flyingblogspot.com (tales from urban dilettantia)

After much furious thought, this morning, I declined the offer of a year in Moscow The decision wasn’t the product of any single large factor, but rather of the aggregate of a number of medium-sized things. Here are some of the things:

1. HR fail: Our HR division is understaffed, under-resourced and, in my opinion, unlikely to ever be a great source of drama-free support. Organsing a teleconference was an ordeal. Clarifying the terms of the secondment and costs to be paid back was a pain. Pro-forma contracts were not available for to be viewed before I gave a verbal decision. These things, and the stories of every other person who has been seconded by Large Accounting Firm, gave me little confidence in the process. Also, in contrast to firms in the Oil & Gas sector, Large Accounting Firm treats secondments as a personal favour to the secondee and does not pay a living allowance.

2. Opportunity: I work for people who keep telling me this is a Great Opportunity. And it is. Thing is, I’m at a point in my life where taking this opportunity means giving up other opportunities here. Launching secret map project software. Making a film. Breaking into the local art scene. My life is not my job at Large Accounting Firm, and the more I look at what I’m building here, the more I realise that.

3. Travel: I have UK citizenship. I can work in the EU any time I want. On my terms, at a time I choose.

4. My support network: It’s been a tough couple of years. A really tough couple of years. And out of it, I’ve grown an amazing network of people I love around me. And, as one of my workmates said yesterday, ‘in your place, I’d want my friends and family around me’.

5. Career: Even if my life were all about my job at Large Accounting Firm, my interests run very much towards energy policy & sustainability. Russia lags Australia significantly in this area, and a year there would be a year removed from what I really want to be doing.

6. Proving Things: I have decided that I can be the sort of person who Has Adventures and Does Interesting Things without saying ‘yes’ indiscriminately to every single thing that scares me. I know I could do the year in Moscow if I wanted to; I don’t need to say yes and go do it just to prove I’m big, resilient and brave. I am big, resilient and brave anyway!

7. I have decided I am too old for ‘because Mum doesn’t want me to’ to be a good reason for doing something.

There are all kinds of smaller reasons too, but I these are some of the weightier ones. I am building a life I love; renovating a house and garden I adore and throwing everything I have at growing my tiny, ridiculous, parochial, sunshiney, isolated little city into somewhere better to be. And I am going to spend 2011 doing more of just that.

As anyone who follows me on Twitter has no doubt already realised, I’ve just had a particularly interesting conversation with one of my bosses.

Large Accounting Firm’s Moscow office has been trying to get a Perth secondment for a young woman in their team, and to convince us to take her, they’ve offered to cover the costs for taking one of our team to Moscow for twelve months for a reciprocal secondment.

There aren’t any additional details at the moment – it’s all very uncertain and I’ve just been asked to consider whether I’m interested over the next couple of days and to let my boss know. My main concerns are the amount of support I’ll get from Large Accounting Firm (generally they seem to pay for a couple of weeks’ hotel accommodation while you sort out living arrangements, and you’re expected to take care of yourself to a large degree), and whether I’ll be completely useless to the Moscow team given that I can’t even read the Cyrillic alphabet.

Can anyone put me in touch with a professional Aussie (or other English-speaking) woman who has lived and worked in Moscow? I’d really like to talk to someone who has been through a similar experience.

It’s looking like it has all the potential for adventure. Eep.