Never mind

Ignore everything I just said, because I got a new job!

I'm absolutely chuffed.  (That's a good thing.)  As you may know, my work permit allows me to work for any company, but requires me to make a certain income.  So even though I established pretty quickly that I was going to hate my new job, doing anything would jeopardize my ability to stay in the UK.  (And as I mentioned, they changed the rules so if I left, they wouldn't let me back in.)

So I sucked it up and waited until the end of February, when I got my payslip showing I had met the threshold, and then I immediately announced I was back on the market.  And was met with deafeningly silence.

To be fair, the UK economy is just now showing signs of recovery, and unemployment is even higher than when I was looking a year ago.  I expected it to be slow and take several months to find a job.  In fact, the rule of thumb here is one month of searching for every £10,000 in salary.  (By that standard, I should be making twice as much at my current job!)

So I expected it to take a while, and meanwhile my current job was just sucking the soul out of me.  I knew it was bad but I didn't realize how bad until I got the other offer, and suddenly the clouds parted, the sun was shining, there were rainbows and pots of gold and meadows full of bunnies.  Okay, maybe it wasn't exactly like that, but it was pretty close.

In four weeks, I got two interviews.  The first was with a government agency that the Tories had promised to completely gut if they won the next election   (They were completely in denial over this.)  I left that interview knowing I didn't get the job because I hadn't used enough jargon, so I immediately went on Amazon and bought four large tomes to help bring me up to date on current IT trends.  Unfortunately, I've been so busy with my current job, they mostly just sat on the shelf.

The second interview was with a consulting firm called Atos Origin, which had about 50,000 employees in France, Netherlands, Spain, and the UK.  I applied to them specifically because they are the IT partner for the Olympics, so I knew there would be plenty of work leading up to 2012.  However, it turns out the Olympics is handled entirely by their Barcelona office, with very little local work.

(Speaking of which, check out the new Anish Kapoor tower for the London Olympics.  Having recently been to an exhibition of his, I'm quite disappointed in this.)

Anyway, they brought me in for a three-hour interview, which included a grilling by two senior technical people, and a presentation to the Chief Technology Officer on a topic that I'd be given an hour before.  (Ironically, the topic was on current IT trends, and I thought wistfully about those books I'd just purchased.)  I was also just getting over a cold, and had a sinus headache.  I thought the interview went horribly, and when I got the call from the recruiter I was just waiting for her to lower the boom, when instead she made me an offer.  There was definitely a moment of stunned silence, but I recovered quickly and came back with a firm but understated, "YES!!!!!!!!"  Thank goodness she couldn't see my little dance.

My title is 'technical architect' and I'll be working with various project teams, defining the overall system architecture.  I think it's going to be a dream job, and the pay and perks are fantastic.  And even though I won't be working on the Olympics, I bet the company gets some terrific concessions.  There is travel involved but it will generally only be in the UK.  (I was actually hoping for some European assignments.)

But the job is still a means to an end, and in this case I think it's going to be the means that give me roots, and lets me thrive.  Working with talented people on serious projects with modern technology -- what a breath of fresh air that is after the past year!  Wow, I couldn't be happier.

Anyway, Good Friday and Easter Monday are both holidays in the UK, and I'm taking the long weekend to see my aunt and uncle in Georgia (again!).  I'll be submitting my letter of resignation as soon as I return on Tuesday.  I will try not to express too much glee.

P.S. I also sent my resume to Atos when I first arrived in London, and never heard back from them.  Timing is, obviously, everything.