Wednesday 29 June 2011

The wind of change

As I’ve mentioned before, lots of things are happening in my life, stressful, exciting, life changing things. A fortnight ago, I received a call from an agent. Having no much luck the previous times, I didn’t expect much. I received the call; I talked about the position and agreed to go for it.

The next morning, really early, I met that agent in a nearby train station. He was on his way to work and it was early enough for me to meet him before my work. According to Murphy’s Law something had to go wrong, so his train broke down and he was 45 minutes late! We did meet at the end for a very short period of time but I think that meeting went quite well even if I had an eye at my watch about being late.


That first successful meeting with the agent put me on the right track to get the job. You see, the agent was acting as the company’s HR, screening people. He would put only a handful of people to be interviewed by the company. Funnily enough my relationship with the agent grew in a weird way. At some point we were on the phone 6 to 7 times a day without counting the list of emails. He was sending me emails at 10pm and then sending me a text message at 7:40am to see if I read it! By now, I’ve told him stuff like to drink juices and lots of water when he was feeling under the weather and he was telling me stories about the new trampoline he bought his kids. He was generally putting a lot of pressure on me with all these calls, but at the end it all went well!

Beginning of last week I met with the managers who will be in charge of the new role. The same day I was flying to Greece I met the head of IT and the head of HR! These meetings lasted for more than 1 hour and a half leaving me quite drained from energy. By the time I was rushing to the airport I received the phone call from the agent that I was offered the position!!!!


Excited as I was feeling, I couldn’t but feel stressed about what to say to my current (now ex) company and colleagues. This was the first job I got after finishing my studies in the UK and I’ve been in that position for years. I do need to grow some thicker skin. I know. But it wasn’t very easy for me. I was playing various (bad) scenarios and fictional conversations every day before going to sleep for the last days.

To cut the story short I gave them my letter of resignation this Monday! I first talked to the HR and one of the directors. They were very nice. They expressed their sadness but understood my point of view and the reasons behind my decision. The big boss and one of the directors believe that it was ungrateful of me to leave them and they made it clear. My manager, my director and my colleagues here understand the reasons I had to change roles and some even mentioned they’ll miss me dreadfully.


What I am still waiting for is the confirmation of my references and a medical check by a doctor of the new company. I hope these will be OK otherwise I’ll simply be unemployed at the end of my notice period. I’m now ‘going’ corporate playing with the big boys and new rules. What I like about the new role is that I’ll learn about competitive and new technologies working in a company with prospective. Where I was until now was a small family company with absolutely nowhere to progress using technologies that are already half dead.

I’m very excited about the change.
I’m sad to leave some of my colleagues behind.
I’m stressed about that very first day in my new office.

What comes next is a notice period when I’ll try to close all pending issues I have. I’ll also try to leave specs and documents about things I’ve done in the past and where I’ve saved projects I’ve finished. I’ll try to be extra typical being always on time and willing to do things as normal. I don’t want them to think badly of me now.

In the same time, next week I’m leaving on my pre organised summer holidays. I’ll be gone for 12 days which will be a time to relax, celebrate and catch up with my boyfriend. He’s been a tremendous help and a willing listening ear to my thoughts and problems. I wasn’t always rational but he was there to listen to me patiently.

6 comments:

  1. Major congratulations to you, Nik! This is great news. I'm excited for you.

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  2. Congratulations! And here's hoping you're not totally stressed out that first day!

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  3. Congratulations! I'm sure you will do just fine on that first day.

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  4. How exciting ! I hope it is a marvelous new chapter for you!

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  5. @Cubby Thanks! I'm so excited too! :-)

    @Erik_Rubright Thanks. I think I'll be fine... We'll see

    @Jim Thanks. :-)

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  6. @Ur-Spo Thanks! What's the worst that can happen?

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