Job Hunting Review

So at the moment I am trying to go through my vast archives of old email folders, keep what's worth having, and ditch what isn't. I do like to have relevant archives, so it can be tricky to decide what may be useful in the future. You might think that it's easier just to keep everything, in this day and age of digital beaucoup. However, unless one is particularly adept at managing a slick filing system, it can be easy to lose the gems amongst the chaff. Plus I am in one of those moods currently where I am seeking to downsize and rationalise my life - brain fart, I think I tend to do this when I am thinking about a move. History tells me that is the case. And I have certainly been vocationally unsettled, for some time now. Hmm, interesting observation of oneself. Anyway, so I figured in an effort to get rid of some old stuff, I'd go through the various folders where I have filed job-seeking correspondence over the years, make some notes and screenshots of things that resonate, and clear them all out. Here we go!

Yahoo Archive

2013-15 Folder (53 emails)

The folder starts with a few emails to/from Will Coverdale. He is a mining engineer consultant who was HKG-based at the time. Not sure what he is up to these days though (might be in Laos). Of course post-Penjom and pre-shop, I was always on the look out for contract/consulting work, so no doubt that's what those meetings were about. 

Next in this folder, and one of the main featuring roles was Senior QM with LaFarge/Holcim. I think they are only Holcim these days, and a mix of local and foreign management. It looked like a decent role, generally KL-based, and I was keen on it. But it didn't pan out as I was looking for $ similar to what I had been on, and the local-ish offer was well short of that unfortunately. 

The next one that stands out was a series of emails to and fro with my old uni mate Simon Mottram. Simon was keen on getting me over to help him in Brazil at this time, and then again a couple of years later. It was just a bridge too far for me though, I wasn't keen on moving to the other side of the world. Well, truth be told, it was more because my family would have to stay in a city and I would be on a FIFO roster, that's the main turn-off for most mining opportunities for me, both then and now. I have included one of the emails from Simon below, as I had forgotten how hard he tried to get me, and how highly he rated me. I do respect him a lot and wonder what might have been. No regrets though.

"Dave

 

8.30am here. Am leaving today for Brazil. Fly out at 12.30 GMT. Things went well here and its all looking good for money

 

Brazil really is a pleasure to work in, and there are many days I just stand there laughing saying I cant believe I get paid for this. Although at this stage I cant say more than 2 years on a FIFO, anything can happen. Living here would be a different proposition as it opens the door to other visa types. Also now looks like we will go open pit to stage the second mine and on a faster timetable… so you could roll straight into this one and end up like sitting over both when you have found Brazilian’s you are happy with

 

Would love to work with you again, and to be honest I need you to make the pit fly… the job has you written all over it. You would get along perfectly with Colin the Chairman, who is the only other Mining Eng. His whole career is U/G, so it would be a peerless position for you, get to do it all your way. That is where my trust and our relationship comes into it. I know you’re up for it, you would love it, and you would be a great fit here… you know jobs like this always go to insiders that someone knows and trusts… I am putting you up as “the man” and underwriting your name

 

Come out and take a look, will make that worth your while also… you wont be disappointed…

 

See if you can carve out a couple of weeks at least, as you will burn a week in travelling. Would be great if you could help out on the contract mining tender adjudication, go and do the site visits for the short-listers other work sites etc (first tour around the interior of Brazil hahaha)

 

Sorry I am bit hard to get hold of, it a crazy week of travel and meetings. Will be back in the office in Parauapebas (Google Earth this) in a few days and life will return to normal (which is no ordinary life hahaha), you would love it here…

 

Send me a MSG when you are good and I will call

 

Cheers

Simon"

Ok, so as for the rest of that folder, well it had a lot in it. I guess this is reflective of the time, as in 2013-15 I was not employed fulltime. I was hoping, of course, that ASN would pan out and that I would join them FT eventually, but it never happened. There were about another 30 emails in that folder talking about various roles, none of which panned out of course. 

