If I could sum up my month for 2012 so far, I would say that January was the month in which my holiday to the Philippines quickly became a distant memory as I plunged myself wholeheartedly into the busyness of work; February was the month in which I drove back and forth to the Coast for various 2-day conferences; and March…
March was the month I decided I needed a slight change from my current job. I had thought about wanting to drop my full-time work to a 4-day or 3-day job for a while. I had ‘fought’ (for lack of a better word) for this to happen in my current role, but alas, having my full-time role dropped down to anything less than that was just not possible.
With that in mind, I had to broaden my horizon a bit. And in March, within a week, two fabulous opportunities presented itself to me, urging me to apply. One of them was a PA to the Principal at a Secondary college about 10 minutes away from my current workplace; it meant that I would be supporting 1 boss than the current 3. The other was a Communications & Facilities Coordinator for a big P-12 college about 30 minutes away from home, in the opposite direction I currently have to travel to work for; it was a role that had been rehashed a few times since the last person vacated it, and it meant that I could use some of the skills I have gained from completing my Bachelor of Business (Communication) degree.
I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. For the first 2 jobs I have applied for in 4.5 years, I had gotten interviews for both! To say I was stoked was an understatement. To say I was nervous, and a bit scared out of my wits would be putting it mildly. But I went to both, and did better than I thought.
The interview for the Communications & Facilities Coordinator was held on Monday of the last week of March; the interview for the PA to the Principal position was held on Tuesday at 3PM. I kid you not, at 8 that night, my mobile rang, and the Principal offered me the position. It was the quickest turn-around from interview to job offer I had ever encountered, and I was both gobsmacked and more than honoured.
I asked if I could have 24 hours to think about it – something I had never done before. See, I was waiting to hear back on how I went with the Communications & Facilities Coordinator – the job I was slightly leaning towards in getting. And that Principal (male) had originally told me that he would notify me within the next 24 hours from Monday.
Wednesday rolled by, and the male Principal emailed me to say that he had had a few stumbling blocks and that he wouldn’t get a resolution until hopefully Thursday. I was panicking… big time! That meant I had to ask for at least another 12 hours extension from the other Principal (female) – again, something that up until this point, I had NEVER had to do. And the vision of this female principal screaming on the phone, demanding me to give an answer right away, and accusing me of being super unprofessional, filled me with dread. Moreover, this wasn’t a bad job at all – it had its own list of pros. And the last thing I wanted was from having one solid offer to none.
After much consultation, and got given conflicting advice, I decided to email the female Principal and asked for another extension. She graciously replied and told me it was fine, and that if I could notify her as soon as I could, that would be much appreciated. Thursday morning came, and at 8.10 (almost 36 hours from receiving the first job offer), I was offered the position of Communications & Facilities Coordinator.
I was super-duper excited. I was that ecstatic I had to pull over to the nearest shopping centre carpark to avoid a collision with other cars. I managed to stay professional and accept the job, but as soon as I hung up and called the next person (my darling husband)… I was SCREAMING!!!!!!!!!
Then came the hard part – I had to ring the female principal and turn down the job (come on – you know what I’m going to say next, don’t you? 
). It was something I had never had to do before! 
And much to my relief, that vision of the Principal sounding thoroughly annoyed at me (at the very least) never eventuated. She was very gracious and wished me well.
I don’t think I’ve come down from Cloud 9 yet… even now, from time to time, a big, goofy grin would appear on my face. At home, this has been followed with a squeal, a jump, and an exclamation of “I can’t believe I got the job!” to my husband.
So here’s to the end of an era (am feeling bittersweet about that, but that’s a whole different post to write). And to a new working environment and a set of new challenges. Most importantly, here’s to working only during term time and having school holidays off; something that will give me more time to nurture my other passions, such as writing
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