KMC

car

Hey Bagpuss Hope you have a good holiday and enjoy yourself. I'm off next week as well. Am going to travel around the USA, Central and South America. Will be back in the middle of January. I'm definately looking forward to it. I have no plans. Am just going where ever the wind takes me! It amazes me that I can do that when I go on holiday but if any of my day to day life is like that I freak. Have no idea why Anyway - take some time to chill out. Have a great holiday cheers KC

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Unfortunately I have done the email thing already and it got ignored. Last night was fairly stressful. I saw 3 issues but luckily none of them were ours. Last night stressed me out so much that I have been in bed with a migraine all day today. I certainly dont need that at the moment. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

yeah... I'm just waiting for my mobile to ring so breathing is taking 2nd place at the moment.

Pearl, I am currently at home watching what my guys are supporting and I am on the edge of my seat because I know they cant react quickly. That is stress! I've already seen one problem but luckily it WAS fixed properly but it wasnt one of ours. If we have a problem tonight we are stuffed. I tried talking to my colleague tonight and was told that they were too busy to talk to me. Not a good evening. KC

Hmmmm... I very rarely have meltdowns anymore and am usually pretty stable but last weekend was a shocker. Without going into too much detail, I had been involved in something the previous week that we had just managed to save from going bady wrong infront of a lot of people. Last weekend, despite going through a review of what went wrong the previous week, I was placed in an even worse situation through people not doing their work properly, not listening to what had been said and not providing any proper handover. Because of the situation I was in, I lost it badly and went into meltdown. My meltdowns are pretty much a huge rant rather than anything else but they arent something that most people understand. This is the first one in about 4 years - possibly longer. I did it infront of one person only, not a whole lot of people but still, although I feel justified in what I said, I'm not particularly happy with how I said it. Unfortunately the person I said it to, went into defensive mode and is still there. I dont want them to be defensive, I want them to address and sort the issues. Tonight, a member of my team is working and the same issues exist with the lack of handover and doco. Infact, it's worse than it normally is and should things go wrong, they have no way of being able to fix stuff quickly because they have no idea of what's been put in place. Somehow I need to resolve this but I have no idea how right now. I can't have the guys working without knowing what they are supporting. Sometimes having AS is an absolute pain because this is one of those situations that I don't have any "learned" knowledge on so I dont know how to get what I need. Usually I would be okay but not having just had that meltdown. It's bugged me all week. Anyway.... maybe just writing this will get it out of my system and then I can move on. cheers KC

Hi there http://www.tio.com.au/POLICIES/Contracts/P...20contracts.htm This might make you feel a little better cheers KC

Been a little too busy recently to jump on the forum but... Psychometric tests aren't that new. I did my first one for employment 12+ years ago. The last one I did was in March. I will admit that I was sceptical when I first did one. I didnt see how the type of questions they ask could tell them an awful lot about me. Theoretically if the tests are done properly, you shouldnt see your results but they should be interpreted for you. I actually did see one of my tests and was quite amazed at how accurate it was about me. As I have said before, I have never NOT hired someone purely because of their test results. I interview first, then test and if something comes out of the test results that I am really concerned about, I will conduct a second interview. In all the time I have had anything to do with these tests, I think I have only ever seen one come back that actually recommended we hired the person. Most of them come back boarderline and it's down to interpretation. Myers-Briggs is actually a useful tool. I am a INTJ which I read somewhere is actually the predominant characteristics for an AS person. Dont know if that is true, although if you google "INTJ" you will get some interesting results. If someone takes a test and the test says "I would rather spend time alone" or "I dont like social interaction" then the answer to that is whatever the honest answer is. I answer those questions truthfully and my results come out as not a team player... a leader Dont be scared of psychometric testing - it is nothing more than a tool.

