Jobhunter busy moving to Belgium

It's great to see that many of you are reading this blog often and are asking me updates on the jobhunting because I haven't posted any.
This week, the jobhunting is on hold because I'm moving to Brussels this Saturday and have so many things to settle before I can go. So the new adventures of Dreeny the jobhunter a bit jetlagged are coming back on Monday where Dreeny will have to settled back in her home country after 5 years being away. There will be loads of things to tell you so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I've received great feedbacks about my resume. I've received a few job offers but that I'm not too keen about and a few no's as well. I still have to complete all my applications for Unilever & P&G but as they are long winded and I need full concentration, I will finish them off during my first week in Belgium. My meeting with P&G in Paris is scheduled on the 15th of November so I'll try to get some other interviews there around that time.

Applying to 17 more jobs at Procter & Gamble and Unilever

After many search, I finally defined a list of the jobs I'm eligible to apply to and that I want. These are in my two favorite companies I would like to work for: Unilever & Procter & Gamble. I'm convinced that if I just focus on these and target any countries I can work in and speak the relevant languages then I should manage to get in by some way. Some countries are much easier to get in than others within the same company and offer internal mobility programmes that allow you to move anywhere later on so it doesn't really matter where I start as long as I end up with a job.

Based on the fact than I'm a European citizen and speak French, Dutch and English and have previously lived in the mentionned countries, here is the list which the respective countries, jobs and companies I'm currently applying to:

Unilever (Dutch/British - #2 FMCG Company in the world) :

Brussels
- Junior Brand Manager

France
- Marketing/Sales Junior 2004
- Assistant to Head of North America Region based in NYC to represent French brand
- Assistant Marketing/Sales Lever Fabergé

United Kingdom
- Unilever's graduate training scheme

The Netherlands
- Marketing Junior program


Procter & Gamble: (American - Leader in the FMCG Market)

London
- Marketing Assistant Brand Manager
- Consumer & Market Knowledge Associate Manager

Brussels
- Marketing - Assistant Brand Manager
- Sales/Customer Business Development - Account Manager

The Netherlands
- Marketing Assistant Brand Manager
- Consumer & Market Knowledge Associate Manager

Paris
- Sales/Customer Business Development Account Manager
- Assistant Media Manager Corporate Marketing
- Marketing Assistant Brand Manager Pharmaceuticals

Geneva European Headquarters
- Marketing Assistant Brand Manager
- Consumer & Market Knowledge Associate Manager

These applications are really long winded and there are many essays questions so I focus on my favorites first and continue through the list. Luckilly, I only need one application form per country. They then decide which job suit me best.

Invitation from P&G in Paris!!!

Wow! I've just started seriously applying for job since Friday and the first results are showing up already. I received an invitation from Procter & Gamble in Paris to come to their office on Friday 25 October to pass some tests followed by interviews. The only problem is that I will still be in Montreal at that time so I will reschedule it beginning of November. I'm so excited because Procter & Gamble is THE best company to start in Marketing and that would be the best job that I could dream of.

Master in Psychology instead of Bachelor

I used to never know how to translate the name of my university degree in international standards. People usually qualify such degree as a Bachelor in Psychology so I used that in my resume but I always thought that it was more like a master because studies in Belgium to obtain a Psychology Degree are 5 years long unlike in other countries where it is usually 3 years.

The good news is that European countries are now launching the Bologna process of creating a "European higher education area". The aim is to continue developing a system of easily 'readable' and comparable degrees, based on undergraduate and postgraduate studies across european countries.

My home university is participating in the process and the decision was taken to classify my degree as a Master so there you go, I have now a Master in Psychology!!! I need now to update my resume because I mistakingly wrote Bachelor.

Too much experience or not enough?

Headache! I would like to join a Management Trainee development programme at Procter & Gamble or Unilever and their requirements is NO more than 2 years experience!

If I want to work as Marketing business professional, they usually require at least one or two year in Marketing so go figure...

Since I have 3 years of business experience but 0 year of marketing one, what should I do? Should I lie and say to P&G that I only have 2 years of working experience instead of 3?

Anyway, I just noticed on the website of Unilever, a subtle mention: No more than 2 years of relevant experience.... Now what is relevant or not? In my case, I don't think that is relevant so I will say that I have less than 2 years experience, meaning relevant experience because I don't want to lie and I'm dying to apply and to be taken into consideration. I'll just omit the 1st year I worked on my resume...because it is irrelevant...;-)

Unilever UK Graduate Recruitment

The Unilever UK Graduate Recruitment is now open for UCMDS 2005. The application deadline is December 15th, but they start interviewing in November, so I need to get my form in early!

