My colleagues tease me I am not fit for my job. I talk to users. When I should talk only to servers. I sympathise to the humans when I should be ignorant sys admin capable of rebooting the most important server in the most critical working hours just because I’m not in a mood or to remind the boss who’s the boss. Perhaps, they right and I shouldn’t pick up the phone when users call. (they supposed to use helpline, not personal extensions!) Or even perhaps, I shouldn’t give them my number in the first place. Including mobile.
That makes me think of all the jobs I’ve done in my life. There were not many of them, just enough to be able to list in CV without looking into old payslips and contract papers. I often think that if not for moving into another country, I might be still doing the same job as I’ve been doing for the 8 years after graduation. Moving into new places made me start from the scratch again. I can’t say that 8 years were a useless loss. Just happened that I am not using any skills gained there, but neither I’m using much of the knowledge gained in my education. Guess, it’s also the government’s money wasted on me. It is really, just like a “late start” with carrier. When you found yourself in the face of the basic needs to keep yourself fed and under the roof in unfamiliar environment, there is little room for a choice isn’t it? I think, I’ve done all right though. Might’ve better, but I am not over-stressed about it, though it might look so sometimes…
It was an eye-opening to realise that if I’d stay in my native country, I would never get where I am at the moment. Job-wise. There wouldn’t be objective for making an effort. Here it was different. But the same time, one thing was linked to another and when I look back I can see that there was no way to skip one or another piece of the chain. Working at the factory conveyer belt didn’t appeal much, so I’ve changed it to another temp job in insurance company. But the agency won’t give you better offers until you’d work on the worse ones for a while, proving that you are serious. I might’ve end up being an insurance underwriter after the company I worked for as a temp, offered me a permanent position, but this didn’t mean to happen when the company relocated to the North. After insurance job I was able to find another job as financial assistant, which I would never get without previous experience looking nicely on my CV.
It’s all related, really. Step by step. The key was – to be patient and accept that you can’t jump over certain obstacles. I’ve got bored in financial world too quick, which brought me to the point of having to make more serious decisions about what I’m going to end up doing in my life. That was the point when I actually did have a choice for the first time since I came into UK. I had permanent job, quite sensible in terms of both, money and carrier-wise. I had management willing to assist in gaining relevant degrees and promotions. And then I’ve invested my personal money and holiday time into studying completely new to me subject.
Thinking of it now, I am not sure why I did it in the first place. Certainly, big role played by my hb, who pushed the idea to me and gave all support in my decision. It was a year of fast food feast and “mommy-got-home-at-midnight” and it was also a time of second thoughts if I’m going the right way, especially at times when the payments for commercial course were due. I can’t say that the study was easy for me either. Considering that at the moment of my study for IT certificates I’be been on the other side of IT, opposite from where I am now. It would be true to say that email was my strongest skill and a little excel picked up from last job. If I’m asked now what helped me the most to finish MCSE program, I would not hesitate with the answer: money. Every time I went for one or another test, I felt that enormous pressure to pass it from the first attempt because I only put aside so much money for the whole re-qualification deal. If I'd give up in the middle of it, I would never forgive myself for wasting money that belong to my family. As simple as that. I am greedy when it is about me. :-)
If it wouldn’t cost that much or if it wouldn’t me paying for it, I don’t think I would ever complete it. But I did. And it was because of money. And I ended up being what they call “paper” specialist. In employmentability that means – you are last resort for unprofitable companies. But one should start somewhere, right? So I’ve changed my wonderful stress-free office job to the one where you have to run around with a set of screw drivers and a pack of floppies, lifting heavy monitors and other equipment, so for a year I forgot about high heels and stockings. The most hard part of that job was not even that or the fact that it was on a lesser grade from my previous, yet again I started from the bottom. But to work by the side of young school leavers, almost the age of my son, that was somewhat challenging. In terms of challenging my sense of pride.
I suppose, you don’t necessary have to know what exactly do you want to do in your life, it is more important to know for sure what exactly you don’t want to do. I am where I am now. A year of “foot-in-the-door” job made this one possible. Again, it was just the next step...impossible without the previous.
Do I like my job? In terms of what I have to do to be paid, not much, I think. You must agree that working in IT is not exactly kind of job that you would be dreaming of in sweet childhood. (And there was no computers available to general public in my childhood either!) But compare to all the ones I’ve tried so far – this one is the best and in fact this is the first time that I don’t feel an urge to move further. Not yet. You only move on when you can’t take anything more from what you already have. I can groan and moan and complain about my daily things at work, but in truth, each day is so different from any others, each day I’ve got to learn something that I didn’t knew before, my brains fidget, I feel stressed out, but I feel satisfied. What else would you want from the place where you’ve got to spend most part of your day?
