Friday, November 10, 2006
Job-Seeking Ordeal
When I first arrived in London in April 2006, I only wanted something small which I could do from home during my spare time. I found one in about 3 weeks time. Then I got bored staying at home but at the same time still wanted to spend time with Dominic. So I started looking for a part time job. I said I wanted a job that would let me work 5 days a week from 9am to 3pm. Sadly, there was no such thing at all. I submitted my CV to any recruitment agencies that I could find, specifying that I was looking for part time job. None of them got back to me. Those who did were only interested in full time employment.
Months passed and Dominic was turning 8 months old. I finally gave up on part time. There were hundreds of jobs available which may be suitable for me. I applied to almost anything that sounded feasible. Over the next few weeks, I received rejection e-mails after rejection e-mails.
I applied to Consulting jobs but I was not a subject matter expert - in any single subject. Jack of all trades won't do as all were looking for specialisation. They wanted a consultant in financial software implementation, a consultant in telecommunications, etc. As far as industrial knowledge was concerned, I had one year in the broadcast industry and zero gained during those 4 years in Accenture. Government industry?? Come on! Not to mention that I had never liked the stuffs that I was dealing with - data centres? Networks? Clearly not my cup of tea. I applied to Accenture in UK too. But it would be difficult if you're not willing to travel.
I was looking at Project Management jobs too. In Malaysia, Project Management was easy and straightforward. You manage the resources, liaise with all parties, make sure that the project is delivered on time, you control the budget and you resolve issues. Over here you gotta have certification in some Project Management standards and methodologies - which I've not even heard of. Otherwise, you would need to have at least 10 years of experience. And it wasn't all general at all. You gotta have project management experience in infrastructure implementation, for example.
And I also thought of being a software tester. I said I was doing intensive software testing during my one year with Astro. Have you used any software testing tools? No, it was manual testing most of the time. Have you run any automated test scripts? No, only manual scripts. Can you write automated test scripts? Well, obviously no! Although I think I can learn it up in one week.
My best bet was to be a Business Analyst. The job scope of a Business Analyst - to gather requirements, analyse business needs, transform those needs into technical specifications, liaise between IT and business, own the requirements and ensure system meets all requirements. It was that simple. It was the thing that I was most confident with. It was my strongest skill. And I said - that's it! I have finally found what I really wanted to do.
Over the next few weeks, I applied to Business Analyst in financial implementation, Business Analyst in legal software, Business Analyst in Web development, Business Analyst in the oil industry, Business Analyst at Google, etc etc etc. I think I sent over 20 CVs. I amended my CV again and again. I needed to have experience in structured methodologies such as UML, RUP, PRINCE2 and heaven knows what so I needed to mention UML in my CV since it was the only one I've ever heard of. I learnt up UML online and made it sound like I was an expert. Have you used any requirements tool? This time I said - Yes, we used Test Director - even though we used it only to track issues. I made it sound like I had been doing nothing else but business analysis for the past 5 years. My previous job titles had to be Business Analyst or Analyst and not Consultant, Application Architect or Solutions Architect.
All my competitors had at least a Masters degree, if not a PhD. There were thousands of jobs but millions of applicants.
Finally, after 2 long months, I was called in for an interview and it was THE ONLY interview that I needed. I was offered a job with decent pay and excellent benefits. I am only praying that I will have no problems with the job scope.
