Initially the end-date was set for December 16th. What a wonderful Christmas present. Luckily they couldn’t get enough skilled people to take over our jobs in Berlin. Going by the logs and experiences we and the customers have had, they still can’t, but this might improve. I will just not be able to witness it. The end-date was postponed to February 24th.

Little by little, people applied for jobs and got them, so they left, before the end-date. This meant, they wouldn’t get the ex-gratia payment of 1000 euros, but at least they had a job.

I waited until January, before I seriously started to look for work. I’d had an interview with Netgear in November, but their response to, if I got it or not was very slow. I got an interview with OVH in Dublin in the meantime, after I passed a Technical Test. OVH is the biggest Webhoster in Europe. The job was to support people and businesses who had taken out a subscription to either a server or the cloud.
It had been years since I’d been to Dublin, so was really looking forward to a visit. Was an hour early in Dublin, so had a little walk through the city center (well, a few streets), as OVH was in the middle of city centre. Had the interview. Didn’t think it went very well. Then went out to Howth. About 10 years ago, when I lived in Dublin, I and a friend went there regularly on our motorbikes. We both just got our licence. Nice to go down memory lane. Also went to the street where I lived before. Then back to the city, to meet up with the recruiter (Careertrotter). Had a nice conversation and a coffee. After that, it was back home for a two hour drive and the waiting if I got the job could begin.

I was also invited to do a Technical Test with Dell (also in Dublin) a few days after OVH. This test went surprisingly well as well. This job was Enterprise Technical Support Analyst. This means supporting owners of Dell Powerdedge servers as well as any other hardware from companies that have been taken over by Dell (Equalogic to name but one). A few days after my interview with OVH, I was, yet again, on my way to Dublin for an interview with Dell. This went well. I had agreed, seeing as OVH already said yes, that Dell would give me an answer that same day. I was nearly in Limerick when my phone rang, but the connection got lost straightaway. Hmmmm. About 5 minutes later, while ‘Tonight’s gonna be a good night’ by the Black Eyed Peas was playing, I got a call again. I got the job at Dell as well. Talk about life providing theme songs to situations. After about 10 nano-seconds deliberation, I accepted the job at Dell. Although OVH was a good opportunity as well, Dell provided better prospects; more chances to grow, more people (OVH was an office with only 7 people, smack bang in the centre of the city, which meant taking public transport).

So, now I’m working for Dell as a Enterprise Technical Support Analyst. Training will start in about a week. In the meantime, we’re doing callbacks for people who have been helped by colleagues, to check if the problem is solved and if the solution was satisfactory. A nice way to see what happens after a ticket gets closed.

Found a place to stay in Wicklow, right by the sea. I will put up some pictures of this later.

Assume, a colleague has no place to stay. Well, she did, but she chose to rent part of a room from me, as temporary accommodation and agrees to pay (part of) rent and bills.

Now, guess what happend after said colleague moves out and is presented with the bill. A bill, I might add, does not reflect what she really owes. Being the nice guy I am, I took money off the amount she owed….. Dis she pay the remainder? Did she heck. What she did do and continues to do, is slag me off in front of my friends. That’s gratitude for you. I should maybe have left her on the streets (where she belongs)

Shame really. When I was still useful to her, we actually had quite a bit of fun.

But, it doesn’t stop there. I borrowed a set of speakers to her ‘boyfriend’ (ooops, no, not boyfriend of course, they just enjoy each other’s company for days on end and they ‘understand’ each other). Instead of returning said speakers, the ‘boyfriend’ decides to take them with him to his new house…about 100 km away. Honest mistake? You be the judge. He didn’t have them when he entered this country and consciously took them away. A further 20 euros it has cost me.

Just to make things clear: all the above is not about the money per se. It’s about honesty and decency, of which they are both lacking and quite honestly, I’m disgusted at their behaviour. At my previous place of work, both of them acted all high and mighty and knew exactly what people should and shouldn’t do. In actual fact, and I hate to say it, they are about the most dishonest, disloyal and unpleasant people I have come to meet so far, I’m usually a good judge of character, but missed the mark by miles with these two.

