Recruiters

Over the course of the week I probably sent out about 15 applications. Got some rejections, got some call-backs, had to do an online test (what do you hate most about jobs? -To work weekends, to work long hours, to work early, to work alone, none of the above (uhu)) , scored one interview, and am of course still waiting on lots of replies.
But, what has happened twice now is this: I applied for a marketing associate position via a recruiter. They called back the next day, which is super quick as you all know. First they ask me if I’d be in their city one of these days for an interview, as they don’t reimburse you for travel expenses. I suggested a phone interview first. OK so we do that. “What industries would you exclude from your jobsearch?” Easy: “The tobacco and the armory industry.” “Well would you consider starting in a temping contract and then receiving one with the company after 4 to 6 months if they like you?” *thinks uhm wait a sec, that’s what a probabtional period is for in this country* So I say “Well I can’t really answer that question without knowing more details about the position and the company.” So she grabs her file on that position and reads that it’d be some retailer and the position is in the department responsible for Genussmittel (stimulants) – ah wait a sec, are tobacco goods not part of that department?! Anyways, and yeah they’ve split the position now and they’ve filled the marketing part of it (after this ad had been online for 3 days? Wow, quick….) but they do have the half of the position that’s for Team Assistant! Yay! Secretary work! Uhm no. Didn’t go to school to be a secretary.
Almost the same thing happened with another recruiter yesterday. Do they just try to trick you into sending a qualified resume to then make you work as an overqualified secretary?! Ugh! Evil scheme!
But yes, I’m going to an interview in Frankfurt next Friday and the HR guy sounded really nice and not like he’s hiding something like the recruiters ;-). I’ll stay the weekend in town to visit my girlfriends. Woohooo! Long live interview tourism! Well I am paying the train ride with my Bahncard so it saves the company 50% and still costs the same regardless of what day I go back home.

In other news, I had been thinking about going to China in mid July to visit Ally and Doreen but Doreen has visitors all through July and Ally leaves her place July 20th so I couldn’t just push it back into August and now it doen’t look like I’ll be able to go. Dang! Alternative would be to go to only Thailand with Ally but man, I’ve been meaning to see China for ages now. Though I think JΓΆran still lives in Beijing… hmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

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Job Search

I just applied for at least 6 jobs online in about 1.5 hours. I’m so good. πŸ˜‰ Hopefully one of them recruiters will like me and pass my resume on to other jobs, too. Man, I hate sending out applications…. Anyways, www.stellenmarkt.de seems to be a good website to find jobs that don’t require you to fill out forms over forms over forms so I shall keep looking there.
No news on any previous applications. F+ck patience is a virtue, I hate being patient! πŸ˜€

Well sweeties, I’m off to bed. Night night!

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The Party

Last night was Jenny’s birthday party and it was lots of fun. I don’t know why I woke up this early today… Nice food, nice people, nice music (Dirty Dancing soundtrack ;-)), and we got to one of her guests to pull his shirt up and show us his nipple piercing. Looked painful to me and can you imagine having something rip at it like a sweater when you pull it off. Au!
I got some gifts from my friends, too, an IQ training book seeing that I’m getting old (though thankfully I answered their sample questions correctly *phhhhh* and a book on how to get a job in the US (let’s see if that’s useful), a sunflower, a mug, and body lotion. Nice. πŸ™‚

Oh I also had lunch with my dad and that was alright, too. Nothing exciting. We were at his pub and I don’t really like meeting him there as I always kind of feel in the spotlight with his girlfriend working there and not many guests around. But of course it was nice to see them again and he’s funded my health insurance for this month and the next so yay!

Oh and my birthday itself! 4 of my grandparents (one grandma couldn’t make it) came over for coffee and cake and it was same old same old. The cakes were super yummy but the stories as boring as ever but at least we managed to go without war memories for 1.5 hours. That might a new record! πŸ™‚ Later we had dinner and that was nicer with real conversation. Haha. πŸ™‚ But overall it was a nice day and it was good to see my mom’s parents again after all these months.

Well, the plan for today is to get my German resume up to date and improved (I’m thinking of doing it anti-chronical now seeing that my last company is much more known than my first company). I got my letters of reference scanned at an old friend’s house yesterday and I guess the German job-hunt can begin. Gotta see what’s out there. Later my friends want to go out again to some bar/club here so I might just have to take a nap before that. I’m getting old! πŸ˜‰

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Keeping Busy

Don’t feel like blogging right now but let’s see what comes out of it anyways πŸ˜‰
Just a small recap about the weekend and other things interesting enough to be worth writing down.
Friday after work I picked up my friend Anke from the airport and we spent a nice night chatting. Felt like a girly sleep-over. πŸ™‚ Of course Saturday we did touristy things. I made her look at the Book of Kells with me but it was much better than I had anticipated. Well made presentation of how they created the book and then of course the old library of Trinity College was really impressive. Reminded me of Harry Potter.
Afterwards we grabbed some lunch and coffee from Starbucks. Well, we had wanted to go to the park and eat it on a bench but it started raining (this is Ireland afterall) so we settled for standing in front of a pub with a smoking awning. Later we continued our tourist tour and walked along the regular places like the castle, Ha’Penny Bridge, Christ Church Cathedral… until we had dinner at Shan Indian Restaurant. The Chicken Tikka Masala and especially the Channa Masala (chickpeas) was gorgeous and of course we had to have a Mango Lassi, too. Yum! I much prefer this Britainized food to most authentic Indian. Or was that authentic, too and just from a different region?! Who knows!
Sunday we went shopping at Dundrum Town Centre, one of Europe’s best malls aparently. The tram ride there was fun and my was that mall nice! Great stores and both Anke and I got some tops and a belt. Clothes are the only thing that’s not super expensive here really. We actually spent about 3 or 4 hours there and after sitting down at Starbucks (again!) we headed back to the city centre, got some souvenirs and then went home.
Had a lovely dinner of penne with tomatoes and bell pepper after I had nearly gotten a heart attack because I thought we had loads of food for dinner but didn’t. Well thankfully Anke was fine with just pasta and veggies without sauce. We then just hung out on the sofa, watched Pride and Prejudiceand drank our cider/shandy. Great weekend!

The week has been fine so far. I got a new project at work that I was working on late today. Was sitting around much of the afternoon but then of course had to do that around 4:30 then and wound up staying there with my boss until 6:30. Ah not too bad but I don’t like working over-time when you were free all afternoon really.

Tomorrow is only half a day for me (hopefully) and then I’ll pack my suitcase and Thursday at the crack of dawn I’ll fly home for 4 days. Yay! Not looking forward to riding the train up to my home town from Frankfurt as I’m sure it’ll be packed. I couldn’t even get a reservation when I booked my ticket for it. :-/

One of my professors finally emailed me about grading my thesis. Yay! I think I might have the other one’s email about that somewhere in my outlook from last year so hopefully they’ll accept that, too, and don’t want a recent one…. I set back the counter to August 15th because of that whole email issue but either way I want to hand it in end June/beginning July depending on when I’m allowed to (you have to be signed up for it for at least 6 weeks).

Ah well, for not feeling like blogging I don’t think it turned out too bad now, did it? My nail polish on my toenails is dry now so I’ll hop into my bed and read The Devil Wears Prada.for a bit. Really enjoying that book.
Smoochie my dears! :-*

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