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Friday 4 May 2012

Two Steps Forward ... One Step Back

[Originally posted on Working to Live, 29th February 2012]

Lack of posting tends to indicate 'busy' and this has certainly been a busy period.

My main news is that I applied to two trainee dental nurse roles and got a phone call back from one of them. Thus commenced a telephone interview which I subsequently passed.

The woman I spoke to was very informative. She clued me into the availability of a text book that DN's study which I promptly ordered from Amazon. And she also told me about the vaccinations I would require; Hep B being one of them, makes complete sense.

Anyway, the phone interview went well and I was then assigned an essay. Kind of a new thing for me, being asked to write an essay for a job. I don't know if this is standard practise for potential DN's. If I wrote it to their satisfaction I would then be invited to a face-to-face interview and a visit to a surgery.

Lot of hoops to jump through.

Now, the possible offer a job - fantastic.

Taking a second look at the location however - not so good.

I think I was a tad hasty in my application. At first glance, I didn't think that the location was too bad. Not in a great area, I'll admit, but it would get my foot in the door. Then I did the maths - distance to travel every day there and back, petrol and parking. Time and money wise, I was not getting a good result.

Accepting the job, would also tie me down to a two year contract.

Truthfully, I had doubts about the commute. I've been down that road (literally) before and it proved quite stressful. A stressful DN is a careless DN - that would do me no favours.

I did take some time to seriously consider the options in front of me. And I've chosen to be optimistic. In the past I've always taken the first job opportunity I've been offered. I've never stopped and thought 'is it worth waiting?' Yes, the economy is crap, but I'm starting to think that I shouldn't compromise on this. I've picked a career path, I want to get the job that's right for me, and it should be in the right place. I overshot a reasonable commute by applying to this particular position, but if it's not right then it's not right. It's two years to complete my training - I want to stay put in one place if at all possible.

I went with my gut feeling and wrote back to withdraw my application. I'm disappointed I didn't get a reply to at least acknowledge it.

So I'm now taking a little time to read the textbook - I think that in itself will help with future applications, to say that I've been studying the required book in my own time. How does that not look good?
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