Category Archives: the ongoing saga of my job

the ongoing saga of my job 1 Comment

A Thought About The Internet Today

Never before have I been able to prepare for an interview by studying my potential employer’s MySpace page. I’m going to be interviewed by people who were graduating high school two years AFTER I graduated college. Yes, these guys were learning to drive while I was getting my bachelor’s degree. And they’re hearty beerpong enthusiasts.

o.O

I’d never even HEARD of beerpong before I started looking at this company. No, I’m not much of a partier; thanks for pointing that out. My cubemate James explained it all to me, though, so I don’t need a primer on beerpong.

Beerpong aside, I’m keeping an open mind about this company. They do good work. They’re living the dream. Effin’ A. If I can join in, get in at the ground floor, be part of something big (and help them with their typography)… I’m all for it. If they’re cool, I’m cool. I’m still young and hip, right…?

Right?

jobhunt 3 Comments

Putting Out Feelers

While my portfolio is still not quite finished, I have put up a passable temporary placeholder, and have now sent out three resumes. One was to a friend’s former employer (they say it’s not what you know, but WHO you know), one was a classified ad brought to my attention by a co-worker, and one was an ad I found on my own in the local paper (well, on their website, anyway).

I still have a really hard time “selling” myself as being THE employee a given employer should hire. I’ve been playing up my quick learning and adaptation skills, and my versatility — need a designer with programming background, or a quick-learning programmer with design skills?

But, still. I’m no rockstar, no matter what my husband says. I can’t let on to potential employers, though.

I’ll find something better than banking. I’m sure of it. It may not be the ideal job, but it’ll be invaluable experience, and it’ll use the part of my brain that makes me happy and fulfilled. I got to do that for six months, while James and I were actively developing our database, and I’d never been happier about going to work.

Of course, I’m *hoping* for the ideal job. That would be pretty keen.

…

Dammit, I *am* a rockstar! Look at all this shit I can do, and without even a CS degree. Really! That database James and I made is pretty posh for Access, considering how much of it we Googled along the way. I can do this. I can hang with the rockstars. I rule!

Toy store!!!

house, japan trip 2007, the ongoing saga of my job, weight loss

Life Is Good.

Furniture was delivered Saturday afternoon. Only major downside was that the old couch didn’t fit through the basement door, so the entire point of buying a new couch (so we could put the old one in the basement) was nullified. On the upside: we have a giant, nine-foot pillow-back sofa on which to lounge; a new, smaller dining room table with non-80’s chairs and a bench; and after our return from Nihon, we will have a new massagey recliner.

In other news, Aaron has determined the status of his passport. Due to our change in departure date, it hasn’t yet been processed, even though he applied for it back in February. It has now been expedited, and should be on its way by week’s end. Which is still calling it close, and may mean that we’ll need to obtain our Ghibli Museum vouchers after we arrive in Nihon instead of in advance.

Weight has stabilized at 198 pounds. I’m OK with that for now. Slow and steady weight loss means it’s more likely to stay off. I won’t make my goal of 190 by Japan, but so be it. I still intend to eat heartily while we’re on vacation.

I am SO almost done with my freelance project. I’m hitting some snags with programming the content management system, and I’m going to just have to set some strictures on what it can and can’t do. I can’t make it account for every possible instance of weirdness. Hopefully, the client will be accepting of that. Honestly, though, I’m really just glad to have it done. I don’t know if I’ll get the remainder of my pay by the time we leave for Japan, which is unfortunate… but, again, I’m OK with that. Between Aaron and myself, we have enough money saved up to have a sufficiently good time.

Yes, indeed… life is good.

the ongoing saga of my job

Spring Fever

Here I sit, manning the reception desk at work, watching the gorgeous weather outside, wishing I could be out there. I’m all caught up on the work I needed to get done by week’s end, and now I’m just helping out the rest of the department and stalling until it’s time to go home… without being too obvious about it. Not that there’s much of anyone to bust me for slacking; this place is dead today. Anyone with any sense must have decided to play hookey and go golfing.

Of course, now that I have some time to blog, I can’t really think of anything I’d wanted to say. Figures.

the ongoing saga of my job

Stress In Its Various Forms

Had I sat down to blog about eight or nine hours ago, I would have written quite the vitriolic entry about my day job. You might have gotten to read more than you wanted to know about the inner workings of my department, and how far behind we are in our work, and our staffing issues. You might also have learned a little more about the fact that my employer is choosing not to let us know yet which branches and departments are staying and which are going, and how this is making the entire department quite pissed, although we’re still just assuming that we’re toast.

Even though I spent the entire first half of my workday being lethargic and not caring about my job, I kicked a whole lotta ass in the second half, got a shitload of work done, all while zoning out with the iPod, and that improved my mood. The drive home with the window down only added to the upswing.

The next bend in the stress rollercoaster came when I read my e-mail and discovered that a contracting deadline had been moved up from what I had originally been told. My initial plan had been to spend a couple hours working on the project tonight, and a couple hours here and there next week, since the proof didn’t have to be in until April 2nd. Try again — my revised timeline gave the ultimate to-the-printers date of March 27th… which meant that I spent 3½ hours on the project tonight instead of only two, and got the bulk of it done (I think). The director (the person who recruited me for the job) even went as far as to ask my main contact if the two of them should work tomorrow on finishing what I started. We’ll see what they decide.

I feel like I keep dropping the ball in so many different ways with this contracting gig. They keep giving me assignments, though, so either I’m doing better than I think I am, or they *really* need warm bodies. I’m voting for the latter.

Time to ramp things back up. I have a website to finish redesigning, and accompanying flyers and business cards to update, on top of getting my own resume and portfolio in primo condition. I am *so* going to snag myself a better job, and soon. I plan to at least have some prospects lined up, if not interviews and/or job offers, by the time I head out to Japan.

More rock, less talk.