It's Official! (Unofficially)

Three months ago I was thrilled to be offered the opportunity to work on a short-term basis for a different team in our IT department while someone was on leave and then otherwise occupied with a big upgrade project.

I had been working as a regular ol' Techie up till then, for the past two & a half years or so. When I took the Techie job initially, it was a bit of a step back for me but it suited me because the money was good and it meant I didn't have to drive an hour & a half each way to work each day. I could take the train instead and get there in a little over half an hour with no traffic stress (I am slightly prone to road rage). Also, it was a permanent job, whereas I'd spent the previous year working on a contract basis, which was a little too uncertain for my liking, living as I was in a new country and all.
So it was a very practical decision.

But let's be honest - a job that involves a lot of crawling on desks checking cabling, and carrying computers and other bits of hardware around the place, is not really the ideal job for a thirty-something woman.
And I was b.o.r.e.d. out of my mind!

So last year I bit the bullet, paid the money, took unpaid leave and did two courses to help me start along the path of becoming a DBA - still in IT, still technical but not so physical, and more desk-based and brainpower-oriented.
And I made it known that this was what I wanted.
And then I waited.
And waited.
And waited.

And finally the opportunity came up to use my newly acquired knowledge (albeit really rusty by then) and I jumped at the chance.

Well, ladies and gents, it turns out patience does eventually pay off. (I wouldn't normally know much about this because patience is not exactly one of my strong points, but anyhoo...)

*** ! ... CUE FANFARE ... ! ***

Today, after weeks of wondering, and a complete restructure of our IT department, I was asked if I would like to stay on in the DBA team permanently.
Would I ever..!!!



Now, it won't be official as such until the new organisational chart is released (hopefully sometime this week) but it's official to me.

And tomorrow I will do what I promised myself I would do if I got to stay in this job.
For the first time in my three years of employment I will wear a skirt to work.
'Cos you see, it's not really practical for a Techie to wear a skirt (you just never know when you're gonna end up crawling under desks, y'know?!).
But hey, I'm (unofficially) officially not a Techie anymore!

So there ya go - all is not doom and gloom (until you look outside and see one of our lovely Irish storms raging but that's a completely different matter).
It turns out Mondays can be good days too.