The other day I got a call from one of my ex-colleagues, someone who'd left hp for pastures new at the beginning of the year. That first job hadn't panned out, but she'd quickly moved on to her present position at a bank, which she truly enjoys, and when a position as customer account manager in her department fell vacant last July, she immediately thought of me. At the time though, I was adamant that I wanted my next job to be in The Hague, and declined the invitation to apply. However, I spoke to her again last week, and she mentioned that the position was still open. We quickly decided that I had nothing to lose by applying for it, and while I went to polish up my cv once more, she spoke to her manager about me in such glowing terms that this person in turn became quite excited about the possibility of me filling the position. I sent my cv off on Thursday, didn't think too much about it on Friday, but became a bit concerned when Monday passed without word either. This morning while I was en route to my assessment session, S. texted me to ask if I'd sent my cv already, as her boss hadn't received anything. I couldn't understand what had gone wrong, but promised to resend it as soon as I got home, which I did...only to hear an hour later that again, M. (the manager) hadn't received it, and now wanted me to send it to her home address, in case the problem lay with their mail server.

S. now tells me that M. did get it, and is over the moon. Apparently, with my qualifications and work experience, I am just the person they were looking for, and she's going to call me first thing tomorrow to invite me up to Amsterdam for a formal interview...but according to S. I don't need to worry, as M. has said the job is mine if I want it. Which I'm not 100% sure I do (mainly because of the commute), but I figure I can give it a whirl and see how working in the financial markets suits me for a change.

Which only goes to show that these days, it's not what you know, it's who you know.

The assessment, btw, went pretty smoothly; but I won't know how I did until after I come back from Germany...by which time, I may already have an offer from the bank.

Oh well, time to pack my suitcase! I'll be back here again next week, with hopefully some more exciting news!