I am grateful for work opportunities.
Today is the 1 year anniversary of the first day I went back to work after mat leave and also, my first day at my current job. My boss sent me the first email of the day congratulating me on a job well done in my first year here and thanking me for all that I've done for our team. I truly believe that me getting this job is one of the biggest blessings I've ever been given. With the efforts I've made in my life towards the cure for cancer, this job has made it part of my every day, and every day, when I leave the office, however hard or easy my day was, I know I've helped forward the cause. That's one big thing our CEO emphasizes to everyone in this organization--that all of us are integral in the search for a cure (read more about him in the most recent issue of Canadian Running magazine!).
I actually applied for this job in January of 2011. I applied for a lot of jobs in January of 2011. I went in for an interview a few weeks after I applied and felt really good about it. I knew I really wanted this job because of all the things I would learn, all the things I would get to do and truly felt that all the experience I had gained could really be put to use. Mr.S and I prayed for this opportunity to become part of our lives, but also prayed, even as badly as we wanted it for me, that if it wasn't for me and someone else needed the opportunity more, give it to them. It was a hard prayer to pray, but we just thought it was such a good fit for me that if I didn't get the job, we needed to accept it and not let it interfere with my job search.
I was really in search of another job. My old job was a good one too, with great people, but I just didn't feel fulfilled at the end of the day, didn't use the knowledge I gained in university, nor did I feel like I had much room to grow. I wanted something that would let me commit me to a 9-5 (or 8-4) and no more. I wanted something that didn't require me to travel. I wanted something that I didn't have to think about when I left the office. I wanted something easy. As a new mother, I had other things I wanted on my mind and consuming my time and work was not and is not one of them. I knew this would likely mean a lower position than my last one, but I was okay with it, as long as we didn't suffer financially, and well, I like growing in organizations.
A few weeks after the interview, I got an email from the director saying that I didn't get the job, but I was their second choice, and that she had suggested me for a similar position that would be opening in the coming months, with another team. She was asking my permission to forward my CV to them and I eagerly agreed. It wasn't the team I was originally hoping to work with though, but I'd take it.
After that, I got a few more calls for interviews, some for jobs I applied to and didn't really know why, so I didn't interview, and some I interviewed for. None of them interested me as much as the one I applied for originally. I even got offered a job, without an interview, with one of the organizations I did my first fundraiser for, but because it was a temporary position, I turned it down. What we needed was stability.
Then, a few weeks later, in late February, just when things were starting to get a little scary because my maternity leave was about to end and I wasn't sure of my job situation (my old job was there, as were flexible variations of it, but I wasn't keen on taking it back), I got a call. It was one of the people I interviewed with saying that the candidate they had chosen couldn't stay and with me being their second choice, they were wondering if I was still interested in the position. My heart felt like it was drained of all blood. Um, let me think...HELLSYEAH!
A few days later, I went in to meet the director (who suggested me for that other position that still hadn't been posted for at the time) and what was supposed to be like a second interview, ended up being one of the best conversations I've ever had. Really, she just wanted to get to know me. We ended up sharing experiences of grueling long distance physical feats -- me and marathons, she and Rides to Conquer Cancer. She encouraged me to give it a try one year if I was up to it, and when I said the same to her with marathons, she laughed and told me about her hatred of running. Fair enough! We also ended up talking about our common experiences losing our mothers to leukemia, me at 5, she in her 40s. It was a conversation that, I think, almost brought both of us to tears, and I don't know about her, but it felt like we started out as strangers and left, not only as employee and boss, but as friends.
This job was proving promising already.
When I officially started, I loved it right away. The people were great, the job was great, and the fulfillment was amazing. It also helped that the team was instantly loving the way I was doing things and shared their feelings about how they didn't feel the first hire was a good fit for the team. I was learning so much right away, much of it the nitty gritty behind the cause, the efforts going into not just finding a cure, but improving the quality of the existing system, efforts to make the experience for cancer patients as pleasant as possible. There was so much hard work being done, and so much of it isn't seen. I was, and am, working for an organization whose sole purpose is to make things better for those affected by cancer in Ontario, advising the government on how best to do it.
In the year I've been here, I've met so many people, worked with so many varieties of people with a variety of levels of education and made so many friends. Although my director left after a few months of working together, we still keep in touch and she comes by once in a while. One of my team members went on maternity leave, another went back to school to finish her last year of university and the last of the original team I started with, the one who called me to offer me this job, is moving to another team within the organization and we share our last day on the 30th.
I am so grateful for the past year and this job.
