Prototype of a Person

Holiday Time

I spent 4 days last week training for my new sales position in 3 Ireland and now I’m on one week paid holiday, fantastic, especially considering I only started working for them on the 23rd of October. I’m currently waiting for the store to open on Henry Street, I had considered being placed in the Grafton Street store but I know there will be a greater opportunity to sell in their flagship store when it eventually does open. Unfortunately 3 are rather secretive about anything that goes on internally so I wont be able to post any information about the new store or the company, so for now, I’ll simply have to direct you towards their media centre.

What I can tell you, is that I’m really excited about being involved, once more, in the roll-out of a new breed of retail environment. When I first started working for 3G in their first Eircom Broadband Studio it was a challenging and rewarding experience and of course it was fun to be surrounded by top of the range technology. Just like the O2 Experience Stores, the Broadband Studios are an example of how hands-on demonstrations of new technologies, and by giving customers a venue in which to interact with a new product, increases their likelihood of actually purchasing. This is exactly what the 3Stores will be about - trying before buying. From a personal perspective, I find that I’m much more likely to want to buy a new piece of electronics if I can first try it, feel it’s weight in my hand, and see what it can actually do for me. There’s nothing worse than being confronted with a plastic dummy or a picture in a brochure, even reading a reviewers opinion of a product is nothing in comparison to actually interacting with it.

Speaking of new technology, I’ve been using the new Firefox 2 for the last week and although at first I was a little put off by how similar it looks to the Apple browser Safari, I’ve actually found that two of its new features are very beneficial to me.

Spell Checking - as you type. This is the feature on OpenOffice.org (the free office suite) that converted me from a Microsoft Office user to an OpenOffice Writer. Anything you type within your browser is checked for spelling mistakes as you type them, it completely erases (no pun intended!) the need for any kind of “check spelling” options that most web-based e-mail services offer. It’s certainly made writing this blog post a lot easier, usually I would be writing this in OpenOffice first and then copying and pasting it (because, yes, I admit it, I’m really bad speller).

Search Suggestions - again, as you type. Whatever search engine you prefer, that lovely little search box built into Firefox dynamically updates a drop-down list of suggested search terms. Not only does this speed up your search, it also may suggest searches to you that you hadn’t even thought of. Thus opening you up to even more information or even, narrowing it down for you further, so you can find exactly what it is you’re looking for.

Firefox 2 is wonderful piece of new software that I applaud for it’s user friendly design, it’s almost endless possibilities in the ability to customise and thus improving your own efficiency as a user, and it’s completeness - features that every new version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer lacks. There is a definite need in the software market for development that is geared towards the user experience.

Hopefully the new MsC in Cyberpsychology in IADT will have some focus on user experience research as a way to improve software and hardware development. It’s a course that I shall be considering over the next couple of months as I research my options for next year (or later). On Monday evening, the 6th of November, IADT will be host to a Cyberpsychology seminar entitled “Cyberpsychology: An Emerging Discipline” and will be hosted by my thesis supervisor Dr.Grainne Kirwan. If anyone is interested in attending please contact IADT with your information in advance so you can be formally invited.

Dropping the G

I’m starting training tomorrow for my new job in 3 Ireland. Training will be for a few weeks and it’s in the Gresham Hotel, which is very very classy, too classy for the likes of me. It’ll be a nice break; paid training is such a wonderful thing.

I’m really excited about seeing the new shop I’ll be working in, which will apparently feature entertainment bays and “play pods” where customers can try out 3’s 3G network – such as streaming video and music downloads, games too. They’ll have “live handsets” for customers to try out (3G tried this once before, but found that it was too tempting for thieves - I wonder how long it will take before a few are stolen from the 3 store). There will also be a “chill-out area” for shoppers (and the staff, I am assuming!).

To be honest, it’s all sounding rather appealing to the boyish nerdy side of me. There’s nothing I like more, than showing people what technology can actually DO for them and it’s sounding like the 3 stores will be a innovative place to do just that.

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Thank you for your interest in Google…

I handed in my two weeks notice on Monday, not because I got the job in Google, but because I accepted an offer to work for 3 Ireland in their new Henry Street store. Monday was a hectic day, I had to decide whether to take the job with Three or hold out for Google. In the end, I was right to accept the position in Three.

