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A year in employment
Feb. 18th, 2006 12:03 amThis evening I went to the pub with my colleagues to celebrate the fact that I have been with my current employers for one year, as of the end of January.
This is something of a big thig for me because prior to my getting this job, I was unemployed for two years and four months.
Let's look at that period - two years and four months. How did I live? By the good graces of my parents who put me up for most of that time. What was I doing for that time? For a year I looked for a job in my (very) specialised engineering field. Turns out that there aren't that many microengineer positions to be had and the metrology field went down the tubes with the reduction in profit margin (not actual losses of course) of the chip market.
I am privileged to be living in the UK, where despite the depredations of the last twenty-five years of administrations, the welfare state still clings to some of its principles. I qualified for re-training as being long-term unemployed, to the tune of a masters degree. (Pause for applause and gasps of amazement - a masters degree on the dole! I kid you not.)
So I re-trained from being a physicist to being an environmentalist, specialising in waste management. The reason that I took this on was that the best other option was quality management and after that, (shudder) marketing. Waste and environmental management seemed like the best option available; the one that I could honestly devote myself to.
By the good offices of my masters supervisor I got a job in a small consultancy that specialises in sustainable development, and I haven't looked back.
I have mentioned some of the things that I have done in previous LJs but because of client confidentiality most of the time I can't go into detail. But I am incredibly proud of the things that I have managed to make happen just in a year, the influence for the better that I can bring on company policies in ethics and environment, and the times that I've been able to get good and angry and make a difference.
This is something of a big thig for me because prior to my getting this job, I was unemployed for two years and four months.
Let's look at that period - two years and four months. How did I live? By the good graces of my parents who put me up for most of that time. What was I doing for that time? For a year I looked for a job in my (very) specialised engineering field. Turns out that there aren't that many microengineer positions to be had and the metrology field went down the tubes with the reduction in profit margin (not actual losses of course) of the chip market.
I am privileged to be living in the UK, where despite the depredations of the last twenty-five years of administrations, the welfare state still clings to some of its principles. I qualified for re-training as being long-term unemployed, to the tune of a masters degree. (Pause for applause and gasps of amazement - a masters degree on the dole! I kid you not.)
So I re-trained from being a physicist to being an environmentalist, specialising in waste management. The reason that I took this on was that the best other option was quality management and after that, (shudder) marketing. Waste and environmental management seemed like the best option available; the one that I could honestly devote myself to.
By the good offices of my masters supervisor I got a job in a small consultancy that specialises in sustainable development, and I haven't looked back.
I have mentioned some of the things that I have done in previous LJs but because of client confidentiality most of the time I can't go into detail. But I am incredibly proud of the things that I have managed to make happen just in a year, the influence for the better that I can bring on company policies in ethics and environment, and the times that I've been able to get good and angry and make a difference.
