dianaschnuth

There may be few or no updates for the remainder of the week, as I will be in Columbus (Dublin) for MicroStrategy training. I’m sure the Hampton has a business center where I can check my e-mail and whatnot, but I’m not sure how much time I’ll be able to spend on e-mail and keeping up with my RSS feeds, much less actually blogging.

Even though I’ll be missing out on a grand total of 45 minutes (that’s three days’ worth) of Aaron time, I’ll be hanging out with some old friends in the evenings, which is awesome. I know there are some people in the area that I’m not getting to meet up with, and I do apologize for that. Maybe next time… (And there probably WILL be a next time, with all the training I could potentially sign up for.)

I’m looking forward to learning more about the Business Intelligence software I’ve been using at work; I’m also looking forward to seeing old friends, and having a change of scenery. I’m not looking forward to being away from my Honey-Muffin on the Hallmark Holiday Valentine’s Day, or really being away from him at all; and I’m not sure about making the 2½ hour drive to Columbus alone for the first time.

I’m a big girl. I can go on a big bad business trip by myself.

Right?

Everyone keeps asking me how I like my new job so far. Honestly, I think I’m still too new in the position to really have an opinion of the job yet. The novelty of some of the new changes has begun to wear off: I’m growing accustomed to a half-hour drive to work again; parking in the parking garage is no big deal; I’m becoming more familiar with everyone’s different accents, and can understand people’s speech more easily; not clocking in and out every day doesn’t seem so weird; and the glass-walled elevator ride isn’t quite so spectacular as it once seemed.

That said, there are some things that are still cool, and there are some things I’ve come to miss. I’m still taken by the view from the 12th floor, especially when I find myself in one of the conference rooms, staring out across the Maumee River (currently frozen and snow-covered) into the distance beyond. I still feel like I hit the lottery every time I get a paycheck; Aaron and I are working on evening out our bill-paying habits, now that I make more, but I still feel mighty WTF at my checking account balance most of the time (especially since we’ve paid off the Kia! w00t!). I still enjoy my daily walks down the Maumee, although I do miss walking in a more wooded setting, under a canopy of leaves (or at least branches) and on a dirt trail instead of pavement.

At the top of the list of things I miss, though, are my work friends. I miss them individually — James, Heather, Rob, Scott, and others — but I also miss just *having* work friends. Finally, after almost three months, I’m starting to get a little more than a “How are you?” from people in the pantry/kitchen area, but I still don’t feel like there’s anyone I really connect with. It’ll take time.

Other things I miss: Having a window right by my cube. Squirrel-watching. Being ten or fifteen minutes from home. Being five minutes from my OB-GYN’s office. Doing a slightly different job every two weeks. Having a grasp on my job and knowing just about everything I need to know to do it properly and efficiently. Generally knowing what I’m doing.

One thing I’m not sure if I’ll like or not is business travel. I’ll be traveling for software training twice in February, and probably more in the second quarter and beyond. I usually only get fifteen minutes of quality time with my husband every evening, between the time I get home and the time he leaves, and I’m not too keen on giving up those precious few minutes. I also don’t have a wifi laptop (OK, I don’t have a laptop at all), so unless I hang out in the hotel’s Business Center for an hour or more every evening, I am *so* going to have internet withdrawal. I’m also just generally not cool with traveling solo; I prefer to have a partner in crime, just in case I lose my way or don’t know what I’m doing or whatever. However… I might like it, especially since it’ll be relatively infrequent. Change of scenery. Learn some stuff. See some friends (Columbus and Chicago in February! Locals, touch base with me and we’ll meet up). We’ll see.

So, that’s a relatively neutral view on how the job is going so far. In a nutshell, I’m pretty ambivalent about it right now, but it has potential. I need time and knowledge in order to grow into the job, I think. It’ll come. It’ll click. I just need time, and the right attitude.

It’s a very quiet day at the office; even more quiet than usual. It’s Christmas Eve, and I think that half of the building (or more) took a personal holiday today. The parking garage seemed even more deserted today than on the day after Thanksgiving.