I've worked for a number of companies that use psychometric testing and had to do a course on how to determine the outcome of the tests as a hiring Manager Best way to do them is to be honest about what you say. There are ways to manipulate them but ultimately all they do is give an indication of the type of person you are looking at. The last time I did one (March this year), it said that I didnt like social situations - suprise! As an employer, the mix of people you look for is varied. I have never turned someone away purely on the results of a test. On the other hand, I have looked at a test, and re-interviewed someone because of it. Example was where a test said that someone would crumble under pressure. We gave him a very high pressure interview and he did crumble. Unfortunately the job he was going for meant that I needed someone who could function calmly under high pressure. Sometimes I have found the tests to be of value when managing individuals. I had a team member who never seemed to focus and was constantly socialising with anyone who walked past his desk. He spent more time talking than working. After lots of chats, I eventually re-read his psychometric test which said that he wouldnt work well without social interaction. We changed his job to being a technical liaison and he went from nealy being fired to getting promoted all in the space of 12 months. I have not hired someone because they didnt fit the role they were applying for but re-interviewed the same person 8 years later and hired them because they fitted the role I needed to fill at the time. Psychometric testing is quite straightforward and very easy. Just be honest when you are filling in the form and you'll be fine. Mostly it a choice of things such as "I prefer reading to going to the pub" and you mark if the statement is true or false. There are no right or wrong answers and if you do try and manipulate the answers, you will more than likely get caught out.

Which version of Media Player is it? Look in Help, About on the main menu. What Operating System are you using? I've not seen it do that before but will check and see if it's "an undocumented feature" or a known issue.

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All, I dont know how well you all know Greenwich, however I thought I might ensure that if you are coming over this side of the world, you dont get confused or lost. There are 4 railway/DLR/Tube stations at Greenwich. These are: Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich (DLR) - which is the one that you actually want to go to Greenwich (DLR) - which is one stop past the Cutty Sark on the DLR and is about 10-15 mins walk back to Cutty Sark or about 1 min on the DLR Greenwich (Mainline Trains) - Is next to Greenwich DLR so same time frame as above back to Cutty Sark North Greenwich (tube) - This is actually the O2 Arena. Is probably about 40 mins - 60 mins walk to the Cutty Sark. Not recommended. Be careful, dont get confused and remember that the station that will get you closest is "Cutty Sark" NOT "Greenwich". cheers KC

Hi Canopus IT is hugely important in Investments and stockbroking. Without it, no trading can take place as all trades are placed via computer to the exchange. Computers are also used for market evaluation and forcasts. A fraction of a second can make a dfference between placing a trade that makes lots of money or losing money. IT can give the business that advantage. Because of this it is very high pressure, can be immediate decisions, immediate fixes, knowing your stuff technically and from a development perspective, developing tools that will give the business the advantage. The �25m issue I spoke about was a case where a change was made to a bit of software over night. This was a planned upgrade and should have gone without a hitch. Unfortunately lack of planning and a bad decision meant that the network slowed down so badly that the entire dealing room had to be shut down for half a day. Prior to getting into banking 15 years ago, I worked for various other industries. Banking is without doubt more pressure, more tech knowledge required, more dynamic that nearly any other industry I have worked in. KC

Hi Canopus In retail banking, AS probably wouldnt be as big an issue. In Investment Banking where things are a lot more cut-throat, anything that has the potential to impair your judgement is seen as a negative. Although I dont believe AS impacts me negatively in my work anymore (since I discovered what it was and spent a lot of time developing the areas I was weak in), it doesnt mean that other people's perceptions wouldnt be altered. A technical judgement mistake in my role has the potential to lose �millions so trust in my judgement is very important. I have seen small mistakes cost around �25 million (this is an extreme example and quite rare). I also have a second job which I have taken on temporarily as a favour for a friend while she tries to find an appropriate person to do the job fulltime. Without going into details of what it is or where it is, a mistake in this role could lead to huge negative publicity and would likely be in most major newspapers in this country. In these sorts of roles, people need to have faith and belief in you. Saying that I have AS would not be seen as a positive and new opportunites would disapear as a result. I'm still thinking about this 3rd faction thing. I think there is something there and you have gone some way to describing what I was thinking about last night but I think there is more to it. I've having serious trouble trying to get my thoughts together though. They will crystalise eventually :-) (hopefully) Off to do some more work... KC