Pretty much two years to the day, I'm likely to be back in the world of work - And about time too I hear you say!
It's been a good run to be fair. I never thought it would be possible to get by producing online content for two years on whatever sprang to mind would fund living but it did, even if life was kept fairly simple for the vast majority of that time.
The boom of December-January 2018 helped a lot, SBD prices were insane and a fair amount (not all) of those were exchanged for Euros. Not near enough as it turned out, but not many predicted the size and length of downturn following those crazy weeks.
In April this year, I was offered another contract at my previous place of work, the UN, but following my flight over to Valencia, the contract was canned just a week before I was due to start. This cancellation was a serious bummer as I was looking forward to continuing the sunshine lifestyle (and decent pay), and figured then that the main chance of employment would be back here in the UK.
Following my grandads funeral, I moved back to the city I've spent most of my adult life in to look for work close to my daughter. It made sense to try Nottingham first, even though opportunities involving my main IT skills were likely to be few and far between. My daughter and the friends still located here had a bigger pull over more money elsewhere.
The process for this role has taken weeks. Numerous phone calls, a face-to-face interview, and plenty of back and forth over email, but having agreed terms I'm pretty sure that I'll be behind someone else's desk again in a couple of weeks time.
The role, as expected, is different to what I've done before, but I'm fairly confident I'll get to grips with it quick enough. The interviewees made a good impression and as they as they are going to be my future co-workers and team leader, I hope my judgement is correct.
During the very first call I'd suggested a salary range based on more of a guess at what this type of role and what the business would pay over what I was earning last time, which were contractor rates. They offered the bottom end of the range and I actually spoke with a Steemian to discuss if I should go back to them and ask for an improvement. I'm a bit inexperienced in contract negotiations but thought I'd go for it and luckily it worked out - I'll now be starting in the middle of the range I put forward originally. I have no real idea though if I'm selling myself short or if I've been cheeky and am now set to start above the average....
I guess it's not that important for now, the salary is infinitely more than what I have been earning and as long as I stick to the rice and tuna for a few months, I'll hopefully be able to cover the family interest rate debts soon enough.
The commute is a five minute walk, if that, which is nice but also troubling if I am to reach the minimum 5000 steps required to earn any Actifit tokens. There is a gym across the road though, and so I'm hoping that I can push that into my routine as well - sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day can be mentally tiring, but it' does next to nothing good for the body. I hope the chairs are nice.
Alright, hopefully writing about getting a job wont put the kiss of death on it like last time, and soon enough I will be able to throw a little fiat into crypto again. STEEM? Perhaps, (tiny amounts of) BTC, I think so, and then following this investment the market can get its act together again and start moving in the right direction.
And then maybe one day, I can wake up to something like this again :)
Cheers
Asher