london life, 2006 - part three - finding a job

I had forgotten just how difficult the UK job market could be, especially for an mechanical engineer in London. I was lucky last time to have a good contact provided by a friend. Not so this time. Victoria wasn’t having much of a better time as a project manager, but at least she got a couple of interviews. I had nothing. It seemed that every engineering job that was advertised was for building services or refrigeration or somesuch, and nothing in mechanical design, composites, testing, or anything I was experienced in. If there was a role going as a design engineer, it required x years of experience in CATIA, a package I have never come across before. It got to the point where I started looking for CATIA courses, but at around £2000+ I decided against it. I did try to look in other areas, but it was so hard to come up with any possibilities that fit my skills. In hindsight, I probably should have registered with more (ugh) agencies. If we do it again, I'll do my utmost to get a job before we get there.

Checking the free papers for jobs outside the flat in Pennard Road. Obviously not finding anything.

I did get a couple of interviews, though. The first a design and testing role with a company called Norma (!) that manufactured pipe connectors in a town just outside London, close to Reading I think. This didn’t get off to a good start when my train was delayed. Seems to be a theme for me. I managed to call the agent and get him to contact the interviewer, but knew I was going to be on shaky ground. The interview was OK, but I never really established a great rapport with the interviewer, and I knew it wasn’t going to happen as soon as I walked out. Still, it was a very pleasant journey home on the train watching the English countryside whiz by to the tune of ‘Black Holes and Revelations’.

Fast forward a month or two, and the second interview came through EPCJobs, the recruitment firm for Bechtel, and was for a project admin-type person working on the new station/interchange for the London Olympic village. It was pretty junior, and mainly involved checking compliance and chasing up contractors, but at least it was work. This time everything went very smoothly, I got to the venue on time, and the interview was excellent. The one kicker was that Vic had been for an interview the same day, and we had agreed that if she didn’t get that job, we’d head home. I was offered the job, she wasn’t and within the week we had booked our tickets home. Don’t think I’d been sitting on my hands otherwise, though – I’d been applying for dozens of jobs independently of the recruitment agents, most of which had met with resounding silence or rejection. The worst though, was the third interview I was offered, but never went to, with Jaguar, in Coventry. Dream job. Why, you ask? Because the invitation came after we had already been back in New Zealand for a week.

london life, 2006 - part two - finding a flat

After about three weeks of job and flat hunting we were starting to get a bit desperate. We had started out looking at the Chiswick and Stamford Brook areas for a flat but quickly found that they were outside our budget. We still really wanted to stay in the West, so we expanded our search to include surrounding areas as well, looking at Fulham, West Kensington and Shepherds Bush. In the end we found a place on www.gumtree.com in Pennard Road in Shepherd’s Bush. Pennard Road is one street back from the Shepherd’s Bush roundabout and runs behind the Shepherd’s Bush Empire and the Walkabout Pub. After looking at a few true hovels, this place was quite nice. It was a spacious two bedroom garden flat with a South African couple and dosser already installed. Everything looked in good order and we got on well with the others (in the brief time we met), so we snapped it up. One thing I clearly remember them saying when we were looking at the flat was that they kept the flat clean and took turns to do the cleaning.

This is one of the only shots of the flat I have! You can just see it in the background behind the hedge.

After a while we got the flat set up pretty well, and we were reasonably comfortable there. We had a phone line installed (the reasons behind there not being one already were never fully explained) and Homechoice broadband hooked up with a wireless router. Unfortunately there was always a bit of tension simmering between the two couples as although we are far from the neatest people, the other guys did not make good on their promise that they cleaned regularly. One episode that leaps to mind was when we spent some time cleaning the bathroom including scrubbing the mould off the ceiling over the bath. When they mentioned that they appreciated it, they also added that they had cleaned it some months ago, but the mould just came back, so they hadn’t bothered since! That theme continued throughout our time there, but we really tried not to let it affect our enjoyment of the place.

Despite the flat being sandwiched between the tube line and the biggest roundabout in London, it was never noisy, and being in the garden was very pleasant. We did spend quite a lot of time in the garden over summer, especially playing darts with our housemates. Man that was a hot summer! Darts is apparently quite an institution among South Africans, and we really got into it too, and I think we even got quite good at it in our time in Shepherd’s Bush. It became a bit of a routine that we’d pick up the darts and head outside with a few beers when the flatmates got home from work. Good fun; Good times, Good Darts. Despite any cleaning conflicts, we had a good time at Pennard Road, and got on especially well with Nick, the dosser. It was also quite central, and the transportation options were good. I couldn’t count how often we’d take the bus into town to wander Oxford Street aimlessly.