If you meet them and you have the choice, I would say, quite honestly: avoid. It may seem and smell like roses in the beginning, but the rotting process starts soon after. See this as a warning and, with the above in mind, make your own judgement. Just be careful.

p.s. To the person (we both know who you are) searching through Dutch google: when searching, please spell Shannon correctly (two n’s not one). I mean, how hard can it be, you’ve lived here for nearly 6 months.

It looks like I have hit a nerve somewhere. One of the culprits (the, well, let’s call him male, for sake of argument), sent me quite a threatening sms last night. He has now admitted to stealing, sorry, taking without consent, my speakers. How sad can you be. Stealing a set of speakers, of which one of the satellites don’t work. What point are you trying to make.

Back to the threats: he threatened to come over and sort out the differences. I will upload a screenshot of the sms later. What he wants me to do, is make the tags disappear. I can do that. The post will still stand and most likely, it will still be indexed by Google. Only one way to get the post removed and that’s to return my set of speakers on my terms or better yet, transfer the money owed for the speakers into my account.

See below for the threat (yes, I alerted him to his spelling mistake):

(last updated 23rd March 2012)

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….

Before I left, I thought it would be nice to see my niece for the last time in a while. My God, she’s grown. Once the shyness left, she even started to talk. I left Oss at about 11.15

The drive to and through France was rather unassuming. Stick to the speed limit and take my time. A few breaks later and I was an hour early at the ferry. Going onto the ferry was a challenge with a heavy car and a 2.6 litre engine. I had to rev it to get up the two ramps and I’m sure i’ve left quite a bit of rubber… Ah well…

More later….

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.

So far, I have done around 200 job applications in about a year or so. Apart from the odd automatic replies you seem to get, around 90 – 95% of companies I have approached never sent me a (more or less personal) reply.

Of course, I can call after a week of sending the application, but do I really want to work for a company that doesn’t seem to want to adhere to basic common decency? I mean, first impressions go both ways, don’t they? I have to present myself in the best way possible; is it too much to ask from me to be treated in kind?

TBC……

Experiences on the job-market have been mixed. A few recruiters have been excellent and followed up, even if after a while, most haven’t.

Below is a list of job applications I have been doing for little over a year. I have removed the names of contact persons. I will also not name and shame who did and didn’t follow up, as that fits no purpose, it’s just a list for demonstration purposes.

Now, I can understand, getting a job last year would have been a bit tricky, with the economy at a low point. Going on the various sites and even finding a suitable job, was a depressing exercise.
The market slowly picked up as did the opportunities presented on the aforementioned job-sites. I felt that from about August 2010 on, I would and should be able to find a job. How wrong was I. All feedback I got were the standard ones: ‘we have had to make a choice’, ‘your profile didn’t fit our demands’ etc.. One company even told me flat out, applying for any future openings would end nowhere, as I was too old (I’m 42). Another offered me a job, but they had to ‘manage’ the finances to be able to pay me. After I asked how this ‘managing’ would be done, I never heard from them again. Yet another put up an advert, I applied and gotr a ‘sorry, you didn’t make the cut, as there were better applicants’ mail. A month later, the same opening appeared on the job-site, so apparently, the ‘better’ candidates weren’t that good after all. I re-applied (without mentioning my previous application). Same mail received. I have asked for further clarification, to which I suspect, I will not get a reply.

I have part added part of my CV to this post (omitted contact details). As you can see, I have been busy in the past decade(s). I’m just wondering why employers don’t even invite me for an interview. Is it age? Have I been unemployed for too long? Is there really a surplus of applicants? Something else? It certainly isn’t my work ethics, motivation, ambition and enthousiasm. It’s just that I don’t get the chance to display those features of my character.

I am now in the middle of qualifying fro CCNA and ITIL and hope this will get me a job. I have simply chosen those courses, as I can do them at home and are, relatively, the cheapest options (I’m paying this myself).

If there’s anyone who can tell me why I’m not happily employed by now, I’d be happy to hear it.

