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Work

Monster Madness

Thursday April 19th, 2007: Work
Last Updated: Tuesday June 19th, 2007 04:43 PM

While I was contemplating "where is my career going?" yesterday I decided to start building a CV on Monster.co.uk to see if perhaps I'd be better served looking at a new role in another company. What I certainly didn't expect was for my phone to be ringing every 20 minutes with agencies offering me various roles and/or requesting my CV for the files. Some seemed to have not even read the information I'd put on Monster before calling. By the end of the day I had pulled my contact details from Monster as it had got to the point where I couldn't actually get any work done for all the phone calls!

One or two interesting roles were mentioned, whether anything comes of them is another matter. As I explained the the few agents that seemed to have at least read my Monster profile I wasn't looking for any job as I alreayd have a very good job; I'm looking for something special.

Durera's Xbox - 4/19/2007

I prefer to play games... but if Durera needs a short break I can respect that... don't get lazy though... I'll be waiting right here!

Decision Time

Wednesday April 18th, 2007: Work
Last Updated: Tuesday April 24th, 2007 01:19 PM

It hit me today that I've been at IBM for five years now; and when I looked at my performance reviews I see three years in a row with the top rating, and 2 years with the second highest rating. Despite all this my career hasn't exactly progressed very much. I guess it's my own fault though, I foolishly thought that if I excel at my job I'd be rewarded with increased pay, bonuses & eventually promotions. As it turns out, I haven't done too bad on the first two, but when it comes to promotions it's most definitely a case of "you don't get what you don't ask for", and as much as I hate blowing my own trumpet, it appears that if I want to get anywhere in this business I'm going to have to do just that.

Durera's Xbox - 4/18/2007

Durera likes to game, I like to game, this is a match made in heaven! It takes a gamer score like 18923 to be as cool as him. That is a gain of 20 points over last time! He opened up Crackdown adding 1 achievement, Top Spin 2, and then I needed a nap. Don't judge me! It's a lot of work pushing all those pixels.

Friday August 22nd, 2003

Friday August 22nd, 2003: Work
Last Updated: Tuesday June 19th, 2007 04:43 PM

I took a day off work to chill and relax for the first time in a while -- infact I was so tired that I didn't even have the energy to play computer games! Instead I took the easy option and watched a truck load of DVDs.

In my absence, at work, management took the decision to remove my server from the network (dropping the every-so-important service) due to the risk (not presence) of infection! It's quite sad that I'm bothered about this ... it's only a job Dave .. I suppose it's better than living in the real world though!

Thursday August 21st, 2003

Thursday August 21st, 2003: Work
Last Updated: Tuesday June 19th, 2007 04:43 PM

The site-wide response to the curent virus/worm problems continues to frustrate immensely. I was forced to arrange a special case to allow my server to continue utilising ping across the network, as that has been resticted to lighten the load caused by the aforementioned evils (without note of cause, causing the application to brake, and myself to be baffled for a godd few minutes).

My frustration is two-fold; one --the over-reaction from the upper-echelons of the corporation; two -- the incompetance of IT 'professionals' to not be able to avoid infection in the first place.

Friday July 4th, 2003

Friday July 4th, 2003: Work
Last Updated: Tuesday June 19th, 2007 04:43 PM

I've come to the conclusion that Andrew had no intention of ever going to this damn course, and that this is infact pay back for something very evil I did to him many moons ago. This was so evil infact that my life would be in danger should I re-publisice the events of that fateful day :)

Thursday July 3rd, 2003

Thursday July 3rd, 2003: Work
Last Updated: Tuesday June 19th, 2007 04:43 PM

Adrian (my manager) says that the department that 'directly fund' my position want me to be doing more work for them seeing as Drake doesn't really take up any of my time now that I've fixed it --it's nice to feel wanted! Obviously having just said that -- when I return to proper work on Tuesday I will no doubt find everything has gone tits up!

Monday June 2nd, 2003

Monday June 2nd, 2003: Politics Work
Last Updated: Tuesday June 19th, 2007 04:43 PM

Work's really picking up .. with a corporate audit due some time in the Autumn the IT department is running a bit hot, but that's the way I like it -- the last month or so has really dragged 'cos I haven't had anything really important to do. Now if only I could make pay day come around twice a month everything would be peachy.

