Yes, yes, I know, it’s boring to talk about my fixation with F1 in general and with Kimi Raikkonen in particular. But you know why I love this guy? Not just for his driving abilities, not only because he’s ummm the most beautiful man alive (yes, I’m shallow and superficial, shoot me), but because of his personality. He just doesn’t give a shit, he does what he wants and is unapologetic for it. He speaks his mind not caring how it’ll be perceived, not playing the PR game, not trying to be liked by all. Personally, I admire that attitude and consider it a quality in someone’s character.
Have a listen to this radio conversation with his engineer from the recent Hungary race
The team want him to give up the position to Vettel, his team mate. Vettel is fighting for the championship, Kimi is not, so the extra points count. The team has every right to give this order and is within regulations to do so; however it is an uncomfortable thing to say and they know how it sounds like in the ears of fans and viewers. So the engineer (ok, Jock is technically not an engineer, but play along here) goes about it the long way round: “You’re on different strategies, you’re hurting your tyres” blah blah. He took 1 minute to do all this diversion, rather than the 2 seconds it’d take to say “let Seb through”. Three little words, that’s all that was needed – and Kimi was having none of that: “Just tell me what you want me to do”. Obviously, he IS playing the PR game here, he wants the world to know they’re asking him to do that, not that he’s not good enough to hold position; he wants us to hear that he complies to team orders; but, above all, he wants clarity and wants to cut through the BS.
Editing room cut to a phone call I received a few days ago from a recruitment agent. I shall not hide behind my finger; those who’ve read my blog or twitter know exactly what I think of most agents, and this one is no exception. I had met with this particular individual 18 months ago and it was a frustrating meeting – as it always is when you meet someone who admits to not knowing anything about your industry and yet has the nerve to have an opinion and decides on behalf of the client.
We hadn’t had any contact since meeting up but had applied to 2 roles of theirs recently advertised on job boards, hence the call. However, the call wasn’t a “hey, Hero, nice to hear from you again”, wasn’t a “sorry, Hero, don’t think you’re quite right for these” – nothing like that. What I was told, delivered in a very condescending and patronising way, was a “the applications are not necessary, I have your CV and if something comes along, I will be the one to reach out” (a much MUCH longer version than that, I slimmed it down). So, like Kimi, I just asked to clarify: “You don’t want me to send applications for any of your jobs?” to which the answer was “yes”. Don’t call us, we’ll call you, kind of thing.
Apart from the fact they could have said that and get it over with and save everyone the time, or just email me to say “thanks but no thanks”, or do what everyone else does and ignore the applications; this is just plain rude and unprofessional as a message, delivered in the most insulting way to top it all up. By a person who by their own admission has no clue as to what digital marketing & ecommerce are.
And the list of recruitment agencies whose job ads I ignore keeps growing. At whose loss, the verdict is out.
Other than that, I’m counting down on when Kimi’s just published autobiography gets translated into English.
Heroic blabbing 