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If only I had a journal oh wait.
Jul. 22nd, 2023 01:45 pmYes, I had more or less forgotten that this journal was here. An interesting cross-post by Andrew, the urge to comment, and I logged in to Dreamwidth for the first time, in, oh, a while.
How do I know it was a while? Stuff has happened.
First off, what hasn't changed.
I'm happily still in the same relationship, in the same cottage (classified as "fairy tale" by my s-i-l, and who am I to argue?) and my health is more or less (for better or worse) in the same state. I seem to have slipped on another 5kg or so, and I'll do something about that. Tomorrow.
There has been travel. Spain, again, though this time to a part I don't usually see. Seville is worth a mention, because it gave me one of the few moments that have ever rendered me genuinely speechless. I wanted to visit the cathedral (what, isn't that what everyone does when they get to a new city?), and it doesn't take a lot of finding. There's a trick, though... You pays your money at a gate, and go into a few rooms of archeological finds. Small rooms. Lowish ceilings, rough hewn walls. The rooms are linked by small doors in small archways. There's a short hall, another arch, another door. You go through it and... Wow. Another world. A vast space. Maybe it has a roof, but if so it's too far away to see. In the distance are altars, or rather pyramids of gold. There are people, in the distance, so small that they might be homunculi.
I'm sure I gasped, and, yes, I was speechless for a good couple of minutes. They knew something about cowing the masses, did those ecclesiastical architects.
Anyway, that's what not brought me here. I want to vent a little about work, because that HAS changed.
I realised last year that somehow or another I'd been with Fujitsu for 11 years, and that was probably long enough. The time had whizzed by - everytime I finished up a project or programme or a role, they offered me something else that I was interested in. But at the end of '21 I finished up a big programme, and it became gradually obvious that they weren't sure what to do with me, and there was nothing I desperately wanted to do with them. I was shunted into a role that was fairly undemanding, and it didn't take long for me to realise it wasn't a home, it was a departure lounge.
I should probably have started looking then, but I remembered the words of Eleanor Coppola when her husband phoned to tell her what a nightmare filming Apocalypse Now was becoming - "Don't quit. Make them fire you."
I wasn't that active - I just waited for an offer to come, and enjoyed a fairly leisurely summer until it came, and then an even more leisurely couple of months of negotiations until the numbers worked out (I'm paranoid about ever getting another job when I leave one, so like to have at least six months of a cushion when I go).
Once I had a leaving date agreed, I started looking, and had two sets of interesting interviews. The more interesting needed three interviews, one with each of the managing partners, and one with the company founder. I enjoyed the meetings - they seemed like a company really looking to build a culture in the UK, and they wanted someone to help develop their work in Scotland. Then they went quiet. The other was a small company in Nottingham. I drove down twice, spent half a day with them, got on well, and then they told me they were appointing an internal candidate. I can't say I was delighted, but I had a chat with my agent, and he said they had been really keen on taking me, but weren't sure they could afford me. I suggested they made an offer for a six-month contract role, and gave him a daily rate I'd be happy with. They liked the idea, and made me an offer. It was a good offer.
And then the first company got back in touch. Things had stalled because of back and forth with Denmark, but that was resolved now and they wanted to make an offer too. I explained that I had something on the table I was happy with, but that they shouldn't let that stop them.
So they did make an offer. The day-rate for the contract job would have bumped me up about 30% from my permie rate with Fujitsu - which was roughly equivalent to the package I was on. My agent said he thought I'd be happy with the offer from Denmark. He was right. Lower bonus, but basic salary boosted almost 60%.
So I joined up with the Danish mob in September, and so far everything they sold me in the interviews has come through. They're mid-size: 7,000 global, 600 in the UK. Three in Scotland. There are down-sides: I'm mostly remote, with the pros and cons that brings, after two years of having no office to go to. HQ is definitely London (a very nice floor in Pancras Square, across from Google) and I don't spend enough time there to get face-time with the partners. I'm of the level immediately below partner, with a dozen and a half others, and imposter syndrome occasionally bites hard.
But that's the story. I'm in a job with people who rate me. I get to work from home, with travel paid. I'm earning more than I ever have, and if all goes well this year I'll break a significant number I never thought I'd come close to.
I'm living in a fairly-tale cottage, and when I finish typing this I think I'll go for a hot tub.
My partner is the smartest person I know, who's been in my life for almost exactly 30 years now (and, oh, I was at a party thrown by dear friends Kay and James to celebrate their 30 years of unwedded bliss. Someone asked how I knew them - "Oh", I said, "I'm the ex").
