Rollercoaster

Today has been a bit of a rollercoaster - but in a good way, generally. Let’s start with work.

This week is my six-month anniversary of starting a new job, which has itself been a wild ride.

For starters, there was a huge culture shock moving from a very small (~4) to very large (~8,000) workforce. In the past, if I needed something then I just organised it myself; now, there are portals coming at you from all directions to cover your requirements.

The team I’m now a part of has been great - smart and friendly, on the whole, and a joy to work with. They are supportive and happy to spend time getting me up-to-speed on things I don’t know much about. For instance JavaScript - I’d done none when I arrived, and now I’ve done loads and feel like I’m beginning to make progress.

Culturally it’s a great company too, with a strong emphasis on DEI that I’m very happy to support. (I think I mentioned Tim Harford’s article on this subject in a previous blog post.)

Today I had my first performance review there, and I’m glad to say that it seemed to go well. This is a big confidence boost, and I hope will allow me to “be myself” a bit more at work - so long as that doesn’t put them off too much!

Then this evening we had an orchestra rehearsal for Saturday’s concert, in which we practised the upcoming “Concerto for Harmonica and Orchestra” by Spivakovsky. This is a really enjoyable piece of music, and the soloist (Shima Kobayashi) was really tremendous! Here’s a photo of her during the rehearsal, taken from the flute section.

Suddenly it’s late, and I’m back to training in the morning, so I think that is it for now!

Header photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash