Dead Men Walking

dMw Chit Chat => The Beer Bar => Seriously though ... => Topic started by: SithAfrikaan on January 24, 2019, 10:15:41 AM

Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: SithAfrikaan on January 24, 2019, 10:15:41 AM
Hey dudes!

As much as I'm enjoying being an entrepreneur the bank will laugh me out the building if I dare to apply for our mortgage renewal this year with my paltry earnings! Which means I'd like to take up a job! I've worked so long on the nightshift at ASDA (10+ years) that I'll be honest I'm a little out of touch with job applications, it seems like its become far to easy for companies to mass deny applications via the typical sites, like Indeed and Monster etc..

I know there's a handful of dMw's that are in my surrounding areas, and even some dMw's that actually employ real life people! And my question to you all is, would anyone know of positions part-time but permanent that you might like me to fulfil? Most of everyone I play with should know me as well spoken and competent ( :roflmao: maybe not in squads in games) and responsible. Still studying with the Open University, which is the main reason I'm not massively keen on full-time.

Any suggestions welcome! Otherwise I'll keep sifting through the listings on the typical sites!
Ideally I want more of a challenge than ASDA, which is why I'm looking elsewhere, even if they would have me back.
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: suicidal_monkey on January 24, 2019, 05:48:45 PM
I don't think I know where your surrounding areas might be...?
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: SithAfrikaan on January 24, 2019, 06:06:33 PM
I neglected to reveal, that I am in the north in Scunthorpe, surrounding areas would be Hull Doncaster Lincoln and Sheffield, but Doncaster is closest at 20ish minutes away. :D
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: Penfold on January 24, 2019, 07:23:26 PM
Skills/Areas of expertise? Type of work you're looking for?
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: SithAfrikaan on January 24, 2019, 08:09:39 PM
I've not got formal qualifications, but I'm fantastically well spoken (and like speaking to people face to face etc) great with time keeping and all the admin sort of stuff, otherwise studying the Psychology, along with photography, and a handful of courses along the way with regards to project management etc, I'd have to learn whatever is needed, so its a bit frustrating since my South African lack of formal study (not that it'd be recognised here anyway) has caught up with me a little.

Ideally I'd like to work for a charity since I'd still like to get involved in the future with my own project, AgeUK was one of the first to completely ignore my CV with a generic reply saying the position was filled by someone else. So that was frustrating.
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: Mikep1212 on January 25, 2019, 01:51:31 AM
Will you commit to a new job longer than you commit to a new game?

:lmfao: :lmfao: :lmfao:

Sorry I couldn't resist. All the best looking for work bro.
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: SithAfrikaan on January 25, 2019, 07:25:37 AM
Quote from: Mikep1212;436513Will you commit to a new job longer than you commit to a new game?

Made me lmao, good work!
(also no) ;)
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: Jamoe on January 25, 2019, 09:35:18 AM
Good luck Sith, my place are still very much keeping the purse strings tight and it might stay that way until my department stops being a cost centre (likely years away). If our commercial ideas ever come to fruition we will likely need more staff (support/QA/hustlers etc).
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: SithAfrikaan on January 25, 2019, 10:18:39 AM
Quote from: Jamoe;436517(support/QA/hustlers etc).

Thanks for the consideration Jamoe! I regularly pester Galatoni about positions at yours haha :D
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: Jamoe on January 25, 2019, 01:19:18 PM
Quote from: SithAfrikaan;436520Thanks for the consideration Jamoe! I regularly pester Galatoni about positions at yours haha :D

No harm in checking in, I'll definitely let you know if anything comes up.
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: albert on January 25, 2019, 01:24:40 PM
I would suggest Booking.com but Cambridge is a little far away. They always have opening in various roles including more business focused which I think with your outgoing nature and winning smile would be suited for. :D
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: SithAfrikaan on January 25, 2019, 03:22:25 PM
Quote from: albert;436525I think with your outgoing nature and winning smile would be suited for. :D

Oh stop it you, I'm blushing!
Good suggestion though thanks! I might consider similar agents if they're hiring nearby I'll have a google :D
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: DuVeL on January 26, 2019, 12:12:42 AM
Use your background more, when they know where you are from helps alot. Heck, even translations from UK to African might help you out more friend!
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: albert on January 26, 2019, 11:26:06 AM
Quote from: DuVeL;436531Use your background more, when they know where you are from helps alot. Heck, even translations from UK to African might help you out more friend!

For sure there are a lot of jobs for bilingual (or 2.5 if you can add dutch to Afrikaans). You could move to NL :D. Lots of jobs of all sorts around Amsterdam.
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: SithAfrikaan on January 26, 2019, 11:35:34 AM
Quote from: albert;436533(or 2.5 if you can add dutch to Afrikaans)

Haha, could you imagine the confusion :D but thanks for the suggestions, no thanks to my parents making me bilingual in something that hasn't got a huge amount of value outside of SA hahaha :roflmao:
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: Sneakytiger on January 27, 2019, 07:18:51 AM
Have u looked into the job sites like indeed or total jobs,put your cv online ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: Mikep1212 on January 27, 2019, 11:28:31 AM
Quote from: SithAfrikaan;436504it seems like its become far to easy for companies to mass deny applications via the typical sites, like Indeed and Monster etc..

Guess so!
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: sulky_uk on January 27, 2019, 06:51:22 PM
shame this is in seriously though area.....so many things to say


On a more...wait for it...serious note, yep sulky does serious..or was it sarah?

have you put you CV on linkedin, that according to the RAF's resettlement guide is one of the top 5 ways to get a job post military service( i know you aint a grunt)

create an account, and people will hopefully find you based on your cv etc, also if you friend people it gets you more widely visible to people you may not know.

if you create an account let me know and ill friend you, i have a few connections, as do others on here
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: SithAfrikaan on January 27, 2019, 06:54:59 PM
Thanks Sulky I'll give that a go and report back tomorrow morning!
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: suicidal_monkey on January 28, 2019, 12:47:48 PM
I would suggest Ocado but our head office is way too far from you. We do have a spoke near Hull somewhere but perhaps not what you're after: driving vans, delivering groceries. Not sure there's anything office based in Hull looking at our careers site but I can try digging for more info?
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: SithAfrikaan on January 29, 2019, 08:29:36 AM
That's alright thanks Suicidal, I'll check them out!
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: SithAfrikaan on March 21, 2019, 03:00:36 PM
Hey so a quick update for anyone still curious, I've applied for the Amazon IT Apprenticeship, and today I found out that I've made it to the final round! This is worded as follows:
QuoteHi Jacques,
I am pleased to confirm that you have been successful in reaching the final stage in the recruitment process for the role of IT Apprenticeship Program, which involves a visit of the site, a group exercise, an individual presentation, and a competency-based interview.

I'm obviously super excited, but my question to anyone reading is, any tips for me? Maybe you've had experience yourselves? The pre-screening was a gruelling set of questions so I imagine this "competency-interview" is going to be QUITE interesting!
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: BrotherTobious on March 21, 2019, 03:17:11 PM
Group exercise is basically how you work in a team, so push when you need to, find the quiet one and purposely ask their opinion to bring them in.  Change your role from leader to do and so on.  A few easy moves show you can be a team player!!!
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: Penfold on March 21, 2019, 05:29:31 PM
Firstly congratulations. I'm sure the interview process was as rigourous as it was competitive so no small thing in getting that far.

The last group exercise I did was for Sandhurst which was pretty much as Toby said. The key, apprently, is to strike that happy balance between being confident yet not overly dogmatic or dictatorial. Work with the others, listen to their arguments and reasonsing. If you disagree with someone then tell them calmly and explain why your view is different. Embrace everyone in the group (not literally) and if you don't know something then don't be afraid to stick your headf up above the parapet and say so. Being able to say "I'm not sure about this but this would be my take on it" says a lot about your strength of character.

