Φρανκφούρτη λοιπόν

Db01 Comment

Εδώ είμαστε, μετά απο μια εβδομάδα αφότου έφυγα απο το Λονδίνο, επιτέλους έχω την ευκαιρία να ανανεώσω το ιστολόγιο μου, και αυτή τη φορά και στα Ελληνικά. Ναι, αυτή τη στιγμή βρίσκομαι στο καινούργιο μου γραφείο στην Κεντρική Ευρωπαϊκή Τράπεζα (23ος όροφος στον Eurotower) και εκμεταλέυομαι λίγη ώρα αφότου σχόλασα για να σερφάρω, μιας και στο ξενοδοχείο που μένω δεν διαθέτω internet ή υπολογιστή που να μπορεί να το χρησιμοποιήσει.

Αρχικές εντυπώσεις απο την πόλη δεν είναι άσχημες. Η συγκοινωνία είναι πολύ καλή μιας και διαθέτει εκτεταμένο “Μετρό” και έχει μικρότερο μέγεθος απο την Θεσσαλονίκη. Τελικό αποτέλεσμα είναι οτι για να πάω οπουδήποτε χρειάζομαι το πολύ 30 λεπτά και για να φτάσω στην δουλειά χρειάζομαι 15 λεπτά, και αυτό κυρίως διότι πρέπει να περπατήσω 10 λεπτά μέχρι την στάση.

Απο διασκέδαση δεν έχω ανακαλύψει ακόμα πολλά αλλα το επιδιώκω. Το πρώτο Σ/Κ που είμουν εδώ ανακάλυψα ένα μπαράκι (που μου πρότεινε ο υπάλληλος απο το μονάδικο μαγαζί με επιτραπέζια εδω γύρω) εν ονόματι Mephisto, στο οποίο πρώτο ξάφνιασμα είναι οτι ο Μπάρμαν είναι Έλλην και δεύτερο οτι το ίδιο ισχύει και για τον Ιδιοκτήτη. Αυτό θα πεί σύμπτωση.
Τα υπόλοιπα μέρη που εξερέυνησα ήταν:

  1. Μία Ιρλανδική pub που την δουλεύει ένας…Καναδός, ο οποίος μου έθεσε πολύ καθαρά οτι ο Καναδάς δεν βρίσκεται στην Αμερική αλλα “Στο βόρειο ημισφαίριο της Αμερικανικής ηπείρου”.
  2. Ένα μπαράκι που είχε την προσφορά των .99 cents η οποία ανακάλυψα δεν σήμαινε οτι πουλούσε τα πάντα στα .99 cents αλλα οτι όλα τα ποτά τελείωναν σε .99 cents. Σαν αποτέλεσμα το μενού είχε τιμές σαν 4.99 και 9.99 (το τελευταίο, για ένα μέτρο μπύρα…) Το μαγαζί αυτό έπαιζε περίεργα χαρούμενη μουσική. Δεν ξέρω τους ακριβείς όρους άλλα ήταν ένα συνεχόμενο mix απο χορευτικές διασκευές. Ακόμα και το “Ωπα, ώπα, σ’αγαπώ κι’ ας μη σου το ‘πα” άκουσα, σε Ελληνική και τουρκική έκδοση. Τα περισσότερα τραγούδια ήταν στα γερμανικά απο την άλλη. Όλα αυτά, σε συνδυασμό με το γεγονός οτι ο μπάρμαν με κοιτούσε λίγο περίεργα και οτι το μαγαζί είχε μόνο ανδροπαρέες με έκανε να υποψιάζομαι οτι μπούκαρα σε gay bar. Τέλος πάντων
  3. Μια πιο traditional pub μέσα στην τουριστική περιοχή, στην οποία βρήκα μια παρέα απο 14-16χρονα να καπνίζουν και να πίνουν μπύρες (αλήθεια πια είναι η νόμιμη ηλικία για αλκοόλ στην Γερμανία;). Σε κάποια φάση αποφάσισαν οτι είμουν ενδιαφέρον και προσπάθησαν να μου μιλήσουν…Γερμανικά. Δεν δούλεψε ιδιαίτερα καλά. Το ίδιο αποτέλεσμα είχε και η Ουκρανέζα που καθόταν με τον άντρα της δίπλά μου.
  4. Ένα καθεδρικό ναό.

