Future Tense by Kevin Dooley Well, what a busy few months it’s been. As I’ve already alluded to, my wife and I got married in June. In addition, I took the difficult decision a few months ago to leave my PhD, and now I have a new job!

No jobs being forthcoming after withdrawing from my course, I set up as a freelance web developer. It’s been an incredible learning experience, and great fun. I’ve learned a lot about business, from marketing through to finance and everything in between, and I’ve met lots of new people into the bargain.

However, life is always ready with a curveball. (What’s the appropriate British metaphor here? A googly perhaps?) I’d stopped applying for jobs to focus on freelancing, and business was just starting to pick up. Then out of the blue I was interviewed for, and subsequently offered, a post for which I’d applied back in May.

The job? ICT Project Manager at the University of Bath’s Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies (CSCT) and, basically, it’s my perfect job. I get to be involved with setting up a virtual research environment (VRE) for the centre, which will involve lots of web stuff along with consulting, training and supporting users, all of which I really enjoy.

So, I’m back working in higher education, and I’ll be back blogging on similar subjects after a hiatus of several months. Given the nature of the job, there will be more of a focus on research and digital scholarship than before, but I’m sure I’ll still have plenty of opportunities to talk about elearning and education too, especially as the EPSRC-funded doctoral training centre is a major part of CSCT.

I’m really excited about the whole thing. Bye for now!