Monday, 27 October 2008

week 5

this is the beginning of the 5th week of my 3 month contract at a large investment bank and i still don't have a pc. they also screwed up my wages so it means i haven't been paid since i started working there though i have been assured it will come through next time pay roll is processed. this is all going wonderfully well and initially i was really annoyed and pretty down about it but now in a strange way i actually find the whole situation quite funny now. shit!, you have to laugh about this stuff even if its happening to you.

aside from that nothing else is really going on and hence a bit quiet on the blog because life has been very quiet recently. job applications and gym and sitting at work studying. that is my life these days. nothing else.

still haven't spoken to my friend i went to the states with, and its been almost exactly 2 months since i got back. just can't be bothered to get in contact and i really don't want to if i am honest. he really did do a few things that were out of order and that doesn't include changing the route on day 2 of the trip and taking the car and wasting a nine inch nails ticket i paid for, and then me having to take an 8 hour bus trip from knoxville to memphis.

another example of something he did on a few occasions was when we went to get something to eat. there were a few occasions like the time we went to new york hotel and casino in las vegas. we went to the restaurant and ordered some food. i ordered fish and chips which was $15 and he ordered a kobe beef steak which was $30. the bill came to around $50 and he put a $20 note down and then said he didn't have any change and then looked at me. i put down the other $30.

i am not one of those assholes who calculates the bill to the last cent but i also don't like it when people take the piss and i end up paying for his $30 japenese beef steak. he did this on quite a few occasions over the course of the trip and i just thought it was a little bit of a shitty thing to do. you don't go out to eat and then order the most expensive thing on the menu and then not pay your fair share.its not like he even split the bill in half. he always tried to get away with paying less than that.
friends like that we don't need.

anyways, if i can't think of anything else to write about i will write about more random and trivial incidents on my trip across america in my forthcoming posts.

today i have mostly been listening to the smiths - how soon is now.
there was a survey recently to find the best song lyrics ever and a few lines from this song was voted as the best ever.

theres a club that you'd like to go...you could meet somebody who really loves you...
so you go and you stand on your own....and you leave on your own...
...and you go home...and you cry and you want to die...



jesus, what does that say about england and the people here if that is the best lyric ever. cheer up everyone. :-)

take care V


Sunday, 19 October 2008

a long couple of months ahead

monday will be the beginning of my 4th week at the new bank and i still don't have a pc or a login. its a complete shambles at that place. i have asked a bunch of people there what is going on and they all say they are going to sort it out and then they just don't do anything. this is one of the largest financial instututions in the world and they can't sort out a login and a pc. i am not surprised this bunch of muppets has lost billions of dollars recently. they make the trivial seem complicated.

its things like this that just make me feel really disillusioned with working in these large banks. this is my 3rd bank and each one has been mind numbingly boring and not challenging in the slightest, and yet as my job has become more and more boring and trivial my salary has gone up each time. it just simply makes no sense at all. this is not at all like how i had expected it to be at all and this current bank i am at is by far the worst one i have been at.

i didn't end up getting called up for that other job i really liked and i heard they already filled the role. i am applying for other jobs but its coming to the end of the year and things are pretty slow out there. its looking like i will be at this bank till the end of the year. its going to be a llong couple of months coming up, but shit, we done it before and we will just have to do it again. will have to just keep day dreaming about southern california to get me through the days.

take care V.

today i have mostly been listening to audioslave - cochise.


Saturday, 11 October 2008

a second shot

Guess what?........i still don't have a login, computer or desk at my new job and its been 2 weeks now. i have done absolutely no work at all but have billed them the equivalent of a few thousand dollars. i don't know who my manager is and i don't know hardly anyone i am supposed to be working with because i sit at a spare desk with the UNIX team and not near the windows server guys. its been ok though because i have been studying like a beast and i took another exam this week on top of the one i took last week. but looking at it on a proffessional level, its a very poor way to treat a new starter even if they are a contractor like me.

......and then in a twist of fate one evening i was just randomly browsing to see if any jobs were out there and i saw a job spec of something that looked similar to something i went for about 8 months ago. i sent my resume off to it and the next day i got a call back from the recruiter asking when i might be available, to which i replied that i was available immediately (didn't tell them i just started somewhere new). i then asked the recruiter about the company that was looking to hire and it turns out its exactly the same job at the company i saw 8 months ago. i almost landed it then but they ended up going with someone who worked there before, though i know that the guy that interviewed me at the time was pretty impressed with me. it seems that the other guy they hired instead of me must have left because they need to fill the position again.

fingers crossed i can go one better and land this job. i know it would be just perfect. if not i will have to carry on that bank. it won't be the end of the world but it would be really really nice to get this other job.

today i have been mostly listeing to air traffic - shooting star. have a listen, V, if you get a chance. its the kind of thing you would like.

Thursday, 2 October 2008

new job

new job diary.

monday : did no work - no permanent desk, no login, no pc/laptop. don't know why they asked me to come in.

tuesday : did no work - still
no permanent desk, no login, no pc/laptop. did take my own laptop to the office and studied for exam.

wednesday : did no work - still nothing sorted out for me. carried on revising.

thursday : did no work - still no access to anything. carried on revising. went to the tate modern art gallery in the afternoon.

how do you think friday will turn out?. i suspect i will do nothing again. i will however bill them for 5 days work which almost covers the cost of the holiday i took in the states lat month. proffessionally a waste of time, but not financially.

oh jesus!, here we go again. what is going on in these banks?. i thought because they were paying me so much they would give me work to do. i was wrong. its just like the last 2 banks i have been at. paid to do nothing at all.

am still applying for jobs but will bleed them for cash in the meantime and if nothing comes up over the next few weeks i will just have to stay till the end of the year. the beginning of a new year is always a good time to get something new.

i just want to go somewhere and do some work. is that too much to ask for?. i get so bored sitting there doing nothing. some people would love it but i know it will drive me nuts soon, hence i have started studying again. i have 2 exams (exchange and ISA server) booked in the next couple of weeks and after that there are 2 more exams i want to do( sql and hyper-v), but after that i will have pretty much run out of exams to do.

i must be getting close to some kind of record for the most microsft exams done. i will be on 25 or 26 exams passed by then. shit!, what will i do with myself when there are no more exams to do?.