Hate giving you any credit as you know but you've got a warm, engaging and likeable character. That, coupled with your infectious enthusiam, is going to stand you in great stead.

That's my thoughts on it in any case. Others here have probably done these things a lote more recently and interviewed people so they may have a different take.
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: albert on March 21, 2019, 05:48:22 PM
Amazon have a certain expectation for interviewees. I have the email from applying once. I can send it to you if you PM me an email address.
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: SithAfrikaan on March 21, 2019, 07:29:53 PM
Thanks for the responses dudes! I'll pop you my email Albert!
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: DuVeL on March 21, 2019, 10:56:33 PM
I never had anything similar but wish you best of luck buddy! Keep us posted!
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: suicidal_monkey on March 24, 2019, 08:42:57 PM
Hope this doesn't come too late...!
Quotea visit of the site, a group exercise, an individual presentation, and a competency-based interview.
We use similar sorts of stages in our interview processes. Couple of general things we look for:
- show some knowledge or interest in the company and the role (when given the chance to ask them questions like "what is it like to work here" or "what do you like about working here" - try to find out a little bit about how their teams work. Basically be yourself and have a conversation with them! :) )
- communication and listening: explain your thought process, and when they talk to you make sure you listen carefully to what they say (lots of people fail to heed advice during the interviews as they are so caught up in thinking about what they are doing/saying). If they challenge your solution, consider their suggestions in case they are checking if you blindly do what they say. Jokes (safe for work ones!) are allowed: we want to know we could enjoy working together
- admit when you have reached the limit of your knowledge and are perhaps guessing a bit, and they might help you
- if you get stuck in some problem then explain what you're thinking and where you're stuck: you can ask for help
- in the presentation have a clear message (3 key points or less - we have crap memories) and be explicit about them. Less text on the slides (if you use slides) allows you to talk more normally and they won't know when you forget something! Use your personality to make the presentation work if possible:D Also remember to look at all the people you are presenting to (don't look at the floor/wall/slides all the time!)

Be yourself and hopefully you'll do fine. I'm not sure what "Amazon IT Apprenticeship" means exactly but if it's similar to some of our positions we tend to look for potential (collaboration, communication, able to ask for help when needed, willingness to learn and to take on challenges) over existing knowledge/ability.

Good luck!
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: SithAfrikaan on March 25, 2019, 06:27:15 AM
Thanks for the tips Suicidal!
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: SithAfrikaan on April 18, 2019, 08:59:28 AM
Just wanted to say a further thanks to everyone that gave me tips here! I was really looking forward to come tell you just how well the day actually went!
It went incredibly!
The short-list was 6 and only 5 turned up. It was the very standard affair, meet, presentation by us in a 1 to 1 (not 1 to 10 like I expected) a tour of the INSANELY SCI-FI AND AWESOME robot-run facility and then finally a group activity for assessment.
I came out of the day feeling great and that it could not have gone better at all.

And Dudes, it went so well that less than 24hours later 10 am yesterday I got the email to say I've been accepted and I start in August (term time since apprenticeship)
I am SO ECSTATIC and excited I can't even begin to tell you, it's a SUPER opportunity for me and I cannot wait for it.

So once again, massive thank for the supports and the messages!
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: BrotherTobious on April 18, 2019, 09:05:24 AM
Amazing news mate big congrats chief well done!!!!
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: Jamoe on April 18, 2019, 12:41:58 PM
This is the best news :) I hope this goes well for you guys.
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: suicidal_monkey on April 18, 2019, 12:49:58 PM
Well done dude! :thumbsup:
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: Chaosphere on April 18, 2019, 01:30:25 PM
Big congrats mate, really happy for you. Well done.
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: Penfold on April 18, 2019, 02:44:36 PM
Fantastic. When does the friends and family discount kick in? :norty:
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: no peanuts on April 18, 2019, 04:21:15 PM
Nice one Sith, I'm very happy for you!
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: OldBloke on April 18, 2019, 04:58:15 PM
Made my day reading that. So very pleased for you :thumb:
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: Milli on April 18, 2019, 06:31:21 PM
That's great news bud, delighted for you, just try and have a little more attention span in the job than as you do with games and you'll be fine [emoji23]

Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: Mikep1212 on April 18, 2019, 09:12:51 PM
Deserved!

