Week Two...

... and it's a four-day week, how wonderful. Very chilled weekend, finishing up on the sofa with a light dinner - the Kiwi's made some world-beating potato salad with some chives we've been coaxing into life over the past few weeks. Having never successfully grown anything in my life this is a momentous occasion. The other day I used some thyme which has been growing on my windowsill - can't tell you how proud I was. God I'm getting old.

Actually it's more like a three-day week, as Friday is one of the six-weekly 'community days' that my new employer likes to throw. I'm quite looking forwards to it - it's an opportunity to get involved in seminars and discussion groups with the rest of the consultants, basically a way of ensuring that the wealth of knowledge in the business is distributed as evenly as possible. Consultants rarely socialise when not on the same project, as we tend to be onsite with clients most of the time, so this seems like a pretty good idea I reckon.

As the new boy I need all the help I can get, so I'll be there all eager-eyed, notebook in hand and pencil poised to capture all the words of wisdom I can.

However, before you start thinking I'm strolling down easy street in this new role, my colleague and I have to write up a reasonably detailed ecommerce plan for one of the UK's biggest news corps by Thursday night, which although I'm reasonably confident about it at this stage, is no small ask as there are potentially millions of quid at stake one way or another. No pressure, then... fortunately we're talking about the nuts and bolts of retail here so I'm more or less in my comfort zone.

Less so with the nuts and bolts of consulting. In my previous lives, an hour spent slacking off a bit yielded nothing more serious than a bit more work to do later in the week; a few days extra on a project meant annoying someone more senior but could usually be explained away and forgotten about. Things are different now - slipping a day can add several grand to a project; that extra hour spent MSNing someone is an hour the client's paying for... and if you come off your billable project to give some time to someone else as a favour, your bonus will be directly affected. This is all very new to me and initially a bit freaky and all so very growed up.

So how does all this feel? Brilliant, is the honest answer. Like the way you ache slightly when leaving the gym for the first time in too long, I'm exhausted. The sheer mental effort of being on form for 8 hours a day is something I'm (slightly shamefully) just not used to, but I'm loving it all the same. I'm being made to feel like the experience of working in retail for the past 15 years is finally worth something to somebody.

Along with all this, I'm slowly realising, an old thing is raising its ugly head again. I can't cruise in this job. I can't drift or tread water. I need to be responsible for myself, and in control of what goes on. Self-responsibility, eh? Let's see if I can get this one cracked whilst still in my twenties... now that would be an achievement.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Talk about feet not touching the ground - I was in front of clients at 1100 this morning, no time for induction, straight into it. Naturally I sat there for two hours like a stunned rabbit and didn't say a word. Way to go, newly-fledged business consultant, really knocked them dead.

Anyway, sniffly man-cold and muteness notwithstanding, it looks like I've definitely made the right choice in the move. First impressions speak of a bunch of highly intelligent, insightful and experienced people who're all more than happy to share all this wonderfulness - I'm sure the honeymoon period will wear off at some point but right now I'm sort of in awe of all this - someone asked my opinion today and not only seemed to actually care what I had to say, they seemed to take my feedback to heart.

That sort of thing rarely happens on the client side. This is a genuine eye-opener for me. So add to that a working laptop and email account being in place prior to my arrival and I'm sold.

On another note - mentioned my lovely girlfriend the Kiwi in my last post, very remiss of me not to expand... together for an amazing 2-and-a-bit years, living together for just over a year of that, sickeningly happy and pondering a move to New Zealand at some point in the not too distant future. She has, as always, been unbelievably supportive since I've started looking for a new job, including dealing with gloom and grumpiness and generally atypical behaviour during the process. Love? God yes.

Almost... there...

So here we are - within minutes of leaving my current job. This will be the last post from this particular work laptop (leaving me internetless for a whole weekend!). I may resort to using my girlfriend's (the Kiwi).

Deep breath... count to three... and we're out of here.

Tentative baby steps

Well, well. Look at me. I'm blogging! Something I thought I'd never do, if I'm honest.

I always thought you'd only run a blog if you were so helplessly self-obsessed that you honestly thought the world needed to know about your dinner choices, your TV watching habits or suchlike. A bit unfair of me, perhaps. Recently though, I've seen it (mostly through following a good friend of mine, Bengobaz, who's about the least self-obsessed and egotistical person you could hope to meet and a damn fine writer to boot) more as a way of keeping in touch with people, and more importantly as a way of documenting your experiences. For yourself and those around you.

I recently dug out a battered old notebook I used to write in back when I was the archetypal tortured teen. Apart from being cringeworthy to an appalling degree, it was a real eye-opener into the sort of person I was back then. I'd more or less forgotten how seriously I used to take myself and how horribly terrifying everything seemed. I suppose that, in a way, looking backwards like that gives you a sense of perspective on your life and experiences in general. These days everything's still horribly terrifying, but at least I find now I can giggle at it all most of the time.

Blimey. What a way to start a blog.

The background to this is the process of transition. I'm just about to start a new job, going agency-side instead of client-side for the first time. For the first time in my life I might have to buy a round when out with work. See what I mean: terrifying. Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to document. But I'm sure you're more qualified to be the judge of that than I...