The person who can answer all the questions I have about the business intelligence application I’ve been trying to learn is finally back from maternity leave — a few days early, actually — so I at least won’t be stuck all day with no one to answer my questions and nothing else to do. She’s pretty busy, though, so it’s not like she’s at my disposal constantly, like the trainers in Loan Corrections were. I guess I’ll only be stuck for part of the day with nothing else to do, then…

I’ll get to leave an hour early at 3:30pm today, since it’s the day before a holiday, which is a nice perk. Go home, open presents, have some dinner, make the traditional Christmas sausage cake (yes, it’s really made of sausage, and it’s really a cake — I think we’ve been over this before), and enjoy a quiet Christmas Eve with my husband (who has today off of work).

Tomorrow, we’ll be going to Cleveland for Christmas Day. We’ll be bringing sausage cake and the zucchini-chocolate cake I made last night, along with presents for everyone. We won’t be bringing the new video camera, though; we decided that we really don’t need to remember Christmas as is it now. Grammie’s Alzheimer’s is getting pretty pronounced these days, and Poppa’s having a hard time getting around. Aunt Elaine can’t make it to holidays at all, due to her own medical issues. Better to remember the earlier years of Elaine’s Christmas cookies and Poppa being all sprightly and Grammie fussing in the kitchen… and Pete and his family always being late. 🙂

I’ve spent these first three weeks at my new job mainly trying to teach myself the reporting app we use. The person who would normally be my guru is still on maternity leave. Although I’ve picked up the basics, the finer points continue to elude me. I’m so close to understanding how the damn program works, but little things keep popping up and I have to wonder WHY can’t I choose CensusSummary as my Source table OMG?!

Anyway.

There’s a project in the early stages that I’m kind of being primed to work on. A division of the company wants to have a web-based dashboard, where they can see all their normally stodgy and numberiffic reports in an easy-to-read visual format. Awesome. Yesterday, we received a document from one of the end-users, giving us a detailed representation of what said end-users would like to see. I read the document, nodded to myself, and started sketching possibilities on a legal pad (without being asked — it’s just how I do. I’m the thumbnail queen).

Not long after, I get a Microsoft Visio document via e-mail from my boss. It’s his idea of how the dashboard could be laid out. He shows up in my cube shortly after the e-mail does, and I redirect him to my cute little tabbed-browsing concept piece. He says he likes mine better, and has me work up a mockup of my version of the dashboard.

That was most of my day today. And everyone seems to like the result so far.

Yay for my design skillz! As I told my boss, “You went and got me in my element!”

But wait. There’s more.

Around 3pm today, I was approached yet again by my supervisor. It appears that there’s a report that’s been being delayed in our usual development process, and the internal customer needs the report shortly after month-end. Someone had suggested importing the data into Access and using its reporting tools. Just so happens that my boss just hired someone fresh from doing major Access reporting on a regular basis…

Got a sample report, got someone to help me connect to the database via ODBC, and got started. By quitting time, I had most of a report worked out. I’ll have to work out a few details tomorrow. The boss caught me as I was getting my coat on, and I showed him what I had. He seemed to be genuinely impressed that I’d made that much progress already, and he made comment that I’m kind of saving the day. I don’t know about that…

At any rate, I’m finally feeling like a contributor to the team, even if everyone might be going a little out of their way to let the new girl know she’s doing a great job. I’ll take it.

The first half of the week was spectacular. Getting to know a new job, new location, new people, new boss, new responsibilities. Realizing that this gig fits me like a glove. Or it will.

The second half of the week was filled with insecurity and frustration. Me and the help files and the books and the tutorials. I now know that there’s a LOT that I don’t know. Plus, most of the people I’ve met in my department seem on the surface to be stressed, self-absorbed and pessimistic in general. And overly absorbed in football. Today, I was starting to doubt whether I’d made the right decision in taking this job, honestly.

About five minutes before quitting time, my supervisor visited my cube and asked how I my first week had gone. I was pretty honest, telling him that I felt like I was going around in circles, and that I realize now that there’s a lot that I don’t know. He seemed to appreciate that, and told me that he has no expectations of me right now. I am to be a sponge, in his words. I mentioned that I have lots of questions, but feel uncomfortable interrupting other people’s work to ask them, and he said that we’d make time early next week to sit down and discuss things. He also confirmed that, yes, this is only the second company I’ve worked for, and he affirmed that I’d come out the other side with a working knowledge of how the company and the data warehouse applications work.

That affirmation, while supportive, was also telling. The one person who can train me is on maternity leave, but I have the impression that he expects me to be up to speed on my own by the time she gets back.

This is daunting. Fun and new, yes, but still daunting.