The Subject of Work

In researching the feasibility of a return to Edinburgh, I was heavily influenced by the number and variety of jobs of the sort I'm interested in. With 20 years as a legal secretary and paralegal specializing in family law, personal injury and medical negligence, I had a lot of experience working with people who were unhappy and stressed. This led me to work in British Columbia's welfare system, where the unhappiness and stress levels of the clients greatly surpassed anything I'd encountered before. The daily verbal abuse was something I had to get used to pretty quickly and learn not to take personally. My job was to interview applicants for welfare to assess their eligibility and also to manage a huge caseload of people already on the system and try to help them financially and emotionally.

The job was crisis-driven, relentlessly busy and emotionally draining, and I'd leave the office most nights feeling like a wrung-out floor cloth. But I adored it and felt I'd been born to do this sort of work. It had all the elements I needed for job satisfaction: helping people sort out their lives (ie bossing them about) and succeeding with a handful, learning something new every day, working with mostly like-minded people, autonomy, working all the time with complex legislation and policy, enough of a balance between unpredictability and routine. And the stories I and my co-workers collected from our dealings with all sorts of people were priceless - there was never a dull moment. I actually looked forward to going to work.

After just four years, though, the daily grind of dealing with emergencies, listening to horrifying, tragic stories and a growing indifference to the abuse and violence in the office by many of the clients, I burned out and began to lose my compassion. I moved to another department to investigate welfare fraud and spent nearly six years trying to take back the money I'd prevously handed out. I was never passionate about this job and, most of the time, didn't actually like it much. It wasn't in me to penalize people and I never felt I was much good at it - it just wasn't the right fit for me. Fortunately, I worked with a wonderful group of people, which alleviated some of my discontent and left me with a number of friends I hope to keep.

This decade of working with a segment of society that most of us try to avoid left me with a soft spot for drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes and homeless people. It also provided me with excellent skills in dealing with a range of people in all kinds of different situations. When my research of job opportunities in Scotland yielded information indicating a seriously strong social services network, I was hopeful about the possibility of finding work similar to my early days as a welfare worker. Recent legislation imposing a mandate for Scottish municipalities to provide adequate housing for all residents seemed promising in relation to my interest in working with homeless people and, after copious research, I decided I'd like to work as a housing officer.

About two weeks after my arrival here, I interviewed for and was offered a job as a housing officer with the City of Edinburgh Council. I was delighted, even though the job had nothing to do with homeless people. It wasn't the "helping" job I'd had in mind and I'd be dealing mostly with hostile people, but thought this could lead to something more to my liking. I was to manage a caseload of 150 people with rent arrears, pursuing repayment and taking them to court if necessary. The job was in one of Edinburgh's less savoury areas - a group of neighbourhoods with a total population of 4,500, consisting entirely of housing schemes thrown up in a hurry by the Council in the 1950's and 60's to rehouse people displaced by demolition of old town tenements. A sort of slum clearance, if you like, which begat a different kind of slum after several years. Anyway, I ended up turning down the offer because they were going to start me at the bottom of the pay grid, which wasn't enough for me to live on.

So here I am, five months later, still looking for the job that's right for me. I've spent an average of 8 - 10 hours a week, every week (except between Christmas and New Year) slogging through thousands of jobs on various websites and in newspapers, sending off my CV or filling out online application forms. I've spoken to employers at recruitment fairs, registered with 15 or 20 agencies, sent letters and CV's to targeted employers on spec, and have lost count of the jobs applied and interviewed for. Most of the interviews were favourable but sometimes the job wasn't as interesting as its description, many of them didn't pay enough (Edinburgh's cost of living is very high) and sometimes I simply didn't get the job.

I decided early on to also pursue Plan B, which was to temp as a legal secretary. Visits to agencies a year before I moved here had led me to believe this would be no problem. My CV was forwarded to a variety of law firms, trying to sell me as a paralegal or secretary. No takers. Almost all the firms declined to meet me because I have no Scots law experience. The only interview I did get was for a litigation secretary and, after about 20 minutes, the lawyer interviewing me said I was over-qualified and he didn't think I'd stay with the job.

It was coming up to Christmas so I decided to apply for seasonal work with the post office and Marks & Spencer. Eight weeks after my arrival, I got my first offer - 4 hours taking minutes at a market research group meeting. A couple of days after that, I took a one-week position as a receptionist in a law firm for not very much money. After two days, I was asked to step into a PA position for one of the partners to cover a 7-week leave, with a substantial pay raise. Relief!

And that's how I ended up working at one of Edinburgh's top four law firms for over three months, half of it in corporate finance and the other half in property - two areas in which I had absolutely no experience. The work itself was pretty dreadful but I loved the firm and the people I was working with. I finished on Friday and start a temp job at another firm on Monday doing litigation and family law, but I'm sad to leave the firm and the friends I've made there.

Next time, I'll make up for this dreary post and entertain you with snippets about all my new friends at Firm #1, but will mention no names. Hint: you guys thought my swearing was legendary; I'll introduce you to someone whose use of colourful language puts mine to shame. You'll meet the duet who break into song while hammering away at their computers to meet a deadline, and the rosy-cheeked, fresh-faced child lawyers burning the candle at both ends and still finding time to go to the pub.

Stay tuned.