Teetering on the brink

Cherryfudge

What an experience! I'm glad that's behind you. Well done for keeping it together and winning through. I hope today is considerably less stressful.

ellenvan

Well done, hopefully it will have been worth it.
Onwards and upwards. Not the debt that is!
Have a really restful few days if you can.
Looking forward to more pics of Olio hauls.

EatingBeans

Thanks all. Exam now officially passed. 🎉

I am so tired today it is unreal. 

I had to go into the office again and resisted buying anything in the process, however, by the time I got home (to discover dd2 had also had a bad day), any bit of willpower had left the building and I bought her a Mcds to cheer her up. I didn’t order myself a meal, only a free burger. I’ve decided to take the money from my food budget and if I run out then I will just have to live off Olio. I even ate my emergency chocolate too. 😞

One thing that did cheer me up is work has just advertised for a 12month Business Analyst role and will apparently consider a secondment (subject to my managers approval). It does mean spending my much yearned for Sunday writing yet another application, but I am really beginning to feel the need for a change so even though I said I would never be a Business Analyst again, I think the time has come to consider applying for that role instead of the same role I’ve applied for four times! 🤦‍♀️ The wages would be the same, I just prefer delivery. At least with a secondment I just have to stick it out for 12 months and noone would question me stepping back to my old role. 

northAthenian

so pleased to hear you got the pass, that whole exam experience sounded very stressful . And, stress is tiring - don't wonder you are drained.
 But, You have A Plan. 
 good for you.

Cherryfudge

Well done for passing! And very sensible to have emergency chocolate, that's very provident of you.

The potential new job came along at a good time: it's not been long since you last wrote an application so at least it's fresh and up to date in your mind and you've had interview practice which is bound to give you an advantage. You might even get some time for yourself on Sunday, as you've effectively done a lot of the work already.

By the way, you've got me interested in Olio. There's not a lot going on local to here but I was in a hurry and checked the discounts in a small supermarket on the way home so I was able to go straight in and get half price eggs. Obviously I could have gone elsewhere but it saved about £1.60 on one purchase and saved a fruitless trip, so I'm going to remember that for the future.

EatingBeans

See that’s what you’d think @Cherryfudge but because this is a different job all the criteria are different and very little of it crosses over to the job I just applied for. 😕 It will likely take me the whole of Sunday to write the application to match the new criteria as they require an insane amount of information in the cover letter just to get to interview (Averages about 16 A4 pages of size 12 font!). As it happens I ran out of time to even update my CV last time so that needs doing too if I have time. But, at least I already own a suit now! 😁 

Glad to hear you managed to find a bargain using Olio. I haven’t checked the discount section yet but I am going to check it out now as there may be things to fill in gaps. 👍

Cherryfudge

Crikey, that's really heavy @EatingBeans! Someone must have a full time job just reading the applications! However, the real concern is whether the change would benefit you and if so, in what ways? Do you really want to go back to something you said you were finished with? Why did you leave it to go on to what you are doing now?

Have fun with the reduced section - I was very proud of myself for not buying more than I actually got yesterday as they had some really nice breads (that we would struggle to use up) and the ubiquitous salad ingredients. (ditto).

EatingBeans

Honestly, I know I hate being a standard Business Analyst as I hate even the idea of documenting every last little requirement up front. It is literally the opposite I what I advocate on a daily basis - i.e. leave all the detail to the last responsible moment because you know what, change is inevitable! I really am better suited to promoting Agile. But, the reality is there are so few positions above me in the agile space where I work and I know full well that any that do come up will go to externals, so I have to either leave or consider a different role if I want to move up. In an ideal world I would hop to being a Product Manager but I know that I need to go up a level first, and realistically a Business Analyst role is a better fit than a Delivery Manager, albeit both should work as a stepping stone. I have been asking around a bit today and I know there is a push from management to encourage the new project to use at least part agile methods in its delivery, but I also know the Delivery Manager is pushing back and dead set against. That might give me an advantage as it might be viewed that I can effectively act as Scrum Master as well as BA and convert them from the inside (they’ve asked me to do this to a team before). Added to which, the project is looking at a Research Admin system and an integration with a finance system. As it happens, I spent 10years working in finance, and my very last role just so happens to have been working in the very Research admin/finance team that would be the key stakeholders for this work. So basically, if I don’t get this role there is something very off! And, I suppose if I have to be a BA for something, this project would probably be the least painful option. 

EatingBeans

In all the craziness of the past week, I am not sure if I mentioned but dd2 had her Maths GCSE paper remarked and they found the exam mark she needed, so she finally got her grade 5! 🎉 On top of the obvious joy that she did in fact make the grade for her A levels, we also discovered that because she went up a grade they also refund the remark fee of £43.50! 🎉🎉😁 I very much look forward to that coming into the bank soon as it wasn’t in my budget so it totally counts towards my £5’s in my book. I will be very happy to see the big boost it gives me as it’s been a bit quiet on that front for a while. I am not beating myself up over that though, as I feel getting the exam sorted and applying for promotion is a worthwhile distraction because if I can actually secure a position it will help significantly with paying down the debt. Same being said with the long days spent looking at uni. In the grand scheme of things that takes priority. 

It’s not been a NSD today as Morrisons very kindly delivered my month worth of guinea pig supplies. 🤣 I bought very little food with the order, just some cereal and milk as I have been craving it all week. There are only so many days I can eat fruit loaf for breakfast before the novelty wears off! The crazy thing is, it is very nearly Saturday (aka Olio day) again, and yet my freezer is still ram packed. I will definitely need to be a bit more selective with our requests this week or I will have no way of storing it! 😱 Fingers crossed for a few more microwaveable meals or another delicious pizza as they are great for days that are a mad rush. 🤞

LzzyIsGod

Many congrats on passing the exam! Fab news