Many job opportunities

Munich, March 2013

Following responses to the last blog post, here is a brief update as to my comings and goings: I have acquired a new job, and maybe will get one or two others, and very nearly kept the one I already have.

A permanent Diabetes Dietitian job was advertised much closer to home, the only catch being that it is only 20 hours a week. After much consideration and discussion with family and employers, I applied, with the verbal assurance that my current 35-hour job could probably be tailored to accommodate me if I were to be offered the new job. The interview went well, especially as one of the two interviewers was my previous boss and had seemed very encouraging when I had asked whether she thought I should apply.

I was offered the job, which was very pleasing, and I went back to talk to my current employer about reducing my hours to suit. Oh dear, despite previous assurances, it wasn't quite that simple, because of non-negotiable commitments like the multi-disciplinary ante-natal clinic. If new job needed me on a Wednesday and current job also needed me on a Wednesday, then an irresistible force had met an immovable object and I was caught in the middle. After a bit more thinking, I have gone ahead and accepted the new, closer, permanent but part-time job. We are now negotiating over whether I am who I say I am, and whether I am a criminal. Well, not exactly, but nearly.

In the meantime, another post was advertised, also part-time and about 15 hours and in the same location as I am currently based (i.e. about 60 miles from home). Perfect - except that the advertised date and time for the interview were impossible for me to attend, because I had a clinic with patients booked in and nobody who could cover. Luckily, they have agreed to accommodate me at an alternative time, which they are under no obligation to do, so that interview will be happening this week. It is not quite a regular job because it involves delivering courses which might not be scheduled in the time I have available every week.

The third job is part of a European project which I think I have briefly mentioned before. They are happy to take me on in principle, delivering some of the group weight management sessions, but clearly want to see the outcome of all these other employment options before committing to employing me.

Meanwhile I have been trying to finish the module I'm doing towards an MSc in Advanced Dietetic Practice, and for the first time in my career had to ask for an extension to the deadline because I just can't fit everything in. The pressure of keeping all the plates spinning has also had an effect on my organisational ability, because I have had terrible trouble with all the documentation that I need to prove I am qualified and not a criminal and am actually who I say I am. It has taken two weeks for me to assemble everything in the same place.

And there have had to be trips at weekends, to London for a family do and get-together with friends, to Cambridge for a 30th anniversary dinner, the car needs another few things sorting, I really must revisit my Will which is dangerously out of date, I have played in a badminton match for a team in my weekday home, and the boiler is about to blow up and Mr A and I can't seem to find the time to make the necessary decisions about its replacement. He has had an exam and is about to have a job interview as well.

We often fret about our inefficiencies while appreciating that we are extremely lucky really, and there is nothing truly bad about our situation - as long as we can sort the boiler out before it breaks down for good.