That makes me think of all the jobs I’ve done in my life. There were not many of them, just enough to be able to list in CV without looking into old payslips and contract papers. I often think that if not for moving into another country, I might be still doing the same job as I’ve been doing for the 8 years after graduation. Moving into new places made me start from the scratch again. I can’t say that 8 years were a useless loss. Just happened that I am not using any skills gained there, but neither I’m using much of the knowledge gained in my education. Guess, it’s also the government’s money wasted on me. It is really, just like a “late start” with carrier. When you found yourself in the face of the basic needs to keep yourself fed and under the roof in unfamiliar environment, there is little room for a choice isn’t it? I think, I’ve done all right though. Might’ve better, but I am not over-stressed about it, though it might look so sometimes…
It was an eye-opening to realise that if I’d stay in my native country, I would never get where I am at the moment. Job-wise. There wouldn’t be objective for making an effort. Here it was different. But the same time, one thing was linked to another and when I look back I can see that there was no way to skip one or another piece of the chain. Working at the factory conveyer belt didn’t appeal much, so I’ve changed it to another temp job in insurance company. But the agency won’t give you better offers until you’d work on the worse ones for a while, proving that you are serious. I might’ve end up being an insurance underwriter after the company I worked for as a temp, offered me a permanent position, but this didn’t mean to happen when the company relocated to the North. After insurance job I was able to find another job as financial assistant, which I would never get without previous experience looking nicely on my CV.
It’s all related, really. Step by step. The key was – to be patient and accept that you can’t jump over certain obstacles. I’ve got bored in financial world too quick, which brought me to the point of having to make more serious decisions about what I’m going to end up doing in my life. That was the point when I actually did have a choice for the first time since I came into UK. I had permanent job, quite sensible in terms of both, money and carrier-wise. I had management willing to assist in gaining relevant degrees and promotions. And then I’ve invested my personal money and holiday time into studying completely new to me subject.
Thinking of it now, I am not sure why I did it in the first place. Certainly, big role played by my hb, who pushed the idea to me and gave all support in my decision. It was a year of fast food feast and “mommy-got-home-at-midnight” and it was also a time of second thoughts if I’m going the right way, especially at times when the payments for commercial course were due. I can’t say that the study was easy for me either. Considering that at the moment of my study for IT certificates I’be been on the other side of IT, opposite from where I am now. It would be true to say that email was my strongest skill and a little excel picked up from last job. If I’m asked now what helped me the most to finish MCSE program, I would not hesitate with the answer: money. Every time I went for one or another test, I felt that enormous pressure to pass it from the first attempt because I only put aside so much money for the whole re-qualification deal. If I'd give up in the middle of it, I would never forgive myself for wasting money that belong to my family. As simple as that. I am greedy when it is about me. :-)
If it wouldn’t cost that much or if it wouldn’t me paying for it, I don’t think I would ever complete it. But I did. And it was because of money. And I ended up being what they call “paper” specialist. In employmentability that means – you are last resort for unprofitable companies. But one should start somewhere, right? So I’ve changed my wonderful stress-free office job to the one where you have to run around with a set of screw drivers and a pack of floppies, lifting heavy monitors and other equipment, so for a year I forgot about high heels and stockings. The most hard part of that job was not even that or the fact that it was on a lesser grade from my previous, yet again I started from the bottom. But to work by the side of young school leavers, almost the age of my son, that was somewhat challenging. In terms of challenging my sense of pride.
I suppose, you don’t necessary have to know what exactly do you want to do in your life, it is more important to know for sure what exactly you don’t want to do. I am where I am now. A year of “foot-in-the-door” job made this one possible. Again, it was just the next step...impossible without the previous.
Do I like my job? In terms of what I have to do to be paid, not much, I think. You must agree that working in IT is not exactly kind of job that you would be dreaming of in sweet childhood. (And there was no computers available to general public in my childhood either!) But compare to all the ones I’ve tried so far – this one is the best and in fact this is the first time that I don’t feel an urge to move further. Not yet. You only move on when you can’t take anything more from what you already have. I can groan and moan and complain about my daily things at work, but in truth, each day is so different from any others, each day I’ve got to learn something that I didn’t knew before, my brains fidget, I feel stressed out, but I feel satisfied. What else would you want from the place where you’ve got to spend most part of your day?