When we first moved to Chicago it
was only meant to be for a year and then we were planning on returning to
Northern Ireland and continuing in what we knew as normal life. Because of this,
and also work restrictions, I decided that a year without gainful employment,
spending my time volunteering and regularly visiting the gym was just what the
doctor ordered. This used to annoy a few
of the guys in Chicago who were subjected to financial ‘busy seasons’ but as a
good friend I made sure not to discuss my lazy lunches and days by the pool in
their company. Once we, (replace with ‘Jenny’) decided that we would stay on
longer in the States I found myself fabricating a CV and attending the dreaded
job interviews. The reason for this section is to highlight the importance of
networking and making new friends. Through our expat group in Chicago I met a
guy who had just moved to Chicago with a recruitment firm. The same recruitment
firm I had just applied to for work. A most enjoyable Saturday night out,
despite the live ‘comedy’ show and this guy assured me he would sort something
for me come Monday. Mr Rawcliffe was true to his word and come the following
week I found myself joining a fantastic company called SThree as a trainee
recruitment consultant. My time there was a great experience and I learned a
lot of things about corporate life. And more importantly some of the tricks and
tips for making you stand out above the other thousands of people applying for
the same job you are.
Having had some experience in the world of event planning, I decided this was going to be my focus for the next step in my career. I envisaged months in front
of the computer, trawling career sites and writing cover letters and waiting
for the usual emails saying thanks but no thanks. We were lucky enough to be
invited to a garden party to celebrate the birthday of a rather important
individual here in Muscat, on our first weekend in town. During dinner I got
chatting to a wonderful lady who informed me that alongside a number of
successful businesses, she was the owner and managing director of a boutique
events company. One thing led to another and several days later I found myself
as the new Events Director for a company called MEvents. Check out the website which will give you an idea of some of the amazing events we have done in the past.
I hope to share with you some of the
work that we will be doing over the upcoming months but needless to say I am
delighted to have been given this opportunity. Not just because I get to work
with some of the best chefs and restaurants throughout Oman and beyond, but
also a lot of the work we do is for high-end luxury consumers and businesses as
well as some of the bigger companies and ministry departments. Did I mention I
am over the moon about this?
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