Interviewing skills

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They say that the best way to brush up your interview skills is to grab any opportunity to be involved in the recruitment process, especially on an interview panel.

It really is enlightening. You learn what are considered to be “crap” answers and what recruiters are really looking for in your answers.

I’ve been on an interview panel at least 10 times in the last 8 years, and my interview skills have improved as a result (although I haven’t yet managed to get offered another job!).

So, if you ever get the opportunity, grab it with both hands!

10 Years Old

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I was just checking out some of my very oldest posts here on NotSL and realised that a very important milestone for NotSL passed on 10 January 2011: it was NOtSL’s 10th birthday!

Crikey, that means I’ve been blogging in some shape or form for 10 years.

I’m trying to remember what it was like 10 years ago. I was using a CGI script to post updates on my then website, so it wasn’t officially NotSL then; just a small sideline to a personal website highlighting some of my interests at the time: Celine Dion and Kate Winslet among them.

I don’t rightly remember when NotSL first came into existence, although I suspect it was when I was living in a flat in Muswell Hill (A, do you remember?) in 2003-2004. I will check out the Web Archive to see.

When I first started posting, I was just 20 years old and in the middle of my final year of my BA History degree at Swansea. Little did I know where I would be in 10 years time: married with a little boy, a qualified solicitor and a senior manager at a Deaf organisation.

Here’s to the next 10 years!

Ill

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So, I’ve finally succumbed to something I haven’t been for around 4 years: ill.

I have suspected swine flu, as I have a high temperature (was 38.8C but was 38.1C last reading as Panadol kicked in), aches and pains and a bit of a cough.

Tomorrow will be the first day I’ve had sick leave since July 2006 when I suffered a bout of food poisoning at Rachel’s graduation meal.

It will be weird.

I will have to do some work nevertheless as I have an Tribunal claim due tomorrow! (See previous post about the Work Invasion).

Hope I’m better soon.

Run! Run! It’s the Invasion of … Work!

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Most of you will be aware that I’m a qualified solicitor specialising in employment and disability discrimination law.

I’m the only solicitor working for RAD at the moment, with a small team of caseworkers. As such this means when I take leave, there’s no one to take up my mantle in my absence. That in turn means I don’t usually get the opportunity to take leave without the inevitable email or deadline that simply can’t wait till I’m back at work, with the result that, you’re right, work invades my leave!

Take Friday as a case in point. I took the day off to drive myself, Rachel and Corey to Ipswich for Fellow Welshman and Suffolk Terp’s (thanks Deafinitely Girly for the anonymising peeps idea!) New Year’s/Engagement/New Job house party.

On Friday morning I was on MSN talking to a client about a Respondent’s draft Chronology and Facts which had been emailed to me around 5pm on Thursday to which a deadline of noon on Friday had been imposed to respond to with any issues, and phoning the Respondent in the same case (via my FT terp on MSN) to chase a response to our without prejudice offer of £15,000, who said they were still awaiting instructions from their client.

In the middle of all that, I had to go to the doctors to make an appointment for Corey, and then take him down for his appointment at 11.20pm. (He had a hyperventilatory infection but is ok now).

Before we left home at 12.20pm for Ipswich, the Respondent replied with a counter offer of £2,500, and I asked my client for his instructions.

By the time we arrived at a services on the M25 at around 3.45pm I still hadn’t received any instructions so chased client who instructed me to make an offer of £10,000. The Respondent then offered £5,000 which was accepted. It was 4.35pm at that point. We then had 25 minutes to agree the COT3 wording and make a full and binding agreement by 5pm so the ACAS Conciliator could inform the Tribunal that the case had been settled and the hearing listed for Monday vacated.

Talk about a stressful 25 minutes, particularly as Respondent threatened to withdraw offer if didn’t settle by 5pm.

All this on my day off! :-)