Confidence Boosters

Today was a nice day of activity vis-a-vis the employment search.

Firstly, I had an e-mail sitting in my inbox this morning from the United Nations - UNOPS, to be exact. I have applied for 4 different UN posts: a general P-3 post with DPKO (which is who I was with before), a P-3 post in Jerusalem with UNDP, a P-5 post in Geneva with ITU, and a P-3 posting in the Sudan with UNOPS. Out of the four, the UNOPS post was last on my list ... of course. I have a telephone interview with them on Tuesday, 11 July @ 0945 hrs. I was really hoping the Geneva position might be offered. There's still a chance as it only closed on Monday and the website shows the status of the recruiting process is "in progress".

Second, was an email from a gentleman in DND who had received my résumé from a WO buddy. He was extremely interested in my qualifications and asked that I forward a copy of my résumé electronically. Of course they haven't any openings at the moment, but wanted permission to keep my details on file should something come up. I said sure, why not?

Lastly, my buddy gave me a call and said that his company had officially registered to be a qualified vendor to the Canadian government. With that confirmation, there's a contract that he will be bidding on. It's our understanding that his company will be viewed as a "sole source" entity on this contract (meaning the government will be awarding the contract to them regardless of how many bids are received), since they developed the parameters of the requirement FOR the government. With this in mind, he's looking at me to be the lead on this requirement ... !! That'll mean 2-3 months of consulting. The contract will be posted all next week on the government procurement board, then they'll need one week to "close" the file, and then they'll award it to my buddy's company. So, I should be consulting by the end of July!!

In the meantime, I've been informed there will be an external competition forthcoming (any day to any week to any month now) for at least 20 PG-06 positions - most in Ottawa, others across Canada. It's my understanding I'm qualified for these positions, so I'm looking forward to that opportunity.

Well, that's all for now. Maybe next week will bring about some more exciting news, eh!?