Time For A Change

[lazzbo]

I think you've got to look at it with a focus on the potential ROI (i.e. you getting the job because of it).

[baargain]

HELLO

It is my one year anniversary of working as a private therapist It appears to have worked, I am not destitute, and seem to have a regular-ish income that means I can pay the bills and all that stuff. It seems that I am not far off my previous monthly wage now, and I am definitely not working as hard.

[Glint]

Happy Anniversary baa, I’m glad it all worked out for you!

[Wiggle]

Ba, that is an excellent update!

[emma_p]

It really is Baa! So happy to hear your update.

[baargain]

I've signed up with a network to provide therapy for emergency services workers, and another one for military veterans, as I tend to get on well and like the work with these groups. So hopefully I'll start to see some referrals appearing from those two places soon! I'm enjoying the Bupa work too, they're at the bottom of my pay range, but they leave me alone to get on with it. I'm also getting steady self funders coming through too, especially for my f2f sessions.

Hurrah!

[FiveO'Clock]

Well done, Baa!

[Luna]

This is great stuff, Baa.

[Kenickie]

Well done Baa!

[Montana]

That's great, baa! Well done!

[wendy james]

Congratulations and happy anniversary!

[Jupiter]

Congratulations!

[Morganna]

Great news, baa. It doesn't seem like a year - time is going too quickly for my liking.

[Annabella]

Well done Baa!

[baargain]

Thank you everyone! It does not feel like a year at all, Morgs, it's mad.

I'm having a Chinese and fizzy wine for a celebration.

[Lily]

So glad it's going well for you, Baa! Richly deserved!

[baargain]

The police and veterans have suddenly appeared and now I need to look into getting my f2f room for longer I shouldn't have mentioned them on here. They must be listening.

[Epponnee Rae]

Right then. As mentioned in OTGF I have today been offered and accepted a new job after a good few months of looking I am very pleased, relieved and proud of myself, frankly, in this job market!

I will say a bit more here about my situation and my search for anyone who’s interested in what happened to me or what it’s like looking for a job at the moment. Scroll to the last three paragraphs if you just want to know about the job :)

I have posted mainly on daily threads about losing my (amazing) job last summer. All that was linked to coming back to the UK after a decade in the States and in official terms, I was made redundant here by the same employer. I won’t get into all that, suffice to say I’d hoped to be able to stay on another year but that wasn’t to be. I havent said much here about it as it was a tough time (as it is for most people) and the first time I have been seriously out for work since I was 21. Head fuck, much? It did let me spend loads more time with my tiniest niece, helping my brother out with childcare so there has been an upside, and I think that has partly saved my sanity.

After being let go, I sort of gave myself until the end of last year to recover a bit from the situation and get over the time spent working at quite a stressful pace, plus think about what I wanted to do. I was quite optimistic about finding something, less so about something UK-based in my field, but somewhat realistic that it could the best part of a year to get a job. I hoped it would be closer to six months, but my hunch was right as it’s been about eight months to the day.

I did a few tentative applications Oct-Dec, none successful. If I’m honest these were fairly half hearted and reactionary, and I made loads of mistakes compared to the system I ended up with. I started in earnest looking and applying in January. And my god how humbling that has been. In hindsight, I wish I’d just given myself 6-8 weeks off, had a really nice holiday somewhere for a couple of weeks, and then come back to start applying November. Ah well.

Anyway, since January I was doing wide searches but fairly selective applications. It took a while to find the right sites advertising roles in areas I’m interested in/suited to and I was still coming across new listings pages recently as this month. I was spending hours looking through job listings most days, which was a grind. That said, I still probably submitted over 40 applications. I started working on a lot more than that but in the process often decided it wasn’t the right role or salary plus a lot of careless deadline-missing kept happening. I hindsight I’d do less of that too I got some kind of response from less than half of those applications, but nearly all were rejections before even a screening interview. This part is obviously really hard and disheartening. It feels like you’re screaming into the void. You see what look like perfect fit jobs advertised and take ages over what you think are strong applications and hear NOTHING. I even applied to quite a few roles in the same organisation that would be a natural fit for my background and they rejected me for every single one. The bastards. It didn’t help the odds with what is going on in the US, which has effectively flooded my sector with thousands of experienced candidates, so I think competition has been particularly and perhaps exceptionally fierce.

The job I have just been offered was the ONLY one to invite me for an interview since I started applying. Thankfully it went well, but I suppose it only takes one! It took six weeks from first interview (screening with hiring manager), to second (HR) and third rounds (technical with a 7-person panel plus a presentation on a case study).

The job itself (finally ) is still in the global health field and is more focused on epidemics and vaccine development. Both of those things are a bit of a shift for me, so I will have a steep learning curve! But I’ll be working on the organisation’s whole portfolio across different diseases rather than just one team/disease.

I am really pleased with the offer as they have bumped up the role seniority vs. what was advertised based on my interview and experience. Honestly that was such confidence-boosting feedback to hear, and it means the salary is about as good as I could hope for (still a big drop from my last job, but that was exceptional and I knew I’d never get near it outside of banking, tech or pharma).

I am also really pleased that the role is UK based and hybrid. Most of the staff are either near the UK, Europe or US hubs or fully remote, so only 1 day/week in office is required (and not monitored apparently). There is a London office that is an easy commute from where I am at the moment. It is a relief to have found what I think will be a great role that means I can (hopefully) settle properly back in London. I still have background checks and stuff to get through but hopefully that’ll all be smooth. I don’t have a start date yet but expect it’ll be some time in May.

[Annabella]

Wow Epp, what an adventure. It seem to be so hard to find jobs these days and get to interview stage regardless of your demonstrated experience and skills. Wishing you all the very best of luck in your new role and much success. Enjoy the time off now until your start date!

[Pippedydeadeye]

That’s brilliant Epp. I’m really pleased for you.