6:00 am – Open eyes. Yawn. Rub eyes. Get up. Open curtains. No! Rain! I suddenly go into hyper-mode. The traffic will be awful so I need to get a move on….
….fast forward
7.30 am – Arrive at the Office and turn on my computer to find 136 emails awaiting me. A coffee is placed in my hand – thank you Camilla!
8.30 am – 80 emails done, but I have a few problems to resolve. 1 candidate has rejected an offer made yesterday by Z Dynamics. Odd – everything was agreed. I wonder why John rejected the offer? 2 new roles have come in; 1 from a company called WE R Useless and they are asking for a mature Project Manager with 10 years experience, but the salary is Ksh12,000 per month! How could a company believe that is a sensible salary for the role? The second role is for a CEO – that looks for interesting. I shall call them and try and arrange a meeting to better understand what they need. 4 candidates have interviews today with Blah Company at 11am.
9:30 am – John says he changed his mind about the job, so now I have to go back to Z Dynamics and make HUGE apologies AND start the search all over again. Urgh!
10:00 am – WE R Useless are of the opinion that Ksh12,000 is a good salary for a Mature Project Manager, so much so, that they want CV’s today! I have explained that the task is impossible.
11.15 am – Oh no – my internet has gone down! Better make some calls instead! Just talked to Blah Company, who were interviewing at 11am. Only 2 of the 4 candidates turned up. Have called the 2 guilty no-shows. 1 has turned off his phone and the other one says he has changed his mind about the job – having confirmed 24 hours before. Why do people do this? So annoying and makes us look really bad to the client. 1 of the interviewees hadn’t shaved and had a ripped shirt on. Don’t think he will get the job!
12:00 pm – 3 candidates are in our offices for interviews. They are all interviewing for the Brand Marketing position in Naivasha and are busy doing the psychometric tests and skill set tests.
2:00 pm – Have spent the last 2 hours interviewing and have forgotten lunch. Never mind. Only 1 of the 3 candidates was a ‘fit’ for the Brand Marketing role – but I shall do their references and send the 1 over to the client. Whilst I was interviewing one lady – her teeth fell out – that hasn’t happened before!
Hurrah! The internet is back on!
2.30 pm – Have just been shouted at by the MD of WE R Useless who still insists that he wants CV’s for mature Project Managers. I shall send the CV’s – with the proper salaries…he can then decide what he wants to do. Tried to explain again that they need to increase the salary.
3.30 pm – A new client has just walked into the office and says she wants to open a company in Kenya and will need 8 roles filling. However, she wants CV’s instantly and doesn’t have a single job description! So, I will now need to pull off sample JD’s and give them to her to amend to her liking.
4.30 pm – Finally I have finished the rest of my emails. 3 new jobs put up on our website, with JD’s and I shall await the responses. WE R Useless have been on the phone again and I have sent over the Project Managers – on sensible salaries. I can see the phone ringing again and I think this is one call that can wait until tomorrow….
10.30 pm – Lights out. End of another day. So to sleep…..
Published by: Sue Withers – Managing Director
