Moving fast
When we got married (which we decided we'd do and then did 6 weeks later), my husband's father made this comparison. Of life being like a river, bending this way and that. And people meandering along with it. But that in our lives, that river sometimes seemed to be in high speed mode all the time, and it had us flying around the bends, and that in his experience that wasn't always very easy to follow. He said some people's lives have a relatively easy going pace. And ours tend to be a bit crazy. Well, I can't say he's very wrong about that.
So what was my husband's dad talking about? Probably that we decided to get married and then did so 6 weeks later. But also that we had decided to travel to India for half a year and had left with very little notice. Or that in a few months time we had made up our mind to get started in real estate and we bought and renovated and were renting out our first property in a completely new city. For me, when I've decided to change direction, I just love for things to move fast. There is something about change that is so invigorating - that requires you to be in a high space of awareness, to reinvent yourself. And if you bring about big changes more often in your life, it is such a great reminder of how many options we have, how much in charge we are and how we can shape our reality the way we want it to be.
Just when I signed for becoming an IT professional...
This summer I decided to switch jobs. We'd been traveling, I'd been doing some side jobs but nothing very serious. And I felt I was up for a bigger challenge. Due to the traveling, my resume doesn't look very impressive. I needed a job somewhere where there's a high demand and nice opportunities for designing your own career path. I found that combination in IT, and also felt I have enough technical skill and insight to develop myself as an IT professional. That decided, I went looking for IT traineeships - somewhere where I could get my certificates and gain work experience in the meantime. Since we are really developing an IT-professional-shortage here in Netherlands, there are several agencies who offer this combination: they'll employ you in at first simple, but gaining complexity along the way jobs with their clients, and you get to take courses and relevant IT exams as you move along.
I'll be honest with you - the IT traineeship idea actually came from my husband. We both have a similar background, since we met at university where we studied organisational science. And have been working in similar jobs since. He first found a company he liked and decided to do a traineeship with. A bit later I decided to make the switch too, but I thought, let me be a little creative and let me find my own company to do the traineeship with, at least. So I got in touch with a company in The Hague who say they focus on more diversity in IT, which practically mainly means they hire a lot of girls. Most of their deployed IT professionals are women, and 100% of the company's staff is ladies too.
I sent them my resume, was called back the next day and we planned for a first interview 5 days later. That was nice - things moving fast. I got a decent enough impression of the traineeship and the opportunities it would have in store for me, but I also had a few doubts:
- Their pay was really low. Which makes sense of course, since the traineeship is also a way to invest in yourself, it's an opportunity to learn and gain experience. But I would be one of the slightly older candidates, and I do take a lot of experience along from earlier jobs and traveling, and it would mean really going down in salary. I tried to negotiate, but they didn't budge.
- They start the traineeship with a two week IT crash course. Which they say costs a few thousand euro's. Then together with the job contract, they ask you to sign a contract saying that if you leave before the end of the three year (!!) traineeship program, you have to reimburse those costs proportionately (pay more if you leave more early). This means that in a way they are tying you to the company for three years, not by making you really like it as a place to work and develop yourself, but by making you pay them money for leaving early, even if you are not having a good time.
I was having doubts at the time, also because I really really liked the not-so-serious job I was in which I would have to say goodbye to. But at some point I was just clear it was time to change things up, I called back the company and said I'd go ahead with the traineeship. I signed their contracts a few days later and that was that.
Except that it wasn't.
The job of my dreams
A few days after signing those contracts, I was looking around on the company's website and social media channels. And I saw they had a new job vacancy online - for recruiter. I read that job description, and it was like something clicked in my head. I just felt that who they were describing they were looking for, that it was the perfect match with what my qualities are. Like THE PERFECT MATCH. And I felt, oh my why did I never think of this kind of job as something that would fit with me so well? Actually, in the year after coming back from India, I had been applying to HR related jobs. As my studies were in organisational science, and I also have a lot of interest in the area. But I didn't have any previous experience, so didn't get invited for any interviews for those jobs. For this vacancy, they said experience was nice, but not necessary. I felt it was a dream opportunity.
So now I had a situation. I had just signed my contract with those people for the traineeship, and now I was interested in a different job they had on offer. I remember going for a late night walk with my husband and saying out loud - I can just see myself being a recruiter, it makes so much sense, I have to at least go and try. So the next day I called them up, I called the girl who I had had my first interview with, who is the head of the recruiter team over there. And told her that it might come a bit as a surprise, but that I stumbled upon the recruiter job offer, that I was very interested and that I'd love to discuss with them whether there were any opportunities there.
