Not so much an update of personal progress just a narcissistic post about the fact that today marks 6 years since I gave up illicit drugs permanently.

I've booked tomorrow off work, and I'm out drinking lots of alcohol celebrating this anniversary.

Note - in response to the first sentence here about this post not having anything to do with personal progress. There lies within it an irony, because if hadn't gave up drugs there would have been no such thing as progress.

Recently our sales compliance has taken a dip.

So myself & 2 others (one person from each team) were formed into a corrective actions team where we keep an eye on the compliance of our colleagues - when we listen to calls if we spot something that needs fixed we have them call the customer back to amend where necessary.

No pay rise to accompany the new role in fact my wages will take a hit as I'm no longer selling meaning I'm going to miss out on commission. However, we have been informed that even though the bonus will be gone, that by us bringing the compliance back up again, this will be recognised by the big wigs & therefore the sacrifice of the bonus for now, will benefit us in the long run.

We got a new boss too who appointed me as their second in command.

So in a way it's kinda like a dual promotion.


Oh & I applied to be my managers support executive. Interviews haven't been held yet.

I got an email last night confirming that I have made it through to the interview stage.

No date yet but they'll be in touch. Probably next week.

It may or my not entail a presentation of why I'm suitable for the job.


It's things like this which is why I posted on the thread in the business forum just a minute ago - I could be and should be excited & preparing to nail this interview yet I'm under pressure to hit an assignment deadline by tomorrow midnight.

I had a word with my manager during the week to find out when the interviews were being held.

He said this coming week, probably Wednesday and Thursday.

I'm reading a book called Great answers to tough interview questions that I bought about a year ago for just such occasions.

It's a pretty good book. Not an armchair cover to cover type book of course - you obviously just pick out the chapters & sections you feel are relevant to you.


I am still thinking about packing this degree in. My head says yes but me heart says no.

I got an extension on the current assignment. Until Wednesday midnight.. I am planning to throw it together tomorrow to get it out of the way. Because on Monday after work I have agreed to attend an appraisal for my voluntary job, & on Tuesday after work I'll want to spend the entire evening preparing for my interview on Wednesday or Thursday.

Can you see why I am feeling like cutting off the studying?

Or maybe I'm just being a bitch.

My interview is on Thursday at 11am.

My manager emailed me today making me aware of the slot, & what will be happening.

He said himself & one of the HR type guys will be doing it. It'll be 30-45 minutes long and will entail competency based questions.

Has anyone ever had a similar internal interview? Will it mean me sat there having questions fired at me the whole time?

I'm reading through that book I mentioned above & taking down notes of stuff I can say & ask combined with my own examples & experiences to make me stand out.

But maybe I'm preparing for a completely different kind of interview than a competency based one.

Obviously I'm not stupid & I have a fair idea of what it will be - me being presented with scenarios, ideas & possibilities. And they will be judging the responses they get.

I have the entire job description printed out, so I should be ok. However I am sure there will be some of those "putting you on the spot" questions. There always fucking is.

They didn't provide anything like that at all except for basically that one sentence of information I posted above.

Perhaps he's depending on us being forced to completely improvise on the spot.

Which of course is not only quite unfair on us as when put on the spot we may not be able to answer as effectively as we could if we were able to prepare appropriately. But they could also be shooting themselves in the foot as they would surely achieve richer results from which to mark us on, if we'd been briefed properly.

Ok so..

Yes it was completely competency based - there must have been at least 25 questions. Most of which were based on what I could bring to the role & department, how i would handle stepping into the managers shoes when he's out of office, how I would improve the department, employee morale, what immediate changes would I make it etc. Not the "tell us about a time when you almost headbutted a colleague..." type questions.

I don't feel I did myself justice, and that was because I was unable to do effective preparation.

I completely understand why candidates should know what the competencies are. It makes sense to provide the candidates you've invited to interview with information on what you're looking for, so we can come to you with our well planned & thought out ideas.

Otherwise you're shooting yourself in the fucking foot expecting us to pull ideas out of thin air on the spot.

I had another internal interview with our company the other day.

I know I did much better on this one. It was less intense because the managers who conducted the interview weren't as high up as the main managers who did the last one, plus I know them both very well from working with them every day. So I was more comfortable this time.

This role is to be the Support Supervisor of our newly merged departments. I've got a good chance.

More chance I believe, than the Support Executive role I interviewed for a few weeks ago.

Both of which are open books right now in that I have not heard word about either.

So I'm thinking if I don't get the Support Executive role (which is the one I want the most because it has executive in the title) then I'll get the Support Supervisor job as a backup plan.

I've lost 40lb since starting the gym a year ago.

I'm not entirely sure exactly how many lbs of fat I've lost, as obviously muscle weighs more, which I've been building like a motherfucker.

Nonetheless, I am 40lbs lighter than I was.

Transformation from 15 stone to 12 stone