Starting something new

After finishing school and studying in university for 4 years I had to find a job. Ideally I was supposed to be looking for one during my master degree but unfortunately life does not go as planned. With the dissertation, exams and all of the assignments I could only get to apply to 3 jobs, obviously with no reply. Since I am from Cyprus and my studies were in the UK I had to come back home to apply from here for jobs, which can be hard.

My 4 years in university were the best years of my life, meeting new people, travelling, going out and meeting someone special. I felt free and independent even if I was not the one that was actually paying for those expenses.

Having to go back to live with my family whithout knowing if I could ever go back to the UK since I needed to find a job was really scary. I didn't feel like i really belong there. I have obviously lived there most of my life there and I had all my family and a few great friends but when I was on my studies I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted to.

It just wasn't the same.

After about four to five months of being back home I to collaborate with my sister and create a website for a family friend, which was what my degree was on. After adding that to my CV and updating it from all recruitment websites I started getting more interest from recruiters to get me jobs. I managed to pass all the tests that come before an actual interview for two different jobs and they asked me to go to England for the interview.

This was a really scary time for me since I was heading abroad again for some interviews that might not even end up being my future job. I could head all the way there and end up having to go back home if none of them work out. But if I do not take the risk I could stay back home unhappy and asking the big What If. Thanks to my amazing parents I managed to get on plane booked an air-bnb and give this a go.

I never had an interview before so preparing was key. Feelling as prepared as you can be I headed to my first interview. Dressed in my blazer I was nervous but ready. My interview was divided into two sections. One was with the head of the department which was an overview of the job and some basic questions about me and the other part was some programming tests from the senior developer. At the end of the tests they had some discussions and then the head of the department came back and offered me the job. I was shocked since this was my first ever interview and since I was not expecting an answer straigh away but I was also a bit hesitent since I also had another interview the day later so I asked to come back to them on the offer.

The next day I head to the second interview and the vibe was completely different. This job was a small company, only a few people and everyone was dressed really casually. They also took me to a coffee shop right next to the office for the actual interview. They started by asking some work related questions but then asking more random questions like what is your favourite book or about my hobbies which I guess can show a lot about a person but was not what I was prepared for. This company told me they would get back to me and did not end up giving me the job.

I quickly accepted the offer from the first company and I had a bit less than a month to start working and find a place to stay since I only had a few more days left at my current air-bnb. Again to show how amazing my parents are, my mum managed to get a plane a few days later and came to help me do an apartment hanting. I visited a few places before my mum came but nothing was really worth the money or was what I was looking for. I still had a friend from my university that was staying in an apartment not too far from that job so when my mum joined me we went to visit that place and there was only one flat left. We went in to check it and we both knew straight away that it was the one. And yeah that sounds a bit dramatic like is there a place that makes you straigh away know that that is where you want to stay, yeah there is. The price was perfect, it was a studio but there was an upstairs area where the bed and dresser was and that made the rest of the flat so much bigger than what it was.

Now all that was left was to start my new job.