Archive for July, 2009

It’s a funny old time summer. Like the Christmas period there tends to be a lull in most businesses especially during the school holidays. Where’s this come from in the UK? Beats me. I think it’s a trait of human behaviour that’s inevitably crept into an overworked society.
I’m consulting on a job right now that kicks off end of November and the client is asking us to explain how we are going to maintain momentum over Christmas. Simple sir, we have programmed just 3 days off over the Christmas period. That’s what the programme says and we’ll stick to it. ‘Really’ the client says, ‘what about the parties and other distractions?’ …. ‘Same as your staff sir, discipline and focus, we are on a rail job that has has mandatory alcohol testing after all’.
The same has to be said for the summer ‘lull’ in general, no company schedules time off or short time – we work through and cover people on leave. Unless of course we actually come clean like the French, Italians and Spanish and admit that the whole country is on holiday in August. Much easier to plan around. Very popular with staff too.
Talking to my local fishmongers in Chelsea the other day they told me that’s exactly what London SW3 does, everyone shoots off to their place in the sun. Or cottage by the sea. Very easy for the the fish guys to plan around in terms of stock and staffing. Very nice for the punters too. Just like the rest of Europe. Fat chance, sorry!
So where does that leave the recruitment business? Well we don’t experience a summer lull, yes some decision makers are on leave but that only really delays us by the odd week.
What we have noticed is lots of activity amongst the European tunnelling companies as joint ventures are formed in readiness for the Crossrail mega contracts due out towards the end of the year. Anglo-German and Anglo-French being the obvious choices. Watch this space to find out who’s who, we already know a number of them but client confidentiality prohibits us from releasing names at this stage.
So what to do this summer? Rest assured we are working hard to open as many avenues of possibility to give you as many employment options. If you haven’t yet sent in your CV please do so, after that leave it to us and you can work on your tan.

It’s time to get learning!
There is always a conference or seminar on somewhere in the world. Great if you are on that treadmill, peddling your technical wares as as consultant but not great if you have a job to run back home. The trick is to pick the right ones to attend and here is where the good old fashioned recommendation comes in. There are a few good ones scheduled in over in The Far East in the coming months which is great if you want to check out some of the massive array of equipment and tunnelling techniques planned to be utilized on a diverse portfolio of projects soon to be brought online. Which then brings us to which project you want to work on over there – Hong Kong alone is rumoured to be looking for 2000 ex-pats to assist in the next tranche of tunnelling project. It pays to pick a conference you can network on too, be prepared to stay up late after a full day of seminars, especially if you are with Scandinavians! Then there are the North American and European ones, boom time in both of these regions.
So with so many up for grabs, which one? Well we reckon you can’t go wrong with the British Tunnelling Society organized Tunnels and Tunnelling Conference on September 29 this year http://www.tunnelsandtunnellingconference.com/. It takes place in Central London, not in some far flung outpost or on the edge of town so will be great for the social side and just checking out the city generally.
I’m told that there will be a wide and varied selection of seminars, many presentations will be taking place for the first time so no risk of being bored listening to a rehash of something you’ve heard before. Just a few areas they’ll focus on are rumoured to be:

TBM technology up-date
Advances in Sprayed Concrete Lining technology and practices
Barcelona Line 9
Crossrail Special
Avoiding conflicts in Tunnelling
I hope that’s enough to get your interest, I’ll publish a full itinerary just as soon as I have it.

Don’t be boring, get boring.