DREENY GOT A JOB!!!!

My negotiation about the salary with Publicis went well. They increased a lot their initial offer and I'm happy with it.
So there it is, Dreeny the jobhunter will become Dreeny the workhacolic from Januari 3rd 2005 on. This was a long journey from the MBA classroom to my first post MBA job and I enjoyed a lot my forced hollidays. Another week of lazy freedom before starting the office slacker life. Can't wait for it!
Wish me good luck in my new job. Thanks for supporting me in my jobsearch and for reading this blog. I may start a new one to bitch about my new job, who knows?;-)

And by the way, Merry Christmas to everyone!!! XXX

Got an offer from Publicis

The interview yesterday with the Director of Publicis went really well and he made me an offer for the role of Account Executive to work on the accounts: HP, Club Med, Coca Cola Light & Minute Maid. If the role sounds great and like something I'm looking for and could really learn a lot from, the salary is much less than what I used to make. I'm now in negotiation to try to improve that. If everything goes well I should start working on the 3rd of Januari.

To complicate things, the IT company, I was also meant to work for, called me yesterday to tell me they found me a project and I am to meet the client in the next days. I told them my situation and that they should give me all details because I was about to make a decision.

Even if the money was excellent in that IT company and they were offering a car as well, my inside voice tells me to go for I would really want to be doing. Marketing/Advertising that is. So I will let you know as soon as I sign anything but most likely it will be Publicis in Brussels.

"Paris-based Publicis is the world’s fifth largest communications agency advertising and media services conglomerates. Its activities include creative advertising, media and campaign planning, public relations and marketing. The group operates in Europe, Asia, the Americas and other parts of the world through three networks - Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis Worldwide & Leo Burnett. It boasts 170 offices in over 100 countries, with around 38,000 employees. Publicis' counts Coca Cola, Nestlé, and Procter & Gamble among its clients."

Project leader for Renault opportunity

Wow, it seems that all the recruiters are waking up as the end of the year is coming up. I just got a call from a temp company who saw my resume on Monster.com. They asked me if I was interested by a project leader role for Renault leading a Marketing & HR related project for a year starting as soon as possible. You bet I am interested!!! I sent her my CV and hopefully will hear from them soon.

Thank you letters work!

As a good MBA graduated, I reminded myself to follow the advices of the career center which are to always follow an interview with a thank you letter thanking the interviewer for taking the time to see you and stressing the fact that you are even more interested by the job now. Well I did so after my interview with Publicis and an hour later, I received another mail thanking me for my email and asking me to have a meeting as soon as possible with no less than the Director of the agency to discuss the position again. I did so and my meeting is schedulled on Wednesday at 10 am! I'm so thrilled by all this!

Useful links for finding a job in Belgium/Brussels

- EuroBrussels.com - Number 1 List of Jobs in Brussels, EU institutions and International Organisations
- Guide to getting jobs in Brussels
- How to find a job in Belgium

Feedback of my interview with Publicis

So I met the managing director of Publicis to discuss the position of Account executive. The interview went well, the questions were interesting and out of the usual where do you see yourself in 5 years and how people see you? Etc. that recruiters always ask.
He was more interested about my critical thinking about advertising, what I like, what I could do, what are my views on things, ideas, ads, etc. Thanks god I read 2 books on advertising so I could talk about something and have an opinion about ads eventhough I'm completely new to that world.
He also explained me how his agency was working and the concept of Publicis of brand gardener. It was a bit like a crash course in advertising and I learned a lot in that interview.
He was meeting this Friday with the management team to discuss the role and would tell me on Monday the outcome. He told me there were only 2 candidates for this role so I had great chances to have it if that was my wish.
The only downside of the interview was about my financial pretention. He asked me what I was expecting for a salary and I told what I earned previously + the fact that I had invested in a mba so ideally I would like to be paid more. I saw his face turning pale so I added that I was aware of the salary range in advertising and that they were below what I could expect, however I would be open to lower proposition and be flexible about it as I didn't want the money aspect to be an issue in my application. I was there to learn and ready to make compromise if needed.

Interview with Publicis

My networking finally paid off... and I have an interview lined up with Publicis in Brussels on Wednesday 15 Dec at 5pm. Publicis is one of the leading international advertising agencies and the position offered is Account Executive.

Interview with Unilever

So I went to Unilever. I had a first interview with the recruiter. It went well I think. The woman I talked to is not the one who is actually making the decision to hire me or not but she is the one to propose my application to the heads of departments. She told me I would heard from them before the end of the year and in which case I would have one or two more interviews with the people I would actually work with. Normally, there is an assessment in the selection process but since I worked 3 years and did a MBA, I don't need to go through that and I can jump one step directly to the final interview.
I'm glad of that so the process is taking less time and I can hopefully end up with a job before the end of the year. I cross my fingers!!!

Dreeny's sick

My interview with Unilever is on Tuesday and bad news this morning, I started feeling sick. Since there is no way I could be sick on that day, I decided to go to the doctor today and drug myself up to make sure I'm in top shape next week. He got the message and prescibed me 5 different stuff including antabiotics so I can survive until interview day. God bless him!
In the meantime, I'm preparing my interview like mad. I got a few calls and mails from IT company keen to put me on PeopleSoft projects again as Project Leader. It pays well but it's hard for me to get enthousiastic about PeopleSoft anymore. We'll see, I may well if my attempt to break into Marketing doesn't work with Unilever and the sounds of cash is too loud to resist.