As part of our moving to the UK, there was this whole process we had to go through. Part of this process was applying for jobs and going to interviews. I had my interview in Cambridge a week and a half before, and now it was Rob’s turn.
Rob’s two main jobs he was applying for – Bosch in Stowmarket (1 hr from London) and Dyson in Malmesbury (3 hr from London). But the first interview Rob had scheduled was with Bosch.
Stowmarket was a very very dinky town. It used to be a key market town for the region and still has a biweekly markey on Thursdays and Saturdays. It’s population is only 19,000. We trained up there from London the night before the interview and stayed in a little hotel up the road from Bosch. The nice hotel bar had beers from around the region, so we tried a few before retiring for the night.
We thought Rob’s interview was at 11am, so headed off after a light breakfast.
So, we got our first look at the Bosch offices:
However, we found out when we got there that the interview wasn’t until 1pm. Buggar. So we went for a wander through the town. Now, I have to admit that we were quite unimpressed with the town. So we didn’t take any pictures of it. But we did go have a big breakfast and wander a round a bit.
Back at Bosch, Rob then had his round 1 interview where they introduced him to all the Lawn and Gardening products (lawnmowers, automatic hedge trimmers, water blasters etc) and then gave him a poker-faced interview. So, we walked away not knowing if they liked him at all. But it was great to see the offices and the town, and we went back to London for a couple of days.
Then came Rob’s round 3 Dyson interview in Malmesbury. To get to Malmesbury, we had to train to Chippenham for 1.5hrs and then bus up to Malmesbury for 45mins. Mission! And to save on accommodation, we decided to do the return trip in a day.
Now, we may not have been impressed with Stowmarket, but Malmesbury was a beautiful town. There were so many old buildings and it had a wonderful little shopping stretch. The bus trip on the way up to Malmesbury went through towns where *every* building was made of handcut stone. So so very beautiful.
The Dyson offices are a huge building compared to the town and have hundreds of engineers on site. Sir James Dyson is often in the office and was in the day we were there. Pretty neat, though we didn’t see the man. Rob’s interview went very well and he quite liked the guys. Unfortunately at this stage, I had my offer from ARM so we were kind of leaning toward that. Malmesbury is 3 hours from Cambridge, so its not a commutable distance. Before we left the office, we saw Rodney, Rob’s friend who works at Dyson, for a quick chat and then headed into the town to look around.
There’s a beautiful old abbey in the town built in 676AD. It looks so lopsided because various portions have collapsed or broken off over the years and restoration work wasn’t always done.
It was so weathered and old, the details in the stone work were faded or broken.
It still had a wonderful ceiling, though I think this was rebuilt after a section of the abbey collapsed.
Just wonderful lines and angles
But still, there are little faces.
We really loved Malmesbury, and if I hadn’t already been sold on Cambridge, I could’ve lived in the Malmesbury region. But, as it turned out, it wasn’t meant to be.
We’ll come and visit again Rodney!