Surviving Transitions

*WARNING* Lengthy post

It has been a while since I last blogged due to some major transitions in my life. For those of you who are reading one of my blogs for the first time, my old blog was Jobless in England and was about living in England while my husband Simon was finishing school. I have been back in the states for a little over two months now and all I can say is it has been a crazy ride.

Move to England they said. It will be fun they said. What they didn't say is how stressful it would be when you move back and have to find a good job and work out what you are going to do with your life. I have never liked life transitions, they are hard and I don't like the unknown. Simon and I felt really strongly we needed to move to England and had faith that the Lord would help things work out when we got back. It has been a bumpy two months, but things are slowly starting to work out.

I flew into Boise, ID on March 3rd. Before Simon and I went to England we decided we would live with my parents in Boise when we got back so we could save some money before Simon would start grad school. Applying for jobs in Utah (where we lived before we left) didn't even cross my mind. The first week I was back I went to Utah for a few days to visit some family and friends. While I was out to lunch with one of my good friends, I had the strong impression that I should apply for jobs in Utah. At first I was confused because Simon and I had felt good about staying in Boise, but ultimately my feeling won over and I started applying for jobs in both places.

A week after being back from visiting Utah I had 2 companies in Utah call me wanting to set up interviews. I headed to Utah for the interviews and ended up having 4 interviews that week. I felt sure that something would work out from the interviews because I felt really good about all of them. The following week when I was back in Boise, I got rejection emails from all of them (most went with internal candidates). I was pretty bummed and was confused why things worked out how they did.

The next couple of weeks I continued to apply for jobs in Boise and Utah. Nothing seemed to be happening. I finally got a call for an interview with a company called Qualtrics, located in Utah, for a position there. Back to Utah I went for my first interview with them. After the interview I still applied for jobs in both places. I also had an interview with T-Mobile in Boise. I then got a call from Qualtrics wanting a second interview. Simon and I decided to go back to Utah and stay until all possible interviews were done. I ended up having 6 interviews last week. I had some great leads with many of them wanting second interviews. However, on Friday I had my third and final interview with Qualtrics and they offered me a job.

I start as an Executive Assistant for the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (head of engineering) this coming Wednesday. I am excited to start working again and I really liked the company. If you want to check them out go here. It is a huge relief to finally have a job and for it to be a good one. I am happy that part of our transition phase is over... now we just need to find a place to live, send Simon back to England to take his finals, and eventually find a job for Simon when he comes back permanently in June.

Transitions are hard but I find that having a good support system, trying to remain positive, and having faith make it easier to get through them.