It’s Been a While!

Happy New Year!

There’s an episode of Curb your Enthusiasm where Larry discusses how long after the 1st January you can wish someone Happy New Year, and it be appropriate. Apparently, anything after three days is poor form. So I dread to think what sort of face he’d pull when I do it almost four weeks after we opened the champagne at home, all wishing there was a better way to celebrate.

Still, as I’d not had the opportunity to express that particular salutation until now, I thought it necessary, and I can explain why it’s taken me four weeks into January before writing my first 2021 post.

Before Christmas, the plan was to take a couple of weeks off and get away from everything job-related. It had been quite a challenging six months, and I just needed to have a little time off from the day to day grind and worry about finding a job.

But that didn’t happen.

A couple of days into my ‘holiday’, a recruiter called me out of the blue and told me I looked like a good fit for a role they were trying to fill. Then literally a few hours after, another recruiter called me with news that I’d successfully passed the first stage of an application process I’d previously given up on and I was now at the interview stage. So much for the time off.

Both interviews took place a few days before Christmas, and on the 23rd December, two days before Christmas, weirdly within the same hour, both recruiters got back in touch. They each told me that I’d been successful and made the second interview stage, which was due to happen after Christmas.

Both of those interviews took place in the second week of January, and both went well.

Then finally, after six months, after an anxious wait, the phone rang and at the other end was an offer of a new job.

Then, within the same hour, the phone rang again, and I got another job offer. I’d been successful for both roles.

Both were great, and after a day of weighing up the pro’s and cons’ of each one, I accepted the one that was a little bit more hands-on than the other, and regrettably let the other company know that I wouldn’t be joining them (and that was a lot harder than it sounds, the role, company and people were fantastic).

So it looks like I’m back in work. The uncertainty and worry about not having a job is fading away, and the anticipation of starting a new job is filling that empty void.

I start my new role on Wed 3rd May and wish me luck.

The journey though isn’t over. Having walked the path from being made redundant to getting a new job, I have a few more thoughts that I’d like to share. It just might not be as frequently as before Christmas.

But Life is suddenly becoming a little more normal, and hopefully, when we all get that little shot in the arm, everything else will continue to head in the same direction for all of us.

Time to crack open the ‘special’ bottle of whisky.