Έυτυχως, δόξα το Google, ανακάλυψα μερικά μέρη τα οποία είναι πιο κοντά στα γούστα μου, και σήμερα λέω να κάνω μια εξόρμηση στην “Σπηλιά” η οποία υποτίθεται παίζει metal-ιές και αύριο θα επισκευθώ ένα πιο alternative-gothic μέρος, εν ονόματι, “The Final Destination”

Κόσμο δεν γνωρίσα ακόμα, εκτώς απο τους συνάδελφους μου και τους Έλληνες στο Mephisto, διότι δεν μιλάω γρι γερμανικά. Τα αγγλικά δεν είναι ιδιαίτερα διάσημα απ’οτι έχω καταλάβει και η γνωριμίες καταντάνε λίγο αποτυχία σαν αποτέλεσμα. Γερμανικά δεν προβλέπεται να μαθαίνω (Τζαμπέ that is) μέχρι να τελειώσει αυτή η σαιζόν μαθημάτων, δεν ξέρω πότε θα είναι αυτό.

Αυτά για την ώρα.

Βαρέθηκα.

Last night

Db0

So this is it. My last night in London has arrived. Tomorrow at 2pm I will be flying to Frankfurt.

All in all, it’s been interesting. I’ve met quite a few people and I found the crowds that I like to hang out with to be much more friendly than the relative in Greece. People tell me that Germans are much more cold and hostile but I think I’m going to reserve judgment until I get to see things for myself.

My experience here has been a mix of good and bad. In the end I’m just happy to have found a job but sorry that I have to, once again, leave everything behind.

Last.fm Events

Db0

[tag]Last.fm[/tag] once more has done something extremely cool with its newest version. It’s called the event system and it allows you to find local events (gigs/concerts whatever) that are similar to your music taste and see who else is going or register that you will be attending.

This is one of the coolest ways to meet new people. Arrange to meet up for a concert and maybe for a beer afterwards.

You can also search for events by any number of factors, like band, date or location.

Excellent!

The other interesting update is the last.fm flash radio. No longer must you download the last.fm player from anywhere you need to listen to music. That seriously helps in case you want to listen from a place where you don’t have admin rights or are just in a hurry.
It still needs work as it seems. I’ve been trying it all morning and I get a lot of disconnection errors and heavy buffering but I expect that will be fixed sooner or later. It’s probably because of the amount of people trying it out and putting a strain on the servers.

Other new & interesting stuff are the free downloads and the tast-o-meter, but events in my humble opinion is teh shit!

JobSearch Statistics

Db0

Time I’ve been in London: Approximately 5 Months

Number of Job search sites registered at: 12

CV versions: 4

Number of applications sent: A few hundred.

Number of times my CV has been looked at by agents: about 700

Number of agents called me to talk to me about a job opportunity: At least 30

Number of Interviews: 6 (9 including the second and thirds for the same company)
Number of job offers: 1

Location of New Job: Frankfurt, Germany (!)

Number of agents contacting me after looking at my CV: Less than 1 in 20

Job Description: 1st Line Support

Conclusion 1: Agents lie. A lot. When they tell call you for a job, being all excited and shit, 50% of the time, they won’t ever call you or email you back as they said they would.

Conclusion 2: Most of the time, when you send your CV to job vacancies advertised, it doesn’t even get looked at by anyone. Most of the times I called the Agency to confirm that they got and saw my CV, they never had.

Conclusion 3: Cover Letters don’t do jack shit. I used to send Custom Cover letter all the time when I started looking. Later I tended to copy-paste a bit more. In the end I didn’t even bother changing the default one. I had the most success when I used the Jobserve site, which incidentally does not have even have an option for a Cover Letter.

Conclusion 4: Don’t even bother to send CV to Google.

Final Outcome: I’m tired of searching…

I have been pissed by a black cat

Db0

“Konstantine I have some really bad news”

This is how my Agent for ECB opened the conversation last Thursday when he called me to tell me what progress we had.

“Oh no” – Is what is thought, with “no” echoing in my head.

To make a long story short, what my agent told me, is that they changed their mind and decided not to hire me after all at ECB. I was dumbstruck…at least until desperation set in.

I felt like the earth opened up and swallowed my hopes.

“How? Why?” – I asked, choking back some tears.

“I don’t know, but Melva (The intermediate between agency and ECB) is very angry and is going to a meeting to find out what happened.”

At this point, I couldn’t really say anything. I was just incredibly sad.

My agent continued – “I’m truly sorry Konstantine, I will try and find you another job…” but I was too gone to really carry a conversation.

“How can a company as big as ECB do this?” – I kept thinking to myself.
I’ve truly never heard before of an employer “changing his mind” about a job offer after he made it. It just seemed incredibly irresponsible and I was determined to get to the bottom of it.

