The Times They Are a-Changing…

I spent the last two 48 hours in a whirlwind of emotions. Mostly good ones. Very good ones. But the me, that I am, also wondered if this really was happening. To me! Or if there was some kind of mistake or if there will be another shoe to drop. But mostly, I was feeling optimistic and thrilled and giddy and happy and validated and all those other wonderful things that come with… getting a new job! A job I really, really wanted to get. A job I think I might be good at and that I hope I will love. I know I will like it so much more than the job I’m doing right now.

I GOT THE JOB!

Yes, I was thinking (and probably talking and feeling) in CAPS for the last two days. A tiny part of me (the pessemistic one) still wonders if it’s too soon to really announce it and to celebrate it, because I haven’t signed a contract yet and I didn’t get anything in paper yet to confirm that they want to hire me… (ME!, sorry, I really haven’t quite wrapped my head around it) … but I’ve got phone calls from two of the people in charge of the hiring process. The first one (well, I actually called him to finally find out what they decided) told me that they’d like to offer me the job (to which I immediately confirmed that I’d love to accept the offer) and that the second person was supposed to call me about it.
The second person (who will be my boss or at least one of them, I still have to figure out who is in charge of what) called me about an hour later and by then already had heard that I’d accepted the offer and he sounded really delighted and happy to get me on his team. He had already seemed like a friendly and uncomplicated person during the job interview, but that phone call just confirmed it. I think he’ll be a nice boss to work for. When I got home that day I saw that he had  left a message on my answering machine before he called me on my cell phone. I haven’t deleted the message yet and probably won’t for a while. It’s so freaking nice to listen to it again and again.

The fact that I’m so delighted about this opportunity and only a tiny part of me sometimes wonders if it’s a mistake, proves to me that it was the absolutely right decision. And this job application was actually just supposed to be a first trial run for testing the waters. Which makes this all the more SPECTACULAR.
Unlike my mother or my coworker I don’t even worry about the fact, that it’s only a two-years-contract. For one, because it’s in a field that I always wanted to work in and thus I think it’s just perfect to have the chance to get the experience. And I also am rather confident that this experience will help me find another job in that field or even at the same employer. Who knows what will happen in those two years…?

Anyway, I won’t share too many details on this blog (yet or maybe ever, because I’ve always been a bit paranoid about that kind of stuff getting online), but here are a few. The paperwork will take about two more weeks but I already let the bosses of my two current jobs know that I want to stop working for them. They understood it, because they know that I don’t want to be stuck on these current jobs and they were actually happy for me that it worked out so fast. There will be some hassle over the summer to help them find a replacement and to show the ropes to the new guy/girl in my job. It’s planned to leave the current jobs at the end of August and start working at the new one on 1 September. Well, the 3rd actually, because the first is a Saturday :-)

The two biggest changes: I will be working full-time, which is 39hours/week (instead of the 25h in job1 / 5h in job2 I’m doing now) and I will have to buy a car (my first one!), because using public transport to get to the office and back home would mean at least 3.5 hours every day. With the reduced working hours in my current job it was ok that it took me about 2.5 hours every day to get there and back, because traffic and parking wouldn’t have taken much less time in the morning. The new office is a 45 minutes drive away, which is still 1.5 hours of commute, but it’s more flexible of course, because I don’t have to schedule my commute around train schedules.
The point is: I will need a car. And as I will drive around 30.000 km/year with it I hesitate to buy a used one for several reasons. I would most probably have to spend the amount I save buying a used car (instead of a new one) for repairs or replacing parts on that used car with an additional 30.000 km. I also definitely want to buy a car fuelled with LPG / Autogas, because that will save a lot of money with the mileage I’ll go each year. Autogas is much cheaper than petrol in Germany, because it has a much lower fuel tax and it has been on the rise on Germany in the last few years (I don’t know why the wikipedia article doesn’t have a section about Germany).
There are quite a few used cars available which have been converted to autogas/bi-fuel, but as I’m planning to drive this car for a while I’d prefer to have the car come manufactured for auto-gas and not have to deal with any complications there might be with a car which has only be converted to it later. And if for some reasons I won’t need the car after the two years of my contract, I think I might get a better deal for 2-year old car than for a then 6-8 year old one.

So besides being giddy about getting the job, I spent a lot of time over the last two days trying to figure out what kind of car I’d like to buy, which car I could afford to buy and especially how to pay for it. The first two questions were rather easy, the last one still has to be figured out in detail, once I will have actually decided to buy/order one specific car. But I already know that even though I will earn more money with the new job I most probably will have to live on a smaller budget in the future, because I will have to pay back a car loan. I’ve got some savings, but not nearly enough, because I had and still will have to pay for my 2nd university education (which helped a lot in getting this job, so that’s the right investment). My mom will lend me some money and Bro3 offered to lend me some as well, but I’ll also still need to get a small loan from a bank. And then will have to pay them all off again. Plus the extra money I will have to spend on the car: insurance, tax, gas etc.
So basically my financial situation won’t improve with this new job, at least not on first sight. But even though I definitely will have less money to spend (on vacations or gadgets) I’m confident that I will enjoy this job so much more than the current one and that this will make up for any kind of financial shortage. Plus: I will be working more hours, so I won’t have all that much time to spend the money anyway ;-) And I won’t waste the money but invest it in a car and get an equivalent value for it. So my mood is all still…

YAY!

For the new job and the many, many things that will change in my life. And yay for a probably brand-new car in the near future. There is so much exciting stuff to do now and in the next few weeks.