The Running Man

My dream come true?

Dear readers, the moment has come where I share something very special with you: I am going to start a new job! I have been offered (and accepted) a position in a large Sydney CBD law firm as a graduate at law :) which means I am not yet officially a lawyer, but will have to do a year course and (hopefully) will be admitted to the NSW Supreme Court (ie. a lawyer) by the end of 2007 :). This is really a great opportunity to begin a career change (for the better? well we'll soon see)..and sometimes these opportunities only come once in a lifetime...so I am grabbing it with both hands (I have already tendered my resignation at Westpac). Oh btw..in case you didn't know/forgotten...I have a double degree in both law and commerce so can do law :)
This was totally unexpected...I applied to this law firm coldly (meaning that there wasn't any ads in the paper or website)...I just applied by looking at the law institute website and going down alphabetically. At this stage I have already applied to numerous (but not enough) law firms in Sydney...gone for a few interviews...and got equally numerous rejection letters. Needless to say...my confidence and morale was pretty low and with it being so close to Xmas...the HR staff were unlikely to hire at this stage. My plan was to apply again in 2007 for Melbourne and Perth (because Sydney is so exclusive and hard to get into) to start in 2008. So anyway I was holidaying in Qld (prev post) when I got the call from the firm's HR manager asking me in for an interview...now I have gone for interviews before (all unsuccessful) so didn't really think much about this except to just go for it and give it a shot :) (besides I had just gotten a substantial pay rise at Westpac...so was not desperate).
Now, what had happened was that the firm had its full quota of graduates, but one of them suddenly left (to take up a position elsewhere)..so there was an open position, and I was just super fortunate enough for the HR mgr to have my CV and call me up. Well to cut a long story short...it was one of my better interviews and got on well with the mgr (my interviewer), all my referees spoke highly of me (thank you everyone...buy dinner when I am back in Spore) and in the end I got offered the job.
Nothing beats that feeling of getting what you want after getting rejected on numerous occassions...especially for me coz it fits the criteria of what I was looking for: relatively well paid, large corporate law firm (with offices in Sydney, Melb and Brisbane), nice working environment (Deutsche Bank Place...plenty of IB around) and seemingly nice 'lawyers' (soon I will be called that after a yr...fingers crossed) colleagues haha..
Things were looking down for me in my first few months in Sydney, no friends (other than Thor and Ant), work which I didn't really enjoy doing (but it paid the bills here in Sydney), no support from people whom I thought were important to me making my decision (other than my family whom always were there), cold and wet weather (coz it was winter)...you know the feeling of 'dead-endedness', abandoned and loneliness. However, now it has all changed, got friends, activities to do on my weekends and weekdays...relatively active social life :P, weather is perfect (most of the time :P), made my first substantial investment (go China!)...and now got the job that would bring about a fresh start and a welcomed career change (I have no doubt I will be working long hours...but that is ok...its for a purpose :).
My faith in my future, life and more importantly myself has been restored!

posted by Darren at 12:38 AM