Sasha's Agility Pictures

Last weekend we all went to a charity doggie day.  Sasha's agility club were doing a demonstration and one of the lovely ladies had a great camera to capture the action. 

Enjoy :0)

Star had a try at the "have a go agility" and was, well a star!  Negotiated a way to take both to classes so she can do the training.  Next time hopefully will have pics of both pups.

Sasha and her little pal also won the waggiest tail competition aided by the generous application of popcorn :0)

So she doesn't feel left out here's a quick Star pic:

Eau de Parfume

Woof to all the blogger dogs out there, Sasha here with news on my new perfume.

Today at the beach I found a fantastic new smell and can bring it to you for the bargain price of one chicken wing per bottle.

You doggie types will love this new perfume, it suits all occasions and is a really good strong stench.

So I bring you from the furry girls perfume house ................................ Eau De Dead Crab

Place your orders quick before mum baths us!

Sorry another job related blog post!

Sorry, sorry, it's not supposed to be a job hunting blog but it's hard to think of other things just now.

This week I got my leaving date from work, 30th September is my last day.  10 years served and I was innocent I tell you ............... innocent!  It will actually be 10 years and 5 months working in the same place.

So now I know when I'll be finished.  I still don't have another job although the job with no salary has been in touch!

I had a phone interview with an HR person from a local company and was told I would hear by the end of the week ................... nothing!  This is a one of those interesting jobs, its an area I'd like to get into but to do that I need to take a step back to get some experience.  In some ways I'm over qualified, I have bundles of project management experience.  In other ways I don't have enough, only limited experience in this area of the Pharmaceutical industry. 

So I'd have to go from Senior Project Manager in manufacturing to at the highest an Associate Clinical Project Manager.  Except there are no Associate jobs around so I'm going back an extra step to the support level to get the experience.  Took some planning how to explain to the HR person that I'm not just using it as a stop gap while I find something better.  I do want to do this so happy to take the step back / pay cut and work my way back up.

Waiting, waiting, waiting for them to get back to me.  Even when they do it will probably just be to go for a face to face interview with the group manager.  Then more waiting, waiting and waiting.

Just give me the job, I'm fab, I work hard, I'm great with people, modest and I can communicate.  Go on!

Visualising getting the job offer in a positive thinking way. 

Wish me luck :0)

Interesting Interview

Well I had an interesting interview experience today.  It was a Project Manager job for a new company with a new product.  Very interesting idea and will probably work out if they market it well.

Discussed the job and it would be a good job, interesting to be involved from the start and a small company so probably I'd get lots of new experience.  But try and guess the salary.............

....................... go on have a guess


in £s if you can but I'll convert with my skilled maths mind and tell you if you're right for any currency



no lower........................



no lower ..............................



still lower ....................................




you got it

That's right zero, nothing, zilch, nada, nought, nowt, none, zip and nil.  £0.00 or $0.00 or €0.00 you take your pick!

So there you are, that was an interesting experience. 

PS.  Blogger has decided I can't post comments on my blog or anyone elses so although I'm around I can't comment.  It keeps saying I need to log in so I do and then we go round again.  Confused!

Still job hunting

Yawn

What a boring searching for jobs blog.

Sorry I'm still filling my spare time job hunting instead of blogging.  Hopefully normal service will be resumed soon.

Next week I will get my leaving date from my current job.............. TORN

I want out!  So sick of working there.  Really wanting an early date.

BUT I have to pay my bills so I should be wanting a late date and hanging in as long as possible.

Anyway off to search for jobs!

Applications away

Busy week of applying for jobs.  Thankfully most have been via the internet / e-mail but one was a application form.  Took me about 4 hours to complete!  When I struggle to write a half page about why I want the job, main achievements and strengths I'd bring I have to question the statement "excellent communication skills" I have in my CV :0)

So first week of job searching:
CV to previous boss and one previous colleague - it's not what you know, it's who you know!
6 science / pharmaceutical jobs applied for, one thanks but no thanks but to be fair I didn't have the experience they where looking for.
6 alternative project manager roles applied for, mostly in finance.  I'm looking a junior / associate roles hoping that someone might give me a try!
1 events management job applied for, probably won't pay enough but I've always fancied doing this and it would pay the bills!
15 applications in one week, not a bad start!  Clearly I have my favourites, a couple of the science jobs look interesting and finance is where the money lives so that might be nice!

Not much fun at work still, too much moaning and negativity, understandable but it's pretty draining.  Got very vague details of the job opportunities they have, 3 out of 6 of the people at my level could keep our jobs but it is unlikely to be in Scotland.  The initial offer of redundancy is above the basic which is a good start but clearly we will ask for more. 

All in all I'm actually finding this quite exciting, it's an opportunity after all.

Lots of woofs and licks from the furry girls to all their blog buddies, will let you know what they have been up to soon.

Mrs M :0)

Well hello blog, remember me

Dear Blog

I'm sorry I have neglected you for months but I have been really busy.  Work continues to be a source of problems.  The site I work on is closing and the staff are leaving, well all be over by the end of August. 

In true Project Manager style I analysed the risks and decided that the major risk would be that the global Project Manager vision wouldn't work and our group would be next out of the door.  I did a quick gap analysis (get me with the worky buzz words) and realised my CV was missing an actual Project Management qualification.  Everything has been on the job training from one company.  So I decided that the way to go was to get an official qualification and show I know how the job should be done not just how the company I work for does it.

So I put myself in for an exam without doing the course, bought the books and spent the last few months revising in preparation.  I sat the exam recently and frightened myself because I found some of the questions very easy making me think I may have missed something.  One of the 10 questions I totally messed up but overall I think I will pass.  Fingers and toes crossed, results should arrive in the next few months.

My next step was to polish my very, very out of date CV.  When I say polish I mean start from scratch as it is 10 years since I updated it.  Finally completed a basic CV that can be easily customised for different jobs and all ready to start applying.

JUST IN TIME:

Last Wednesday we got the notification that plans have changed and our jobs are now at risk!  Spent the remainder of the week listening to the rest of the group saying they saw this coming and that now they need to start updating CVs etc.  Confused, if you saw it coming why have you done nothing?

Have 5 job opportunities to apply for, all of them have things that sound interesting and I know I can do them although all but one would be somewhat different from my current job.  CVs will be winging there way through electronic mail early next week.  Wish them luck if you have a spare moment!

On top of all my planning for this I have had to deal with work itself.  It has been horrible.  Without moaning too much I just need to say that the company has decided on really unrealistic timelines for closure and transfer.  So many things haven't been considered and it has been a nightmare recently.  As none of you know who they are I think it is reasonable for me to say that I am disgusted by their lack of customer focus and consideration.  They haven't treated staff well but we are costs so that's business but customers are your profits and future income, you'd think they would be trying to protect relationships.  Bitch over, not really my problem but when you have worked with clients for years it is hard not to care about them.

Away from work all is good, Mr Midnite has been very supportive and continues to infuse me with his positivity.  The furry girls are as usual wonderful and always ready with hugs and doggy licks when the day has been stressful!

Mental health wise the stress of work hasn't been a great help.  The situation is pushing my pharmaceutical support system to it's limits but I refuse to let it break me.  The doctor has let me have a few sleep tablets and the difference the occasional good nights sleep makes is unbelievable.  I have heard before that there is nothing you can't handle if you get a good nights sleep but now understand this. 

Knowing that I have been doing positive things to improve the situation as helped massively and I'm confident I'll find  nice new job soon.

Hoping my blog will forgive me for my extended absence and that I can get back to writing soon, I do miss it.

Lots of love
Mrs M