I kissed Madam off to work this morning at the front door while dressed in my maids outfit, as I usually do, I wait at the door with her handbag, work bag and car keys. as she comes to the door I bob a little curtsey to her and hand each of her items to her, I wish Madam a good day at work and then give a quick kiss on her cheek.
I will normally stand at the door to wave her off.
With Madam off to work it was off to my Maid’s room and change out of the maids uniform and into my male clothes, I have an appointment near Bedford with a couple of individuals that are looking to progress in their chosen careers as Quantity Surveyors and Project Managers. The aim of the visit is to do a review of their CV’s and to do some practice interviews with them and give some feed back to the individuals and to their company.
I arrive early at the venue and the first candidate is waiting but I head to the room where we are going to do the review training. The room is a bit hot so I get the radiator switched off and open one of the windows. the last thing that I need is the room to be too hot.
why?
I have a tweed suit and a suede waist coat on and under that a longline bra, open bottom girdle and stockings. No I definitely do not want the room too hot.
For both of the candidates I look at their CV’s and experience records before they come in and make a few notes and then they are invited in for a chat. they give a 10 minute talk about who they are and what their background in surveying and projects is. we have a chat about them and the idea is to get a feel for what they are and what they want.
the first individual is very confident and comes across well, but something just nags about her. I get her to then talk about 2 of her current projects and then I start to ask her about some of the detail in the project and that is where it hits me. she’s incredibly confident in the way that she talks, she presents really well, her CV is immaculate….but…she’s a one trick pony. She has a handle on the projects but once you dig in she has no real detail or understanding about what is going on. she’s a bit of a bluffer.
The second candidate is quite nervous and fluffs a few of her lines during her 10 minutes presentation but she talks about herself in a wider context, not just work and her career but about her hobbies and outside activities.
At the end of her 10 minutes she looks drained, but I was quite impressed. I run through my questions and she answers well but still rather nervous, she avoids direct eye contact and looks like if I shout “BOO” she would wet herself, poor lass.
Her brief on 2 projects was really good, and she proved that she understood the projects overall and also in detail.
So I had two candidates, one that was incredibly confident but technically way off the mark and one that could run projects really well but who would be eaten by any contractor at first look.
with the interviews over I took a bit of time to right up some notes and then got them back in, individually. My over confident candidate really didn’t like being told that she needed to up her game technically, her response was that she was aiming to be a Project Manager in the future and she didn’t need to be focussed on the detail – I added ARROGANCE to the list and I pointed out that she would need the technical background to understand the projects better, maybe not in minute detail but certainly more than she had at the moment.
My other candidate was far more receptive. she needed to assert herself a bit more, she needed to gain more management experience and have a wee bit more faith in herself. I told her I would ask for her to be put onto a management team and mentored. She had the skills she just needed to develop herself and I got the feeling that she’s not too far away.
after the interviews I went and had a chat with their boss, I’ve know this guy for a few years and he wasn’t surprised by the findings and he’d invited me in as a 3 party check. Our arrogant young lady has been pushing to be fast tracked in the company and picked out by 2 of the directors as strong candidate for promotions onto their Project Board, it was pointed out that “she likes to try and be the Hardnosed Boss Bitch” but when she fucks up she is pretty quick to blame someone else in the team, Our “mousy” candidate is one that he had high hopes for, technically good and willing to learn and develop he felt the same as I did that with some mentoring she would come out of her shell and become a good candidate for running a team or a project.
Part of me wanted to get our Mousy candidate to have some time with Madam and her Boss at work, both are confident women with good knowledge of their projects and their delivery teams.
There is part of me, as a submissive male and as someone in a FLR as well as a technical specialist that can recognise potential in this woman, she needs a bit of confidence about herself and I think that she will do well in the industry. The company currently doesn’t have a Female lead to act as a mentor for this lass but they do have a couple of good male senior Quantity Surveyors and Project Managers that can help to develop her. I also mentioned that I know a few women Project Managers in other companies that could act as an outside Mentor to her. I know that Madam and her Boss have done similar things in the past and I think this young woman would really benefit from – learning a bit of Female Confidence, both as an individual and in the work place.
I’ll have a chat with Madam this evening and we’ll see if we can help her.
As I’ve typed this I’m back in my secretarial attire and finished my late lunch, I know I want to see good talent flourish in my industry, but a small part of me ( the submissive male in the FLR) that wants to help empower a young lady for the future. I wonder what she would think of her Interviewer if she could see me at the moment!
Fingers crossed for her billie. There are some great women in the construction sector, i have the pleasure of working with a few of them.
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I've worked with some really good women in the past but currently there is a breed of men and women at the moment that are looking for promotion and advancement way before they are ready for it or are working on minimal effort. Our Mousey candidate has some real potential but I think that the need for a good guiding role model and mentor would take someone that is good and make them great. while the other is some one that if promoted now would cause real harm to the whole process of getting more women into the Construction Management roles.
It is a big thing for me to help develop new talent into the industry, and to give that lass help to become more confident, to have substance rather than bluff – it's bad enough with the number of blokes that bluff their way in the industry.
Alice has spoken with her boss and they are going to invite this lass over and see what they can do with her, so hopefully I'll see some progress when I go back in 6 month time.
Hi Billie – i confeee that i do much prefer working (in general) with women than men and i do like to see women succeed at work. i hope both of the women you interviewed ultimately get to enjoy great success in their careers and command the respect of their colleagues, especially the men.
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