Oct
12
Crazy crazy people!
I quit the job/formation yesterday. I did not fit at all to the profile they are looking for and I doubt many people do. I would become crazy if I stay with these people and I still do not know what I am supposed to do. My fellow workers have told me the first month is extremely hard with these people. As for me, 5 days is enough to run away from them.
What they call formation is more or less a painful adaptation to their methodoly. Here is a summary of my week:
1. they have developped a non existing vocabulary
2. They want you to learn their methodology and since it doesn’t exist and does not relate to anything real, it is very hard to assimilate.
3. You are not allowed to question their methods, you just apply
4. You are not allowed to have doubts, you execute orders.
5. There are words and sentences you cannot use in front of them and you do not know which ones. You just wait and get insults when you do.
5. Everything you do is wrong, stupid or useless if you do not apply their methods and they make sure you understand that. So they give you useless tasks to do and they do not look at the results, they look at how you apply their immaginary methodology.
Example of stupid things I had to do:
1. Read 80 pages of the boss’ book and write down a synthesis, what is shocking and questions
2. my direct superior had extra work for me in addition to the formation, so he gave me 8 pages of technical stuff to translate in 4 hours. It took me about 12 hours to finish and I had to do it at home.
3. Another 120 pages to read and apply to 2 exercises plus a synthesis in 4 hours.
4. Another translation in excel this time in 4 hours. Painfully long and complicated since I do not know the subject.
Anyway all is over! I asked other people around me and it seems that everyone had the same treatment. The bosses treat you like shit, put you in useless conditions of stress, and disregard any work you do for them as soon as it is not in the format they want. You cannot really assimilate strange words that do not relate to anything you’ve learned and you spend all your time asking yourself : what are they really looking for?
Oct
9
What a shock!
Filed Under Daily
Okay for people who haven’t seen it: “the devil wears prada” you should watch it and you would know what type of bosses I have. I thought these type of people exist only in movies or are extremely rare. My boss in New York is a bit like that and I last only a week so I am very pessimistic about my current position. I was told by two new fellow workers like me that when they arrived two weeks ago, they met the previous secretary on their way and she told them as she was leaving for good: ” Good Luck to you” with bitterness. Also the previous handyman of the society was replaced by a new one in less than two weeks time! Really really strange and exentric people.! I doubt I will survive but who knows.
I will TRY VERY HARD to stick to my goal: a job in the private sector for at least 3 months (my probation period) to break my long unemployment time. I am very tired of head hunters asking me what I have been doing since June 2008.
Oct
4
The Real World!
Filed Under Daily
Here I come to the real world. I’ve had a taste of it when I decided to leave behind my research career. IT IS HARD. This is my chance to start all over so I’d better not spoil it. It was indeed a long and painful reconversion with many doubts.
BUT I DID IT! Yeea Yeea yeaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Sep
29
2 years and 4 months and a New Career!
Filed Under Daily
I’ll start next Tuesday a new career, it is completely different from my research career which no longer exists anyways. I left Australia at the end of May 2008 so it has taken me exactly 2 years and 4 months to get back on my feet with a new start.
Type of job: Programming/Developping for business
Starting Salary: 30 000 Euros
Type of contract: CDI (permanent)
Location: Clichy Levallois (45 min by train)
Jul
18
Lolita is gone!
Filed Under Daily
Today around 5 pm, our 15 years old dog died. It was painless and it was swift. It feels very strange. I have a little something in my throat, It was the best ending I could dream of for her.
Mar
10
Eating, sleeping…and waiting
Filed Under Daily
That is all that has happened the last three months. Nothing really interesting to write about I guess. Waiting for things to get better.
List of little events:
1. My 500 Gb HD died yesterday. I was glad I had a backup HD so nothing was lost… I am looking to buy a new one.
2. I discovered that my australian credit/saving card expired when I tried to order my new HD online :). I wrote to my Australian bank about it.
3. I’ve sent out few more job appplications but I have no real hope concerning any of them at the moment
4. I lost 400 US dollars during CIT group bankcruptcy… I was hoping they could be saved….one mistake to remember, never hope in finance, the worse will happen
5. I made 300 US dollars gain in total with other my investments.
6. With the Euro going down, my savings in Euro go up….funny event.
7. Little troubles with my tooth…as always :(.
8. DELL, Infinira, Cisco….good stock options to invest in right now…High tech options are very stable to play with.
Dec
13
7 months back home and I got 6 extra kilogrammes. I am still rowing everyday half an hour (4.6 kms) but the good food is adding some extra weighs. I need to do something about it if I do not want a belly. Maybe I should eat more vegetables. The job market is too bad to do something right now. Wait …The stock market is worse so more waiting….
Nothing new besides playing WoW and waiting for something to happen. Boring life!
Nov
26
I did not get the position. I am not too sad because it was really far away and it would take me 3-4 hours to commute everyday. Life goes on and I keep on applying. Nothing really new and interesting happened. The winter is cold and wet here. Sunlight is shorter during a day but the days remain too long.
Nov
5
Job interview
Filed Under Daily
I’ve had one yesterday, it did go well. Second phase of selection is next week on Tuesday. We shall see. The job is a system admin subcontractor for Thales.
Oct
27
Getting Older
Filed Under Daily
As I am getting older, like everyone I am having little problems especially with my eyes. It is hard for me to focus and read tiny letters on my high resolution laptop screen. I finally figured out a way to keep the fonts bigger permantly for Windows and to prevent Firefox to automaticly resize:
It was painful to keep on reading little letters on my screen.
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