For the past couple of months, I've been looking for a new job. It's been an exciting and challenging process after 11 years in my current position. Late in March I stumbled upon a job listing that sounded absolutely perfect for me, so I sent in my resume. A month later, I've been through three intense interviews with a total of eight interview panel members. I completed a major project that I spent 30 hours on one weekend in order to give them a presentation showing what I can do. I even had to go for a physical as a condition for employment. Yesterday, I completed the whole process and was formally offered the job.
This accomplishment was my number one goal for BatFit 2012. When she began her 40x40 journey, Le Professeur Gothique had stressed that fitness is about both physical AND mental wellness, a concept that I totally agree with. Due to a toxic person at my work, my problem was definitely in the mental area. I never wanted to mention too much about it on my blog (you never know who is reading...) but someone did something very unethical to me last December and it plunged me into a pretty major depression, something that is very unlike me. For months, my stomach churned with nausea whenever I thought about going to work. I had no energy and I binged on chocolate. I laid awake nights, I had horrible dreams when I did sleep, I cried on my way to work and on my way home for weeks on end. I knew there would be no solution but to walk away from that job and get that person out of my life forever. I'm someone who doesn't really like major change, so it took me a couple of months to even get up the courage to start looking at job openings. Then, despite finding a wealth of awesome jobs out there in my industry that I was perfectly qualified for, I found fault with every single one. Until I came across one that I just couldn't deny was perfect for me. Just at that time, Le Professeur announced the BatFit challenge of "Facing Your Fears." I was in the midst of doing just that, and my hard work paid off tremendously!
I'm truly looking forward to this new opportunity in my career, and the new chapter it opens for this blog. I will be taking you along with me in my process of adapting to a new environment and slowly letting my personality come out after I win my new colleagues over with my work performance and professionalism.
Now's the time to practice what I preached in my post about Dressing Goth at Work. It's time to come into a new position with a fairly conservative appearance that just hints at my quirky sense of style (I won't even be showing a single tattoo until I see whether there are others in the office with them). Over the coming months, if it is appropriate to do so, I will ease into being more "myself" in my style and appearance, as long as everything I do falls within the organization's dress code and the comfort zone of my supervisors. It's going to be an adventure, after more than a decade of being totally comfortable (to the point of complacency) in my old office.
I feel alive again, and I'm so thankful to be headed in this new direction. And I'm thankful to my sweet readers who were concerned by my virtual absence over the past few weeks! Sorry for the long, photo-free journal entry here, and extra-special thanks to those who are still reading at this point. ;)
Stay tuned later this week for posts of my three interview outfits, along with my rationale for dressing how I do for those most important first impressions.
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