Huzzah!

Whoops! I hadn't realised that it was nearly a week since I last posted - sorry! I had been waiting for some good news to post...

Things moved very quickly last week after I last posted...

The GIS interview went really well. I had a bit of a trek out (the offices are two train rides away, and the office manager was very kind to give me a lift to and from the station, otherwise I would have had a bus journey, too!), to a glorious office in the middle of a suburb (my impressions might have been coloured by the fact that it was a beautiful day!). I got on brilliantly with the directors (they are a husband and wife partnership, and the wife is also a TKD teacher...), and it ended up with them saying that although they didn't have a role for me at the moment (and they had made that clear from the start, so I wasn't going there under false impressions), they were looking at a positive restructure (i.e. they had just won two major contracts, and the company was going to have to change radically to cope with them), and a role similar to the one that I had been doing with Innogistic was needed. However, because they hadn't worked out the exact details of the restructure as yet, they couldn't offer me anything. So I had to give them a call before I accepted any other offer... This did therefore leave me in a bit of a dilemma, as both companies had pros and cons, and if I ended up with job offers from them both, I would be having a couple of sleepless nights trying to work out what would be the best course of action to take!

I then had on Thursday my fourth interview with Heat 'n' Click, this time with Steven, the new sales manager (so new, that he hadn't actually started at the at point!). It was more of a chat than an interview - we are going to be working closely together, so it was vital that we weren't going to annoy each other. We got on brilliantly - totally on the same wavelength (a good chat about what processes were needed, and then a discussion as to why Gandalf didn't just get the eagles to take Frodo to Mount Doom and short cut all that mucking about on the ground... ;-) )

They then left me hanging for the whole weekend, which got a bit nerve wracking - by this afternoon, I was wondering whether they were just trying to work out how to tell me to stuff off! But James called just at the end of office hours to say that they would like to offer me the job - yays!

Rather sadly, when I called up today (post offer from James) to speak to the managing director of the GIS company, he said that they hadn't had the restructure meeting yet, and therefore wouldn't be in a position to offer me a formal interview until after Christmas. A bit of a shame, but it does mean that if the Heat 'n' Click does fall over, or if I realise that I really can't work with them, I do have a fall back company to go to! And he has said that he will keep my details on file and get in touch with me (though he would understand if I said that I wasn't interested any more). So I didn't have two companies fighting over me, but it would have been nice ;-)

The role that I am going to be doing is essentially a general administrative one; the company is new and doesn't have any processes or procedures in place, so initially, I am going to be working on setting those up (getting a stock management system in place, for example, including building an Excel based one for short term use, though I hope that they will be buying in a sturdier one for long term usage!), and looking after accounts management (sorting out their GST (equivalent to VAT) returns etc). When the Christmas period is over, I'll also be helping out with the website and doing some back office sales (i.e. taking calls in etc). There will also be some marketing work (helping design their pop-ups and literature for trade shows, actually arranging the trade show stands etc) (I'm also going to be doing a bit of short term work on their "Calendar Club" stand until that contract is finished in January)

The exact nature of the role beyond that is actually a bit nebulous - a lot of it will depend on how the Christmas sales go, and how much interest they pick up on the Green Biz side of things (they've had a couple of trade shows where they hoped to get some good leads; I expect that some of my early role will possibly be processing those leads, though that hasn't been talked about yet!)

I've got to wait for him to talk to my references before I get the job offer in writing, but as I know they will be good, all I need to find out now is where I'm going to be working from (they don't actually have an office as such, so I might possibly be working from home for a while, either that, or in the shopping mall waiting for my shift on the CC stand!), and when they want me to start...

In other news, we have also found ourselves an orchestra! The Hutt Valley Orchestra rehearses about 20 minutes walk away from us, and we went to their final concert of the year (they are now having a break until Feb). Their repertoire is very similar to that of Longwell Green, and the sense of humour is the same. I've just got to get myself some sheet music from the library so that I can keep my eye in until I'm next playing properly (unfortunately, news from the shipping company is that our belongings have only just left, and we can't expect them to reach NZ before the first week in Jan. Total pain!)