It’s so hard to believe we’ve been here seven months already. In some ways it feels like we’ve been here so much longer because of all that has happened in that short period of time, and in some ways it feels impossible that we’ve already been here this long. Every time I head south of Glasgow and see the Holiday Inn next to the airport I remember the night before we returned to Seattle from our time in Scotland in 2017. I remember feeling sick over leaving Scotland, like I had found my home and wasn’t allowed to stay. If I only knew that night that we’d be back here to live a year later…

After moving here and starting the blog up, I knew that eventually I’d write a blog post about my job hunt process over here and I thought there’d be more to write about, that it would be more of a process… well, I’m writing about it but I will say this won’t look as I had anticipated since my job search didn’t quite go as I’d planned. Let’s begin, here is the story of my job-hunting adventure.

I think I’d mentioned that I applied for a job that I didn’t really want in December. I realised after applying that the position had already been open for over a month, so I’m guessing it was actually filled already. No surprise that I didn’t hear back from them. I wasn’t too concerned since I wasn’t starting my actual job hunt until January. I operate on faith, I think I’ve mentioned before that I tend to just go for things and only in faith do I have any amount of courage to pursue these things. Even though the idea of having to locate work over here seemed so daunting, I had this sneaky feeling in my spirit that I wouldn’t need to search hard for a job, like something would land in my lap. That’s insane, right?

A few weeks ago, I posted on LinkedIn that I was officially on the hunt for employment and shortly after that I received a message from a partner at the law firm I used to work for in Seattle. He wanted to introduce me to a partner at a law firm in Glasgow that he works with and he then proceeded to introduce me to this person via email. This woman was so friendly right from the start and was happy to meet with me. This law firm wasn’t hiring so I knew there wouldn’t be employment as a result of the meeting but maybe I’d have some direction at least. Our meeting was great! It was fun because while I learned a lot about the IP legal industry here we just had a great conversation talking about all sorts of things. The partner I was talking with brought down another partner to meet me and the great conversation continued. They mentioned they might have an opening towards the end of the year but understood that I probably couldn’t wait around that long, so we agreed to keep in touch. I left the meeting feeling really good, like I had some direction.

The day after our meeting I heard from one of the partners and he said they’d like me to come on board to help out. It’s only a seven-month part time contract to start but there’s a good possibility of the role expanding and turning into a full-time permanent role later on. I was in disbelief, I didn’t even apply for a job and here I am now with a job. I’m very excited for this opportunity since I’ll not only get to use some of my skills from my last job but will get to learn a brand-new set of skills that will be valuable in my career development. Even though I had a feeling something would come up jobwise for me I never envisioned a job being created for me, a job that I didn’t apply for, didn’t interview for. It’s crazy.

I’m grateful to start out part time. It’s been 8 months since I’ve worked and I’m thankful that I can ease back into working again. I think jumping back into a full-time schedule would have been jarring for me as well as our dogs. I’m just… I’m just in total amazement at how this all worked out. I start my job on Monday and am anxious, mostly because everything makes me anxious, but I’m also really excited. I actually dreamt last night that I started my job and everyone there was a little annoyed with me because I was way too excited. I’ll post a job update later down the road and I promise not to act as excited as I did in my dream when I arrive Monday, I’ll try to control myself.