After more than a decade, I am on the job market again (unfortunately am not shifting anywhere near enough photography to stay out of an office). It is a rather interesting experience and not as intimidating as one may have thought (or that the picture to the left may suggest).
But of course, even before getting to the interview stage, there's the small matter of sparking some interest in someone's head to get offered an interview. I had of course been keeping my CV up to date during all this time, but hadn't really thought that maybe the presentation and the lay-out should have been refreshed. It was brought home to me, when I interviewed with a head hunter, who for the first 15 minutes tore my CV apart and pointed out to me that while in itself the content was impressive it was very difficult to glean all the great stuff out of there because of the lay-out.
Back to the drawing board. So I re-did my CV. Not something to be rushed, after all this was going to be my calling card, it was my agent.
And then of course, there is a mater of finding something to apply for. And it turns out that it isn't all that simple over here in Switzerland, because even though the economy seems to be doing well and everyone seems to be looking for people in my field... I fast realized that my "field" was very misunderstood. I would get job descriptions, and start checking off the qualifications required against my own. And invariably, I would arrive at a whole lot of requirements that had nothing or very little to do with the position. In fact it turns out that people were trying to take advantage and get at the very least two for the price of one. But oh well, who can really blame them.
But getting back to interviewing... I am beginning to appreciate what makes a good interviewer, and as a consequence a good employer... But more on that next time around.
