Expat Dads Who Blog

My interview on the Geneva Family Diaries website is now available online:

http://www.genevafamilydiaries.net/expat-life/expat-dads-who-blog-paul/

This website is run by Michela and chronicles the life of her family as expats in Geneva. It is a fantastic source of information for events and life in general in Geneva and the surrounding region, with excellent tips on fun things to do with your family either at home or in the Suisse Romande region.

When Michela contacted me and asked me saying she had come across my blog through the www.expat-blog.com website and wondered if I would agree to an interview with her as part of their "Expat Dads Who Blog" feature, I jumped at the opportunity. She had already published an interview with another expat dad living in Vevey, and I liked the idea of sharing my experiences since moving here with a wider audience (that is the goal of my blog, after all).

The first part of my interview explains why I moved over here, what the move was like and how I felt before/after moving here.

To any new readers who have come here from the Geneva Family Diaries website, thank you for your interest in me and I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures! :)

Feel free to get in touch any time, drop me an email to erniemcpeck@gmail.com.

Happy reading!

Paul

The Job Search - Part IV

The next day – “decision day” – came and went with no word from the HR guy. Christelle was worried that they had found something in the integrity test that showed me in a bad light, meaning the company did not want to employ me anymore.

I tried to calm her fears (and my own) by saying that the guy is probably just busy, or maybe hasn’t had a chance to review the test results yet. I busied myself with research on the Geneva bank, with whom I had the second interview planned for the Thursday afternoon.

We decided to wait until 11am the next morning before I would then call the Prilly HR guy to ask for an update, and spent the evening trying not to think negative thoughts.

The Job Search - Part III

A tiny speck of light then broke through the darkening clouds of uncertainty – I received another voicemail message from the Prilly guy, who invited me for an interview the next day. I called him back saying I was available, and we set a time.

Gutted about being turned down for one job, I tried to concentrate my thoughts on preparing for my next interview, and spent the rest of the day thoroughly researching everything I could about this company. I wanted to make sure I could calmly and confidently speak about their line of work during the interview, and show real motivation for the job.

Dressed up for my interview

The day of the interview came, and I headed to the company’s office to meet with the HR guy. He was really friendly and we chatted briefly before we went into the meeting, where we were joined by the manager of the team I could be working for. During the interview I spoke about myself and my experiences, listened intently to their descriptions of the role and the company, and then asked them questions that I had prepared prior to the interview.

I had a very good feeling after the interview, as I thought I had presented myself as honestly as possible, making sure to explain why I would be the perfect candidate for the job. Part of the interview was conducted in French, and I did not hesitate to tell them that, while I am by no means fluent in the language, I have a good understanding of it and am improving all the time.

At the end of the interview, the HR guy asked me to email him with my feedback, so they could compare my view of how the interview went with their own thoughts. I left the building in a far more confident mood than I had in Fribourg, and treated myself to a McDonalds. My positive thoughts were doing their best to push the negative ones out of my mind, and the large Big Mac meal gave them a helping hand.

The Job Search - Part II

At the start of January I waited for a call from the Fribourg HR lady to arrange a date for my interview. A couple of working days had passed, and I had heard nothing back. Once again anxious, I told myself that maybe they were still struggling to arrange the date with the directors, especially coming so close after the holiday period.

A couple more days passed with no news, and the anxiety level began to grow (the old adage, “no news is good news”, does not apply to job hunting). I made another call to the company and found out that the HR lady was not due to return from holiday for another couple of days – this helped me to relax a bit, and calmed our fears that the company had decided to reject me over Christmas (images of a director shouting “no” into his mobile phone whilst skiing down a Swiss mountainside flash through the mind).

The Job Search - Part I

When I left my previous role as a Project Manager in the UK at the end of September, I felt pretty confident about my chances of finding a job in Switzerland. I was under no elusions about the size of the task ahead of me, being a foreigner seeking employment in a country that speaks a different language to me, but I had found an area of work that I enjoy and that I’m good at (even if I do say so myself), and had built up about 2.5 years of experience in the role, and that would normally be enough for me to land a similar job in England. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out to be quite so simple...