Sewing buttons onto a suit

Feeling unimpressive, having just sewed buttons onto a suit. Perhaps it is time to buy a new one!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the big day. Intended to be all prepared. Had a manicure and a haircut. Can't afford a new suit, so making do with some slightly elderly suits and instead bought some nice new shirts. Shaved most of the beard off, trimmed to a neat goatie. Felt all smart and prepared.

We went to see my brother in law, who runs a law firm. His first 3 questions were:

"You going to shave?" -- err, already did?

"Getting a haircut?" -- what? It's just been cut!

"Got a new suit?" -- hmm. This isn't going well.

From results to manicure

It's all very last minute.  Supposed to be starting my traineeship on Monday.  Results came in yesterday (Thursday) at 4.30pm.  Luckily for me passed the lot (even accountancy).  Looks like I will be starting as expected.

I'm not afraid to admit that I'm a bit nervous.  Why?  My firm has a great reputation. It's supposed to be a good firm.  People keep saying to me "they're a good firm".  What does that mean for a trainee?  I met some psychiatrists who do work for them, and they said "they're a good firm".  I asked what that means.  They said "they pay their bills on time".  Sounds professional to me.

I haven't had a lot of contact with them since the offer.  Way back then, after the interview, and the second interview I inveigled my way into, and they said to me "well done!", I asked if I'd be invited to the office that summer to get to know them.  They said just pick a start date, and we'll see you then.   More recently I asked them what my salary will be.  They (professionally) wrote back within a day or so.  I phoned them to arrange a start date and they said "ok, we'll just see you at 9.30 then".  Apart from that nothing.  Perhaps trainees are so lowly that we don't need contact, or a contract.  Perhaps they don't like talking to trainees.  Or perhaps they're just really relaxed.

Even before all of that, they had an interesting approach at the law fair.  Most firms have people saying "join us!  we're great".  Or "come to us, we love this firm!".  Or even now "This is a great firm.  We don't defer many trainees!"  (which is probably a lie). Instead my firm said "are you sure you want to come to us?  I mean, are you really sure?  You'll be doing litigation.  Are you sure you want to do litigation?".  It was either a test to see if I was really serious, or a bad case of self doubt (unusual for a law firm).  

So here I am, anxiously anticipating Day One.  I had wanted to buy a new suit, but the coffers are empty.  Well, not quite empty, more like in some serious deficit.  Hopefully I'll still make a nice impression in my old suit.  Instead I've opted for a haircut, beard trim and... a manicure.

My friend suggested that for this blog I don't use the firm's real name, because, well, that would be really stupid.  So I have all weekend to come up with a comedy name, which should be vaguely realistic.  Not forgetting of course that in any case it'll probably be really easy for anybody in the know to work out who I work for and where... Just look for the trainee with the manicured nails.