Tomorrow, I wake up early. Well, for the last few days I've been waking up early, training my body to get used to a new routine. I start a new job. As some of you may know, back in April, I left my previous job, after almost thirteen years. (Well, it was two or three days off of thirteen years, so I will claim thirteen years.)
That job was responsible for an incredible period of personal growth. I grew up at that job. I become world-wise. I had knowledge and skills regarding how to do things, but it was at that job that I started to understand how the world really works. It isn't clean, it is very incredibly messy, and full of fragile, poorly implemented points of failure.
It is a constant battle to keep things functioning, and every little set back and changing priority felt like (from the management) like a crisis of unprecedented scale and impact. The pace was rapid, the job was never done, and there were millions of data points, each with a profit margin on them, and an unyielding desire to increase margins.
People are very smart. Individually, they're brilliant shining beacons of intellect, ambition, and somewhere, below all of that, unspoken aspirations and dreams of better days. Some are consumed by the work, losing touch with their personal journeys and increasingly becoming more distant from happiness.
I had that for many years at my old role. I went through swings of joy and sadness, through cycles of endeavor, and gazing hopelessly at an unending barrage of opportunity. Problems in the corporate world aren't problems, it is all about mindset - it is an opportunity.
My ever present mantra when it comes to employment is a simple one - I shouldn't have to be there. If I am in a role, if I am employed, that means that the business has failed to fix a problem somewhere else upstream in their overall process and methodology. Their inefficiency does not exceed their profit margin. if indeed, that's what a business wants - profit.
Tomorrow, I am encountering an entirely new industry, and I'm going back to an office environment for the first time in over half a decade. It is with a sweet sense of irony that the new office is almost directly across the road from the old office, which has since moved to another premises, so I'll be walking past the same coffee shops (if they're still in business) and down the same lane ways to take shortcuts away from the bustling main street where offloading buses regurgitate their passengers onto streets filled with the passengers from other buses.
The city is an interesting thing, and I'm looking forward to experiencing it again, in a post-isolationist world. My commute will now be longer than ever, with my recent house move taking me further out from the city, but I'm told the first three months will be full time from the office, then dependent on performance, two days in, and three days from home, which will be a good balance.
I am looking forward to the straight-forwardness of the new role. My cover letter was blunt and confident, and I think I was perhaps too honest throughout the entire recruitment process.
Dear Hiring Manager,
I'm applying for this role as I've been successful previously in others just like it. I am capable of using highly complex systems to resolve and process tasks efficiently and accurately. I did it for thirteen years at x, I am confident I can do it for you.
My CV outlines the skills I have beyond the basic requirements for the role.
I will be a valuable team member and elevate my colleagues above your expectations, owing to my extensive experience in similar environments.
I hope that we'll speak soon about my suitability for this role.
Cheers,
holoz0r
I got a phone call the next day. I was at the gym. I informed the recruiter I was just finishing a set, then moved off to the side and had an honest discussion about my ambition. "Honestly, I just want to save for my retirement. I can see myself moving up, but I recognise you're hiring for an operational need, and I will do that. I know I am over-qualified, but I want something that is not as abstract as my previous roles, so that I can have increased satisfaction from each and every task that I complete"
These are not entirely the exact words that I used, but pretty close. I had an interview on teams in the days that followed and had an offer and a contract signed within 48 hours of that.
I am calm, confident, and looking forward to seeing what I can do for the new company that I start with. While there's some uncertainty as it is a 12 month contract initially, once I understand the lay of the land, I will be looking for other opportunities within the org, provided that I enjoy the culture and the structure.
On the Hive front, with my one hour train journey into the office in the morning - I will be using that time to write. I very much do hope that I will be able to keep up my daily posting regime, as I always feel like I have a lot of things to say, even if they're rambling bits of text, or short snippets of flash fiction - or indeed, perhaps, longer form writing in response to media, games, or my own extended stories - of which all of them hope to wash down the rivers of my mind into the ocean that is hive.
