Well it has been a while since I've written anything for this blog and to be honest I've considered giving it up. That said in the past few weeks I've actually had a genuine reason not to be writing since I've actually got a job! The thing is that it is actually through a recruitment agency and it is only for 3 months at the moment however there is potential for it to be extended and I also have an interview with the same organisation for a permanent position next month. It's great to have finally gotten something and even if it does turn out to be temporary I am earning money and getting great experience to put on my CV and help with future interviews as well.
It has been adjustment going from getting up at after 9am and spending some time in the morning looking at jobs etc. (unless I had an interview coming up and was preparing for that) to getting up early, driving to work and working all day. That said I think I've done rather well so far. I've managed to get up at 7am without too much trouble though I am now using both the alarm on my phone and a Sonic Boom all in one vibrating pad that goes under my pillow and clips onto it to keep it in place. I'm not going to go into any detail about what I'm doing but it feels great to be back in a lab again doing productive and important work. It does get quite physical at times though in terms of having to lift heavy crates with bottles in them so hopefully will build up some muscles!
It all happened very fast and it was a bit of a shock to apply for the job, get a phone call a couple of days later asking some basic questions and then getting told a couple of days later that I basically had got the job and I didn't have to interview or anything for it. After all the effort that I've put into applying for jobs and going for interviews it was hard not to be a bit skeptical! There wasn't a great deal of info provided about the lab I would actually be working in. Me and my employment advisor sent some emails back and forth to them but there was a bit too much focus on noise levels (we wanted to make sure it wasn't a super noisy lab since that wouldn't be suitable for me with my hearing). In the end we organised to go up and have a meeting with the people I would actually be working for and see the lab. That went well and I ended up accepting the job.
In terms of other news there isn't really any. My bilateral BAHAs are working well, I'm sure there are probably some tweaks that could be made to improve the settings slightly but I'm happy with them. I do find the issue with feedback whenever I wear a hood extremely irritating though. I'll either have to suck it up or make sure I have an umbrella with me if it is raining or likely to rain.
Thanks for reading!
James
