MFW Diary - Take 1!

Alchemilla

Calfuray wrote: »

Totally lost now

Give it up to God, Cal.

Thats what Shes for. X

Calfuray

gallygirl wrote: »

Follow the money I mean follow your heart - which job do you want?

Bearing in mind your worst case scenario mentality, how will you feel if you stick to Company A and it goes bust/sells your soul to the devil/gets landed on by alien spaceship/you get eaten by a zombie werebat as you get in the car in their car park one night etc?

Hope that helps .

Oh GG. Not only do you make me laugh and laugh (and scare me a bit) but I think I get the point you're trying to make. Thank you

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

You may naturally be risk averse but what you need to be is open to taking risk in a more controlled manner. Look at your preference and consider how you could manage the associated risks. I'd say both options have a probationary period the internship one is quite short. Why not stick the risks up here, we'll have a go with suggested mitigations and you can maybe make a more informed choice that takes account of your obvious capabilities.

Controlled manner is a very, very good point. Thank you so much for the advice.

edinburgher wrote: »

It strikes me that Cal is perhaps wrongly categorising her risks as catastrophic risks (i.e. ones that cannot be recovered from). If you have had a chance at 2 jobs since graduating in such a short time frame there *will* be others.

• Best scenario = sweet job with good pay that you really enjoy
• Middle scenario = ok job that takes a bit longer to get into, a few nagging doubts
• Worst scenario = no job

Am I nearly there?

Part of the concern will be due to the binary nature of them (i.e. get job x/do not get job x), hard to mitigate against yes/no options. Perhaps they need to be re-framed for positivity.

We took part on a useful exercise on a Lean Six Sigma course at work recently 'The 5 Whys'. Basically you name something that doesn't work (or in this case, something you're worried about) and drill down asking yourself 'why' at each level. For example, you might start with 'I'm afraid to start with job y', ask yourself 'why?' and come up with 'because I'm afraid I might not get a permanent role' and so on. It's a powerful tool for root cause analysis/getting through the fog that besets our brains from time to time

And once again, Ed is the fountain of knowledge. You're right, fundamentally my fear is that his trust is misguided and that I won't be as good as he thinks I will be, and that hence I won't get the job. I think my dissertation has really knocked my confidence as well. Then today I was helping someone with their work, and I was flying, solving problems left, right and centre, I haven't felt like that in a long time.

So, I emailed to ask for the details of the pay so I know how much I can save etc for worst case. They replied same day, and it's really good.

One of my friends made a really good point, how will you feel walking into safe job thinking 'what if...'

So crux of the situation: I'm going to take it, thanks to all the lovely people in my life (you guys included). Now I just have to work out what to say to the first company!

edinburgher

Mumble mumble, personal circumstances, thanks very much, goodbye

Calfuray

edinburgher wrote: »

Mumble mumble, personal circumstances, thanks very much, goodbye

Really? I was going to go along lines of 'Had every intention of taking your job and did not apply for any other jobs, but have been headhunted and the new job is more conveniently located (etc) so unfortunately can no longer accept offer, thought I would give you as much notice as possible etc etc.'?

I've never done this before!

gallygirl

Well done Cal, brave decision :j.

Maybe you should also have a plan in case worse case scenario strikes job B. Ed suggests "I find garlicky brains on an umbrella helps against those" to cope with werebats - best come up with a plan for alien spaceship though. Always carry 6 weeks emergency supplies about yourself in case you have to hide in the stationery cupboard?

edinburgher

Calfuray wrote: »

Really? I was going to go along lines of 'Had every intention of taking your job and did not apply for any other jobs, but have been headhunted and the new job is more conveniently located (etc) so unfortunately can no longer accept offer, thought I would give you as much notice as possible etc etc.'?

I've never done this before!

Do whatever your conscience tells you Cal, was just joking about the fact that there will always be a little awkwardness in such circumstances. Still, they will understand if it's a competitive industry, doubt you're the first.

Alchemilla

The alien spaceship might be full of really cool aliens.

gallygirl

Alchemilla wrote: »

The alien spaceship might be full of really cool aliens.

Fine. You take the chance. I'll be in the stationery cupboard with the 10p dry noodles .

Calfuray

Hello strangers.

How did 4 months just pass by?

I'm a couple of weeks into internship, few weeks back from honeymoon, less than a week was graduation, dissertation and uni all done.... Time to join the real world I guess.

Need to update various challenges and read some diaries. Good to be back

Cal x

edinburgher

Welcome back Cal