So What have I been up to?

I've now been back just over 3 weeks, and haven't done a lot it seems, so what have I done?

Well, when I got back I spent a couple of days with family and a day looking for a car before racing to Scotland for job interviews and racing back for another interview. Having got a job I had to get the car which I picked up a fortnight after being back in the country. It doesn't feel like I achieved much in that fortnight, but it was very busy spending a week travelling to, being in and returning from Scotland. I travelled about 2000 miles by car/train in that first fortnight!

I then set about trying to organise other things; found the flat; dentist, opticians and doctors check-ups; and getting a towing licence for a Caravan. Whilst I managed to book and have the medicals, the towing license was rather fully booked until after I was expecting to start work, so that's on hold.

I haven't done much else, started to get bored with daytime telly (which is probably a good thing). Relaxed, read, sorted some old stuff from Mum's loft for the bin,

Jobs and St Helena

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had looked at a couple of Jobs in Scotland, but that they weren't too keen on me. I've had good feedback from the first Council, but not heard from the second yet.

I don't regret not getting the jobs as it is quite clear to me why I didn't get them but why I did get the interviews. And it's kind of interesting.

As a bit of Background: For the last couple of years my direct line manager has been a succession of Directors managing a succession of Directorates. That Director has always reported directly to the Chief Secretary, who is effectively the Chief Executive. In Management speak I was a third tier manager (ie. the top person is tier 1 and then directors are tier 2, etc). The interviews I had were for tier 3 and 4 management positions, which is around what I've been doing, the job I have is not management at all, and would best be described as tier 7.

So my application shows that I've been doing this senior management role for a couple of years, which sparks interest and gets me interviews, but when I turn up I don't get the job - why? I think it has a lot to do with the general style of management I've been involved in on St Helena and my resulting Management Style; I'm struggling to reset my mindset to the UK.

I know there will be some people on St Helena reading this (yes you) and hope that you aren't too offended. But the Management style on St Helena that I have witnessed is not the same as the UK, it's a lot more informal, it's a lot more flexible, it's a lot more laid back and relaxed. In short it's not very businesslike and not very effective. As most managers I came across are from the Ex-Pat community I have to assume they are either rubbish, inexperienced/out of their depth (like I was) or go native. Unfortunately I think that it's a combination of the first two rather than much of the latter; with poor quality senior managers doing the hiring you end up with not necessarily the right candidates in the middle management positions, and frequently they will then find themselves moving up a level (kind of like I did) because of the view that someone who is on-Island and can sort of do the job is better than someone who can do the job but has never been there. There are some very good people in management positions, but the good ones are outnumbered and find themselves outvoted at every turn until they give up or get sacked.

With the overwhelming number of managers operating in similar styles, there isn't much of a role model for junior managers, whether Saint or ExPat, to model their management experiences on and so the style is perpetuated and the ineffectiveness continues. For those Saints who have never worked overseas they presumably have very little idea what good management is as they have only rarely experienced it.

So what is the solution - I don't really know. I think St Helena really needs to work at recruiting good people when they recruit overseas. With the airport opening within 2 years there should be less emphasis on people who will cope on the Island (3/4 of the questions at my brief interview were on this subject) and more emphasis on competence. However to attract the really good candidates may require adjustments to the terms and conditions. I truly believe that when I applied I was the best candidate (they did offer me the job), but I also believe that I was the wrong candidate as I didn't have the skills and experience required for the job. Put simply the right candidates weren't tempted to apply - right in the middle of the Construction Slump in mid 2011. So perhaps contracts should be for more than 2 or 3 years (it put me off knowing it was a short term post), perhaps the salary/benefits system should be simplified and better explained, perhaps they need changing. I don't know the answers, but I am sure that something needs to be done if St Helena is going to benefit properly from the mega investment it is currently receiving.

SO, back to why I didn't get the job? Well, simply, I'm so used to dealing with people who don't really understand what I'm saying, I treated the interview panels a little to obviously like children.

Insurance

So there are 2 questions left: Insurance and Shipping.

Having decided what car to buy I used various websites to get quotes to make sure there weren't any problems. The interesting thing is that the headlines all looked good, but having paid the deposit on the car I found the small print made it quite clear that I wasn't eligible.

There were 2 basic problems. The first was that I haven't been a UK resident for the last 2 years, but answering the question when did I become a UK resident threw up an error as it was more than 2 years ago. Putting in March 2014 made it look like I wasn't British, which threw up other problems.

