I suppose this is the best place to vent.. as it's gotten me down lately but I've finally gone done good
A bit of back story... I work 53 miles from home, so travel around 2.5 hrs every day plus business mileage, so it can be as much as 200 miles a day which is killing my car, my back and my sanity. For the last 3.5 years I've done a £30k job in the NHS but the structure of the team is such that I have a single line manager and no scope to progress (dead man's shoes).
A few months ago I was emailed (via my line manager) about a possible managerial role closer to home, with another health board circa £40k. I got shortlisted, interviewed but ultimately the job went to "the internal candidate". I was deeply upset as I felt I aced the interview but later after the process was complete I caught wind of info that it was a bit of an inside job i.e. I couldn't have beaten the internal candidate as the job was written for them and external candidates were effectively only there to validate the process. Regardless, the person in charge of the interview said I was 2nd in line and that I should keep in touch as they might be expanding their team near Christmas.
Roll on to a few months ago and our head of department announced that a senior position was opening internally. Great.... until I read the job description and realised that my line manager was tailor made for the role!
Not that I wasn't qualified to do the job but there were minor requirements for things that only he has been managing for the past few years. Now, I didn't WANT this role but it felt a bit of a kick in the teeth knowing I was stuck at the back of the queue and my line manager was effectively only getting promoted to bring him in line with the job interview I'd been to previously.
Following my ongoing search, I found a local authority job paying similar wages (£30k) and got shortlisted for interview. I really went to town with my prep and research for the role, going so far as to speak to the team beforehand to get info and really felt like I sold myself. I came out of the interview confident that whilst it wasn't more money it would be local, which was my primary goal. I heard back a week later and again got told that I'd done extremely well but they'd chosen to hire someone from another local authority even though they spend a chunk of time going on that "someone with a fresh perspective, being what we need". Sigh.
Deflated, I sat in my house talking to my partner asking her advice. I couldn't understand where I'd gone wrong... I'd had outstanding feedback for both jobs, I exceeded the academic and experience requirements for both roles, but it seemed like the world was against me. I actually got angry thinking that I'd have to settle within my current role and play the long(er) game, knowing my health, car and bank balance were taking a hammering.
Anyway... roll on last month when a friend text me a message of a job listing approx. 10 miles from home. It was with a multinational, Fortune 500 company but no start salary was listed. I applied for the lulz, thinking there'd be a chain of people going for a job like this and realistically didn't think I'd ever hear back. What would you know? I did!... in fact I had 3 formal interviews before being offered the job.
Monday morning I slipped my notice under the door of my line manager and met with him today about a plan for working my notice. The kicker is, my direct counterpart in another region quit last Friday so now he's 2 people down in a 3 person team. Oops!
tl:dr... had 2 interviews, felt down, had 3 more interviews with 1 company and now start on 05/12 at £40k with full benefits package, 15 mins door to door
