creamed-coconut.org

It’s taken me a while to get round to updating my blog, and I’ve already mentioned this on my Twitter and Facebook updates, but I’ve found a new job! And I’ve fulfilled my dream of becoming a full-time web developer!

It was Monday night 3 weeks ago that I received a call from the interviewer, to say that I’d got the job. I was delighted, especially as it was a challenging recruitment process – in total there were 3 rounds of interviews and I also completed a programming test. The first interview was fairly generic, whereas the second interview focused on my ideas for the company’s website. The third interview was shorter – the interviewers asked me to talk them through my online portfolio, to explain how I built each of the websites I’d developed. At the end of the third interview, they set me the programming test. I was asked to do the test in my own time – it consisted of 7 pages of programming code in the Velocity content management system, and my task was to identify the error which was causing an image to appear in the wrong position on the website. I determined that the problem was due to an error in a loop. I emailed the answer to the interviewers and it was just a couple of days later that I received the phone call offering me the job.

I was so happy that I called all family and friends to tell them about my new job. They were all pleased for me. That night, I slept better than I had done for ages – I felt so happy that I had fulfilled one of my dreams, that I would no longer have to worry about searching for jobs, and that I would be working for a company which is (hopefully) more stable, so I won’t have to go through restructures every couple of years. Hopefully I will be more settled and happier in this new job.

I then faced a nerve-wracking wait for my offer letter and my contract to arrive through the post. Once I received my offer letter, I handed in my leaving letter to my existing employer. I say “leaving letter” because I’m not actually resigning, I’m just taking my redundancy a couple of months earlier than my agreed redundancy date. My manager was happy for me, although he was sad that I would be leaving. I sent out an email to all the people with whom I’ve worked over the last 4 and a half years, to let them know I’d be leaving the company. My manager and my co-workers wished me well in my new career. I received lots of nice emails, even from people I hadn’t worked with for over 3 years. It’s good to know they still remember me and that they still care. I plan to arrange a leaving party for my co-workers on the Friday after I leave the company.

As I was required to give 4 weeks’ notice, I won’t be leaving my current job until Wednesday 17th February, and then I will start my new job on the following Monday.

In the new job, I will be working for a local newspaper publisher, developing and maintaining their websites. My late grandfather (on my mother’s side of the family) used to work for that company, working on the printing presses, so it is good that I am following in his footsteps. I’ve always been interested in newspapers, and I never imagined I’d end up working for a newspaper publisher.

I will be having a celebration meal at Zaks with my family on Friday evening, and I’m really looking forward to that. I’ve also had more copies of my blog book printed (covering January 2005 to December 2009) and I will give these to my sisters on Friday evening, as they asked for copies of their own. These arrived today and I’m pleased with how they turned out.