I Got The Job!

My days of stressing about work are coming to an abrupt end. Yesterday, I got the job!

The morning started with my HR interview. I was scheduled to meet my contracting agent 15 minutes beforehand, at a nearby coffee shop. For a multitude of reasons, none of which are sound excuses, I was late, and found myself running the ten minute walk from my flat in Covent Garden to Fleet Street. How I can be late for an appointment, when I am that close, is something only those who truly know me will understand.

I arrived at the designated Starbucks sweating up a storm. I tend to sweat a little when I'm nervous , but coupled with the run, I was like a faucet left running. I used some Starbucks napkins to try and dry off, but within seconds even more moisture magically appeared in the same place, as if my body was trying to compensate. It didn't help that the agent looked on at me with a look of disgust normally reserved for leper patients. For the first time in the process of interviewing for this job, I felt I was on shaky ground.

The HR interviewer was running very late, so after a very length delay (which gave me sufficient time to drip dry), I was ushered into the HR department's offices. Now I thought there would be a psych test to the interview, but it's not that sophisticated. The HR interviewer has to use her own methods, basically just by talking with me, to determine if I am psychotic, arrogant, or will just not fit in. Fortunately for me, it seems, I will fit in.

At this stage it seems I will start on Wednesday. I've decided it's probably not wise to blog the firm's name. Not that I'm being secretive about it... just e-mail me if you're curious... but I want to have room to move in case there are some funny stories to tell. Needless to say it is a very old and very large international law firm, that places somewhere in the top ten (exactly where is a function of the measure). It's also a Magic Circle law firm, which is one of those terms that only self-important lawyers could dream up. Basically, it's mean they're old and respected. But in reality, only two groups of people care about the Magic Circle thing. Lawyers, for obvious reasons, as well as recruitment agents, who slavishly follow such pretentious nonsense. Upon reading my CV in the future, I half-expect the agents to immediately fall to their knees, to relieve the stress of my unemployment.

All throughout this process my contracting agent has asked questions that I consider strangely direct, coming from a recruitment agent that is, but still sutably bizarre. Questions like, "if you're offered the job, would you take it?" I want to know what that means? All jokes aside, I really don't have a choice in the matter. London is a very expensive city, more so when paying with Aussie dollars, and if I turned it down, Westpac will surely get an injunction forcing me to take the job.

It is very ironic though, that the job is with a law firm. In the interviews I was half-expecting to be asked if I had law firm experience. My answer was prepared in advance. "No, but I was a litigant for many years. Does that count?" Probably just as well they didn't ask.