[Previous entry: "Finally something positive has happened! :)"] [Next entry: "My job and the rest"]
11/13/2005: "My new job"
music: JAG episodemood: Good
Well, I have now worked in Amsterdam for 7 days and it has made such a change to my life. Why, you might ask?
For the first time in ages I have actually had 8 decent nights sleep.
The kind of nights where you sleep within half an hour of getting into bed and only wake up when your alarm goes off.
It might not sound like a lot but before I really had trouble sleeping every night. Yes, I was tired but my mind just didn't want to stop and I would be tossing and turning before finally falling asleep hours later, being totally exhausted. Sometimes even waking up during the night and just not being able to sleep. The bed would be a total mess and I would be even more exhausted then I was the day before.
Not anymore though..the moment I had a new job and the whole time after that I slept like a baby! Yes, I was exhausted but a good kind of being exhausted.
The kind you are when you have worked hard but feel very good about it. Not the angsty, panicky, 'have I done everything right, did I think of everything, didn't I make a mistake' kind of exhausted... Yep, that's how much difference a new job can actually make in your life.
My new job is great. I am officially allowed to call myself Office Manager now, cool isn't it? Of course I know this is early days, but I still think that in the first couple of days you can actually feel whether you are in the correct place or not.
And I feel like it's all perfect, it just all clicked.
I have to say that this company is about as International as is possible for a job in the Netherlands. Everyone speaks at least 3 languages and at any one time of day you will be able to hear: Dutch, English, Italian, Spanish, French and German. I could even practice my Russian during lunchbreak, with an Armenian colleague. There are a couple of Chinese colleagues as well so if I would want to try my hand on Chinese I could.
That even with only about 40 people working there! Pretty good, huh?
It is a very independent job which could easily become a very big interesting new experience. Right now it is mostly cleaning up the mess my predecessor left behind. Trying to get everything back on track and start doing the basic stuff like it should happen in a normal office. When I am back on track with that the job will be open to helping all departments that need help. Maybe even helping with organising conferences and stuff. Or helping other departments like finances or marketing. So it is a really good prospect, I could learn a lot here and feel so much better then I ever did at Yusheng.
Here I feel valued and important, even better: I feel smart. At Yusheng I started feeling like shit which gave so much stress that you start making even more mistakes. My self-esteem definitely had received a big blow, but I am now getting back to the good side again. That's probably why my sleep was so eratic before I started this job.
At the moment this is still a temping job but I am hoping everything goes well and within a couple of months or maximum six months I might have a contract at this company. Most people working here have only been there for about 5 months anyway so it is a pretty young team, but with the power of an 'old' product.
So yes, I totally love it...not to mention the fact that I get paid more now than I did at Yusheng!
Going to watch some taped JAG programs.
