The right job at the wrong time
My blog has been a bit quiet of late...have had a few posts in my head, but exam study has kept me from putting them down on 'paper'. So there might be a few blogs from me in the next little while...will try to stagger them haha.
I'm not sure how many of you reading this have been offered what appeared to be an amazing opportunity to forward your career or the perfect job or the opportunity for an amazing holiday...or any other opportunity that just seemed too good to be true...and then had to turn it down. It's a pretty foreign concept...most of us I think would jump at the chance to take that perfect or amazing opportunity. But recently that is just what I recently had to do.
In the midst of studying for a very important exam and trying to juggle work and family, I have also been trying to apply for and obtain a job for next year. Having unfortunately missed out on an interview for the Paediatric Surgical Training Program this year by 0.24 of a mark, I had been gaining advice from many sources as to how best to improve my chances for next year. Much of the advice centred around looking at moving interstate, in order to gain more experience and new Referees. I therefore applied for jobs in NSW at the very last minute just to see what would happen. It was a huge surprise to me to actually get an interview for both Sydney Children's and Westmead Children's hospitals!! I went to Sydney for the Westmead interview, and came out of the interview feeling that I didn't have much chance of getting the job, as they outright told me they were looking for someone with more experience. With that in mind, I was grateful to accept a job at Gold Coast again for next year and to settle down and focus on my exam study. I assumed that if I did get offered a job at Westmead it would be a miracle that I could not afford to turn down.
I was therefore in absolute shock and delight when I received an email to say that I had been offered the job at Westmead!! I have to admit that I wanted to say yes there and then!! While it would be a hard move for my family, we had discussed prior how it might work and had a few plans should the very unlikely opportunity arise. However, we have had one other small miracle in our lives recently (material for another soon to come blog), which meant that I would need to actually start that new job on maternity leave. We therefore worked out that the only way we could actually afford to take the job would be if they honoured my time at Queensland Health and could give me paid maternity leave. We prayed about it and I really thought that, given all of the miracles that had already happened, that they would come through.
However, they were unable to pay me maternity leave. That would mean 4 months with no pay, and 4 months of stress when we should be celebrating new life in our family. And so I had to make the gut wrenching and very foreign decision to decline what had appeared to me to be the perfect opportunity for next year, for my career and for my life. It would have been an amazing opportunity. Instead of having to go back to adult surgery, I would have been spending the entire year in Paediatric surgery. I would be working under new bosses, with new potential opportunities for references, more experience and new research opportunities. At one point through all of this, my husband said to me, "Maybe you have been given this opportunity to say no to". It seems like a ludicrous idea, and yet that is just what I had to do. It was, for me, the right job at the wrong time.
The reality is, this child has come to us at this time, and I believe that it is an amazing gift from God, and His timing is perfect. It stands to reason then, that not being able to take this job was also God's timing. As I have prayed about it, I have had an amazing sense of peace about this decision, as strange as it all sounds. I don't know what tomorrow holds, let alone next year. I don't know why I was offered this opportunity and had to turn it down. I don't know if I will ever get onto Paediatric surgery, as strongly as I feel about that being my path. But I do know that God knows, that He has a plan and that it is good.
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future". Jeremiah 29:11
I'm not sure how many of you reading this have been offered what appeared to be an amazing opportunity to forward your career or the perfect job or the opportunity for an amazing holiday...or any other opportunity that just seemed too good to be true...and then had to turn it down. It's a pretty foreign concept...most of us I think would jump at the chance to take that perfect or amazing opportunity. But recently that is just what I recently had to do.
In the midst of studying for a very important exam and trying to juggle work and family, I have also been trying to apply for and obtain a job for next year. Having unfortunately missed out on an interview for the Paediatric Surgical Training Program this year by 0.24 of a mark, I had been gaining advice from many sources as to how best to improve my chances for next year. Much of the advice centred around looking at moving interstate, in order to gain more experience and new Referees. I therefore applied for jobs in NSW at the very last minute just to see what would happen. It was a huge surprise to me to actually get an interview for both Sydney Children's and Westmead Children's hospitals!! I went to Sydney for the Westmead interview, and came out of the interview feeling that I didn't have much chance of getting the job, as they outright told me they were looking for someone with more experience. With that in mind, I was grateful to accept a job at Gold Coast again for next year and to settle down and focus on my exam study. I assumed that if I did get offered a job at Westmead it would be a miracle that I could not afford to turn down.
I was therefore in absolute shock and delight when I received an email to say that I had been offered the job at Westmead!! I have to admit that I wanted to say yes there and then!! While it would be a hard move for my family, we had discussed prior how it might work and had a few plans should the very unlikely opportunity arise. However, we have had one other small miracle in our lives recently (material for another soon to come blog), which meant that I would need to actually start that new job on maternity leave. We therefore worked out that the only way we could actually afford to take the job would be if they honoured my time at Queensland Health and could give me paid maternity leave. We prayed about it and I really thought that, given all of the miracles that had already happened, that they would come through.
However, they were unable to pay me maternity leave. That would mean 4 months with no pay, and 4 months of stress when we should be celebrating new life in our family. And so I had to make the gut wrenching and very foreign decision to decline what had appeared to me to be the perfect opportunity for next year, for my career and for my life. It would have been an amazing opportunity. Instead of having to go back to adult surgery, I would have been spending the entire year in Paediatric surgery. I would be working under new bosses, with new potential opportunities for references, more experience and new research opportunities. At one point through all of this, my husband said to me, "Maybe you have been given this opportunity to say no to". It seems like a ludicrous idea, and yet that is just what I had to do. It was, for me, the right job at the wrong time.
The reality is, this child has come to us at this time, and I believe that it is an amazing gift from God, and His timing is perfect. It stands to reason then, that not being able to take this job was also God's timing. As I have prayed about it, I have had an amazing sense of peace about this decision, as strange as it all sounds. I don't know what tomorrow holds, let alone next year. I don't know why I was offered this opportunity and had to turn it down. I don't know if I will ever get onto Paediatric surgery, as strongly as I feel about that being my path. But I do know that God knows, that He has a plan and that it is good.
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future". Jeremiah 29:11
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