So do I start looking down my nose at other people again?

I was finally offered a job this week. Friday afternoon at 1400 CET.

It will start on April 11th (another six weeks of living on peanuts before that) - 24 days short of three years to the day when I had my heart attack. And 33 months after the crash of Lehman Brothers, the near crash of Merrill Lynch, and all the other problems caused by the already forgotten crash of 2008 (you can tell who really runs the media, can't you?).

The job is limited to 8 months, comes to an end at the end of November, and after that the future will be once again uncertain. But at least I will not be among the unemployed scum living on government handouts.

So are the unemployed really scum?

Not at all - IMHO. It is part of the media image though. Despite the fact that there are five times as many candidates as there are jobs, and underemployment is also rife (if you send all the white collar jobs to India as cheap labour, then what remains except underemployment - flipping burgers and the like?).

Unemployment is one of the two scourges of the age - along with debt-dependancy. The ability to create meaningful reasonably paying jobs (i.e. jobs that pay a living wage) seems to have disappeared in much of the world.

You are supposed to live by speculation (i.e. gambling), taking out ludicrous amounts of debt (always the road to ruin in my book) etc. Working for a living? Making enough to pay your way? Using your qualifications to good effect? Forget it! That was then, and this is now.

The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and nobody seems to want to fix the problem. Which is a sad reflection of the times.

If you lose your job, you deserve it, you are a loser etc. And all the other nonsense. For the next eight months though, I can again look down my nose at the losers and treat them with contempt? Contempt most of them do not deserve.

The aim, the target, of all societies should be meaningful full employment, and full use of the talent available. It should be financial responsibility at all levels of society - eliminating debt at all levels of society (not just public, but also private debt!).

The problem is - is anyone offering these objectives? If there is an effective political organisation with this degree of commitment, will you please tell me where? All that we seem to get is the same see-saw, where last year's failure is back offering last year's irresponsibility or incompetence (whether the Republicans in the US, the Tories in the UK, or the SPD in Germany). Short-tem thinking, no long-term objectives!

And unemployment and increased poverty for all! I, though, at least will not forget what people in those situations go through! Nor should anyone else!

Everything is just rework?

I was interviewed for a position the other day.

Curious thing - it was a rework of a rework that I had done (through a third party) for the same company in 2006.

That project was one of the worst run projects upon which I have ever worked in my life - the problem being the project manager was a technician, not an analyst. He understood the techniques required, but could not see how you could possibly get the analysis wrong in the first place. Eventually there were errors all over the place.

It was very expensive to put together, and yet five years later, they want to throw it out completely, and replace it.

You wonder how many other projects out there run on the same principle. There often does not seem to be anything new out there these days (you know, really interesting stuff to be working on, that you can gift with your imagination, originality, and technical ability). Maybe it has all been done.

Incidentally I have not heard whether they want me. They were impressed with my track record and technical abilities - and my attitude. It sounds though that they have to rethink the budget for the project (already!). That hardly surprises me - it would not be the first time in the last three years that I have come close to getting a position, only for budget problems to get in the way. After ageism, it is the most crucial feature that has been stopping me from being properly employed!

You should be running your own business - and other nonsense

I am many things - linguist, mathematician, computer scientist, historian, writer, travel expert, even an occasional economist and international political analyst.

I store information, constantly resource areas of interest, try to add to the streams of knowledge that I have available.

I am probably loaded down with facts about all sorts of areas, and try to attach to the interpretation of these facts a measured, balanced approach. Try to stay unemotional, stick to the facts etc. This is after all the "information age".

I also have a commitment to working hard to get results (I learned work ethic early in life and it never goes away).

What I am not is a salesman. Or someone who is into promotion or advertising or recruitment.

Should this be important? Apparently. Despite applying for dozens of jobs that I could probably do in my proverbial sleep, I am stuck on the unemployment queue, get poorer and more desperate by the day, and then you get stuff like I read the other day.

You should not be unemployed - your problem is that you should not be looking for a job, you should be running your own business!

Really? DOING WHAT?

IF YOU HATE SELLING OR PROMOTING THINGS OR TRYING TO RECRUIT OTHER PEOPLE????

IF YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY USELESS AT PERSUADING OTHER PEOPLE TO DO THINGS, LIKE SPENDING MONEY ON THINGS THAT THEY DO NOT NEED????

IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE IN RUNNING UP DEBT?

Every time I get a job rejection, I get a little more suicidal. Every time I see this stupidity about running your own business, I get a little less unemotional.

And one interesting little fact of which people should be aware - 60% of all businesses fail! Probably because many of them are run by people like myself for whom selling is a nightmare!

It reminds me of the true story of Alan Sugar, the ultimate salesman turned businessman, and Clive Sinclair, the scientist who tried to set up a business marketing the PCs that he constructed.

