#excited for employment but also

[tangledinink]

guess who just received. a. job offfeerrrrrrrr.

[solarmorrigan]

So I officially put in my two weeks' notice today. Gonna be moving from working in an academic library to the public library

I am very excited but boy did I give myself a headache out of sheer anxiety

[anonymousbathtub]

Introducing the main trio of Airs Above The Ground, my final year's concept art project! Get ready for middle age lesbians & dragon dressage 🐉✨

[uwuppa]

might do a goodra ych so i can spoil my wife with treats and yummies teehee

[expatesque]

Realise sleepover might be over but this girl was offline and could do with some advice on asking for a raise at work? She’s also approaching the mid twenties and mildly overwhelmed by all I want to do and achieve but also excited (I’m trusting that this rollercoaster is just life).

Also, how are you doing my dear??

Also also - I’m going to see the Alice in wonderland ballet at the ROH on Friday and I’m so excited 😌

Ooh good one. Okay first: raises. So scary! But also so normal! Three pieces of advice:

(1) Choose your time. At my last place, we discussed salary exactly once a year, and it would have been out of place to bring it up outside of that. But if you're somewhere more flexible, then you should still think about timing. Is there a natural milestone coming up that you could use (e.g. your work anniversary, a big project finishing up)? Whatever time you choose, just make sure you really knock things out of the park in the month+ leading up to the talk; people have short memories, make sure you end strong to put yourself into the best position.

(2) Be prepared. This boils down to (i) knowing what your colleagues make and what is standard for your industry, and (ii) being prepared with reasons why you should be paid more. For (i), talk about money with your colleagues. It's awkward but it's really important - do it over drinks if need be. Also useful to answer one of the recruiters that I'm sure are in your inbox, take 30 min to have a call with them and use it to suss out the market. This will help you know what you should be asking for. For (ii), your work on (i) will help but also come prepared with examples where you've knocked it out of the park, gone above and beyond, etc. Be ready to justify your value to the organization.

(3) Do it with the confidence of a privately educated white boy. This is one of the best times to borrow from the boys work-wise - they tend to be much less skittish about money, and study after study shows that this benefits them across their careers. If you can't summon their confidence, summon the rage that so many mediocre idiots get more by doing nothing more special than asking for it.

As for the rest of being in your mid-20s: such an exciting time! If all goes well, you should be almost unrecognizable to yourself in half a decade. That's a good thing, we can't stay the same, as much as we might want to. Embrace the change.

As for me, I'm actually pretty good at the moment. Feeling very rooted and content. This break was actually so incredibly needed, I cannot believe how burned out I was. But I'm feeling inspired and settled and ready for new challenges. So we'll see! Bring on 30.

[onrainynights]

I'm about to be so annoying btw

[reginrokkr]

Late as hecky night post to announce that the countdown of weeks left for the training to be over is starting at 3 and that I got a job interview at a pharmacy this Wednesday. If that goes well and I have the luck to be employed as soon as the training ends at the end of this month, that would be the best news I could get besides the coming of Dain looming even closer.

[vainlungs]

life update 🌿

i’m (hopefully) done with uni for the rest of my life, currently waiting for grades to be registered and then can do the graduation request; my summer job starts in a couple of weeks, so i have actual free time without a billion things needing me to do them. I have read two 300+ page novels in three days, which I don’t think I have done in a decade?

also my thesis advisor said that my thesis could be made into a proper peer reviewed article (!!!!) so I’ll be working on that during the summer, which is nice; I already miss writing essays. although don’t know how well I’ll survive without access to my uni’s electronic journals and articles

wherever I’ll be in September

[velvetstreets]

got rejected for a job I was perfectly qualified for and for once was excited abt 😃👍

[violentdevotion]

if you're a cashier being kind to children is the easiest thing in the world. all you have to do is give them the reciept instead of their carer and you've made their hour

[sysig]

Today: Teeth hurt, batteries are sold exorbitantly but only in person, and I think I have Tamagotchis now

[daisywords]

finished that horrible application but at what cost

[virtuouscycle]

Tomorrow my prof is calling me to discuss where he thinks I should do my field placement and for some reason I’m mortified about it ajdjajdhd

[pippapimentina]

.

[expatesque]

Hi Sarah, your thoughts on a life conundrum would be highly appreciated. I’m working at a law firm and a pretty exciting in-house opportunity has come up. I’m thinking of making the jump but I’m a bit apprehensive as I do like the typical things you get at a law firm (stability, salary, prestige etc.) which are not guaranteed elsewhere. As you have made an even bigger career change, do you have any advice on how to get over that fear of the unknown and commit to new opportunities?

So let's tackle this in pieces:

The stability is completely find-able, just don't go to a start up and you'll be fine. Lawyer in a big company is basically as safe as lawyer in a big firm. And lawyer is a great career generally for stability because it tends to be fairly countercyclical - people need lawyers most when things are tough.

Salary is one you're going to have to come to terms with. You'll probably switch over on your current salary but you will find the ceiling much more quickly than in a law firm. There are very few in house lawyers that are paid as much as law firm partners, maybe some GCs in big American companies. In exchange for a lower salary though, you get a life back and some time to actually enjoy the money.

The prestige is the most interesting one here to me because I think it holds a lot of people back. And it's funny because people outside of law don't think about it with anything near the intensity that lawyers do. Like, you tell a typical consultant or person working in finance that you're a lawyer at a big company or at a big firm and they are unlikely to have a significantly opinion of you - but that doesn't stop lawyers from being completely hung up on this. The fact is, at some point you have to start living life for you and not for your parents or people you meet in pubs or what you think people will think of you. You're the one living your life, you need to make the choices that are right for you.

And that's really the secret to getting over fear of the unknown: you've got to trust yourself. Trust yourself to make good choices, to overcome challenges, and to figure it out as you go. The fact that you want to do it indicates that you should, you just need to trust that gut instinct and make the change.

+ let's have a sleepover