work work work

As seen well from the title - it's gonna be about job/career issues this time. And it's because there are a few things that happened (happen?) recently.

First of, and the most fresh - I had an extraordinary situation at work today. I had to call back the customer and I hate doing this, because I don't feel professional enough on the phone yet. But since I knew by the surname of the customer that they are not a native English speaker either, I thought I would give it a try. I started the conversation nicely, told who I was and where I was calling from and what I wanted to talk about, when the woman interrupted asking in my native language if we can speak Polish please, because that would be much easier for her :) And so the conversation developed for the next couple of minutes, when I tried to put nicely into my native words those English, very specific terms that we use at work. "Parental responsibility"? :) I have to say that it turned out to be quite a challenge, but I managed to explain everything and I dare to think that the conversation finished successfully :) And I just wonder, how my colleagues sitting around felt when they heard me speaking this weird language? :)))

Second - yesterday I had my belated feedback after I applied for a secondment in Compliance department. I had a short meeting with HR already, just to let me know that with the number of candidates and high requirements unfortunately I would not have an interview. Now I had a meeting with the manager of the team who was looking for the extra person. Surprisingly, I was told that it's a pity there were other very strong candidates, because they wanted to interview me very much. My application was apparently very impressive and I seemed to be a strong candidate, however there were two stronger candidates than me on this occasion (by the way, isn't it just ALWAYS like this? at least in my case, it is!). All in all, the manager encouraged me to check the vacancy chart often and to "bear us in mind" when looking for a new job/secondment opportunity. That was really sweet :)

Third - at the most important thing that happens recently in my work life I think. I hesitated whether I should write here about it, because whenever I mention some changes, it ends in the same way: FAIL :P
But then I thought, what is to happen, will happen... So, there is another opportunity for a secondment, and it's in my dream-team - well, very truly, probably I should not say that not having been working there ever and knowing REALLY how their everyday work looks like... But, potentially, seeing them from my perspective, knowing what they do from my point of view, and knowing my own preferences and skills, I am pretty sure that at least in this company there is no better place for me. The secondment is for a year. What a great chance and challenge. I looked through the job description and requirements, and I have to say - I have improved quite a lot since I applied for a similar position over a year ago, and, I actually meet most of their expectations. The rest can be worked on :) Unfortunately I belong to this type of people who don't really believe in themselves, and I always keep in mind this possibility that there might be better ones than me... But actually, I found out about the secondment from an email from that team's manager, which gave me a bit of a thought like "maybe they care for me to apply because they think I could do this?". But then I thought that maybe they just know I would be interested in the position, so they kindly let me know. And maybe they also informed others. So no biggie. But then, when I replied that I was interested in the role indeed and I would apply, I got a response that they were glad about that. Well, might seem like nothing really, but... cooome ooon! Why would you say that if you don't really mean it?

If anything moves forward, I will keep you informed :)