Reflections on the puddle of life

Officially I start my new job tomorrow, although I've actually been doing it for the past two months but have also been supporting my replacement in my old job. I'm starting my new job with an audit. Joy. Not the most auspicious start, but there you go. So I'm away for four days next week, which is the longest I've been away from my family, and I'm dreading it.

I love my new job. It's really interesting. I miss the customer facing aspect of it, but the move has enabled me to reintroduce myself into the local market organisations which I lost touch with in my previous job. And I get to do basically as much or as little as I want to, it's a very self driven role. And I get to get into the nitty gritty of things which might affect our business on subjects as diverse as the iPad, piracy around Somalia and the South China sea, changes in taxation law. I'm also going to, somehow, become an expert on the Rotterdam Rules which should be interesting. It's a lot of responsibility, but it's the sort of thing I love doing - taking ideas apart and figuring out how they work - so it's going to be a lot of fun. I feel so much more relaxed now; although my job has more responsibility and it's more important I get it absolutely right, I'm pulled in fewer directions and I don't get pulled into irrelevancies and distractions that take my focus away from what I need to do. My new boss is alright too. He's a bit of an odd cookie, he can be very rigid and structured and he's not especially brilliant with people, but he's also incredibly clever and knowledgable and supportive and on the whole we work well together. So all in all it's pretty good.

It was interesting reading Virgil's blog on his new job change. It reminded me of a few things in my own history. When I started in the industry I started in the claims department and I did pretty well. After a while my boss spoke to me about career development and suggested that I might want to spend some time in underwriting. I said no, I couldn't see myself doing that job and yet there I was 5 years later doing that job. Then a couple of years ago there was an opportunity to move into the role I'm in now and I was dead against it. And yet here I am, happy as a pig in muck, doing the job I said I didn't want to do. So I'm posting this here to remind myself never to dismiss an opportunity because you never know it might turn out to be the best thing you ever did. I'm sure I'll forget that at some point.

Life is good. Change is inevitable. Embrace it. Be happy