Avocet Folder

This folder is less packed than the previous one, but no less interesting! I generally forget that my interactions with Avocet started before my 2008 phone interview with Dean, which led to me being employed as the Penjom Mine Manager. About a year before that, Eric Vesel the COO, was looking for someone to carry out mining engineering work at Avocet's mine in Tajikistan. I had gone across to meet him, but never went anywhere with it. Just as well, as it turned out, as they sold this project soon after. So this folder was largely about my recruitment, arrangements with Eric and Wee Khon, the Admin' guy, and a few other bits and pieces leading into my moving to Malaysia. I remember all this fondly and wish the old expat' contracts were as easy to find these days as they were then. Alas we live in a different world now. Still, I have not given up hope...

General Folder

This folder stretches from 2006-2018, but not with too many emails contained. Gosh, what an interesting intersection of life here. So the first email, dating to 2006, referenced a phone interview I was to have with QMAG, a magnesite operation out of Rockhampton. I don't remember the interview, but clearly didn't end up with the job for whatever reason. But in looking up QMAG to see who they were, I note they have just advertised a residential Mine Manager role. It could fit the bill for me right now perhaps... What will I do? I think I need to aim higher at this point.

There are a few other emails in this folder from various recruiters I have worked with over the years to look for / secure roles. Harry Tetis and Libby Langford as examples. Libby tried very hard to get me into Lumwana with Jon something or other, which went well, but I decided Africa was not for me. It's actually never for me, so not a part of the world I would consider. Tara Davidson and Ron Morland are another couple of names in that folder. Ron was the guy helping John Reeve recruit for ASN, so that's what I had to do with him. He recently moved elsewhere and I touched base to let him know I was on the hunt. Looking back, he provided some welcome feedback on my CV too. I should review it in light of his thoughts.

"David,

 

Hi and thanks for your email just now. Could I make a few suggestions regarding your CV? Sorry to be a pain but, as I am sure you realise, the CV is a break point. Decisions are made based on the CV and so it is worth the effort.

 

People generally look at the first page and decide interest or not; sad but true in many cases. You need a front page that hits home. The detail is there in yours but I suspect people will not read all the pages first off. Yours relies on people reading the detail to understand your depth. In this day and age people do not tend to do that first off so you need to adapt to what will hit home. Also your CV tends to be the traditional type which is fine if you want the detail.

 

Have a look at these three CVs, one made up but the other two are real. Look at each for 30 seconds each then ask yourself if you know what they have done and what they think they are good at? The skills are general, but different, with little space for examples/achievements. It tells somebody what you are good at and what you like doing, with a snippet of detail (usually a measure or size).

 

You should consider developing an Executive Summary CV for yourself. Think strategically. You need a mixture of what you are good at and like but also some that link into the position requirements of any role such that the reader says "ah, he has done that". Note how the skills vary for the guys for very different positions. I have even developed these with new graduates.  With the framework in place it is not hard to modify for each individual position you go for. Subtle changes in say the skills order, or maybe a little more emphasis on key requirements for the particular position, are all that is required.

 

The title is important as it is how people see you as seeing yourself.  

 

You can append your standard CV after it  (“Detailed CV attached”) but I guarantee that your one pager will look impressive. Remember it has to be on one page and beware it is not a 5 minute job. The left side is quick but the right takes some thought. After all this is what it is all about with your history being supportive evidence.

 

Think back to when you recruit. What do you look for? My guess is skills first, then where the person got those skills.

 

This style works very well for a person with such varied skills and a long career as yourself. Your CV is the standard role description with activities and achievements. It does not tell me what your skills are.

 

Some of skill headings you might think of as being appropriate may include;

 

·         Strategic Planning

·         Vision

·         Safety Leadership

·         Team Development

·         Financial Management

·         Innovation Leader

·         Change Management / Managing complex change"

I did reply, I can see, but can't see my reply. Looking at his email now, I believe this was the catalyst to change my CV, but I am not sure I got it perfect. I have taken a copy of Ron's feedback and an example CV, to review mine against. Thanks Ron!

Texas Escape Folder

Haha, this was an interesting period in life. I believe I described the whole Texas thing in the consulting part of the My Career series, so I won't go into detail on that here. Needless to say, looking at the subtitle here, you can tell that getting out of Texas happened at short notice, and under cover of darkness! I did resign and give notice, but just had to get out of there to remove myself from the influence of the maniac GM. 

