Kenya
Ah, so much to blog, so little time and intermittent internet access has delayed this one as well.
OK, when I was taking my break diving in Egypt the plan was always to punt my CV out and see if I could start to line something up for when I got back. The market did seem to be picking up and whilst talking to an agency I've used before about a job with Nokia I was asked as an aside if I fancied a similar role in Kenya. Why, let me think about this for a nano-second. Yes.
The next thing I know they've offered me the job. No interview, no job beyond a one line brief (go and set up a test department for a Kenyan mobile applications company), just did I want. Sure, why not. The money is good although the rate dropped €10 from the start to end but I'm used to similar things happening. Accommodation and flights paid for which is good.
On my return to the UK things on the personal front took a severe turn for the worst when Helen ended up in an ICU in Stoke for four days over Christmas after a massive asthma attack which had followed within a day of a car crash, which pretty much killed the festive season for me. She was eventually released the day before New Years Eve looking like death.
This post, however, is about the Kenya job. Information started trickling again after the new year as people came back from holiday, with a potential start date of the second week in January which I put back a week in order to give Helen more time to recover before I went. Oh, and also to get my head more together.
Now I've had various discussions on the matter I've got more detail. The job is working with VirtualCity in Nairobi setting up a QA department for them. VirtualCity provide mobile based software for supply chain solutions, very important in places like Africa where fixed line communications are in short supply.
Accommodation and flights come with the role. The most "amusing" aspect thing so far has been finding out that one room in the apartments I'm being put up in were used by an FBI extraordinary rendition team for interrogating someone (link [warning, PDF]).
OK, when I was taking my break diving in Egypt the plan was always to punt my CV out and see if I could start to line something up for when I got back. The market did seem to be picking up and whilst talking to an agency I've used before about a job with Nokia I was asked as an aside if I fancied a similar role in Kenya. Why, let me think about this for a nano-second. Yes.
The next thing I know they've offered me the job. No interview, no job beyond a one line brief (go and set up a test department for a Kenyan mobile applications company), just did I want. Sure, why not. The money is good although the rate dropped €10 from the start to end but I'm used to similar things happening. Accommodation and flights paid for which is good.
On my return to the UK things on the personal front took a severe turn for the worst when Helen ended up in an ICU in Stoke for four days over Christmas after a massive asthma attack which had followed within a day of a car crash, which pretty much killed the festive season for me. She was eventually released the day before New Years Eve looking like death.
This post, however, is about the Kenya job. Information started trickling again after the new year as people came back from holiday, with a potential start date of the second week in January which I put back a week in order to give Helen more time to recover before I went. Oh, and also to get my head more together.
Now I've had various discussions on the matter I've got more detail. The job is working with VirtualCity in Nairobi setting up a QA department for them. VirtualCity provide mobile based software for supply chain solutions, very important in places like Africa where fixed line communications are in short supply.
Accommodation and flights come with the role. The most "amusing" aspect thing so far has been finding out that one room in the apartments I'm being put up in were used by an FBI extraordinary rendition team for interrogating someone (link [warning, PDF]).
posted by Bill at 5:54 pm
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