My first couple of days in the new job with University College Dublin (UCD) have gone well. It’s a Financial Administrator position in UCD’s Research Finance Office, one of the departments under the Bursar / VP of Finance. My primary responsibility is to oversee grant reporting for research funding from the European Commission’s Horizon Europe programme. Currently, UCD has about 200 active grant awards through this programme. I’m not exactly sure of the the financial size of the portfolio yet, but it’s definitely in the €10s of millions. I’ll be supervising a team of three people, although only one of the positions is filled at the moment. Today I participated in some interviews for a temporary contractor to backfill one of the vacancies for a few months until we can recruit for a longer term staff appointment.
Starting a new job while working remotely is a new experience. Onboarding always takes time, but working from home slows down the process even more. My email account was activated today, although I’ll have to go to campus to pick up a laptop from the office. I also just learned that my director is actually in the UK dealing with a family estate matter and probably won’t return to Ireland for a couple of months. He’s very amiable and easy going, which is a welcome change from some of my past experiences. It’s a big adjustment to be working full time again (technically only 37 hours a week), and I’m glad it’s a short work week given the bank holiday this past Monday.
Now that I’m settling into a more structured daily routine for work, I need to figure out when to go out for walks and/or get other exercise. I haven’t been outside since Monday and am feeling restless. After finishing up work, I compel myself out the door and instinctively head towards St. Patrick’s Cathedral park. It must have been awhile since I’ve been here, because there are some noticeable changes — the scaffolding for the restoration work is gone and the garden beds are rampant with summer wildflowers. It’s less than 3,000 steps round trip, but it’s better than nothing.
Until next time….
