Congrats Ox! I have no doubt you'll be awesome. Though you calling yourself an official makes me wonder if in 5 years you'll be yelling "Papers please!" at random people.

A little over a year will make 4 years at my current employer, at which point all my stock options will be fully vested.

Yes, "paper please!" in a rather dashing (yet suspicious) leather uniform.

I'm 3 years into my current job. I think it's the longest i've ever worked anywhere. I'll put another year or two in still before moving on i think. Getting old!!

Thanks guys! And to be clear, that's just the technical denomination of people who are part of the permanent service over there. I don't usually introduce myself as an official. But maybe I should...

No hoops left to jump through as far as I can tell, just a final evaluation left to do (which I already completed my side of). And then I hope to be able to ride it into the sunset while hopefully also being able to make a few interesting professional moves along the way. I realise that doesn't sound very amibitious or interesting, but at 42 I shouldn't be taking too many professional risks anymore. If I wasn't already in a highly paid private sector job by now, it was unlikely to happen in the years to come considering my educational and professional background. So working at a place with steady employment, great benefits, even better pay, a lot of leave and potentially a very good pension seems like a wise choice. I'm just glad all the effort getting in is paying off.

Omg, 42? You're an old man! Dude, I'm 6 years older than you and contemplating my next career move. 40 is the new 25! Or something. At any rate, good luck on your review. I did my yearly review in December, but it'll be like March or April before my job quits screwing around and actually hands out promotions/raises. We'll see what happens with that. I'm cautiously hopeful for another big pay bump, though a promotion is highly unlikely.

Haha yeah I know it's not THAT old, but keep in mind that I'm far less employable than you, with a literature degree and a professional background in translation, admin and customer service.

In the meantime I passed the review and have officially received confirmation that I passed my probation period! Well, technically it says that I will have passed my probation period as of 16/02, even if they told me already a month beforehand. But we can chalk that up to the intricacies of a massive civil service administration. "Congratulations, you've passed your endless probation period...in a month...but you kind of already did."

Anyway, looking forward to years of frustration about the inflexible nature of the administration and other nonsense, but hopefully there will be some nice opportunities too (like moving countries, other positions, pay rises etc)

Praying for your pay rise Satsi!

Hey, congrats! Maybe next time I come to Europe you can show my around the beautiful Rinoxian countryside and shower me with stories of the benevolent dictator. May many bountiful pay raises be tossed in your general direction.

I'm hating my job, but c'est la vie.

... And in other news, a belgian man was admitted to the hospital after being struck in the face with a bag of coins that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Next up - the weather...

thanks guys!

Re: the pay rises, it's really quite insane. Apparently you automatically jump up on the pay scale every 2-3 years or so. A bad performance review can delay it, but only by a year or so. Even if you do a terrible job you'll still eventually get moved up on the scale. Not that I'm planning to be that person obviously, but sheesh. And we're talking considerable pay rises, like 300-400 euros net a month. I gotta admit that I'm still regularly weirded out and/or turned off by the way this old fashioned civil service system works, but I'm obviously not gonna say no to any pay rises either. And knowing myself I'll probably put in great work an improve our processes considerably, so I think I deserve it anyway.

Always welcome in Euroland Satsi! Maybe this time we'll both have money to do stuff beyond hitting the bars (to be fair, you had money last time too, but me not so much)

Yea, I'd love to come again. Unfortunately we have dogs that make it difficult... one with so much separation anxiety that he makes himself bloody sick (you don't want to know) and another that is a bit too aggressive with unknown dogs. Who knows. Besides, I really want to see South America, Australia, New Zealand and a number of places in Asia at some point.