Lucky Me

People often tell me that I'm lucky. I'm starting to believe it may be true. Things just kind of work out for me. I have a completely laid back attitude to life - I very rarely get stressed or worry about things. I take the odd risk now and again and it near enough always works out well.

Take this emigrating lark for instance. After selling our house and paying off our large mortgage we didn't actually come here with much money at all. We had no jobs lined up and no assets to speak of. We new that without some income it wouldn't be long before we'd start to find ourselves in dire straits. Yet within just 4 weeks we both now have good jobs, we quickly moved into a nice rental in a nice area, even though many others on BritishExpats.com are reporting that they're finding it a nightmare. We've sorted out a car, and a school for Lauren with pre-school and holidays child care. And when it comes to my job things couldn't have worked out better.

I came out of work today, hopped on the CityCat, and as I was cruising down the Brisbane River slipping quietly under the Cook Bridge passing the riverside mansions on either side, watching the sun set over the city, I couldn't help but smile.

Normally with contracts, they're paying a large day rate so they expect blood in return. They usually set deliverables and expect you to quickly deliver, with very little supervision and certainly no training. They expect you to provide the skills that they are missing.

In this case, I've been given a project which is highly technical, involving systems that I have very little experience with, and certainly no 'hands-on' experience, even though I was completely honest with them in the interview and told them that the technical side of the project was outside my expertise. And yet they're completely fine with it. They're providing me with full training, which will enable me to add a skill to my CV that's extremely sought after in Brisbane, and for which if I was to take a professional course to learn would cost me $$$$, and all they expect in return is a little help with documentation and operational procedures.

I've even been lucky with the documentation. The project mirrors another project which has already been completed, and for which full documentation has already been produced. All I really need to do is amend the existing documentation to relate to the new solution. I'm struggling to see what's in it for them. OK, I will be expected to take charge of the solution for two weeks in August while the guy I'm shadowing is on leave, but 6 weeks is more than long enough for me to be fully up to speed with the technical side. It feels like they just want to keep me on their books. Fine by me!

I've felt that guilty at work today being paid to simply learn new skills that I even offered to make contributions that aren't in the project plan - mainly documentation that I would expect if I was the client. Stuff they hadn't thought of. They seemed pleased with that so maybe it might delay them coming to the realisation that they don't in fact need me.

The location where I'm working couldn't be better (unless of course I could work from home). I'm working out of the client site in one of the big skyscrapers overlooking the river, right across from Eagle Street Pier, and only a 2 minute walk from the ferry terminal.

This contract might only last a few weeks before I'm out of work again but while it does I'm certainly going to make the most of it.