Occasional Update

I like writing it gets stuff out of my head and onto (electronic) and real paper.  You can't believe the amount of writing I do in a day I carry around a notepad all the time and I need to write things down to get them out of the recycle bin that is my head.  People find it funny that I dispose of knowledge - so at the end of a project I just defragment my brain and throw away any stuff I have cluttering up my head and go get on with the next thing.  It's a bit like that bit in the Matrix where Neo gets fighting programmes loaded into his brain - "I know Kung Fu" say Neo in only the way Keanu Reeves can utter without one wasted bit of breath.  So it is with me.  I need to learn something to do the next job, let's say it is customer research (polls) then I will very quickly research this and will have a very good handle on it.  If I need to remember my languages, French, Italian and bit of German perhaps, I will just need to immerse myself for a day or two and can refresh my brain on it.  I know that in reality these things are still inside your head but it is the way that I work.

Someone asked me about something I did 10 years back - I said that I don't remember the detail but I'd be able to talk knowledgeably about it by the next morning - all I need do is read it up and it should all come flooding back.

So why tell you this?  I'm not sure really other than I had a pre-interview conversation and I realised just how much experience I have and how "valuable" I am to a business - it was striking once I started to recall all the things I can do - it was also startling that I have such a wide and varied experience across all industries - just luck or something I have unconsciously striven to do?  I'm also lucky to have grown up with technology from the earliest days of microprocessors, through early home computing right up to today.  

So if they like my CV then hopefully I might get an opportunity to go work with this company who are well respected - I kind of hope so as the knowledge and experience I have gives me a really useful toolkit to go and take to a customer.

So that's one good thing, perhaps something may come of that.  On the other front well news is still embargoed - not for too much longer I hope.  

I'm feeling quite good but as always (given that you don't know what is going on) with these things there are doubts and difficulties and ups and downs.  My friend is coming over today and we will go out to lunch and have a chat as he too is feeling up and then down.  It is pretty strange how we are both very similar - in fact there is only a very slight difference in our personality types I am INTJ and he is INFJ and both are sought after in our line of business.  He and I both had Cancer at the same time and we've been pretty close since then and built the business together and lived and breathed that.  At the moment we both find ourselves frustrated that the "market" doesn't see our full potential, we are both senior people, with stacks of business knowledge but our ex-colleagues still see us as how we used to be 15 years ago.  It's also that the market has Agents who don't actually match people up to jobs (I know that's what they say they do).  They use key word searches and yo almost have to do an SEO exercise on your CV to get it past the gatekeepers (computer) and past a bunch of sales kids to the customer.  It is money for old rope really and it competes with Estate Agents and Solicitors as the lowest form of life in my book.  

Anyway - we will be very supportive and be able to tell each other our stories today and at least we will feel OK once we've done that :-)  A minor purge of the soul.  It is though mind numbingly annoying that we can't seem to get anywhere and yet have so much to give.  The other problem is that we are also a lot different to your average exec and that may also be difficult for people to come to terms with.

So all is OK, I'm OK with the world at the moment.  Massive changes going on but coping OK and getting on day to day - doing lots of chores around the house and finally getting around to fixing stuff that I should have fixed years ago :-)  At least I am out of my major malaise and back on a road to recovery.  I have tests at the GPs on Friday - a Spirography (not Spirograph) test to check out my lung function (especially as an ex-smoker) and we will see how that goes.  Next week the dentist which I hope, now I hardly have any carbs will require no work.  A Bank Holiday weekend coming up - plenty of things to do and hope to keep busy.