The Job

---

Hi Folks,

After the phonecall on monday I went on a mission to buy a second set of work clothes and managed to move into 6 bed room in hope of sleeping well for a change. Didn't work, barely spelt so pottered off to work on tuesday feeling semi-dead!

Found my way into the office, saw Rick at his desk and introduced myself to the accountant Khang. Was shown around the office by Richard (working now so he's Richard, not Rick). It's a small office I guess, the accountants room at one end, the CEO's at the other with a few good sized booths split into pair for potentially 6 people. The company is the Institue of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia and I work at the national head office. We run courses to train people to become Arb's or Med's who are essentially third party people to adjudicate disputes on contracts instead of the parties having to go to court.

Spent the morning processing some invoices, doesn't sound overly interesting, but I always like trying to learn a new piece of software in an undeniable geeky way. After lunch I sat back down and was greated with a stack of invoices by Khang to sort and check through to make sure they were on the system correctly. Great, first afternoon and I have to do investigations to find out whether the last person had cocked up! Was hugely bored. Rick on the other hand looks to have settled hugely here in 3 weeks, joking with everyone and generally knowing exactly what he's doing.

Second day (with a small amount of dread) I went in and was given some work by Rob, basically chasing up some payments from our clients. 'It's easy because they're all professionals'. Of course they are, half of them seem to be high court judges - slightly scary calling them and saying 'Hello, I am calling from the Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators' is a bit of a mouthfull to say the least. For the first three days I kept calling it the Institution as well until I was calling another office and someone kindly pointed out that I was making it sounds like an asylum. Went for a couple of beers after work with Rick. Got back to the hostel that evening and ended up going out with some of the folk from there for another one. Got a call later from Marey, a Londoner I get on with well from the hostel who'd moved out on Monday to head an hour up north to stay with family. She was back down to work and having finished fancied a beer. Met her, had a few more and eventually retired to bed a little drunk and completely exhausted!

Next morning at work I had one of many chats with our CEO Paul who's been with the company for just a couple of months and is making big big changes. On being asked how I was finding the work I said it was 'ok, but I would prefer to be doing something more complex'. About an hour later I was offered a fairly epic task. I am now the Accounts and Projects guy. I will be learning the admin job as Joan who currently does it is only in the office mon - wed and so someone needs to know the job for the rest of the week. The accounts part is sorting out the invoices and processing them, receiving the payments and so forth. The projects part is the complex bit. I have been set the initial task of sorting out the computer system within the company, including the restructuring of the folder setup on the network, maintaining the webpage and working alongside the people hired to rebuild the thing. Basically from top to bottom I have been set the task of learning how the company runs and making it simpler and more efficient - at least this is my understanding at the moment. I will be writing proposals and target plans, things I haven't really done before.

I jumped at the chance with a good amount of simultaneous terror, the offer of a 6 month contract (thanks to the visa rules you cannot work for one company for longer) and slightly decreased pay. I realised the pay thing sounds lame, but the company is non-profit and considering I expected to be doing a crappy job for a couple of weeks at a time, or fruit picking, it's a no-brainer. If I pull off this job, then I will have travelled Asia for 8 months and spent a good amount of time in Australia doing something very CV worthy whilst learning a huge amount - fingers crossed.

Went out with Rob on Thurday after work, was intending on going for just a couple but we get on really well and turns out he only started on monday so we had a fair amount to discuss over what the hell is going on in the office in general!

Did endless random stuff on Friday from doing the banking, collecting certificates to having my first meeting with our IT consultant Dave who's in every friday and that I'll be working closely with on those days.

All in all, it has been an absolutely insane week. Absolutely knackered yesterday I had a relatively early night evening though it was a friday and find myself doing nothing today because everyone seems to have disappeared! Still, bound to be something to do tonight, should be meeting Marey once she's finished work and possibly going to an art exibhition and off out with Rick and Emma this evening, although they are currently riding through an extremely hangover I hear.

Optimistic times with some huge challenges ahead. Might go wander out in a bit to find a 'Writing Proposals and Planning for Morons'.

Hope everyone's well,
Carol

---