Google were supposed to get back to me on Monday and even after leaving a voicemail message, they didn’t actually get back to me until Tuesday evening. I received a really impersonal rejection e-mail from them, a real copy and paste job, telling me that based on my “qualifications” and “experience” that they didn’t think me a “strong match”. My instant thought after reading this was “did they not have my cv?”. I’ve politely asked them to provide me with additional feedback on why they think me not suited to the position, and am still waiting to receive it.

The Google recruitment process was very thorough, after an assessment test, 3 phone interviews and 2 face-to-face interviews all I received from them was an e-mail to tell me that I didn’t get the job, and that was 3 weeks after the face-to-face interviews. From start to finish, the whole process of them figuring out I wasn’t suitable for the position took over 2 months. It stressed me out, it pissed me off, it excited me, and more than anything else it got my hopes up far too much. I really thought this was the perfect job for me, but I think I was too eager and too… maybe desperate to work them. I probably should have shut my mouth about how great I think their company is and how I would have liked to be able to participate in their research projects, some time in the future. Perhaps they thought me too enthusiastic? In the end, I don’t think I’ll be applying to work for them again; it’s not worth the stress and the extreme effort… I still can’t believe they had to interview me 5 times to figure out they didn’t want to hire me, it was so terribly unnecessary.

Anyway, I’m not going to beat myself up about it, considering that I have a brand new opportunity, to make lots of commission working for the Three network. I don’t know how long I’ll stay working for them, but I need to start making more money, what with Christmas just around the corner. In the New Year I’ll have to start visiting recruitment agencies in hopes to get a “real” job – despite my CV being available on every Irish recruitment website possible I seem to only be getting offers for sales positions. Shall I be doomed to work in retail, forever, regardless of my college education? If I can’t get a job with my degree, is there even any point in even doing a masters next year, is there any point in doing it ever?

5 Minutes to Fabulous?

If there’s one thing about “chiq” fem-phones that I’ve hated in the past, it’s that they are often feature-filled yet lack the ability to expand the memory. Take the Nokia 6111, great looking phone, fantastic features like bluetooth and a megapixel camera – yet, what’s the point of a megapixel camera phone if you can only take about 20 photographs at its highest resolution? The new Benq-Siemens E51 is a big change to this annoying trend. From the outside it appears to be the successor of the popular Siemens CL75 (the “poppy” phone) but there are some major differences, for instance the 1.3 megapixel camera instead of vga, it’s bluetooth enabled and also has a micro-sd slot so you can expand the memory. Siemens haven’t launched a new phone in a long time, the reason being that it was bought out by the Taiwan based Benq group. Rebranded as Benq-Siemens, and with the launch of the E51 into the Irish market also comes the E61, a “music phone” which boasts a 512mb miniSD card and dedicated music buttons. Both of these models are due to launch on the O2 Speakeasy range and will retail at approximately €150.

I had the opportunity to play around with both phones during the week, both phones have the same user interface which seems straightforward enough, easy to navigate, but with it’s bright colours it’s probably more suited to the teen market. Personally, I really like the style of the E61, its slick black with red/orange stripe reminded me of the A-team van. The dedicated music buttons are easy to use, and although it only has a vga camera I can definitely see this being a popular alternative to the more expensive Sony Ericsson “music phones”. With regards to the E51, it’s nice to see a phone that’s being marketed towards women that has excellent features such as bluetooth and a micro-sd slot. It borrows from the CL75 quite successfully, with its integrated compact mirror but also comes pre-loaded with a “5 minutes to fabulous” java application that shows you how to do your make-up in five easy steps. It’s this feature that made me take 5 steps away from this phone. I’m sure it’s not for everyone (me included) but it’s a nice gimmick and along with its low price, and with Christmas fast approaching it’s sure to be a big seller.

In personal news, I’ve had no feedback yet from Google about the Adsense position. So don’t ask. I’ve been told it will be sometime this week, possibly tomorrow, before I hear anything. At least in the meantime I can distract myself by trying out the “5 minutes to fabulous” java application to see if it can turn a butch like me into a pretty chiq girl… the odds are pretty slim though.