I am really beginning to trust in the power of networking. I moved from the UK to Germany in January 2013, leaving a very comfortable long term job position in the process. I was mindful that I must keep in contact with my established network, as these relationships had been built over many years and were too important to let fade. These days, this is made a great deal easier with the likes of LinkedIn and Twitter.
It was Twitter that enabled me to drop a quick note to my colleague, coach and friend, Liz Kentish. I had seen a job advertised in Berlin, working for a eBay within their facilities management team. This position was really exciting in many ways and seemed to fit my personal profile, but to a lesser extent my experience.
My experience was strong enough in general, but this role was customer side and my experience was that of service provider. Before my first interview, I Tweeted Liz to ask if she could reach out to her vast network to ask if anyone would be happy to share experiences of working customer side in FM and offer a few tips for my interview.
Within a few hours, I received about a dozen offers, via email and Twitter. I was overwhelmed and immediately set out replying to these ‘strangers’. I received great advice and top tips for how to tackle my interview, reassurance that my knowledge would be sufficient, as well as questions I could put to my interviewer that were sensible and demonstrated a sound understanding.
After a few interviews, I was offered the job, which I accepted. I had handled the interview process with confidence and a focus, a great deal of which had been provided by the contacts who reached out to me, through Liz. When I found out I had been successful, I was really excited to give my new contacts the good news, and they responded with delight!
I will never forget this experience, this kindness to help a stranger and the genuine level of interest people had in my situation. I have learned the FM community can demonstrate unrivaled levels of warmth, kindness and support and that there is a wealth of knowledge and experience on the end of a tweet…
By Richard Bradley, Facilities Manager, eBay