Testing madness

I received some feedback today....

After 2 trips to Birmingham and sitting 2 sets of tests, competency and psychometric, the prospective employer has decided to re-advertise the position because none of the 8 candidates (myself included) came up to the mark. But here's the rub... we were the only ones to apply, and according to the agency, there are few candidates out there. People with jobs are staying put. My competition comes fromthose who, like me, don't currently have a job to go to.

And this is a trend I've noticed. Several (to me) prospective employers are interviewing again for BA/SBA/PM roles having failed to find a suitable candidate. The one thing that they all have is that they are big name employers, so I suppose that they can (a) afford to be choosey and (b) keep going round the circle of advertising / testing / interviewing simply to keep thier HR department in business. Incidently, these prospective employers are the same ones that have a reputation for regularily having a clear-out, making "under performers" redundant on a 6 or 12 month basis. Begs the question, would I want to work for them anyway?

Yesterday I had a call from Viv to say that she had been approached for a reference on me, so maybe, just maybe, something is happening.... but I'm not holding my breath. Viv's situation isn't good. Like me she finds she's just not creating that spark that results in a job offer. Only in her case, she's not worked since zeda went bust. At least I had my time at Trinity, so "Not good" is the phrase that comes to mind.

Today was a visit to a local agency -- after chasing shadows in the form of IT agencies spread across the country I'm implementing a change of tactics -- register with a couple of local agencies in Derby, Nottingham and Leicester and push for a local job, lower salary but (hopefully) a greater quality of life. Only time will tell if it's a good move or not. Watch this space.