Surprisingly, there are a lot of emails in this folder (61). I am surprised, because when we left Texas, it was because ASN had (temporarily) got their shit together. As such, John Reeve contacted me, and said we're ready to go again. So go I did! Thus it wasn't like I was job-hunting, hence the surprise. But looking at the folder, there is a lot in there from Crown Relocations, who handled our move back to KL. Far out our gear got around in those days! Also, at the beginning of the folder, my old mate Stu had given a recommendation for me to one of his contacts, see email below:

"Hi Julian,

 

I have another contact who you may possibly want to talk too. His name is David Brown and he has extensive mining experience which I believe ranges over 20 years. Dave was the mining manager here at the Penjom gold mine and implemented a lot of the mine production efficiency management systems, safety training along with helping develop the strategic mine planning and the mines exploration and resource definition drilling targets.  Dave is currently back in Australia although he is looking to move back to KL with his Malaysian wife.

 

As a personal reference I would not hesitate in working with Dave again if the opportunity arose.

 

I will let you introduce yourselves if you wish to proceed.

 

Regards,

Stu"

That was for a mob called Terragali Resources, a local investment company trying to get into mining. I met with a few of them, but it never really went anywhere. Another local (KL) contact was Cathy Zhai from Monument. I interviewed for their Mine Manager job, but didn't like her style. She wanted 6 days a week, and for not the best package, so we didn't go any further. Talking to my new Besra contact, I think I dodged a bullet there!

There were a few more about jobs in Africa, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Thailand and the Solomon's. Actually the Chatree one was interesting, as I went there for an interview back in the JMS days (flew over from Brisbane). It probably wouldn't work for me, as the family would need to live in Bangkok and me just home on weekends. But it was a pretty cool operation and only recently got going again after the usual Thai government clusterfuck that seems to happen every 10 years or so. A bit like Fiji in that regard!

2011-12 Folder

Not all of this is in order, and I may have discussed aspects of some roles previously. But I will tackle the information as it comes, and hope that there are no inconsistencies in my prose! This folder starts with PanAust in Laos. I interviewed for a role with them in late 2011. It didn't go anywhere, as I did not hit it off with the GM who interviewed me. He was an angry little man and I did not like him one bit. Plus it was a 10:4 DIDO from Vientiane. This would suit many, but I need to be home most nights, so it wasn't going to work for me anyway.

Next emails were about some underground opportunity, which was clearly never going to be for me, so not sure why I kept them. There are a few more from various headhunters, and then I see IAMGOLD come up in the list. What an odd name for a company I have to say, but they seem to be a fairly serious player, mainly in the Americas. 

Hmm, next one is a little sensitive. What I left Penjom for initially, was the chance to join Dean in the Philippines. Dean is one of my great mentors in my career, and like Bruce was in the first half, someone I am willing to make significant changes to work with. I relished the idea of doing so with him in the Phils. So I resigned, then spent a few weeks there kicking things off. Alas, I soon realised that I had made a mistake. I did not like the Phils, didn't like the project, and frankly didn't like most of what I was encountering. Dean was largely the only positive. So I made the hard call to withdraw after my first stint. Dean took that fairly poorly to begin with, but we got over it. It was the right call in the end, as within 6 months, the local partner bought out the Aussie component, and all the expats were retrenched. 

A few odds and sods and then the next snippet popped up regarding Alcyone and the Texas silver mine. Far out, what a debacle that was. I talk about this in another post so won't go into it here, but this folder covered the time that I applied for and got that role. 

2017 Folder

Crikey this folder is a big one. It was when I was at the shop and looking to move back into mining. It all culminated with Gulf in Kupang of course, but I went through a fair few other options in the meantime. One being the magnesium place in Young NSW. OMG what a clusterfuck that joint was. Glad I went for a look and equally glad I didn't progress it.  

Also featuring in this folder are numerous emails from Boral. Haha, they turned me down, and just as well man - from what I know of Boral now, they are almost as bad as the Indian crowd in Young. Thank God I never ended up working for those fuckers!

