I don’t usually write posts about my professional life but I thought I’d make an exception, seeing as I have been utterly uninspired to post pedantic psychobabble in a while.
Yesterday was the first day of my new job in the City. Somehow I managed to pull myself out of the quicksand that was my Magic Circle legal profession in Canary Wharf and throw myself into the unfamiliar and niche world of private equity investment on Throgmorton Avenue. It was both a difficult and easy decision. Difficult, because I deliberately left behind any semblance of a comfort zone I had every known over the past 4 years of working as a lawyer. Easy, because in those 4 years I developed a hatred for my job that I think few can match in magnitude.
I needed a fresh start, and by some stroke of unimaginable luck I managed to get it in the world’s largest asset management company.
I slept well the night before the big day (Monday), probably as a result of the bedroom acrobatics I exercised between 5am and noon on Sunday (thanks, Mike). I got up with a healthy amount of anxiety, bordering on first-day-of-school-what-will-the-kids-think-of-me syndrome. True to habit with all new endeavours or experiences, I had decided to get up a little earlier than I should just to walk around the City and feel more centred around the new space. You could call it marking territory – but instead of urine I identified points of interest: the nearest sushi restaurant, the nearest taxi rank, the nearest Ladurée etc. As I was walking around just before 8.30am I ran into Ian from Standard Chartered Bank, the Cedric from Kirkland & Ellis. That’s when I realised I needn’t really mark this territory further – it was already mine.
I can’t really sing, but if I could I would have bastardised Frank Sinatra with a rendition of “What a difference, a job makes”. There is almost nothing in common between my old and new job, and it seems that everything (with the exception of the facilities of my new building) is a stellar improvement. Without going into much detail as to how, friendly reader, here’s what’s in this story for you: sometimes you need to hit rock bottom to ricochet into space. Sometimes you have to insist on your success even when you see dead ends and technicalities. Knowing you deserve better and observing the mechanics of your life closely affects such mechanics and alters them by default.
Yesterday was the first day of my new job in the City. Somehow I managed to pull myself out of the quicksand that was my Magic Circle legal profession in Canary Wharf and throw myself into the unfamiliar and niche world of private equity investment on Throgmorton Avenue. It was both a difficult and easy decision. Difficult, because I deliberately left behind any semblance of a comfort zone I had every known over the past 4 years of working as a lawyer. Easy, because in those 4 years I developed a hatred for my job that I think few can match in magnitude.
I needed a fresh start, and by some stroke of unimaginable luck I managed to get it in the world’s largest asset management company.
I slept well the night before the big day (Monday), probably as a result of the bedroom acrobatics I exercised between 5am and noon on Sunday (thanks, Mike). I got up with a healthy amount of anxiety, bordering on first-day-of-school-what-will-the-kids-think-of-me syndrome. True to habit with all new endeavours or experiences, I had decided to get up a little earlier than I should just to walk around the City and feel more centred around the new space. You could call it marking territory – but instead of urine I identified points of interest: the nearest sushi restaurant, the nearest taxi rank, the nearest Ladurée etc. As I was walking around just before 8.30am I ran into Ian from Standard Chartered Bank, the Cedric from Kirkland & Ellis. That’s when I realised I needn’t really mark this territory further – it was already mine.
I can’t really sing, but if I could I would have bastardised Frank Sinatra with a rendition of “What a difference, a job makes”. There is almost nothing in common between my old and new job, and it seems that everything (with the exception of the facilities of my new building) is a stellar improvement. Without going into much detail as to how, friendly reader, here’s what’s in this story for you: sometimes you need to hit rock bottom to ricochet into space. Sometimes you have to insist on your success even when you see dead ends and technicalities. Knowing you deserve better and observing the mechanics of your life closely affects such mechanics and alters them by default.