Congratulations mate.
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: SithAfrikaan on April 18, 2019, 11:17:02 PM
Thanks dudes! :D
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: DuVeL on April 19, 2019, 08:30:20 AM
Have you booked the LAN off already? But seriously, congratulations Jacques, well deserved!
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: Gunda on April 19, 2019, 09:31:08 AM
wow, awesome news, grats sith :)
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: Myopic Sniper on April 20, 2019, 10:07:32 AM
Reading this thread made my heart melt. You're too good for this world, Sith :)
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: albert on April 20, 2019, 10:10:26 AM
Well done mate. So deserving.  :D
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: SithAfrikaan on April 21, 2019, 01:12:55 AM
Thanks Albert Myopic Gunda and Duvel! :D
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: TeaLeaf on April 23, 2019, 09:07:38 AM
Quote from: SithAfrikaan;437409I am SO ECSTATIC and excited I can't even begin to tell you, it's a SUPER opportunity for me and I cannot wait for it.
Huge congrats on this, well done! :thumbsup::worship:
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: SithAfrikaan on August 11, 2019, 12:03:29 PM
I just wanted to update you all here in a slightly more official capacity, that I've had the greatest first week ever!
It was a full week in Manchester at the MAN1 facility which is a robotics site etc etc, and even though some of it was tedious having to watch copious videos and sometimes having to watch other people "perform their job" it was absolutely incredible, and I have never ever been this excited to start working for a company! For obvious reasons (I hope they're obvious, I'm under NDA etc) I can't post in the forum about the bonkers stuff I've seen this week, but I can tell you that it is my dream job!

I start tomorrow morning at Doncaster where I'll be based, but the travel and other site visits are plentiful and regular, so I get to see all sorts as an apprentice!
I can't believe I've got a career that allows me to expense travel/food etc when away on the job, I'm sure it's regular business for many of you but it is an almost alien world to me!

So thanks for tuning in and all the well-wishes etc, I'll let you know how it progresses from time to time, since I'll likely need some support from friends in IT as well :D
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: Milli on August 11, 2019, 02:03:03 PM
That's great to hear bud, thanks for the update.  It's great to hear you have landed your dream job and to hear how much enthusiasm you have for it.

Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: DiseasedBunny on August 11, 2019, 02:03:23 PM
Congratulations, hope you keep this enthusiasm for your job , as that's the secret to wanting to go to work...I've been in the same place since I got an apprenticeship, 23 years later and still love the job...
Title: Own your own Sith! Or help someone else own him!
Post by: albert on August 12, 2019, 12:11:53 PM
Quote from: SithAfrikaan;438698I just wanted to update you all here in a slightly more official capacity, that I've had the greatest first week ever!
It was a full week in Manchester at the MAN1 facility which is a robotics site etc etc, and even though some of it was tedious having to watch copious videos and sometimes having to watch other people "perform their job" it was absolutely incredible, and I have never ever been this excited to start working for a company! For obvious reasons (I hope they're obvious, I'm under NDA etc) I can't post in the forum about the bonkers stuff I've seen this week, but I can tell you that it is my dream job!

I start tomorrow morning at Doncaster where I'll be based, but the travel and other site visits are plentiful and regular, so I get to see all sorts as an apprentice!
I can't believe I've got a career that allows me to expense travel/food etc when away on the job, I'm sure it's regular business for many of you but it is an almost alien world to me!

So thanks for tuning in and all the well-wishes etc, I'll let you know how it progresses from time to time, since I'll likely need some support from friends in IT as well :D

Very nice to hear! If you're ever in the Amsterdam Office, ping me and we can meet up for a croquet!