Becoming a Public Servant

Life is never boring in the Cheesy household. After a somewhat unexpected loss of income at the beginning of the year, I have an update! I’ve got a new job, and one as a public servant! I bet you did not see that one coming. Me neither! Why on earth am I becoming a Public Servant? Let’s review, shall we?

How a FIREd Brain works…

Having a nice stack of cash (and investments) makes you review your career a bit differently, In my humble opinion. Whereas in the beginning of our careers we would focus more on money and career opportunities, this slowly changed over time.

Once we started our FIRE journey had a good safety net, we both decided to only take jobs if we thought they were fun, rewarding and flexible (focusing less on the compensation). Not staying in a job that was no longer fun or rewarding also got added to the mix later in our careers (after some bad experiences). Working part-time (32 hours, ideally less) rather than 40+, is now also strongly preferred. The work-life balance got more important and shifted towards more time (life), and less towards salary and careers (work).

The last position I held was fun most of the time, but not nearly as much as it should have been. The project was pretty cool, but that alone cannot keep the job from staying fun. Once they told me I was going to be let go, as I was too expensive, I felt it was time for a major overhaul. As I still have not figured out what I want to do when I grow up (I’m already quickly trending towards the mid forties), I have to keep trying new things to find that out.

New Everything!

So, money is not the main driver anymore, but new learning opportunities, free time and flexibility (amongst other things) are! I had never worked for the government, and frankly I always have been fascinated by it (because I have not experienced it). I do have several friends (Hello Geldnerd!) that are public servants, so I have some second hand knowledge how the government and it’s employees operate. And when you want a good work-life balance, it is a great employer!

When a vacancy landed on the website that was near where we live, for 32 hours/week, in a technical role with lot’s of interfaces, but with limited overlap to what I would normally do, I figured why not give that a go! If succesful, it would be very interesting, a great learning experience and pretty much every single facet of the job would be new. In short, one heck of a learning curve to dive into. What’s not to like?! So I gave it a shot. Two phone calls, 2 interviews and one negotiation meeting later, and I got the job! Super excited to be honest, more than with the previous jobs/projects I did.

And as a bonus, the pay is not even that bad! Well okay, our investments provide about the same net monthly income, but still. Nothing to complain about.

Cycling to work

Compared to the last few jobs I did, this one is relatively close to home. Which means that for the first time in years I can actually cycle to work. No traffic jams, not frustrated drivers, just me and a bicycle. Love it! Considering the distance is about 21km, some (electrical) support is useful to not arrive at the office soaking wet from sweat. Initially I will be using an regular electric bike to get to work, but I hope to upgrade to a speed pedelec (top speed 45km/h) after a few months (so I can use all the government incentives to buy one on the cheap). I might also be using my road bike, assuming I can take a shower at the office. But this was the one thing I forgot to ask during the interviews…

For more good news, I only have to cycle to the office about 2 days per week. The other two will be done from home. Which is why I’m currently feeling a bit of pressure to finish the money pit. Yes, nearly 2 year after we bought the place, we might actually get it finished!

In short, life is good, interesting and exciting. Fun times ahead, including another meetup!

How is your life going?