BrucieWeb

Liking your work love…

liking yer work love

This just in…

Dear Bruce

I would like to invite you to attend an informal half hour interview on Friday 13th June @ 14.00 p.m. Our offices are based at 65-66 Frith Street, Soho. Dress code is informal.

Many thanks

Jane

Wow – excellent. I am well excited about this actually. Not to get to carried away, but this is EXACTLY what I have been looking for. A good job in a funky digital agency in the heart of Soho-lio.

It played out like thus:-

10th June, 12.48pm – Recieved an update e-mail from Design Week, with this article:

Reading Room moves into Web recruitment

Digital marketing and design consultancy Reading Room is opening an on-line recruitment division, building careers websites.

Followed the link and got excited, they are growing, fast, wonder if there is anything for me:

Meanwhile, Reading Room is seeking to open offices in Dubai, Bristol and New York over the next two years. It is considering two joint ventures with marketing agencies in Dubai.

Reading Room has made an internal appointment to the post of divisional managing director, Dubai, but reports that it is finding it difficult to secure office space in there.

As a result, Reading Room chief executive Margaret Manning expects the Dubai office to open within six months.

The consultancy is also looking to recruit a divisional managing director for the new Bristol office, which it intends to open in about a year.

Finally, Reading Room hopes to launch a New York office in 2009-2010.

‘New York is a tough market, but having done some research into it we believe that our point of differentiation in the US will be our visual and technical creativity,’ says Manning. ‘We are not underestimating how tough this move will be, however.’

Quick click over to their site and there was indeed:

We are looking for project managers to join our busy team based in Soho.

You will be responsible for the management and delivery of innovative projects, you’ll provide strategic advice and act as the key contact to a diverse set of set of clients, from FMCG through lifestyle, to blue chip companies. You’ll be fully involved with business development and client relationship building. You’ll also head up multi-functional teams, providing project lead for designers and web developers, as well as strategic input on all projects in which you are involved.

With a good bachelors degree, or at least three years experience in a similar role, you’ll have experience of implementing technical projects. You’ll be an excellent communicator with strong interpersonal skills, and have experience and aptitude in building and managing relationships. You also be persuasive and confident in new business pitching. You’ll have a good understanding of digital communication and how it can be used to deliver business value.

So, I sent off this at 2pm:

Hello, I’m Bruce, 33, originally from Aberdeen in Scotland, and been working on the web since 1996.

I would draw your attention to my considerable web development and project management experience gained through diverse employers such as a the nhs, a web agency, a science academy and the UK’s largest charity.

I have managed many web site re/developments from initial scoping stages, through to functional specifications, tendering, development, documentation and launch. I am well organised, take full responsibility and am comfortable running projects from the cradle to the grave.

I have a keen and enthusiastic eye for creative, usable and intuitive web applications and am currently part of the usability and testing work stream of our £10m new grant system.

As well as my technical skills, I come with some handy interpersonal skills. I am comfortable presenting and pitching to clients, I have an easy professional manner about me that quickly puts people at ease and I find rapport and common ground quickly.

I am keen to progress my career and to have a more creative aspect to my working life. One of the things I miss most from working at an agency is the interactions with external clients. I used to get a real kick from providing a well tailored solution using the latest technology and working closely with my team to translate the numerous, often conflicting client briefs.

I’ve mainly been doing web project management/production jobs of late, I’m not looking for a programming position. I would be interested to know how much day to day programming would be required.

I also do a fair bit of training and support for my colleagues. I really enjoy staff management – at the moment I am managing remote teams of suppliers in London and South Africa.

Well, if any of the above has whetted your interest, please get in touch.

and got back this ten mins later :

Dear Bruce

Many thanks for your email. It would be good to find out a little more about you.

Can you please let me know your medium term career aspirations and how you perceive these to be complimentary to Reading Room.

It would also help to know your notice period, current salary and salary expectations.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

Jane

…so I sent them this:

Dear Jane

Thanks for your speedy reply.

My current career aspirations are fairly focused and I have already put a great deal of thought into what I’m looking for in my next move. Like you, I am looking for a good match, somewhere I can really get stuck in and make a great contribution – somewhere that encourages me to raise my game on a daily basis.

I would like to work for a smaller, tightly focused team of highly motivated professionals, in a successful company that is going places. I would like to be at the forefront of either a product or service that such a company offered, and in a position of responsibility and influence. Somewhere that rewards hard work and can offer a network of support, development and opportunity.

I hold usability and accessibility of web sites/applications in high regard. I would thoroughly enjoy working in an environment where this was ingrained, and not a bolt on. This benefits all of your customers, not just those perceived to have accessibility rights/needs.

I have a strong customer service focus, and this permeates through everything I do and how I relate to clients. I have been on the receiving end of some shockingly bad service from web agencies in the past, I can understand that a lot of your business comes from referrals, good service sticks out.

