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Pre-relocation. London side.
174 days. The number of days that have passed since I last posted a blog update. During that time, a lot has happened including turning twenty-nine. As I contemplate retirement and with it hearing aids, Zimmer frames and taking 10 minutes to usher food from my fork to my mouth, I felt it was the right time to prove I’m not completely gone by updating this blog.
Words that do not work in the USA
It has now been over a year, 14 months infact, since I moved to New York. During that time there have been plenty of parades, bags of bagels, several trips to Seattle, winters to freeze fountains, a collection of key incidents and various visitors (Simon, Jo, Parents,Axelle and Rich). One of the things I haven’t touched on in this blog, but will be especially familiar to those who know me over here, the language barrier. Those who have traveled or lived abroad will be familiar with the importance of learning a new language and how it can be a barrier at first.
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A little slow on the updates recently, due to travel and general busyness but it’s time to wrap up my time in London. Last weekend marked the 3 month mark to the day that I moved to New York and it’s about time I started sharing some American anecdotes. My final weeks (sounds a little ultimate right?), in the UK were mostly spent seeing people and getting last minute things sorted..
I arrived back in the UK on the 12th May, which meant there was just over a month left until my departure..pending my VISA. Enough time to fit in several leaving do’s and a few other things as well..
The day I landed I had agreed with a couple of lads from work to and watch Ledley King’s testionial (Spurs vs Spurs Legends) at White Hart Lane. I wasn’t sure at one point whether this was a good idea, I only had an hour or two nap when I landed before coming into work and hadn’t slept on the plane. However with the help of coffee I made it through and the match itself was good fun with all the players and referee taking it very light highted. Edgar Davids and Howard Webb were the highlights..
Aside from all this fun was the more laborious but, more important, VISA application. The company had a group of lawyers who deal with all the employee transfers between offices so there was plenty of paperwork that had to be done with them. As part of the VISA you have to prove you have skills/experience/knowledge which cannot be fulfilled by someone in the states. Then a description of your current duties and various other pieces of information. The process is definitely made easier by being a WPP employee, since the company certainly has processes in place for transferring employees. Still the paperwork was hefty..
I’ve just been told to cut to the chase and start blogging about New York rather than events leading up to it. However, I still feel there are some stories left to tell and it’s the journey to New York that inspired me to start a blog. The point the people/persons made was that I should blog about New York while it’s fresh in my mind. Yet when people write autobiographies do they not recall historical events? You can also follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram for ‘live’ updates while I finish blogging about how I got to New York. Things should start to get interesting now though.
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Being without internet in my apartment means I’m having to write this blogpost from the office, however I’ve got the pick of the meeting rooms so am able to sit in a comfortable chair with the window open and views of the Empire State Building it could be worse. Especially after having just watched Man Utd win their second match on tour. However I don’t want to jump ahead of time, so more on the situation at present in a later post.
Having expressed my interest to my manager of going for the New York job, I then had to formally tell HR I would like to apply for the position. From that point until I received my offer the situation was in New York and global recruitment departments hands.
So the next step was to speak to the global team about the role and steps required. While this was all happening in work the benefit of finally living where I wanted in the city was paying off.
Continue readingA good place to start my second post will be to drop back to January where things really kicked off.
I had been aware of a potential opportunity in New York for a while thanks to Judy, my now manager in NY and ex-colleague from London, with her regular nudges about how great New York is. I had never taken the idea particularly seriously though – I loved London, enjoyed my job had a good bunch of friends etc.
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London to New York journey
Yesterday afternoon, 13.86 days since I had landed in JFK and after many suggestions and much encouragement (sorry fellow Analysts I can’t exactly quantify this) I registered what was to be my blog – www.notthatsamfox.com. Before I left London I was told by several people I should start a blog and it’s happened too since I’ve been in New York. Given the journey and challenges it took to get it here and the subsequent allied stories it seemed like a good idea to document this. To that note, this is at least the initial purpose of the blog; to share, record and recall some of the key moments in moving from London to New York. If all goes to plan and I still have time and patience for writing after documenting the journey itself, I will continue to share some of the stories post-arrival. Now the initial introductions are out of the way, this first post is also going to explain some of the expected and already asked questions.
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