Applied to 12 jobs today!

Ok, so i planned to apply to at least 10 jobs today and then stop but then I saw 2 last one very intersting and I couldn't miss the oppportunity. So I applied to 12 jobs today to kick off my agressive jobhunting phase. For each of them I carefully looked at their company information and website and then wrote a customized cover letter for each of them. This is called Quality Jobhunting! Time consuming but better than sending a resume with no cover letter or a standard one that they would threw in the garbage anyway....

I found them all through Monster.be. I focussed today on Belgium and targeted Advertising and Marketing jobs back until end september until today, here are the lucky ones:

1. Nivea Product Manager for Beiersdorf in Brussels
2. Marketing Co-ordinator Benelux for Vanco in Brussels
3. Global Leadership Development Programme at Danish company Trellenborg somewhere in Europe
4. Internal Communication Specialist for an anonymous large group in Brussels
5. Brand manager Vitelma for the Vandemoortele Group in Ghent
6. European Junior Product Manager for GBC in Hoeilaart near Brussels
7. Market Analyst for GFK in Brussels
8. Assistant Brand Manager for Lego Benelux in Antwerp
9. Project Manager for some anonymous company in Brussels
10. Benelux Marketing Co-ordinator for some ICT Intl company in Brussels
11. Project Coordinator for 2 months for Dart in Brussels
12. International Project Manager for Winne traveling 11 months of the year…

This weekend or Monday I will do the same search but focus on the Netherlands and later in the week I will do London.

On my to do list, I also have to be inspired and write a killer application for the following key positions that I want so badly:

- Customer Insights Specialists at McKinsey in Brussels
- Account Executive at Ogilvy in Brussels
- Graduate Fellowship Programme at Olgilvy London

I don't want to miss on these ones so I will wait Monday to send anything so I can ask my 'global' friends who will certainly be back online to proofread my cover letters and applications.

In the meantime, I forgot to mention that I wrote my ex-boss and HR people at ING Direct to ask whether they had any interesting position for me and I sent them my CV too. I wish they could send me to Sydney, Madrid or Milan! That would be holliday time again! I'll keep you updated.

It is best to apply during weekends

Today, proudly geared of my brand new resume, I'm applying for jobs like mad and just realised something...

First, I thought that maybe it is not a good idea to apply on Friday night because it is not likely that anyone would read any resume before Monday. Also, my resume would be lost in the mountain of other emails sent between now and Monday. I started anyway because I couldn't wait.

The great thing is that people usually activate their out of office email thingy as they leave the office for the week end and guess what, they mention any useful direct number to contact them directly in case of emergency or whatever. They also name all their colleagues and give their roles and phone numbers. That's more information than I need to bug them in case I want to call them to insist about my application or ask for further infos.
And the good thing is that works as well if you apply online via Monster.com. The HR person or the person who is met to hire you, receive the application via email, then their email sent you an automatic out of office response with all their contact details that you wouldn't receive otherwise.

Now that I know that, I will send a max of applications during the weekend and collect these infos so I can call them later on if needed.

CV Updated

Ok, so I finally updated my CV to a nice professional format.
I'd like to thanks Mez last night in Honk Kong, Jeff and Lana this morning in Montreal and Mia this afternoon in London for taking time reviewing it and giving me really ace advices to make it look good. I bet it is trully an international resume now.;-)
If anyone else would like to review it or send it around to friends, colleagues or potential employers, please do so. Send me a mail and I'll send it to you. I'd like as many people to review it as possible because each new person who did had a different approach and they all gave me new interesting feedbacks. If I want to please any employers, it has at least to please all my friends.

Meeting & litterature

I met with Danielle Beaudouin today, the career adviser for the MBA students of our school. She gave me really good tips and leads. I'm to meet the Head of HR of Publicis Canada soon as she's an HEC alumni as well.
She looked at my CV and made some changes but overall was happy with it. She also said that I would have no problem finding a job because I have a great profile and worked for big companies. I'm glad she said so because it boosts my confidence which helps in getting moving.

After my meeting with her, I went to the HEC library and picked up some books:
- "Best practice cases in Branding: Lessons from the world's strongest brands" by K.L. Keller;
- "Lovemarks: The future beyond brands" written by the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi K. Roberts.
This will help increase my knowledge in these fields which will surely help for the interviews and it will complement nicely that other book that I almost finish reading:
- "Ogilvy on advertising" by David Ogilvy the founder of Ogilvy.

I also picked a book called "What color is your parachute?" by B. R. Bolles, it is meant to be the bible for job-hunters & carreer changers. I started reading it at the library and it is quite good indeed.

