Sorry for the prolonged downtime – my old webhosts closed down without warning, and it’s only now that I’ve managed to get everything transferred! On this new hosting plan, I have 250 times as much space for pretty much the same price! 
A lot has happened in the 6 weeks or so since I last blogged. If you have read my site a lot over the past 10 months, you will have noticed that I mentioned the re-structure at work in several of my posts. It was a very long, drawn-out restructure. It finally came to an end in late February. And the outcome for my team was not good. 
We all expected there to be cuts, but no-one could have predicted how severe they would be. There were 9 people in the team, and 5 of them were at the same level as me or one level above me. We were all called into a meeting one morning to be told our fate. In the re-structure, the 5 were cut down to just 1. The other 4 people in the team (who are more senior than us 5) were all unaffected. The 5 of us (including me) had to fill in an application form to re-apply for our jobs, so the managers could decide which 1 of us they wanted to keep. With 5 of us fighting over 1 job, I knew I probably wouldn’t stand a very good chance, since some of the others had been there longer than me and therefore had more experience. The reason for the cuts was that our team is being merged into another, larger team.
I was in shock for the rest of the week after the initial announcement. I found it difficult to sleep, and I just couldn’t believe that the team would never be the same again. I knew that even if I was the 1 person selected to stay, I’d miss the other 4 people who would have to leave the team. I’d formed good relationships with the rest of the team, and I couldn’t believe we were going to be split up. I also knew that as I was unlikely to be the 1 person chosen to stay, I would have to look for jobs in other departments. I tried not to spend too much time worrying though, and I drew up an action plan to apply for other jobs. At that time, the only certainty was that things would never be the same again.
While I was waiting to hear whether I was to be the chosen person, I began applying for other jobs within the company. I was offered an interview for a Reporting Analyst job in another department, which is a position I knew I would enjoy. A day before the interview was due to be held, I was called into a meeting with my managers where I was told that I was not the person chosen to stay within the team. I wasn’t too surprised, and I was allowed to go home early that day. I spent the free time preparing for my Reporting Analyst interview, and I knew that I would have to try really hard in the interview otherwise I could end up being made redundant and becoming unemployed. I find interviews quite scary, so I was nervous.
Fortunately, the interview went really well. A couple of weeks later, I heard the news that I had been offered the Reporting Analyst job! So I was really happy and relieved, although of course I was sad that I would miss everyone in my old team. I started the new job this Monday, so I’ve been there a week now. It’s one level more senior than my old job and I like it so far. I actually think this job is better for me than the one I was made redundant from!
I was offered interviews for a couple of other internal jobs as well, but I cancelled them when I heard that I’d been offered the Reporting Analyst job.
On March 3rd, I had my holiday in Thailand with my aunt and uncle to see my Dad. So I had the interview a day before I left home, and by the time I got back I knew I’d been offered the job. My holiday was really good and as I was busy all the time I avoided worrying too much. I got to see my Dad’s house and also my baby sister Layla for the first time. You can see my holiday photos at my Flickr site. I arrived back home on 19th March, and I had one week of my old job before I moved to my new one. So it all worked out well, as there was no gap between my old job finishing and my new one starting.
A few days after the re-structure announcement, the 5 affected people had a meeting with our professional development manager. She is a very optimistic person, and in the meeting she said that she had been through a similar re-structure a couple of years ago. She explained that even though we were going through a very difficult time in our lives, in the future we would be able to look back at the situation and realise that it was necessary in order for us to grow as people. I think this is closely related to the theory that “bad things happen for a reason”. She said that we would probably end up in a better position than we were before the re-struture. For me, I think this has been true. My new job allows me to use my technical skills more fully, and it also means I have been able to move up a level, which was something I couldn’t do in the old job because there was a promotion-freeze. If my old job hadn’t been taken away from me, I probably wouldn’t have applied for this new job and I may never have known there was a better vocation for me.
I will still keep in contact with my old co-workers – I email them every few days to find out how they are getting on with looking for new jobs, and in the near future we will all have a final “farewell” meal together, although of course we will keep in touch afterwards. As I was the first of the affected people to find a new job, I had a meeting with one of the other women to give her advice about her upcoming interviews. As I’ve always found job interviews difficult, I never previously thought I would be able to coach other people, but I’m more used to the structure of interviews now. I gave her advice about how to structure her answers and what sort of things to talk about. In a few days’ time, I will find out whether she has been successful in her interviews.