In the same way that it\u2019s important to listen when you have a good gut feeling about something, it\u2019s also important to listen when you feel like the red flags are starting to surface. In the last couple of months I\u2019d pursued a few new opportunities, and they looked like great ones\u2013 either doing stuff I loved or offering some great development opportunity. I was pretty excited, but one in particular stood out because it was delivering training which I\u2019ve always wanted to do more of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It didn\u2019t start well. The advert required a full application form to be done, down to every single education institute, qualification, training course and job I\u2019d ever had and then a lengthy personal statement on top. I\u2019d forgotten how much I hated doing them, and how in 6 months and gaining 5 new clients, none of them had required it. It\u2019s really made me realise how little value they can have \u2013 yes you can see I have continuous employment, but is that any guarantee I\u2019m any more or less dedicated than anyone else? I may have done some great training courses \u2013 but it doesn\u2019t tell you if I\u2019ve got anything of the right approach. And do you really care whether I got A*- C GCSEs more than 20 years ago? It took me forever. Partly because it was so long. And partly because I got full of rage so often I had to stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I got a thanks-but-no-thanks reply but in it was the request of a quick Teams call to discuss what I offered. A mixed message I wasn\u2019t sure how to receive. And the Teams call didn\u2019t really help or clarify anything. I heard a fair bit about what their current training offer is, including some of their aspirations for their training and what their trainers would have. They were looking for both training experience and personal or professional experience of some of their services, and at the same time admitted it was fairly unlikely. We went over my offer and my experience and all its transferable qualities. The meeting felt patchy and uncoordinated but it ended with the contact requesting I send over two course outlines so they could see my offer in more detail and compare it against other people they were speaking to. My sense of a red flag had worsened, but my new year was still looking dry, and if I was taken onto their schedule, it could offer a rare thing for a freelancer \u2013 regular work with regular income over the longer term, not just with this organisation but their set-up meant I may also be offered work with other organisations. Plus, I really did want to do more training because I’ve always loved it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I diligently put together the course outlines, in time I didn\u2019t really have spare. Plus because I\u2019d never delivered those specific topics before, it was a fair amount of effort to research, design and put together a pretty detailed course outline for what I would be delivering. At this point, I recognised I\u2019d put in several days\u2019 worth of time into this application, and it was feeling really unbalanced for where I was in the recruitment process. The red flag continued to grow, but I was invested. I\u2019d also convinced myself in developing the course outlines how much fun I\u2019d have delivering them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After receiving the initial confirmation of receipt, I waited. And waited. The initial week passed where they said they\u2019d be speaking to another candidate, and nothing. I gave it another week and enquired. They were hugely apologetic and blamed the bureaucracy of it having to go through senior managers, and there was a difficulty getting everyone together. I think I knew then it was a no-goer. But I was polite and asked them to keep me updated. Another 3 weeks later, I took a course I knew was very relevant to them and could improve interest but really I think it was an excuse to get an answer. I\u2019d already accepted it wasn\u2019t going to happen, but I did want closure. Similar response to the previous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s now been further 6 weeks with no contact. It\u2019s fine not to be successful, and if they came back now and said let’s go, I\u2019m not sure I would because the lack of communication has been so bad. Not to recognise the effort people have put into submissions, or their likely frustration at the lack of news. I once heard someone say, \u201cno response is still a response\u201d and this is exactly that. For whatever reason they\u2019re not progressing with me, or even expanding the training programme as a whole, but they haven’t got the coordination\/decency to say. Meanwhile I\u2019ve wasted a lot of time, including some precious evenings, to squeeze it in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lesson learnt. Listen to the early red flags before you get in too deep. Be really careful about how much you invest before there’s any certainty. Also, blackmark the organisation for future reference, definitely not one to get involved in without a huge amount of caution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photo by Tarik Haiga<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the same way that it\u2019s important to listen when you have a good gut feeling about something, it\u2019s also important to listen when you feel like the red flags are starting to surface. In the last couple of months I\u2019d pursued a few new opportunities, and they looked like great ones\u2013 either…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[34],"tags":[13,11,12,21,25,10,36],"class_list":["post-271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contracts","tag-charity","tag-consultant","tag-freelance","tag-non-profit","tag-self-employment","tag-start-up-2","tag-training"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t