Sinclair eventually went bankrupt. Sugar took over his business and remarked that Clive Sinclair should not have been running a business, but should rather be in charge of a research department. QUITE!!!!

Horses for courses.

The trouble these days is that we are trained not to admire scientists (or linguists or historians or writers, or travel experts), we are, rather, expected to admire glorified shopkeepers!

Any hope for this world

I would struggle to name one country on this planet where things are going really well now.

I would struggle to name any of the cities where I have lived (leaving my current base of Frankfurt out of the equation entirely), where it would be really good to be living at the moment.

There are times when I miss Amsterdam (it was constantly on my mind last night) and Paris .... and maybe Köln. For the rest, no, absolutely not. I would not return to England (Grimsby, Manchester - what have either of them to offer now?), or Milwaukee or Brussels or Toulouse or München.

Where is there anywhere that can offer me a lifestyle, a decent standard of living, the chance to keep my head above water?

The global economy has created this Chinese monster where massive numbers of jobs have gone as cheap labour (hardly raising the standard of living except the usual 7% at the top), and taken the decent standard of living that people had elsewhere with it.

Now if you are not into speculation and debt - forget it. The world gets more and more and more overpopulated, and poverty is coming back in a big way, even to the developed world.

The new powers of the world economy have all adopted this reward the rich, damn the rest approach. Hard work will not resolve this - cheap is the ethos of the time, not industry.

Death, funerals and other not so serious subjects

Laura Nyro, a lady with an extraordinary voice who deserved more airplay, recorded a song with the lyrics:

I'm not scared of dying and I don't really care,
If there's peace you find in dying, then let the time be near.

My views entirely. Why fear death? There is more mental suffering in the prospect of waking up another day than falling into a peaceful, permanent sleep.

Then there is the question of a funeral. I wrote on MyLot this week that I do not want a funeral - it is far too expensive and a ridiculous waste of money . Simply take my corpse, set it ablaze, collect the ashes, and spread them over the canal at Spui in Amsterdam as a reminder of the few good times in my life.

Then just let me go.

We spend far too much time worrying about people when they are dead, and often show far too little concern when they are alive. If I am to stay alive, I want and need a job in line with my capabilities and experience. I have tried everything to find one, nobody else seems to be able to help - that is what matters to me NOW.

And when I am dead, will it matter? Of course not. Everything about me will have gone. Some people might read this blog and wonder who I might have been, and it may be my memorial in some ways, but if it should serve any purpose it should be to enhance the cause of the living, not to show concern for people who have passed on.

The latest job application fiasco

There is a company called Traxon, which operates (in Germany at least) out of Frankfurt Airport.

They were advertising last week for a Customer Implementation Officer (EDI Products). I read carefully through the job description. As I fitted it to approximately 90% of the requirements (it would in any case be difficult to find anyone who fit 100%), I decided to apply.

Preparing all the necessary documentation took me some considerable time - you want, after all, to have all the details in place to ensure that they will take your application seriously.

It took all of six hours for them to reject me as "not suitable now or at any time in the foreseeable future". On what grounds would be interesting to know. It could not possibly be that they checked my date of birth and decided that I was too old. That would be "ageism" of course and we all know that there are laws to prevent that. As, however, they do not seem obliged to give a reason for their decision ...

It could be, of course, that the job description bore no resemblance to the vacancy that they had - in which case, maybe they need to explain more clearly what exactly they do want, and then a number of applicants would not have their hopes raised only to see them dashed.

One thing should be added at this point. This is not the first time that they have advertised this position. This is the third time in nine months. Either they have filled the position twice, and the person appointed has left in no time at all (that sounds a real "viper's nest" situation), or they cannot make up their mind whether they need somebody or not.

Taking on board a person with my experience, track record and work ethic should surely be to their advantage though. The question is whether, despite all my difficulties not working, I am actually best off not being involved with them.

Tracking Code - of no interest to anyone except myself - temporary fix.

dreamhost sale

If the Euro is a failure

what do you make of the US Dollar, and the British Pound?
When the Euro first came into existence, its trading value was $1.17. After the run on the currency following the financial crisis in Greece in 2010, it fell to .... $1.19. Yesterday, it was $1.36.
Meanwhile I can recall that at the start of 2009, the Pound was worth €1.43. Yesterday, it was worth €1.16!
Whatever the problems that the Euro has, and there are plenty, it still seems more appealing to the speculators who run the world economy (well, let us be real - the world economy belongs to the speculators, not to governments and definitely not to the people who elect them) than the Dollar or the Pound.
The British media (and many of the politicians there) have difficulties coping with this fact, but it is nonethless borne out by the facts.
If you want a weak, ever-devaluing, currency, the Pound is a great place to look. It lost something like 500% of its value against the Deutschmark between 1971 and 2002, and even with Europe "in crisis", it still is not gaining.
As for the Dollar, there are very obvious reasons for its weakness - the US trade gap, and deficit problems being the obvious ones. The Chinese (who should be obliged to float the Yuan - the fixed rate for the currency gives them a ridiculous advantage in trade, and unbalances the whole world economy) are tired of the large pile of US treasury bills building up - which they cannot seem to use for anything - and want a different reserve currency.
It would make sense to have one. At the same times there have to be rules which work to even out the glitches in the current system.
It would also make sense to have a world economy where ordinary people, and the governments that they elect, had more control over economic affairs, and were not controlled by the whims of speculators, gamblers and the like - but that would be whistling for the moon!