One application that didn't end up in a role but I was sure interested in, was with Sibelco. I flew to Sydney to interview with them. It was all very formal and professional, and they came across well. I didn't get the job, but reached out to them afterwards and said Sibelco is a company I am interested in, and then another role landed on the table, this time at Newcastle. Interestingly, this time they offered it to me, but by that stage I already had GMG's contract in my hand, and ended up going with them. 

Other emails of note include numerous mine manager applications that appeared to go nowhere, plus Fulton Hogan, Downer and Holcim. A gold mine at Tawau popped up too, but I never heard back from them. As it happens, I just reached out to them again so let's see if they reply this time. The last interesting series of emails was with an Iranian mining company, put onto me by JR of all people. I didn't see any conclusion emails, so I presume they just lost interest. Not quite as unique an opportunity as the one at the bottom of this page, but certainly it would have been different, had anything come of it!

2019 Folder

So mid-2019 saw the conclusion of Gulf for me. Stick one's neck out and get it chopped off, it would seem. It was good that I got the arse there, 1) because I was unhappy working for Gulf and 2) because it allowed me to cash in my shares! We then moved to Wifey's parent's place in KL, and I spent four months looking for a job there. As that was the main activity at the time, it's not surprising to note that the 2019 folder is a big one - 86 emails.

Of no surprise will be that almost 10% - 8 emails - relate to Mawsons. After all, that's where I ended up. But there are numerous others worthy of mention. One is Meng Khong Tan, a Gulf shareholder, who was looking to develop assets elsewhere in SEA at the same time. We met numerous times to discuss this, but alas nothing ever came of it. Still, he is a good contact to have, and I just reached out to him again to see what he's up to. Interestingly, at one point my old mate Alex Mc and him got in touch, as Alex's crowd was looking for the sort of investment that MK was looking to provide. I don't think it ever went anywhere though.

Fred Bain was another local contact, who I got from Brian, who was engaged by local miners, trying to get a gold mine up and running. I met him, but it never went anywhere. According to him, due to lack of commitment for funds from the owners. I had the feeling that he felt I wasn't quite the right person perhaps, but who knows. In the end, it just fizzled out. 

Another lot of emails was from Joe Ranford, of Nordic Gold, put onto me by Stu Pether. These conversations went really well, and it almost ended up with us moving to Finland. Alas a change in ownership / board meant that focus for the MM role ended up being for local people rather than expat, and Joe ended up leaving too. The town where we would have lived was less than 100km from the Russian border, so it would have been an interesting place!

I "met" a couple of great recruiters along the way in this job hunting phase. One being Rhys Holding and another being Hurriya Mirza. Rhys was in NZ and Hurriya in Oman. You couldn't get much more different than that! The job Rhys was recruiting for was a quarry kind of role with a company called Omya, and in NZ itself. I ended up withdrawing from this application, due to accepting Mawsons' offer. I reckon it might have been a good job and was definitely a super location. Oh well, maybe in the future perhaps? The role with Hurriya was a PM role for a copper-gold mine in Oman itself. It would have been quite an experience, alas they wanted someone with more start-up and construction experience than I had at the time, so it was a no go, despite numerous interviews.

Ok, so after all those we still have 39 emails left in this archive folder! The list starts with four from Sibelco - I reached out to them to see if working for them in Malaysia was an option - it wasn't. There were number of roles listed by headhunters that didn't seem to go anywhere, plus a few more quarry companies, including a Boral rejection again! Haha, thanks Boral, you did me yet another favour! There was even one in there for a small UG mine in Thailand that didn't go anywhere. It's interesting, the difference in how widely one casts one's net when one is gainfully employed, compared to when one is unemployed and sitting at home. 

Penjom File (North Korea)

This is a single file, but kept because of how unusual it was, and what (in hindsight) potential craziness it represented! Knowing me, I may well have disappeared up there. Or maybe became one of Kim's inner circle like Dennis Rodman perhaps? Haha, we'll never know! Anyway, the reach out from the recruiter is below:

Quite an example to finish off with! And quite a significant post in the end. When looked at as a whole, I have had quite the journey, both in terms of the roles I have actually had, but also those I have looked at, and this is only covering the second half of my career to date! I doubt this post will interest many, but it sure was fun writing it for me!