I’ve got a job interview!! (131-234)
Recently my current work (I’m a personal assistant) has been extremely tricky as my boss has been off work for the last three months with depression, and is still off indefinitely. My department administrator (essentially the top admin manager) is now making noises about my ‘lack of work’ (not that she’d know what I do – I’ve managed in the main without my boss for the vast majority of the two years I’ve been doing the job) and I’ve been suspicious for a while that I’m going to be foisted off onto any new comers who need a PA – but today she’s finally admitted her plans and it’s even worse… I’m essentially being pimped out to other departments to make money for my own department! Great; I’m going to be a blo*dy temp – but without the higher wage or opportunity to say ‘no thanks’ to jobs I don’t fancy! Being a temp is extremely stressful (I’ve been one before – it’s like starting a new job every couple of weeks; not knowing anyone or how your boss likes to do things, and you get given all the dud jobs everyone else is avoiding) and the other problem is that I only enjoyed being a PA for my boss because she’s lets me do a lot more than the usual PA tasks – and I just do not want to be a PA anymore. Let’s face it, being a PA is being the ultimate dogsbody; after all your job is to do all the tasks that your boss doesn’t want to do! I’m sick of being the person who has to make coffee and wash up after everyone else… I’ve got a first class degree, a Master’s degree and I have a brain. I should be doing more than this! [no offence intended to any PAs out there who love their job - each to their own]
Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that I dislike working, responsibility, and I don’t like failing things. So I’ve always applied for jobs where I can work set hours, do the work easily, and go home on time and forget about it all until tomorrow. I’ve been having a re-think about my attitude recently though. Is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life?? Would it be better after all to have a challenging job that I have to actually think to do, and that may involve longer hours but is interesting, satisfying and that I enjoy?? I’ve finally [grown up and] decided that the answer is now ‘yes’. I’d rather challenge myself more even if this involves longer hours and potential failure on my part. Plus, more responsibility usually equals a better wage and I am trying to pay off our debts as quickly as possible, so a better paid job would go a long way towards this - and enjoying my job would be a massive novelty!
So with this decision finally made (around 7 years late in all honesty, as that’s when I finished my MSc), I applied for a job that’s two grades above my current position and that sounds both fascinating and extremely challenging - it’s coordinating a vaccine trial in the UK and three African countries! I have to admit that it was a real long shot even just applying as I don’t have any clinical trial experience (which was ‘essential’) but I do have research project ethics experience, which is closely aligned. The job sounded amazing, so I gave it a shot… and today I got an email to say I’ve got an interview!!! The email arrived just after my ‘chat’ with my Dept Administrator, which had left me feeling extremely low, and it’s funny how your day can totally switch around from awful to amazing with just one email.
