Lots of News

Blink and a month has gone by...

News #1 - Rowie Progress

9 weeks have flown by. It doesn't seem possible sometimes, but here we are. Last week Rowie started back at work, effectively meaning that life is officially back to "normal". This was a difficult step for her, and I think I understand that the "normality" of it was what was so difficult, that after all the months of waiting, changing dates, the operation and subsequent recovery, it's all over. In a sense there's some grief about the process ending, which on the surface is probably hard to understand; wouldn't you just be thankful that you came out the other end? However I think that months of pumping yourself up for such an event is bound to be hard to transition back down from. Anyway, we're talking it through and this week seemed more settled (so far!).

News #2 - Neil's New Job

I hadn't mentioned on the blog before, but I've been looking for a new job for some time now. After 5 years in Aged Care, I'd gotten to the point where I needed to get out and try something new. In many ways RSL Care has been great for me - it really was a fantastic opportunity to take all those years of technical experience and apply them to a "greenfield" site, and I know that I've succeeded in my goals. I.T. is now embedded into the organisation and I am proud of how I've achieved that. But, like all things, the price paid is high. The politics in the place were entirely negative, and I felt stifled and unable to constantly affect change in the end.
I have been looking for a while, and in fact had done quite well through a couple of interviews; no new job though. In August I applied for a role through an employment agent and got the usual form letter "Thanks but Sorry", but this time I pursued it. Email rejection letters are in many ways more difficult to receive than posted letters... So I pursued the comments, and got into quite a discussion with an employment agent who gave me some good feedback... and the week following called me about a role for a company called RP Data. This company is entirely online and provides real estate data to agents across AUS/NZ. This is interesting in itself - I've wanted some e-commerce experience for some time now - but as I went through the interview process and got to know more and more about the place, the role appealed more and more. They are essentially growing at a rate of knots and tripping over their growth (very similar to RSL Care), and require someone to come into the organisation and build solid processes, policies and procedures to manage both the technology and growth. And that someone is me!
They vetted me through three interviews (final one in Sydney) and I was offered the role...

So I'm currently taking a week between jobs having finished my notice as of last Friday. It was quite emotional in the end - which in itself was a surprise - but in the end I'm glad I've been able to move on. My boss took me out for lunch and then in the afternoon my team organised an afternoon tea, with the usual speeches etc., then I was gone.

I'm starting tomorrow, and I'm beginning to get that nervous feeling... lots of questions running around my brain about the new place, but I'm trying to be calm about it.