Brown Girl in London

Job search

The job search has begun - well really it began as soon as we got here, but yesterday was a full day dedicated to landing a job. I went to 2 interviews at 2 recruitment agencies and it took all day. It was very intensive - at both places I was tested on my computer and typing skills and then asked a bunch of questions about my goals and past work experiences.

The first interview was at Eden Brown near the Liverpool St tube station. I went in at 11:30am and got out 1:00pm. The girl who interviewed me was very nice - she asked me about my history and what my strengths, weaknesses, and greatest achievement was. I gave all the usual and truthful answers. Then I did 3 tests - Excel, Word, and typing. They went fine - I'm pretty sure I did all right but I'm not sure about the Excel one - sometimes if I clicked accidentally on the screen it took that as my answer and then move on to the next question. Oh well we'll see how it goes. Before I actually get any calls for jobs my references have to be checked so I'm hoping to hear something soon.

The second was at Morgan McKinley and it seems to be a much more high brow place. They're located near the Charing Cross tube station. I went in at 2:45pm and got out at 6:00pm. First I had to fill out tons of paperwork about criminal convictions, skills, employment history. At this firm they deal only with financial institutions - and only the big ones - according to the woman that interviewed me. Because they deal with a lot of money they want a 5-year history of anyone who may work for them. I wrote down everything I'd done in the last 5 years - employment and school only - and now they have to check out all those references. Five years ago I worked at the library at U of Guelph and now they want to contact the woman I worked for and confirm that. Hmm! Well, I gave them all the info, hopefully that'll work out because this place might be able to hook me up with a well paying job. The consultant said I have great skills and because I've already got experience the businesses might be keen on hiring me over a recent grad. I also did 5 tests (excel, word, access, power point, and typing) and met with another consultant and some guy that I think is the reference-checker.

All in all it was a non-stop busy day. But in the end it was worth it - I saw some more of London and learned about this whole job process. At MM she told me that London is city of workaholics - you wake up at 6am and don't get home until 8pm. I don't mind - I enjoy new experiences and I like to work - I just don't like to do the same thing over and over again for a long time, but that's probably because I've never found anything that I really like. Being temporary sounds just great to me, for now!

posted by RC @ 11:44 AM