About Me
I am 53, married and have two kids. To be honest, I am just an ordinary guy who has lived life sensibly (in the main) and without celebrity or particular notoriety. When I started building this site, my guilty secret was that I had found myself in the uncomfortable situation of being unemployed thanks (well no thanks really) to being made redundant. You can read about my experiences and observations if you're interested. As I had a bit more time at my disposal, I decided to create my own website and have some fun writing about my thoughts and experiences. Indulgent? Yes, but why not?
I was gainfully employed again within three months of adrianbaldwin.net going 'live'; it pleases me to report that this website helped me secure interviews and therefore win over the hearts and minds of potential employers. The moral of the story is that if you find yourself in the same position as I did, maybe you could build your own website too.
For any of my readers/visitors that end up out of work, the best piece of useful advice I can give you if you are using the job aggregator sites like Totaljobs, Indeed, CV Library, Jobsite etc. is to make sure you update your CVs regularly even if you are just changing the file name. The reason for this is that you stay at the top of the search lists created by recruiters if your details are new. I worked this out for myself when my phone stopped ringing. When I questioned my thinking by talking to a few recruitment agencies, the answer I got back was keep your entries fresh because we won’t consider anything that has been up for more than a month. A minimal monthly update is therefore necessary. I missed a trick for a while – make sure you don’t.
If you want to know more about me, here are some facts - sublime, bizarre or ridiculous; you decide:
Still interested? There's more - see "A pictorial point in time"
I was gainfully employed again within three months of adrianbaldwin.net going 'live'; it pleases me to report that this website helped me secure interviews and therefore win over the hearts and minds of potential employers. The moral of the story is that if you find yourself in the same position as I did, maybe you could build your own website too.
For any of my readers/visitors that end up out of work, the best piece of useful advice I can give you if you are using the job aggregator sites like Totaljobs, Indeed, CV Library, Jobsite etc. is to make sure you update your CVs regularly even if you are just changing the file name. The reason for this is that you stay at the top of the search lists created by recruiters if your details are new. I worked this out for myself when my phone stopped ringing. When I questioned my thinking by talking to a few recruitment agencies, the answer I got back was keep your entries fresh because we won’t consider anything that has been up for more than a month. A minimal monthly update is therefore necessary. I missed a trick for a while – make sure you don’t.
If you want to know more about me, here are some facts - sublime, bizarre or ridiculous; you decide:
- I am a blood donor and recently gave my 38th pint
- I am a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a friend and a manager
- I love Marmite
- I don’t smoke, have always had a clean driving licence, have never had a filling, don’t have any tattoos or body piercing and am not overweight
- I’ve backpacked, stage dived, bungy jumped and sky dived so am quite prepared to take a personal risk or get out of my comfort zone
- Favourite food: Curry
- Favourite authors: Bill Bryson, Terry Pratchett
- Favourite decade: 1970s (but then the banner image might have given that away already)
- Music I’ll have at my funeral: Ace of Spades, Motorhead: Days, Kirsty McColl: England 77, Horrorcomic
Still interested? There's more - see "A pictorial point in time"