She told me this was very unexpected, said there was no hurry to fill that job vacancy, said I could just start with the traineeship (which started in less than two weeks from that moment) and then we'd see as we went along if they thought there could be a match. And honestly, maybe that was a very reasonable proposal. But for me, it felt like she wasn't really listening, not even being open to getting into a real conversation about it. I felt treated like another number, like already in the pocket as a trainee, bringing in money for the company, and what I want and how I want to grow and expand myself, not really relevant.
The grass is greener on the other side
In the meantime, my husband had started his traineeship with his company. And he was very excited about it. While we were in India, we did a lot of programs related to awareness and personal development, and we also did teacher trainings and gave these courses and organised programs for people to attend. Even in his first weeks of work, this was picked up and he gets to work together with the company's talent development trainer, who gives trainings in soft skills and personal development. They're already developing some new courses together. It seemed the company gave an immediate response to where his qualities are, what he enjoys doing and where he likes to expand himself, alongside with starting the IT traineeship. Then, next... my husband found out his company was looking for a recruiter too. That was it. I decided I had to go talk with them, even if my traineeship was starting in just one week.
At this point I'll have to tell you - one of my lesser qualities is indecisiveness, or doubt. I know it doesn't really match with what I was telling you about how I like change and that things move fast once I made up my mind. But when I'm not in a good mood, when I'm restless, I get indecisive. Being in that situation where there were a lot of possible outcomes, I felt a bit lost. Then I came across some of the material we had been studying in India, about how we create our own reality, how our reality is always a reflection of our inner space. And I remembered I was in charge and that my intention, a clear decision on what I want, is all that is needed to create my preferred reality. I wrote down on a piece of paper that I wanted to work with the company my husband had joined, that I wanted the job of recruiter, and that I wanted it to start at September 1st at the latest, since the other traineeship would have started 20th of August and I was feeling ready to move.
I had my first interview at my husband's company on a Thursday. Just before our appointment, I heard from my husband that they had found themselves a recruiter, so I went there to talk about their traineeship and see if their conditions were significantly better than at the other company. The interview went well, I got a nice impression. By telling them about why I was considering to switch to their traineeship, I also mentioned how I had seen the recruiter vacancy and how I was slightly disappointed by the way they responded when I called up about it. So in that conversation, they checked if they thought I'd be a good candidate, I checked whether I got a better impression from them and their traineeship than at the other place, and I mentioned that I had interest in the recruiter job. But well, that was filled by then. Next step was for me to go through an assessment to see if I have the intelligence levels for doing the IT traineeship, which I did the next day and that Friday afternoon, they called me back. Telling me I passed the assessment, and that the person who they had hired as a recruiter had withdrawn last moment, and if I was still interested in that job.
Lol.
That Monday I had two interviews, with each of the company's two managers. Those were interesting conversations. Because it started our unclear what job I was applying for - the traineeship, or recruiter. And while I was trying to steer it in the direction of recruiter, the question came of course: do you even know what you want? You came here for am IT traineeship, now you want the recruiter job, and those two are very different. So I did what I could to explain myself, how I still believe I'd be great in IT but that I feel my natural talents are even more inclined towards being a recruiter. God, typing this up I still don't really see how I managed. But I did the best I could and they'd call me back the next morning. Which they did, and told me I was invited to join their team as a recruiter. Which made me so excited, I was on the phone calling people and telling them about it all day. I also called the first traineeship people and cancelled my contract with them. I signed my contract with the new company a few days later, and officially started (had some introduction days before) on the 27th of August, even earlier than the date I had had in mind.
Owing you an explanation
Are any of you still reading? This story is getting really long. I haven't even told anything about why this new company is so very cool and why the opportunity I have as a recruiter with them is so very awesome. Maybe I'd better leave that for a next post.
I think I felt I had some explaining to do. Since one of my last posts was about my career switch and becoming an IT professional, and so many friendly people here on Steemit wishing me great luck and all. It's almost like with those two company managers - there's a whole lot of explaining to do when I was first telling people I'd go into IT, and now I'm telling them I'm a recruiter and it's the best job I could have imagined for myself.
I've just had my first week. 40 hours of so many impressions and so much excitement to get started and a bit of an information overload. But the main thing is, I feel like I'm in the perfect spot, and that things turned out the very very best way they possibly could. During the last few weeks, there was a challenge to be in that space where a lot of possibilities were open and I wasn't clear on how things would turn out. But after finding clarity on what I wanted, I enjoyed that challenge of being at peace internally, even when the situation was rather crazy. The success of this story is of course that I got that awesome job. But for me it is also in the happy and peaceful state I could bring myself back to every time, even when the rollercoaster was going on.
So that's how I went from being a nanny, to being an IT professional, to being a recruiter all within a few weeks. I enjoyed penning this down after my first week at the new job, I think it is a way to clear my head and also, a permanent reminder of how funny this situation was and how good things turned out. Thanks for reading along with me, hope I'll get to share more with you about the new job in future posts!