Aurora business women's diversity network

Aurora business women's diversity network: "Where women want to work
Your free service to research and compare organisations:
find out where women want to work and why
read how organisations attract, retain and advance women
search careers in organisations seeking top female talent
see the top 20 employers of choice for women indicators
identify the organisations that value where women want to work, spend and invest "

Right Job: Strategic

I just did a test on the web and it tells what is the right job for me. The results are as follow:

"Dreeny, your Right Job will allow you to be Strategic

From that, we can tell your tactical mind has helped you become an undeniable go-getter. Your diplomacy and unusually strong persuasive skills help you get what you want in life.

As a Strategic type, you want to be able to express yourself and your ideas through work. Sure there's a time and place for rules and procedures, but when a good thought strikes you, you don't want it to be boxed into one way of thinking. You're willing to go outside the rules if there's a chance that the risk will reap big rewards.

You are stronger than most when it comes to generating ideas. And because of this, it might sometimes feel easier to take on all aspects of a job yourself instead of wasting time explaining it to someone else who might not "get it" like you do. But because you have so many ideas and are willing to take on so much, you might find that you sometimes have trouble finishing every project you start.

Your diplomacy and adaptability make you a valuable asset. But your need to feel invested in a company that allows you to express your original ways of thinking will ultimately impact how happy you are in the workplace."

Time to buy...

One more reason to buy a flat soon: 'Bonanza' for Belgian homebuyers
"Now could be the ideal moment to buy a house or flat in Belgium, with mortgage rates at their lowest levels in five years, it was reported on Thursday.
La Derniere Heure newspaper said that Fortis and Dexia banks are advertising a fixed-rate, 20-year mortgage rate of 5.65 percent, while KBC is offering a 5.55 percent rate."

HEC Montreal ranked Top 10 International MBA!

I'm so proud! The prestigious and untouchable MBA ranking of the Businessweeek magazine released its 2004 edition BW Online B-Schools Full-Time Profiles 2004-2005. For the first time, HEC Montreal (my Business School) enter the very exclusive International Top Ten for Non-US MBAs. This is amazing!

Here is the ranking:
1 Queens
2 IMD
3 INSEAD
4 ESADE
5 London Business School
6 Western Ontario
7 IESE
8 HEC - Paris
9 Toronto
10HEC - Montreal

Last of 10 but we beat these prestigious schools only ranked in the second tier only:
• British Columbia
• Cambridge
• Rotterdam
• Instituto de Empresas
• McGill
• Oxford
• SDA Bocconi

So who wants to hire a Top 10 MBA school's girl?;-)

I should buy a flat in Brussels

The more I read about Brussels and the more it sounds like an ideal place to leave. First, it is one of the most affordable in Europe if you look at the cost of living index. Second, there is a huge expat community living there and most importantly there are many top international DJ's playing there with hundreds of cool places to hang out. And let's not forget the many international companies and headquarters + the proximity of others capitals like London, Paris and Amsterdam. This sounds very appealing to me and I just realised that the house market is especially good since Brussels is still underrated compared to other major capitals. Buying a house or an appartment is the best thing to do now as prices are still affordable and will explode soon enough. So as soon as I work and make some money, I will be on the lookout for some place to buy as a matter of investment. I found a cool list of interesting areas in Brussels:
Where to live in Belgium

Cost of living rankings

Here is the cost of living ranking of major cities: CNN/Money: 2004 Mercer cost of living rankings.

So to summarize:
I lived in:
#26 Amsterdam, Netherlands (was student then start my career as a professional)
#2 London, UK (was a city slacker with no other life than working and partying)
#113 Montreal, Canada (Good thing I was a poor student at the time enjoying the cheap but fun life)
#53 Brussels, Belgium (switching and starting career again & poor because I spent all my money being a student for a year)

Others cities I may consider in the near future:
#12 New York City, USA
#13 Milan, Italy
#17 Paris, France
#20 Sydney, Australia
#28 Berlin, Germany (good DJ's there!)
#61 Madrid, Spain

Brussels here I am!

I booked my ticket! So there it goes, I'm leaving Canada on Saturday October 30 at 6:40PM and will arrive at Brussels at 6:30AM on Sunday October 31. Prepare the tissues! This is going to be heartbreaking...:-(

Advertising Industry

Here is a great website giving a nice overview about the Advertising Industry and career opportunities. Very esthetic and smart website!

HEC Montreal - Career Centre

Since I use this blog for myself as a reminder for the links to visit. Here is a very useful one:
HEC Montreal - Career Centre. Our school suscribes to very useful ressources like Vault, Career Global and such and offer them to us for free. Very nice and useful.