New year, new job

For the past eight months I’ve been enjoying a career break. I left my job at a cancer charity in April 2012 and spent the next three months travelling through SE Asia, Australia and New Zealand, arriving home in late summer just in time for the Olympics and Paralympics.

After the initial excitement of being able to enjoy an impromptu semi-retirement wore off, I realised I needed to start looking for another job. After seven years in my previous job, I was more than a little apprehensive about starting somewhere new. Having commuted to London from the north-east for the best part of five years, I knew the decision I’d made to base myself back in the north-east might be challenging, given the comparative lack of job opportunities in the North compared to those in the south-east. I had also limited myself to only looking for jobs in certain employment sectors, specifically the third or not-for-profit sector, public and higher education sectors. 

I was fortunate, then, to land a job on the first attempt. A job at a university in the north-east, one I had eyed with curiosity but ultimately disregarded when it was first advertised in September but one I embraced with a renewed vigour when it was re-advertised in November. By early December I had interviewed for and been offered the job, with a start date of 7 January.

And so, the sojourn is over.  Time to put my travelling head away and put on my business head. But first, time to enjoy a few more days of being a lady of leisure...