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anyone here work at the BBC?

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    anyone here work at the BBC?

    in the Future Media and Technology department?

    #2
    Not overly inundated with answers, are you?

    Did you have specific question(s)? Try asking them. People may know the answers despite not currently working there.

    Was it information regarding people that are there? I assume you are on LinkedIn - look the people up on there.

    (Personally, I probably can't help. I stopped being a permie at the Beeb in the 1990s when they decided they did not need any IT people any more.)
    My all-time favourite Dilbert cartoon, this is: BTW, a Dumpster is a brand of skip, I think.

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      #3
      used to - what's the query?

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        #4
        i do...

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          #5
          I've done a recent stint with FM&T. I really enjoyed my time there and would be keen to get another contract with them. There were a number of things going on up until Christmas and there's a contract that appear on the 6th with regards to javascript work. I've not yet applied which probably means I've missed the boat, but will give it a go and keep my eye out for anything else. I guess I shouldn't sound too positive (), but very nice people, interesting work and fair rates.

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            #6
            Originally posted by stacks View Post
            in the Future Media and Technology department?
            Are they the people that make the iPlayer?

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              #7
              Originally posted by CheeseSlice View Post
              Are they the people that make the iPlayer?
              yes

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                #8
                Originally posted by HeadOfTesting View Post
                yes
                How do the Beeb recruit for contract positions?

                Direct or Agency?

                BTW, you back in the game or still out?

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by Clippy View Post
                  How do the Beeb recruit for contract positions?

                  Direct or Agency?

                  BTW, you back in the game or still out?
                  Don't know what the current situation is but when I was there (2yrs ago) and as recently as Sep 09 all contract recruitment was done though Reed who had the whole thing totally sewn up. If you ascertain that the same regime is in place do not waste even 1 calorie of energy trying to get around them. To give you a feel of how strong their grip is, I was recruited just prior to Reed winning the BBC contract and when it came to renewal the agent that placed me was prevented from talking to my hiring manager about renewing me; even though it was a relationship that pre-dated the Reed regime. My agent was also told not to speak to me but they ignored that bit. Obviously Reed were unhappy when I pointed out that they had not been authorised to represent me.

                  When I was there Reed had a list of secondary agents (from memory it was of the order of about 15) but each one was only allowed to submit 1 (or maybe it was 2) candidates. However unlike a lot of these setups Reed submit candidates in competition with their own secondary agents. Inevitably Reed give themselves a head start on the requirements and admitted to me off the record that they can submit as many candidates as need be. In summary you can register with one of those secondary agents (I was through Allegis - now called Aerotek) but your best chance is with Reed.

                  All that said, Reed didn't seem to be involved when I had a brief flirtation with the idea of joining Project Canvas (now called YouView).

                  You have to go through something called Fair Selection - which means you get exactly the same questions as other people and you can expect a high level of HR type questions. There are always supposed to be two people interviewing and contractors aren't allowed to interview contractors unless it's iPlayer who seemingly can do what they like.

                  I got back in to work last June - thank you for asking - having been out for 18mths solid but I should be rolling off in the next couple of weeks or so. Ironically this is my most senior and lucrative role to date working in the realm of credit derivatives even though I had no previous finance experience - a classic example of how up and down my career has been but I guess the roller coaster keeps things interesting.
                  Last edited by HeadOfTesting; 8 January 2011, 17:56.

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                    #10
                    I got my 'client side developer' role (i.e. front end web developer) via what must be a secondary agency - McGregor Boyall. The Beeb have a certain technology blend which makes them easy to spot on Jobserve. Here's the role I was interested in:

                    Web Developer/PHP/XHTML/CSS/JavaScript

                    They have their own js library known as Glow which is rather similar to jQuery, although I haven't ever seen it mentioned in the job specs.

                    Contracts also seem to pop up in Cardiff and I guess when Media City is fully open I guess there will be stuff there.

                    From memory I think the original iPlayer was written by one guy who now has legendary status. Might be wrong though!

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