I'm off in September to spend a couple of weeks in North America, and I'll cross the Canadian Rockies by train, something I've wanted to do since I crossed the US Rockies and the mid-West by Amtrak 30 years ago.
So, friends, console me.
How do I know it was a while? Stuff has happened.
First off, what hasn't changed.
I'm happily still in the same relationship, in the same cottage (classified as "fairy tale" by my s-i-l, and who am I to argue?) and my health is more or less (for better or worse) in the same state. I seem to have slipped on another 5kg or so, and I'll do something about that. Tomorrow.
There has been travel. Spain, again, though this time to a part I don't usually see. Seville is worth a mention, because it gave me one of the few moments that have ever rendered me genuinely speechless. I wanted to visit the cathedral (what, isn't that what everyone does when they get to a new city?), and it doesn't take a lot of finding. There's a trick, though... You pays your money at a gate, and go into a few rooms of archeological finds. Small rooms. Lowish ceilings, rough hewn walls. The rooms are linked by small doors in small archways. There's a short hall, another arch, another door. You go through it and... Wow. Another world. A vast space. Maybe it has a roof, but if so it's too far away to see. In the distance are altars, or rather pyramids of gold. There are people, in the distance, so small that they might be homunculi.
I'm sure I gasped, and, yes, I was speechless for a good couple of minutes. They knew something about cowing the masses, did those ecclesiastical architects.
Anyway, that's what not brought me here. I want to vent a little about work, because that HAS changed.
I realised last year that somehow or another I'd been with Fujitsu for 11 years, and that was probably long enough. The time had whizzed by - everytime I finished up a project or programme or a role, they offered me something else that I was interested in. But at the end of '21 I finished up a big programme, and it became gradually obvious that they weren't sure what to do with me, and there was nothing I desperately wanted to do with them. I was shunted into a role that was fairly undemanding, and it didn't take long for me to realise it wasn't a home, it was a departure lounge.
I should probably have started looking then, but I remembered the words of Eleanor Coppola when her husband phoned to tell her what a nightmare filming Apocalypse Now was becoming - "Don't quit. Make them fire you."
I wasn't that active - I just waited for an offer to come, and enjoyed a fairly leisurely summer until it came, and then an even more leisurely couple of months of negotiations until the numbers worked out (I'm paranoid about ever getting another job when I leave one, so like to have at least six months of a cushion when I go).
Once I had a leaving date agreed, I started looking, and had two sets of interesting interviews. The more interesting needed three interviews, one with each of the managing partners, and one with the company founder. I enjoyed the meetings - they seemed like a company really looking to build a culture in the UK, and they wanted someone to help develop their work in Scotland. Then they went quiet. The other was a small company in Nottingham. I drove down twice, spent half a day with them, got on well, and then they told me they were appointing an internal candidate. I can't say I was delighted, but I had a chat with my agent, and he said they had been really keen on taking me, but weren't sure they could afford me. I suggested they made an offer for a six-month contract role, and gave him a daily rate I'd be happy with. They liked the idea, and made me an offer. It was a good offer.
And then the first company got back in touch. Things had stalled because of back and forth with Denmark, but that was resolved now and they wanted to make an offer too. I explained that I had something on the table I was happy with, but that they shouldn't let that stop them.
So they did make an offer. The day-rate for the contract job would have bumped me up about 30% from my permie rate with Fujitsu - which was roughly equivalent to the package I was on. My agent said he thought I'd be happy with the offer from Denmark. He was right. Lower bonus, but basic salary boosted almost 60%.
So I joined up with the Danish mob in September, and so far everything they sold me in the interviews has come through. They're mid-size: 7,000 global, 600 in the UK. Three in Scotland. There are down-sides: I'm mostly remote, with the pros and cons that brings, after two years of having no office to go to. HQ is definitely London (a very nice floor in Pancras Square, across from Google) and I don't spend enough time there to get face-time with the partners. I'm of the level immediately below partner, with a dozen and a half others, and imposter syndrome occasionally bites hard.
But that's the story. I'm in a job with people who rate me. I get to work from home, with travel paid. I'm earning more than I ever have, and if all goes well this year I'll break a significant number I never thought I'd come close to.
I'm living in a fairly-tale cottage, and when I finish typing this I think I'll go for a hot tub.
My partner is the smartest person I know, who's been in my life for almost exactly 30 years now (and, oh, I was at a party thrown by dear friends Kay and James to celebrate their 30 years of unwedded bliss. Someone asked how I knew them - "Oh", I said, "I'm the ex").
I'm off in September to spend a couple of weeks in North America, and I'll cross the Canadian Rockies by train, something I've wanted to do since I crossed the US Rockies and the mid-West by Amtrak 30 years ago.
So, friends, console me.
