildings) can best be described as Eastern-German council-flats. It’s not much, but it’ll have to do for the next 6 months at least. I will look for a proper place to live from about 5 months from now. Broadband has been ordered and will be installed this Friday-afternoon. After this, I will order Sky-TV (phone line needs to be present, otherwise Sky will charge a 37.50 installation fee), for now, the free channels will have to do.

Work is going to be less technical than I at first thought or hoped, but there are, I think, opportunities to progress. In my team, this would be trainer/coach. Outside my team, there would be 2nd line, CRO, etc. But let’s not get ahead of myself….

What I deal with are people who have bought a Sony VAIO or Sone S- and P-series tablets (with Android).

I have a nice rapport going with our current trainer/coach Davy (Belgian guy). I like Mac’s, he claims he doesn’t (but we all know better, he tries just too hard).

We are mainly in training the first 3 weeks of our employment.
This means:
We need to get to grips with all Sony VAIO laptops and the Sony tablets.

• Learn all the tools we need to use to log the calls
• Order replacement parts and organise in-warranty and out-of-warranty repairs

Apart from training and induction, we are going to listen-in to calls. I’ve already heard a fair few calls. I don’t think I will struggle too much with the technical part, maybe a bit more initially with the tools we have to use, takes a bit of getting used to. In the meantime, I’ve volunteered to check the database of templates for errors and spelling mistakes; I need to feel useful. I will probably be put on the mail-queue next week. After that it’s the trenches (phone-queue).

Of course, it’s not all work…there’s also play. The weekends (nights anyway) are spent with colleagues and/or pub(s). So far I’ve only been to the Shannon Knights. Nice modern pub, where the majority of Shannon appears to go. Chances of meeting colleagues is rather large as about 1% of the population works at Sykes.
I’m already looking for clay-pigeon shooting clubs and am awaiting replies to mails I sent. I will also see if there are people interested in playing squash. I brought my racket after all…

I haven’t done much exploring yet. Went to Limerick last Saturday and walked around with a few of the newbies. Depending on weather, I will probably do the ‘Ring of Kerry’ next Saturday; maybe combine it with Blarney Castle.

I will put up some pictures next week or so, after I have ‘proper’ broadband; I’m now on USB-stick 3G internet. This works quite well, but there’s a 5 Gb cap, whereas normal broadband has a 500 Gb cap.

More later….

After a year and a half of being unemployed and over 200 job applications, I got the hint. Holland may not be the country for me.

I applied for a job in Ireland on the 25th of August. Telephone interview, subsequent Skype interview were quickly dispatched and less than a week later I had a permanent contract. Go me, Failte go hEireann.
(Dutch employers, take note: that’s how you hire someone…have the decency to respond to applications and follow up)

Before getting all excited, I need to move/sell/shift stuff. All that I will be left with, has to fit in the Audi, everything else will either be sold or goes to the skip. I’ve managed to sell most of the valuable stuff already, what remains will be cleared up by people-who-clear-houses-for-a-living. I’ve arranged for someone to come in and shift and clean/clear everything for 400 euros and two teak-tables.