As well as a strong sense of customer service, I also like companies with personally and originality. As an example, I read a very interesting article this morning about a successful US online retailer called Zappos [http://tinyurl.com/5cqnx6] now; here is a company not afraid to change the staid rules of traditional business, invest a great deal in their employees to immerse them in their strong service culture.

As an ex developer, I find that clients appreciate talking to the monkey, not the organ grinder. Gone are the days where your developers sat in a dark room, and never saw a client. I’m a techy that can talk to people, this used to be unusual, I imagine less so now. As I no longer programme every day, I need to regularly sate my inner geek and attend every web/design conference in London I can get away with. A great place to share ideas with fellow professionals, and spend a few days dreaming of the bleeding edge.

I have a social conscience and am a believer of a fair work life balance and of treating colleagues and clients with clear transparent communication, dignity and respect. A company’s human resource is it’s most valuable. I reckon you guys feel the same – the trips to Paris and Barcelona looked fun!

I have found in the past happy motivated employees often result in happy satisfied clients – enthusiasm is infectious!

From reading your website, I feel that Reading Room also believe in the values I have outlined above, and feel we could potentially have a successful relationship. I searched for your site after reading about the appointment of Chris Skinner in Design Week, your plans for the future are tantalising, and if I am honest, I’d love to be a part of it.

Other details:

Notice period – 2 months (negotiable)
Current salary – £38k
Expectation – c£45k

Kind regards

Bruce.

and they got back with the interview invite the very next day! I had to reschedule as I am at Suzanne’s Mum’s funeral, so we have agreed on Wednesday 18th June @ 2pm.

Who knows…they just launched their new site today, want it even more now!

Apple (United Kingdom) – iPhone, originally uploaded by brucieweb.

It’s here people, can’t wait to get my hands on it! I will be so organised having all my data on me at all times and kept in sync up to the minute over the wire!

Apple (United Kingdom) – MobileMe, originally uploaded by brucieweb.

I’ve already signed up for the first year of this. Can’t wait, it will be great to have seamless syncing of all my email, calendars, contacts and photos between apple’s and the web!

Eat this Window’s Live Mesh!

Live Mesh Tech Preview-More, originally uploaded by brucieweb.

MobileMe kicks the arse off this!

So we are an hour in, and we have seen some very cool apps from the first developers. These are going to be amazing, work much better than in a browser and pixel perfect design for the iPhone screen. And many features of the new iPhone 2.0 software 
The eBay one looked very smart
 

and this med app
 

Games too
 

and enterprise feature set
 

We have just seen a new service called MobileMe, this was leaked. Looks cool, sync everything over the wire, like dot.mac, but much better.  it has an amazing web 2.0 website to support the service called me.com – this just completely blew Microsoft’s Live Mesh thing out of the water! 

looks very cool, add a new contact to me.com, it appears in your iPhone in ten secs, same for calendar appointments. Both ways, seamlessly. It’s going to be $99 p/a. 

Introducing the iPhone 3G. Here we go!!

Apple has learned so much with the first iPhone. They have taken everything they’ve learned and more and created the iPhone 3G. Even thinner, black plastic back, solid metal buttons, same gorgeous display, camera, flush headphone jack, and dramatically improved audio.

GPS support now integrated into the iPhone. With GPS, the iPhone can do tracking. A pulsating dot is moving across the Google map as a car drives down Lombard street. Data from cell towers, WiFi networks, and now — GPS.Showing all the countries, playing Small World — most of South America… Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Czech, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Malta, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Greece, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Niger, Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Kenya, Botswana, South Africa… man, way too many countries!

Now on to the final challenge — affordability. Started at $599 for an 8GB iPhone, now $399. The iPhone 3G 8GB will sell for… $199. $299 for the 16GB — a white version of this size will be available too. The iPhone 3G will be available July 11th in 22 countries. The maximum price around the world is $199 USD.

available in the 22 biggest markets on 11th July! Whoohoo! That will be a wicked birthday present!

Now showing an ad.

and that is it folks. Wicked, it looks very cool indeed. No other iTouch devices as always, and no iPhone Nano, still, the new version looks amazing, and I will get one. Not hugely sure about the black/white plastic, I thought they were getting away from that, and it was all aluminum from now on. Interesting departure indeed.The Apple site has just been updated with some killer images. You can see the ad here.  It is getting hammered as you can imagine, I will post some pics here later. 

Big day today at 6pm (UK time) the mighty Jobs will preach to the converted, and alow us to see what they have been working on at Cupertino.

Live blog updates are here:Engadget | Gizmodo | Macworld US | MacWorld UK | MacRumors

And on twitter:Engadget | Gizmodo | MacRumors

There are probably many more, but that is enough to be getting on with. I have added the three above and expect my mobile to light up at 6pm! This is the first year I am going to follow a SteveNote on twitter, I will try and get home for 6 – or else I will be at work till 7.30ish, and will follow on the web too.