Maybe it's because he's no longer a politician, but Robin Cook is makign sense for once: "He said that there were weapons that could be used in 45 minutes. There are no such weapons ... If the allies cannot produce an internationally-verified discovery by August 20, Britain can conclude that the terrible warnings before the war about the imminent threat from Saddam's weapons were totally wrong.", August 20 gives them 110 days - the same time given to the United Nations weapons inspectors. This obviously will never happen, as Tony isn't likely to want to admit he lied (come on, you knew he was lying, even if you wanted to believe it at the time?). If Saddam really had weapons of mass destruction that he could launch within 45 minutes, why didn't he use them when US & UK force attacked Baghdad?

Thursday July 12th, 2001

Thursday July 12th, 2001: Work
Last Updated: Tuesday June 19th, 2007 04:43 PM

Great, got my IBM forms today, not so great they have to be returned by the 16th (i.e. 3 working days) or they assume I've rejected the offer, nice to see they're giving me time to consider my options, read through the package etc.

"There is no greater stupidity than for people ... to marry and so surrender themselves to the small miseries of domestic and private life"

- Karl Marx

Thursday June 28th, 2001

Thursday June 28th, 2001: Personal Work
Last Updated: Tuesday June 19th, 2007 04:43 PM

Good news, I got through Hursley's recruitment process and I've got a job for when I finish university (assuming I don't do anything really stupid in the final year that is).

It's Michael's birthday today - happy 19'th shithead. You're nearly old like me now, hope you like your CD.

"Ernest Hemingway once wrote, 'The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part."

- Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman, Se7en)

Monday June 25th, 2001

Monday June 25th, 2001: Football Manager (Gaming) Work
Last Updated: Tuesday June 19th, 2007 04:43 PM

Had my interview & presentation for post graduate recruitment at IBM today - I don't think it went too bad. Done little else except try to prepare for these all day.

I've been playing Championship Manager a lot again, just started the second season, after finishing second in the league and winning 2 cups - nice.

Don't steal. The government hates competition.

- Anon

Tuesday June 19th, 2001

Tuesday June 19th, 2001: Joe-X WinAmp Skins Personal Work
Last Updated: Tuesday June 19th, 2007 04:43 PM

Found out I've got to the next stage of the IBM recruitment process for Hursley, on a list of 20 IT's who made it to the interview stage, it'll be great if I can get a job sorted before I even start my final year at university. Speaking of which; the late work panel rejected my work, so it's capped at 40% and it won't be marked 'till September. To me this is so petty, the mark doesn't even contribute to my degree, and what if I don't even pass it? "No, you failed your year out, so it doesn't count, you can never mention it again!". I can't wait to get away from UWE.

The hunt for joeX continues, but without much luck - his email is dead, and neither deathsdoor or joex.n3.net are up. If you have any information on joex send it to whoisjoex@nofuture.org.uk

I've decided that I don't like the website's purple design anymore, so I'll probably redo it over the weekend.

Wednesday June 6th, 2001

Wednesday June 6th, 2001: Work
Last Updated: Tuesday June 19th, 2007 04:43 PM

Sat my IPAT & Programming test today as part of the graduate recruitment process at IBM. IPAT was ok, and the programming test was very basic - I'd be disappointed if I didn't get 100% to be honest.

The IPAT did make me realise how reliant I am on machines for maths now though, even something as simple as 1345 - 540 would normally be a calculator job, I can't remember doing subtraction like that since Primary school!!

Tuesday May 8th, 2001

Tuesday May 8th, 2001: Personal Work
Last Updated: Tuesday June 19th, 2007 04:43 PM

First day of Application Development Level 2 course today, God it's going to be a long week! On a brighter note (literally) the weather has been fantastic today, pity I've spent the majority of the day in a room with no windows.

Website-wise, I put the bookmarks section up today and started looking into getting proper hosting, hostroute were the best value web hosting service that I found, especially with the special May deal they have (33% off).

You know what they say: 'A man wants a maid in the kitchen & a whore in the bedroom' ...

- The Savages (BBC Sitcom)