Today I tried to get back into the mood of the first two weeks, focused on how to try and build again a strong pipeline of opportunity. I knew I didn’t have the time to focus on it today but I had to think it through. Over the last two weeks many opportunities have come along, but very few of them have actually matured into anything. Some as a result of them not being the right fit, others because of the lack of follow-up, follow through or just respond. And not on my part either. More on this later. But I had to find more to keep my options open.


Coffee machine on, laptop on, Planet Rock loaded. On Planet rock at the moment they have Alice Cooper as the morning DJ, not the best choice I must say, because he does talk some crap! Today he was playing it as well. Grateful to iTunes thought. My own coffee was particularly good this morning. I only had about 90 minutes before I had to go out for an hour or so. Emails first. Quiet though. Very quiet indeed. The first time in ages that I hadn’t a single email to respond to. Strangely Twitter was quite too. Well until about 7am and then all of my Twitter buddies woke up at the same time. Worrying that they may have all gone to #SocRecCamp a week early without me. Definitely more on this next week. Oh yes indeed.

The #earlyshift was mad for about 60 minutes and quite amusing; the rain dominating many of the conversations; stories of soaked and miserable summer holidays from around the UK. It is a shame when we had 30C degree, plus, heat through June and July.

Right, Day 19 was to be dominated by a telephone interview rearranged from previously failed attempts and a face-to-face interview, both with the same company and would effectively be interviews 5 & 6. I made sure I was in a good signal area a good 15 minutes before the call was due and waited until 20 minutes after the allotted time. No call. I must say that at this stage I was very disappointed to say the least. Shame – what to do? Do I withdraw my application or see how the afternoon session pans out? The latter commonsense approach wins out but confidence is now obviously low. Whose wouldn’t be, eh?

On the journey of about 45 mins to the interview I get a call back from one of the companies than have a position I have been very keen about for the last few weeks. Unfortunately it as bad news. It would appear that this employer wanted someone with precise experience of managing large (yet 500 vacancies per year is not large) RPO engagements. So they want someone who does that, to change jobs to do that same again. Do people jump like for like? Well of course they do but the point is there are few that will and fewer still with the experience they thing they need for this job. Many relationship management skills and experiences are perfectly and undeniably transferrable for this role. Mine in particular as a Channel and Partner Manager would be a good example. A shame as it would have been a good use of my skills and personality to manage such a relationship. I can understand their position to a certain extent, but still it frustrates, especially as the job description was a good fit and the company offered an almost perfect brand to recruit for. I expect that this is not an unusual situation that many job hunters find themselves in, yet as a recruiter it does seem to have a bigger effect as we are taught to look for and assess the transferrable skills not ignore them! It is however important to remember it is not personal, it happens and there is nothing I can do about it. It is not something that I can have a direct influence over and thus need to just put it behind me.

I had to shake it off and be ready to perform in 30 minutes. I was quite grateful for the appalling weather and the amount of rain on the roads. I caused me to concentrate fully on the road. When I got to the interview I was ready.

The saving grace of the day was this interview with the Head of HR in EMEA. A very good experience to back up a very good impression of the offices, location and people I met and spoken with so far, as well as the information I know and have learned about them recently. To be fair apart from the one aforementioned potential interviewer the rest of the interviewing team have been a shining ambassadors for their brand. I have enjoyed the passion, enthusiasm and commitment to move the business forward. If they still want to see me I have a final interview next week with the global head of TA and am very excited about the prospect

Finally when I got home I had some decent email. One in particular from the professional career coach and CV writer who I mentioned in Day 1 and who had helped me with my CV. She came up a couple of ideas; one was for a company I had explored briefly three months ago, before I started #myjobhunt. It hadn’t lasted more than a couple of calls then but with another go from a different angle……..every option must be explored.

I also took some time to review the emails and the ideas that had come my way over the last 3 weeks and a list of those to follow up with has been compiled and will be acted upon tomorrow. I was also alarmed to see that there were a number of people who had contacted me, mostly in house recruiters and some I am afraid to say are members of The FIRM, who have not bothered to respond to my responses to their initial contacts. The FIRM has a goal to raise standards in all areas or recruiting, particularly our own. It is no wonder that candidates and agencies make their complaints. You let us all down by not trying to improve your own standards.

Music of Day 19 was Ballroom Blitz by The Sweet

What did I learn today? Not all recruiters are good at everything they do. Not all recruiters have the same nor keep to the same standards as I do. Over the last couple of years, I have complained about the poor behaviors at agencies. In meetings I’ve also heard agencies complain about the poor service they get from in house recruiters. I am beginning to empathise.

Just in case you are wondering what my background is more can be found at

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/garyffranklin


or at


www.garyffranklin.wordpress.com where my full contact details can be found


thanks for reading