Seasons of Reflection

This time of year, has always been a time where I reflect, growing up this was around the time I would be starting a new school year, at university this was the beginning of the first semester and a little over 2 years ago was when I moved from a small village up in Scotland to London. It also happens to be my birthday in a few days so not only am I reflecting on a year at distriBind but also the last few years of my life and how far I have come.

I was born just outside London and moved up to Scotland when I was 4 however my mum continued to work down here and most summers were spent visiting London, so it always felt very familiar and as I grew up I knew I wanted to come back and experience London for myself. After graduating in June 2021, I was determined to go to London and although the pandemic hadn’t made university or finding a job afterwards easy, I eventually got a job offer to move to London a few months after graduating. Moving to London was definitely a challenge and if you’ve ever tried to find somewhere to live when you’re 500 miles away you’ll understand how stressful it can be. Nevertheless, after packing up my life into a few boxes and lots of tears and saying goodbye to friends and family I managed it, however, I will definitely think twice before taking a 12-hour overnight bus again!  

My first year in London had its ups and downs, after a few months I realised the job I was in really wasn’t for me and found myself becoming increasingly miserable at the thought of going to work every day. After 9 months I said enough is enough and made the decision to hand in my notice. I spent the next month or so enjoying the London summer (as much as I could without air conditioning) while applying for jobs. This turned out to be a lot less smooth sailing than I’d thought it would be. Turns out, trying to completely change industry without any experience isn’t a walk in the park and after 2 months and not much luck I found myself packing everything up into storage and heading back up to Scotland. With no job and no place to live I really thought the London chapter of my life was over and started to come to terms with the idea maybe London was never meant to be.

Looking at it now I like to think it shows resilience and maybe some would say it was fate but at the time I think it probably looked more the opposite. After applying for the role at distriBind through LinkedIn and having heard nothing I just assumed they weren’t interested but after Dave reached out on LinkedIn, I realised all the emails from Ksenia had been going straight to my spam and then when the interview came around I completely forgot about it until about 15 minutes before when I got a reminder on my phone! I also recently found out that Dave had initially binned my cv (but I’ll assume this was a complete accident and not my previous recruitment experience scaring him off). Even after I somehow managed to convince them to take a chance on me I had challenges, I had nowhere to live and my train to London was cancelled twice.

Redefining Work at a Start-Up

I really didn’t know what to expect joining a start-up and was nervous I would find myself in the same place as before but that has not been the case and it has been nothing like what I could have expected, looking forward to going to work was definitely something I wasn’t even sure was possible. It has easily been the most challenging thing I have done and going to university during a pandemic definitely sets that standard high but it has also been so much more rewarding than I thought it could be. Getting the opportunity to travel to New York for work and speak at a conference in front of industry experts definitely wasn’t on my list of things I would be doing this year nor was listening to Dave and Charlie’s questionable karaoke singing in the taxi after an 8-hour flight! Even on a day-to-day seeing the work I do make a difference and celebrating wins no matter how big or small is hugely rewarding.  

After joining distriBind as a graduate business analyst I mostly worked on smaller projects it wasn't until a few months in where I started to get involved with some of our larger projects such as the Liberty and Allianz implementation. After being promoted to business analyst in March I have been given more and more responsibility and now regularly lead calls with clients. Working on these projects has also allowed me to work on developing my knowledge of the industry after starting with only a very basic understanding of insurance.

A Year of Gratitude

Not only is being part of distriBind allowing me to live in the city I always dreamed of being able to live in, but I have made some amazing memories and great friends. I don’t think a year ago I could have imagined being part of a team that is as amazing and supportive, especially when it comes to baby Guinness shots! But here I am now a year later and looking back I would do it all again to be part of distriBind! 

If you also want to be part of our inclusive, collaborative, and supportive team, or if you want to have any demo with our team, please contact us at contact@distribind.io.