After letting my sister and cousin know, I couldn’t really gather the courage to go job hunting for that day. Having the single break I had these five months so cruelly shattered, dissipated any enthusiasm I would be able to gather for job search. I left it for the other day, although It’s frankly something that I cannot afford to set aside.
Since I didn’t get the job afterall, I now need to pay rent and I don’t have a job.

An unforeseen consequence of all this is that I lost two jobs that could sustain me. The day my agent told me I got the ECB job, two people called me for bar work and I turned them down because I thought that a) I wouldn’t need it. b) I would be leaving soon and there was no reason to leave them hanging.
How was I supposed to know.

That day, I did manage to sent a (pretty dramatic) mail to Melva to ask what happened but I never received a reply. I left things as they were for the time and attempted to call her Monday afternoon. What she told me was unbelievable.

They never did accept me. All they told the agent is that I had things looked very good and that they were waiting for the final result. Why my agent decided to tell me that I got the position is anyone’s guess.
Furthermore, when I contacted him 5 days later to ask what was happening, he would tell me that “my position has not been compromised” and that “I should not worry”.

Now how can that be, when they never even said yes in the first place?
Funny thing is that I had a gut feeling that something was going to go awry (and so did my sister) but…hell…damn the optimist in me.
Anyway, Melva did not know why they decided not to hire me after all and they do not need to disclose the reason, but deep down, for some reason, I have the feeling that it’s because they read my last entry and did it to punish me for jumping to conlcusions.

sigh

So, here I am. Still at London and not going anywhere. My big break came and spat me in the eye for being so damn happy about it.

Great.

Starting adventuring again.

Db0

After this last Sunday, I got in the mood to work on [tag]Chronopia Adventures[/tag] again. I don’t know why but I think it was the board game I played, Hunt for Dracula or something, that did it.

It’s been a long time since I worked on that game and the rules are more polished than I remember leaving them at. Still, I never liked that fact that all dungeon encounters were from the same, which meant that every dungeon, of the same level, had the same creatures inhabiting it.

My idea now is to have dungeon types, so for instance a Warped dungeon will be inhabited more by demonic forces while a Desecrated one will have more undead. This will help, imho, to keep a sence of “focus”/realism and not have everything be so random.

Right now the idea is to create a Generic encounter table for each type, that the characters roll at when encounting hostile forces and that is the same for all levels. However when you look the results at their own table, they vary depenging on the level of the party.

The other idea that occured to me is that it would be great to create a program to handle the encounters for the game, in order to cut down on the paperwork. Then all one had to do is bring in a laptop instead of flipping through dozens of papers to find the right tables.

It would also be a great start to pick up on python as well as I’ve been meaning to do.

Sorry Bob

Db0

Well, I managed to get someone angry with me without really meaning to. You see, there is a group of boardgamers that gather every Sunday at a guy’s house and play games and I contected them in order to meet up with them. However due to heavy amount of drinking and dancing the previous night at Slime Light I ended going home at 8 and sleeping until 1 (and that was lucky).

Problem is that I was supposed to let him know if I was coming or not by 12 and I should be there by 2. I didn’t have his phone number and I didn’t have his address since I was planning to get them from the library on Saturday, which I didn’t find the time to do so afterall.

So, I just thought that since I didn’t call, he would assume I’m not coming and decided to go and find another gaming group that was gathering downtown.

Unfortunately, I didn’t understand how things work exactly and the guy who was hosting the event at his place called me, being a little pissed off, to ask me if I’m going after all. Well, I didn’t really have a good excuse, and I could only apologise.

Well, I blew my chance with that specific gaming group unfortunately and that’s a pity but at least I won’t be here long so it doesn’t make much of a difference. Still, I dislike pissing off people.

Wo0oOhooo

Db03 Comments

AAAAaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I found a job.

FINALLY!

After many months of searching and many more weeks of waiting, I finally was accepted in a position, and what a position it is!

I find it kinda strange how I left Greece and came to London to find a Job and I will end up in Frankfurt… eh

Finally a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. No need to try and find a whatever job just to be able to afford the rent (which in retrospect, after visiting today a friend who is paying much less than me for a room not much smaller, I realize was a bad choice). Fortunately I was saved the experience of having to become a bar tender at a gay bar (and concert hall, but I believe the first fact is more important)

So European Central Bank, here I come!

Rejection

Db0

I just don’t get, am I just so unlucky or what?

First [tag]Interview[/tag]: Good impression

Second Interview: Good impression, great vibe and some unexpected compliments

Final result: The other candidate get the job.

Total times this has happened until now: 2

I mean, WTF!

Do I always end up running against a person that is just a bit better than me or what?

I am truly and utterly disappointed by my (non)success rate… I am just hoping for some good news after this week is through.