The second problem was my no-claims. Despite on the price comparison website ticking the box saying my No Claims was overseas, all the insurance companies had in their small print that it had to be an EU No Claims, and St Helena doesn't count as EU.

So what did I do?

Well I went in to speak to Swinton in town. They fairly quickly established that I was a British Resident since birth and it was ok despite being out the country for 2 years. The no-claims was a bit harder. I had a letter from the AA saying that I had 8 years when I left, and I had a letter from St Helena saying I hadn't claimed for the last 2, however Solomon's hadn't said I had 2 years No Claims, let alone 10. Going back, Solomon's were quite helpful in confirming that I had transferred my 8 years and that I had their full discount, but didn't confirm I had built up a further 2 years or use the number 10. However as my premium was the same for 10 years and 8 years I have left it at 8 years which was accepted.

I am actually quite glad to have got it sorted. I'm paying about £500/yr but at one point it was looking like about £1,800/yr at which point I would have had to sell the car and buy something I could justify insuring. Next time I need car insurance I will simply say I am a British resident and have my nice recent proof of No Claims - unless I have to Claim in which case a cheap car to insure will be my punishment for driving stupidly, again.

One thing that did come up a few times was 'have I been on anther UK policy claim free?' unfortunately since December the answer is a resounding no:

But my Mum is ok now, and has a nearly new Fiat Panda as replacement.

How to Pay for Fuel?

Having bought the car and found somewhere to park it I do need to keep the diesel paid for, and insurance, and at some point some servicing.

So I had to get a Job.

So What job did I get? Well looking around there is no shortage of vacancies, few pay that well or are in good locations, but plenty of jobs. Having looked at a couple of senior management jobs in the furthest reaches of Scotland I kind of decided that I wasn't too keen on remote, and they decided they weren't to keen on me!

So for now I've settled on a job near the parking space, based in Clevedon working back for North Somerset Council as a Senior Asset Management Engineer (which I think is better titled 'Data Analyst').

So where to Park?

So having found a car I needed somewhere to park it, after some umming and ahhing I've decided to rent a parking space halfway between Clevedon and Nailsea. Whilst not a nice garage to keep the car in it comes with the added bonus of a flat so I don't have to sleep in the car!

So it's technically a bedsit, but at over 9m by 4m it's not really a traditional bedsit - it's not small! Anyway, having a flat with the parking space is one of those bonuses which are hard to resist.

Cars

So the questions were what car to drive while I bought a car and what car to buy. I had thought I'd bought Rob's Mondeo, when we went shopping for his new car there was nothing he liked. Eventually it became apparent that I needed to buy something, yet all the cars I'd looked at over the day were a bit dodgy - mainly because they were cheap. But over half of them had one thing in common - SAAB.

So what did I do?

I went here:

www.simply-saab.com

I asked for a cheap Diesel Hatchback, they provided me with this:

I'm very happy - it's an ex courtesy car from their fleet, 2.2TDi, 163k miles, MOT Nov, £1k.
So far I've done near 300 miles flawlessly, averaged 47mpg (with an initial 22mpg getting out of Bristol in rush hour).

New Post

Well, as you can tell I didn't write a lot, but hey!

So now I'm thinking of writing a few things. Maybe it'll last a few months, maybe a few weeks, maybe this is my last post this year. Who knows? (answers on a postcard to me please, then I can ask them for the lottery numbers).

So answers to the questions:

So What do I intend to do? I think I have 2 main problems:

1. What Car(s) am I going to buy?

1. What am I going to drive until I buy a Car?

Lesser problems include:

1. Where am I going to park?

1. How am I going to organise Insurance?

Of course there are some other questions...

1. How am I going to get Money?

1. How do I get everything back to the UK?

1. Where am I going to Live?

may come in a later blog. First an explanation of what happened since my last post. Well unfortunately I was talked into going back to St Helena after my Christmas Leave, this was after it became blatantly obvious that there wasn't a plan for the afternoon of the 13th December once I was on the ship (yes that was a Friday). So I arrived back on St Helena in mid January with a very bad feeling - so bad that I decided to call time within a week of returning. Whilst there were no specific issues why I was unhappy when I had previously agreed to stay until June I am very glad I left because by the time I did I was very glad to see the back of St Helena.

So I returned to the UK on 1st March 2014. Unemployed, homeless and critically without a Car!

With the intention of having something to write about tomorrow, I'll leave things there - with a photo of St Helena departing, forever (well if I ever go back it should be by plane, so it's effectively forever).