recruitment industry wake up call

Now I am certainly not the most high profile blogger in the world, despite reaching visitor numbers of…..ooooooh tens of……people these days. However, put me into Google (research purposes you understand) and I pretty much pop up a fair bit.

You don’t really even need to click on a link to see I am in PR, corp and tech, live in Cornwall and am fairly keen on the whole flexible work business. It’s my thing, you could say.

Not if you were the very pleasant but not very well prepared headhunter that called me this week.  Or indeed the one that called two weeks ago.

Oh no.

Now, first I thought it was a one off, then it happened twice.  So I’m going to blog it. Here’s how it went:

“Got your name blah, interested in a very senior position etc good agency blah…did name them but I shan’t”

Me: “OK, I should stop you there, do you know that I am based in Cornwall” explain virtual office concept/flexible ethic etc

“Oh, they wouldn’t go for that, it is senior role and involves building a team you see”

Hmmm…..now I should have said, “Oh.  Sorry, I thought it involved stuffing envelopes from home, you got the wrong gal then”  or even, “no thanks love, i am very happy where I am” instead, I went on to try to defend my role and my lifestyle.  I even started blathering on the whole “agencies have to wake up, if they want to keep good people” blarney and I didn’t even want the job.

To be fair to the one tonight, she did listen to my ego rant and I am sure she will make sure she Googles people in future before she calls them.  And strangely, for the first time in my 12 year career, I felt real empathy with the shitey old untargeted pitches that journalists consistently moan about receiving from my industry.  So maybe it is karma 😉

Rant over. And yes, I am aware I will probably NEVER get a headhunter offer again…..thank f@@@ for social networks then eh!

meme me up baby

Thanks to Jed hallam for lobbing his three for three meme baton over to me on Friday and apologies for the tardy contribution.  Here goes nowt:

Top Three non-work websites

  1. Cats that look like Hitler
  2. Fantasy premier League
  3. B3TA

Top Three Karaoke Songs

  1. Pink – Just Like a Pill
  2. Dolly Parton and Kenny R – Islands in the stream
  3. Anything by Tina Turner

Top Three Weekend Cocktails

  1. A Freud’s Mojito to start the night
  2. A homemade elderflower gintastic
  3. A Freud’s Long Island Ice Tea to end the night (never wise but always tasty – ask paulieA)

And the three people I am tagging are:

  1. Stephen Waddington
  2. Katie Moffat
  3. Paul Ballard

dead set on shaking up reality telly

Finally, a chance to indulge my love of Charlie Brooker and zombie horror combined with my annoyance of Big Brother.  Dead Set is a new five part series on E4, starting at the end of October and I reckon it’ll be one to watch.  Endemol are making it thus benefiting from both the up and down of the reality TV genre.

If all else fails, you might get to see Davina “permagrin” McCall get her guts ripped out so can’t be bad really.

Trailer below, courtesy of E4 site.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “dead set Video“, posted with vodpod

commuting essentials – your top 3?

Katie Moffat (aka prnowandthen.com) dropped me and fellow colocator- Wadds – a line this week to ask about the three most essential tools for long commutes/home working.

It got me thinking as Wadds and I have been discussing the things you need two of and the stuff you have to cart around just to make travelling more bearable.

My top 3 essentials for a long commute (excluding laptop) would be:

– Dongle (service varies, check the coverage maps, especially if you are travelling out to the sticks like I am)

– Decent mobile device (phone/blackberry/games and ipod/touch or combined as you’ll need tunes, podcasts etc to while away those hours

– Memory stick plus avid use of gmail (I am a nightmare for being in the wrong place with the wrong file)

I think as time goes on, services like Huddle will become essentials for the remote worker/colocator as it combines document storage with social networking and will soon include IM and teleconferencing….I see these tools eventually becoming the long espoused “virtual office” that you can dip into at any time.

Anyone else like to share their top 3?