Blog
Competing with your clients
I promised a new blog post after my mate Dan tweeted that a candidate he’d sourced had applied for a role directly with his client. The reason this annoys recruiters is that if this candidate gets the role it will be a case of ‘we found him first’, so despite the recruitment consultant’s efforts in publishing the role, not a penny will …
Sri Lanka Visit
I’ve just returned from a 2-week holiday in Sri Lanka. It was originally planned to be just a holiday, but as it turned out the lasting memory of the trip will be the visit to Masmulle School to deliver some stationery and other equipment that we fundraised for. This all came about because of our friends Colin and Nicky at TLC. …
Work Experience Slave Labour
The government’s new work trial scheme has been a big feature in the press recently, but not always for the right reasons. I wanted to share with you my experience of the scheme, in the process, hopefully highlighting a more positive side to the scheme. I am currently working with a company where the majority of people are employed on …
UKTI Still Encouraging Export of L&D and Training
First of all, apologies for the massive gap since my last blog. I’ve been very busy. I was prompted to write something after receiving my copy of the excellent Springboard Magazine from UKTI. This quarter’s edition features a long article on the education & skills sector (which L&D and Training are included in by UKTI). The basic story is the same …
Car Trouble
The most recent excitement in my house has been car related, but not in a good way. Last year I bought a 6-month old Mazda3 with 2 1/2 years of Mazda warranty left on it, from Donalds Group in Bury St Edmunds. It’s a great car, and I was really enjoying driving it until……. It all started in February, when …
The Things People Say
I was approached today by “a company providing an innovative concept of candles for illumination”. They are looking for distributors in Europe, and somehow found my website. I haven’t researched this in great detail, but I’m pretty sure that candles were used for illumination several thousand years ago. It doesn’t strike me as being very innovative. However, it did prompt …
Experience Wanted: No Guarantee of Success Needed
My football club, Cambridge United, has just appointed a new manager, Jez George. He was previously in charge of our highly regarded youth setup, and had been managing the first team on a caretaker basis since the last manager was sacked a few months ago. Reading the message boards, and talking to other fans, there seems to be support for …
Spring Update
I have been really busy recently with many of the tasks I have been determined to accomplish through becoming self-employed. The Global Edge project is progressing really well. I’ve moved the website to a new wordpress platform and added some nice features such as a twitter feed, news section and quick polls. Other new websites I’ve been involved in are Nigel …
Perceptions of Priority
I decided to spend most of today watching the India vs Pakistan cricket world cup match. As well as reminding me how massive cricket is in India and Pakistan, it also made me think about perceptions of priority around the world. For example, I wonder how many people in North or South America have any idea how important this cricket …
Social Networks and Natural Disasters
One of my contacts in Japan posted a note on Linked In that said “got to love social networks sites at times like these”, presumably in response to lots of people (including me) checking in that he’s OK. I agree, but also recognise there is some danger too. On the day of the Christchurch quake I sent a message to …