I am not the only one looking at twitter at this time, it is a big day for them too!

Such excitement, they are so amazingly good at hyping us all up for these big announcements, Apple are. There really is nothing to compare it too in the entire tech industry.Wonder if Steveo get’s nervious? He puts in remarkable rehersal and prep time prior.

Just re-reading a few old posts from 2002 of me complaining about not being happy about my sexuality and being too fat!

Nice to see I have moved on in the last fucking 6 years!!!

Round and round the roundabout we go eh? milestones come and go, 25th, 30th birthdays. At the moment, I have a vague idea that 35 is now going to be my year. I really have to come to terms that if I really want to change my life and my psychosis, it is going to take some massive lifestyle changes that I have to start to begin – or THEY WILL NEVER FUCKING HAPPEN.

It is all very well and good to sit and type this here, but I have to DO IT! I have to:

1. Go to the gym
2. Drink less alcohol
3. Eat less food
4. Eat more fruit
5. Go to bed earlier
6. Look after myself more
7. Stay in more
8. Spend less money
9. Reduce stress
10. Meditate

The first part of this year, especially during and after my Asia trip, has been characterised with small and large realisations – no concrete plans as yet, and nothing started, but, as I said in that letter to Kevin that I will never post, if anything good has come from that trip – it is that now, I can no longer ignore that I have a problem, and I have to do something about it.

Thing is, so there are what, ten major pledges above, some major pledges indeed. It will be hard to achieve them all, or any of them, but I have to begin somewhere. You know it has almost been a year since I was last at the gym, and I wonder why I am fat. Think of all the pints of larger and of the food I have consumed in that year.

I am killing myself guys! My work is suffering as are my personal relationships. Something has to be done. Perhaps I need help – in all sorts of ways from all sorts of professionals. That is expensive though. Can I do it on my own?

Recently, some friends and a few acquaintances, have suggested I need psychiatry help. Most of these peoples opinions I respect, like Gordon. Others have a clear vested interest – Zoe, Kev and Kelly – who the fuck is Kelly anyways??

I have reviewed it carefully in my head, and heart and have come to the conclusion that I really don’t think it, or I am, that bad. Actually, as the truth of the fact became clearer, as more and more people began to say “perhaps you really do need to go and talk to ’someone’” – the more I became convinced I didn’t.

As an aside, isn’t it a great turn of phrase ‘talk to someone’, we all know who that ’someone’ is, it’s a fucking shrink!!

So, two choices really, both as stark as each other, continue down this path, or rather, spiral, as that is exactly how it feels, of drinking loads, tiring myself out and eating poorly, feeling the worst feelings this side of suicide about myself

Or, get fit, get clean, get with the programme, you have spent a good part of the last ten years feeling shit and beating yourself up. Give yourself a break, and don’t read this in 5-10 years and be in exactly the same, albeit, much worse position.

I want you to be reading this post in 5 years time or less in Brighton on a summers day, partner by your side and dog at your feet!

DO IT!!!

Ps. Always loved this post from Chris Brandon’s blog, BoysBriefs, which, alas, he no longer updates:

I kinda like ending it here as it became somewhat of a journey I never
expected I’d be taking. When I started posting funny stories from the party
scene nearly five years ago, I wouldn’t have guessed I’d be ending this blog
with a recap of my wedding. Such is life. Priorities shift, interests change,
laugh lines grow longer. The most exciting thing to happen to me these days is
that we finish redecorating a room in our house or my partner waits until the
last minute to get me something for my birthday. He did marry me, so I gave him
a pass. This year.

This new type of UMPC is actually turning out to be a success. Mainly based on the great success of the Asus EEE Pc, HP have just brought out a great one for under £400 called the Mini-Note and Dell are about to release their own version.

I really feel that Apple should get into this market. They should have never got rid of the 11″ PowerBook, they should update the MacBook line to include one. The Air was not what I fancied, and by far too expensive.

I had an EEE that was faulty, I have been toying with the idea of bumping it up by £150 to get the EEE 90 version. Though that takes it a ballhair away from the price of the Mini-Note, and the latter is by far a better machine.

Hmmm, decisions….also, the Dell looks nice, and I bet it will be cheaper than the HP…hmmm…and what are Apple going to release on Monday? Obvioulsly iPhone 2.0, but what about all the talk about the iPod Touch being a new platform for other larger devices?

It’s an interesting time to know where to put your cash.

I need to sell my old Dell and my PowerBook, I don’t need that many laptops. I am really happy with my MacBook, the work I did on it makes it run so smoothly and the extra HDD is so handy.

I will be happy to keep with that for another year at least, but like the idea of having a small, light, robust, very portable machine on me at all times. And for that, you need a netbook!

Anyone who’s been badgered by the hobbybobbies (Community Support Officers) when taking a picture should view this film. It gives an example of how ridiculous they can be and what your rights are. I particularly like his “Shut up”. Pure professional.. Enjoy