My strange adventure with the Inttra Corporation

I had before March 2010 never heard of the Inttra Corporation. In that month I received an email from a recruitment officer working for them - they had a vacancy for a European based EDI Specialist.
I am a very experienced EDI specialist, I read through the requirements and decided to apply.
I spoke to the recruitment officer a few days later. He liked what I had to say, and my CV obviously fitted the bill, so I was informed that I would hear from the department concerned over the next few days.
I spent a lot of time reading up on who the Inttra Corporation were (a major international player in the ocean shipping industry, with headquarters in New Jersey in the USA).
I then proceeded on a series of telephone interviews with them - nine in total.
If a company does not like you, they are not going to have nine interviews with you. I liked the sound of the job (I could work from home and visit the company's European clients when required). Everything seemed to be going remarkably smoothly. I was confident that I would be an excellent fit, and my professional expertise would be appreciated. I was also not looking for a stratospheric salary.
After these nine interviews (over a period of six weeks), something very strange happened - all contact between us ceased.
If they did not want me, if the vacancy had been filled by someone else, if they had put the vacancy on hold (something that often happens in recessions), you think that I would have been told.
I sent emails asking what happened - they went unanswered. I made telephone calls to the numbers that I had been given - all I got was voicemail. I would leave a message on those - nobody came back to me.
Surely they could have at least managed "no, sorry" if that were the story .....
From the start of May, I heard nothing at all for five months. Then in October, the recruitment officer came back to me and asked me if I were still available and still interested. I wrote back that I was still very interested, even if I were a bit surprised by the lack of information that they had given me regarding my application previously.
Seemingly in keeping with the way things have proceeded with them, I got no reply to that email either.
I have applied for so many jobs, both real world, and internet-based organisations like Freelancer, Elance and ODesk, and I can tell you that the rejections hurt. With all this talent and experience I should be capable of doing a great (office) job for someone. And I am fully aware that ageism is the root cause of a lot of these refusals.
But seeming indifference and lack of information like this?
Why interview me nine times? And then leave me (as keen as I am to get working) sitting around not knowing what is happening, or why did events take this turn ....
I see no sense in it.

Getting recognition

The problem about my life is nothing to do with lack of ability or talent.
The problem with my life is not unwillingness to work (though there are limits that I will place on this - my brain is my strength, my hands are only good for using a keyboard, and I WILL NOT UNDERTAKE VIRTUAL SLAVE LABOUR AT McDONALDS OR BURGER KING! I am a brain worker. I am also absolutely useless at selling things).
I have no great desire to be self-employed, although I tend to be an independent thinker, who will not conform just for the sake of it.
The major problem that I always have had, and probably always will have, is getting known.
When I was offered my first job in Germany, they were astonished just how brilliant was the quality of the work that I produced. It took a few weeks to get established, but after that, the sky was the proverbial limit.
After I left, I thought that my reputation would follow me ....
Some hope. It is always the same, nobody seems to like good news stories from the past.
Yesterday I applied for a post that I saw advertised on Elance.com. A translator. German to English, French to English I can do extremely well. I offered them a rate that was reasonable, and enough to allow me to survive here (after paying tax, medical insurance, rent, the ever increasingly extortionate utility bills etc.) and not a great deal more.
The rate was also less by 2 or 3 Eurocents per word than what I have seen offered on the professional translation sites.
Of course I am relatively new to Elance, and I only apply for the positions where I think my skills are appropriate, and where I could do an excellent job. So the number of applications that I have made is small.
I was also a bit wary when I noted that the provider had already rejected three other applications.
Anyway I still believed that maybe this person would recognise talent when it was made available to him.
Not so - back comes some nonsense that as I had not previously done anything on Elance, I was asking for too much money.
No point continuing with any negotiations. The money that I would have made from it was essentially very basic. I am not putting myself into debt, just to prove a point - I learned that expensive lesson in the 1980s.
Eventually the struggle for recognition goes on. Shy, introverted, talented people will always have this problem, or so it seems. I would like to be persuaded otherwise, but I am not optimistic.