Job Vacancy: Marketing & Communications Executive

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) is a mutually owned membership association for operators of Internet Protocol networks. It provides a neutral interconnection facility and peering platform, known as an Internet Exchange Point (IXP), and represent the interests of its members on matters of public policy.

LINX currently has a vacancy for a Marketing & Communications Executive. This position offers the opportunity to work at the heart of the Internet Industry in a dynamic team-motivated environment. LINX can offer you – in addition to an attractive remuneration package with benefits that include private health cover – life insurance, pension and income protection.

For more information please visit: https://www.linx.net/job/markcom.html

Please note: No agencies! Unsolicited emails or phone calls are not welcome.

Communicating with yourself: Acting on your decisions

Why are you here? On this page I mean. What was it that made you decide that you should look at this particular article over all the other thousands on the Internet?

That’s not for me to say but hopefully I can persuade you to stick around a while. It might not be as easy as it sounds because you are a free spirit – you make your own decisions and you decide what’s coming next in your life, not me.

Now think about that for a moment. Are you already wavering as to whether you should carry on reading this or not? Are you thinking that I’m wasting your time by not getting to the point? Just what is it that I’m trying to say? Well I’ll tell you: At every single moment of every waking hour you are making a choice and it is you that is in control of every one of them. It may not feel like it but it’s true.

Sure, there will be occasions when we will be placed in awkward situations by other people that we don’t want to deal with but it is us that writes the next scene. For example my boss could fire me. What would I do? I may get upset or angry or violent. I may be philosophical, rational or pleased. Hey, you always said you wanted to leave that crumby job.

Do you see what I’m saying? I’m faced with a situation, I react to it. The question is what reaction will it be?

20 years in design, marketing and PR and finally getting certified

This Friday represents the 20th anniversary since I became a graphic designer or to be more precise, a Desktop Publishing Operator. Back in those days it was fairly low-level stuff where most of my work was done using drawing boards and camera ready artwork using spray mount and overlays and only sporadic use of a Mac Plus computer. It is still amazes me how we ever got anything done back then. We even needed the printers to send out someone out to collect the artwork – none of this uploading and downloading and the web? That was just a spot in the corner of the office that none of the cleaners could reach.

Just to give you a bit of background, in the summer of 1989 I was in a menial office job counting travellers’ cheques for Thomas Cook. Basically I had to make sure that the cheques returned from branches around the UK matched in value to that listed on the branch remittance. Not exactly challenging unless you were working in Japanese Yen with multiple noughts but an OK job for a while. It wasn’t what I set out to do but that’s where I’d ended up.

“Do what you feel, not what I say!”

Earlier this evening I was travelling on a bus with my daughter and she was working on the words and pictures of her own comic. She’s done a really good job with excellent drawings and a vivid and funny story to go with it. What got me was the point where she asked me about what to do for the next part. I said her that it was totally up to her as it was her ‘publication’. What did it matter what I thought?

There was a real reluctance to do that which, while understandable for a 10 year-old, was rather sad too. As I explained, there will be enough people in her life telling her how to live it without letting someone (i.e. me) dictate how her own work should look. Having said this her childhood is dominated by rules from us as parents and from school teachers too – has her freewill already been damaged?

Graphical Resumé Gives Michael the Edge

Graphical resumé

I came across a link to a graphical resumé yesterday which I found interesting on so many levels. First of all it appealed to my design sensibilities and also my interest in innovation.

While the graphs don’t feature real data, I still found myself studying the peaks and troughs for hidden messages and noted every little nuance in the timeline. I particularly liked the daily coffee intake, energy expendature and the humour output at 2:00am. Also of interest was the curious gap at the beginning of 2006 – if we ever met that would be the first question I’d ask him.

What do you think of this style of CV? Obviouly it wouldn’t be appropriate for every career but it does tell us that by doing something different will gain you extra recognition. I’ve already sent this stranger’s resumé to two people and now I’m blogging about it. I’d say he’d have a fair chance of getting someone approaching him to offer him work.