Timing is everything

In my last post, I mentioned merit pools. I only realised that these were a thing when I started working in the public service.

Basically, if you apply for a job, and you are considered suitable for recruitment, but you're not the top ranked candidate, you can be placed in a merit pool. This means that, for 18 months from date of the job listing, you can be offered a job on the back of that recruitment process.

This is why I sometimes apply for jobs - even if it isn't the best time to be changing jobs. If it's something I see myself doing in the next 18 months, then it's worth putting in the application now, and if I don't get it, there's a chance that, out of nowhere, when I least expect it, I'll get a call asking me if I'm interested in that job.

Sometimes it never happens. Sometimes it happens when I've just started a new job and I have to turn them down. And, in some cases, it happens *just* on the same day that I write a blog post about needing to start actively job-hunting.

The paperwork is done. I start my new job on the 1 July.