What a Week!

Whoa! What a week! Thank god it's over although next week promises to be more of the same. This week I have been offered a job, called to interview for another, finished up working for the department I was as of two hours ago working for and briefed the person who is taking over from me as to the in's and outs of 'my baby'.

This weekend is a thinking weekend. I need to decide what I'm going to do about the two jobs. One is a job I'd prefer but in a place I wouldn't. The other is a role I prefer less but in a place I prefer more. A decision needs to be made and I've been too mentally drained this week to really think about it.

I hope the woman who's taking over from me does OK. I know she will but I can't help worrying over it as I've put so much effort into progresssing the project that I feel like I've invested a lot in it and I really care about whether it succeeds or fails. I guess this is something like what it feels like to let your kids go off to do their own thing. I'be only invested 3 months into this project and I'm worried. I can't even imagine how much worse it would feel if I'd invested 18 years.

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John's picture

Pros & cons

By and large, at your age you should be looking at the job, not the location. Which will do more for your future prospects? Maximum experience, max opps for networking... go for it. Remember, most of your waking hours are spent at work, or in connection with it. (I wish I didn't work in Southend, but I'm stuck with it for the moment.)

As for living in Derby (for it is this of which we speak, is it not) what's the objection? As far as I know, you hardly know the place. I visited it once, but that was about 30 years ago, and it seemed a perfectly inoffensive area. It is within easy reach of metropolitan centres in the midlands and north east, plus Nottingham and Sheffield. Since house prices are lower, you should be able to upgrade your living accommodation at no extra cost. Of course, you may have to buy a car, but as you know both Mum and I have thought for some time that you ought to be going down this, er, road.

Please do not think I am being presumptuous when I say that I think you seem to have spent most of your leisure time in Bristol on the computer at home rather than riotous living in the hot spots of St Pauls...

Choose carefully, choose well,

Love,

Dad

kat's picture

Well....

In terms of career prospects the more I think about it and talk to people the more it seems that the Bristol designer job would be better. It is a technical posting which has advantages. I believe it will be easier to gain chartership, it's easier to move from design to manufacturing than the other way round and having my name known already will mean that it will be easier to be noticed at a local level in Bristol than in Derby. Derby has the advantage that it houses the company HQ so in terms of overall career, assuming I worked for the same company for a number of years it would be useful to do at least a stint in Derby at some point.

It terms of opportunity I also think that Bristol has some unique plusses. I know for definite I'd get the opportunity to work overseas on a 6 month placement. I don't think this will be a possibility in the Derby job but it's something that I'll try and ask/bring up in the interview.

You're right in that I haven't done a 3 month attachment woriking in Derby but that was by choice. I have however done various courses in Derby and so have been out in the centre to see what's around (not much).

In terms of house prices and rental prices yes they'd be about £100 pounds cheaper a month in Derby. But....I believe I'd need a car in Derby which would add about £100-150 if I went for a finance agreement on a new car. Of course I could buy an old car but then I really don't want to. I'm fed up of driving a car that I cannot trust to get me from A to B when I want it to. My previous car list of woes: Clutch was shot - had to modify driving style and always a possibility that the clutch would refuse to engage and I would be unable to put it in and out of gear; it leaked oil everywhere; fuel line broke and as a consequence ended up driving over 100 miles with petrol spraying all over engine. Brakes failed 3 times while driving - once when coming off the motorway to stop at some lights! Managed to stop in time to avoid plowing into the back of a van. I ended up having to drive with the radio on all the time so I couldn't hear the odd noises that it made which made me worry about what was currently going wrong under the bonnet. It cost me £200-£300 a year to get it to pass an MOT and I only bought it for £400 odd. At one point it was costing me £200 a month to keep running in garage fees.

So - I guess you can see why I wouldn't want an old car. Yes I'm an engineer but I just don't feel confident in my ability to spot whether a second hand car is any good or not. Cars are just not really my thing.

True about the staying in on the computer - that's just the type of person I am. I do go out sometimes but the face-to-face social aspects of my life occur mainly at work. Yes I can try and make new friends in Derby but I don't see that socially outside work I would behave very much differently.

I don't know. I just need to think about it. Ask some questions at the interview and of the contact I have for the design job in Bristol and go from there with more information.

And I can do the whole going outside thing...when I was staying in London over the summer I spent very little time at all inside - admittedly this was because it was the most depressing place I have ever stayed but still... ;-)