Job Interviews

Just had my first Dutch job interview with a blue chip. Now in business school you get taught about things like European labour markets and how they're inflexible and don't give companies enough control over the workforce and restrict management and so on. I mention this because the terms and conditions conversation for this job went like this

Them : We're a big company, so we don't negotiate salaries. Every job is fixed to a position on the Hayes scale. What would you be looking for in this role?

Me : xx thousand

Them : Thats fine. Now to explain what we offer...

You get your annual salary
Plus a 'thirteenth month' bonus in December
Plus another months bonus in May
Plus a small tax free amount each month for expenses
Plus a group performance bonus of maybe 5%
Plus an individual bonus which might be 1-2%
Company laptop and mobile phone
No company car
We offer 25 days holiday
Plus up to 16 days holiday which was agreed in lieu of past pay rises forgone. You can take those or be paid for them, or trade them in for 'stuff'

Now either I missed the bit about them getting my immortal soul or this is a quite incredibly generous compensation package. I was completely sold on the job anyway, since it appears to offer me the chance to do many many good things with a corporate website and have an impact on a whole company. Now of course I just have to brace myself for any disappointment and start looking for other jobs to do when I don't get this one...

Must be a blue moon

It's not often George Bush does something I agree with, but this might be an exception. Legalising America's huge migrant underclass will doubtless improve their living and working conditions, and will certainly provide a boost to the US economy.

My business school professors were always keen to point out that under globalisation the movement of goods had become free, but the movement of people had remained restrained. Changing that would do a lot to improve global productivity. Interesting though that this is a bill which Bush will need Democrat support to pass, and which will face most opposition from the Republicans. My only question is 'why has he done it now?

Dean is saying that this doesn't go far enough - which is probably true, but I'm not sure any US presidet could go much further at the present time and come out with legislation enacted on the other side.

Bush in 30 Seconds

Moveon.org's design an advert competition produced these finalists. Personally I wouldn't go for the ones on the war, they're too contentious to change minds. I'd go for Childs Pay, Desktop or Wake Up America from this list. They address domestic policies that affect all Americans, and they do it in a powerful way.

In my country would be great if only it would drop the reference to 'Religious Extremists' you never changed anyones mind by insulting them.

Operatic Raptures

I've just installed Opera (again) and I have to say the new version is very impressive. Previous versions felt a bit too different for me to start using them on a regular basis, but right now my browser of choice is up for grabs...

Fencing reprise

I was never very well up on the technical terms of fencing. I mean, I never knew there was a proper word for 'forcing your way through someone's guard with brute strength', but there is, it's called 'Froisement', and the wonderful thing about fencing is that weaker opponents can easily avoid this kind of thing.

Anyway you can learn all you need to about fencing here because there really is very little to it. It's putting it all together that's the tricky part.

Interview!

First Dutch job interview on the way - to manage the web presence of a global multi-national. It's a job I'm sure I can excel at - now I've got to impress the jury. Time to read up on distributed content management systems, hosting arrangements and workflow I feel. Plus do some serious thinking about brand and communication issues and all kinds of other stuff...

Back to arms

Last night I revived one of my old hobbies, taking up mask and foil to return to the world of fencing. It has been about five years since I've fenced and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly things came back to me. Of course my footwork is terrible, my timing is shot, I miss my parries, what little point control I had has deserted me and my muscles ached after the warmup, nevermind any actual bouts, but I did get better.

Hell, I even won a fight or two (and lost some rather heavily but that's to be expected).

So, in case you're in Amsterdam and have the urge to take up a sword I recommend The Salle Van Oeveren who are based at the rebuilt and very lovely Frans Otten Stadion