Updating my CV

Thursday marks the official start of my new role, although you could argue I’ve been doing it part time over the last few months anyway.  My time as a service manager has ended, with this particular team after five years.

I have been fortunate over the last 20 years with the same employer to have had a variety of roles that have stretched me, challenged me, made use of my skills and knowledge.  I have been able to experience project management and service management, working in back office functions, and being very connected to clinical environments.  I have met a multitude of people from all sorts of different departments along the way.  I understand how things work around the organisation and, on most occasions, who to talk to, to get things done.

I have moved back into a project management role, which is much more up my street.  Process, structure, planned activity, and less people management are things I enjoy and am reasonably good at. 

As with most new roles, particularly in the same organisation, you start doing the work before you’ve actually officially started the role.  I have been quite deliberate in maintaining connection with my department as much as has been appropriate over the last few months, but can now take a step back and focus on my new tasks fully.  I will still need to do some things for my, now former team, as their structure gets sorted out and accesses to various systems are moved around.  Until someone is in post I’ll still need to authorise some things to help them out. 

On my last official day as their manager, I went over to see the team and deliver several tubs of chocolates for them as a thank you to them for their hard work and support over the years.  In return I was given a card and bunch of flowers.  It’s hard to know what to do when I haven’t been around them much over the last few months and given the projects that I’m involved in will impact on them, I’ll still be seeing them a fair bit as that progresses. 

I have now officially changed my email signature, and changed my details on my social media profiles.  It does feel a bit odd though, like cutting those apron strings.  I can legitimately not get involved in staffing or service issues and pass people on to others to deal with things that would only take me a few seconds to deal with probably. 

I have also updated my CV, which I do on a regular basis, just in case.  When I first started in the NHS 20 years ago, almost to the day, I started life as a Project Administrator at a Band 2. I did a six year stint as Research & Development Administrator before returning to the same project I started on but now as an Assistant Project manager, and finally as Acting Project Support Manager at the end of that project.  Then came my first foray into service management.  Not an easy one, going straight into Domestic Services, managing a team of over 250 staff who worked 24/7 and a £5.5m budget. I did that for five years before getting itchy feet and needing to move into a different service, where I became Health Records Manager with a smaller team of about 65 staff, who only worked Monday to Friday.  Alongside that latter role, I also supported the Document Ratification Group as Deputy Chair.  It was in December 2020 that I was first seconded back into more of project role, whilst still keeping an overview of the Health Records team, before the role I am now embarking on fully became available.

So as I move into a new year, I have a new role to get my teeth into.  I’m looking forward to the challenge.