I hear you asking “where did Day 6 go” on Saturday? Well it went fishing; yup I had a day off from #myjobhunt
And a very pleasant 7 hours it was too. The fish thought so too, they were quite comfortable at the bottom of the lake, not giving my flies a second glance. Well one did and I bet all its buddies were having a right laugh at it. They knew better.

Yesterday was spent more on the customisation and configuration of my new laptop. All working well so far.

So today, Monday 9th Aug is Day 6 in job hunting terms.

Interesting though that the start of the day was still related to my PC. In Day 5 I commented on my poor customer experience at a retailer and kindly asked any of their recruiters reading to pass along my comments. What do you know; one of them was reading and contacted me. There followed a brief exchange of emails and my thoughts veered towards the correlation between the consumers’ customer experience and the candidate experience. I’ve written about this before but it is so very important that everything we do as recruiters ensures the very best candidate experience. In the consumer world candidates are customers and we all know how fickle we can be as consumers. Repairing a bad experience is hard enough as a retailer, but repairing damage done through poor candidate care is almost impossible to rectify and stop from spreading virally.

I was pleased to see further messages from others wishing me well and offering support. These messages of good wishes do mean so much and are always a pleasure to read. Most welcome thank you.

As many will know I co-organise The Forum for In House Recruitment Managers, or The FIRM as it commonly called and having time to spare I am doing a lot of work on this project as well. Yesterday we announced a webinar for early September “Social Media & Employer Brand” and by 0830 this morning there were a considerable number of members booked in. Any subject that involves the use of or impact of Social Media is useful and looking forward to this one.

One idea we are playing with is a schedule of events; both half day and full day sessions for members. I have had immediate thoughts for one centred on the value and use of RPO by organisations. Will be looking to explore that idea further. If anyone has thoughts on this I’d be happy to discuss. My contact details are in the Contact Me page

I also explored more selfish avenues, specifically a consulting services offering. I had a couple of discussions on this with people who I have known for some time and who might be potential customers to see if the concept would work. I was pleased to say that not only was the concept met with enthusiasm, but they were generous enough of offer welcome advice about what to focus on and how to implement the ideas. Will spend bit more time on this in the next day or two and no doubt will write about it at some point. It is not my priority at this time but I need a backup plan, just in case.

Over the weekend I received 2 emails from companies making introductions to others within their organisations with a view to discussing possibilities and options. These were followed up without delay and appointments made for this week and next. The diary is filling up.

The point is to explore everything that is a realistic option. I know I have mentioned this before but no harm in reminding myself of it. Have to stay grounded and focused.

I also had a preliminary telephone interview for one of the jobs I was approached about last week and hope to be able to progress that one. A new opportunity in London has also presented itself to me today and whilst on the surface it doesn’t look ideal, I still want to know more; just to be sure I am not being hasty.

Music of the Day – The Lark Ascending, Ralph Vaughan Williams

Lesson of the day – don’t expect others to run at the same pace as you if you don’t let them know that you’ve started the race! They will only feel marginalized and frustrated. Don’t take anything or anyone for granted, qualify everything and communicate with everyone. Sorry.