CV:

Job experience

___________________________________________________________________

01-2010-Today

Job Title: Freelancer
Employer: ZetArt, Hoogezand
Description
Freelance work. Amongst others: setting up a Windows 2003 SBS server, network maintenance, setting up and maintaining a client-database, etc.

01-2009 – 01-2010

Job Title: SAP Support Employee Philips IT Applications (1st line SAP Support)
Employer: AAME, Delft
Description
Troubleshoot and problem solving (SAP R/3 and Windows related)
Assigning and maintaining of authorisation roles in SAP R/3
Collecting and providing evidence for ICS/SOX control
Requesting userid’s and printers for SAP R/3
Tracking and follow up the progress of issues
Answering and solving Windows related questions and issues on an interim basis

01-2006 – 01-2009

Job Title: SAP Support Employee Philips Research (1st line SAP R/3 Support)
Employer: Michael Bailey Associates, Eindhoven
Description
Troubleshoot and problem solving (SAP R/3 and Windows related)
Assigning and maintaining of authorisation roles in SAP R/3
Collecting and providing evidence for ICS/SOX control
Requesting userid’s and printers for SAP R/3
Tracking and follow up the progress of issues
Answering and solving Windows related questions and issues on an interim basis

07-2005 – 01-2006

Job Title : Helpdesk employee (2nd line)
Employer: B2-IT, Roosendaal
Description:
On Site activities for Essent Network through IBM.
Preparation and distribution of hardware to various locations.
Second-line support
Asset database maintenance
Initiation and support of major IT-projects

08-2001 – 07-2005

Job Title : Helpdesk employee (1st and 2nd line)
Employer : Shell ITI, Manchester, (United Kingdom)
Description:
Answering incoming phone calls consisting of technical questions regarding Shell IT hardware and software (English and Dutch)
Answering of ‘how-to’ questions about, for instance: Office, Outlook, SAP, Shell Business applications, software, printers, accounts.
Technical Lead; supporting colleagues, maintaining Solution Database
Supporting transition from Windows 95 to Windows 2000

01-2000 – 08-2001

Job Title : Helpdesk employee (1st and 2nd line)
Employer: Gateway Computers, Dublin (Ireland)
Description:
Helpdesk employee
Answering incoming phone calls consisting of technical questions regarding Gateway products (hardware and software related).
Supporting of local hardware staff
Senior Technician
Replacement of Team leader, when unavailable

06-1999 – 01-2000

Job Title: Helpdesk employee
Employer: City Council Hoogezand-Sappemeer
Description:
Helpdesk activities
Installation Management
Inventory IT assets

1989 – 1998

Various jobs: Mover, Production assistant, Warehouse-employee, Business administrator, Freelance employee in a Desktop Publishing company.

Education

___________________________________________________________________

2004
Certified Cisco Network Administrator
CCNA1 and CCNA2

1999
Praktijk Diploma Informatica

1994 – 1995
Business Administration (CVV)

1988 – 1990
Agogisch Werk
MDGO-AW

1985 – 1988
Havo

1980 – 1985
Mavo-4

Language skills
__________________________________________________________________

Language        Speaking                    Writing

Dutch                 Excellent                     Excellent
English              Excellent                     Excellent
German             Knowledge

Drivers license
___________________________________________________________________

A (motorcycle)  B (car)

Job Applications

Here’s the April 2010 bit:

Unfortunately, the world is in a crisis and I’m feeling that now. It is fairly hard to get an interview, let alone get a job. I do realise companies and agencies are inundated with applications and C.V’s, but is it so hard to acknowledge these have been received and ‘yes, unfortunately you didn’t pass the mark and we wish you good luck in your serach for a new position’ (the mark being: age, lack of experience (eh? over 10 years of experience), lack of certification etc. etc.).

It’s all a bit frustrating. I know I’m good at my job and have been told so by many people at various previous employers. Now, if I only could get the chance to show it….

I shall try and keep you updated on my endeavors on the job-market, if only to keep me going.

Here’s the March 2010 bit: