Unusual Day Monday
Feb. 8th, 2006 02:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewayneJob hunting (and finding!) stuff under the cut.
(brief back-up: last week I went down to Alamogordo and put in applications at Staples and a cell phone store. Sigh. I am so eager to get back into retail!)
Algebra class, no problem. Algebra lab, instructor was stuck in Las Cruces so lab was cancelled. This left me with a bit of dilemma as I had an extra hour before my photography class, three hours instead of two! I decided the most productive thing to do was to first go to Admissions and find out the state of my student records. I had some problems getting my records from Phoenix transferred up, eventually everything arrived. I got in to see a counselor, but it turns out that the transcript processing is done in Las Cruces and they now have only one person doing such evaluation, and mine hasn't been done yet. She also said that they are very liberal in applying credits, so that was nice to hear. I also got a good breakdown of what I'll actually need for my degree, and it's going to be a lot of work! I have something like three drawing classes(!) to take, among various studio classes. Man, a degree in photography is going to be a heck of a lot more than just shooting photographs!
So I'm still in a holding pattern until my transcripts are evaluated and I'll be getting a letter when it's done.
This is where my day really starts twisting.
I was vacillating between going to a full Mexican restaurant, trying a new restaurant, or wimping out and doing Taco Bell and reading a book. Well, I decided to wimp and it turned out to be the best decision that I could have made.
I'm sitting there in about the middle of the restaurant, eating something somewhat flavorful and not as horribly bad for me as other places that I could have gone to, and my cell phone goes off, I had it set to vibrate. It was a New Mexico number that I did not recognize, so I let it go to voice mail. I was fairly confident that it was the guy from the University offering me the position. Yes, I should have taken it, but (a) I don't like talking on a cell while in a restaurant, and (b) I really didn't feel like talking to him at the moment. If I had the position, I had the position, and getting back to him a little later wouldn't matter a huge deal.
A little later, when this guy sitting by the entrance gets a call on his cell. I'm not eavesdropping, but my ears turn on when I hear 'drops' and 'wings' (drops refer to a network connection, or cable drop, and wings generally refer to hospitals). A few other words and phrases and it becomes apparent that this guy is involved in the computer department at the local hospital. I've been keeping an eye on the hospital's web site to see if any IT positions opened up, nothing so far. Not wanting to be impolite, I sped-up my eating a bit while keeping half an eye on how close he was to finishing his meal. I finished, packed up my book, disposed of my trash, and walked over. I excused myself for the interruption, asked him if he was involved with the computer department at the hospital, and he was. In fact, he is the VP of their computer department.
I told him up front that I was looking for a job, I didn't want any risk of appearing smarmy and not being direct on it. We had a good conservation, he told me that he was looking for someone to run the help desk and that there would an opening late in the month as he has a worker from Canuckistan whose visa would be expiring (he should have gotten an American Express) and he'd have to resign. He also suggested applying at the City of Alamogordo even though they don't usually have positions listed on their web site, and he said the school districts in both Alamogordo and Tularosa (just N of Alamo, maybe 15 minutes further) have good computer departments and he gave me the name of the guy for Alamo school district!
I'm a little ticked at myself at not thinking of checking the local school districts as that's something that I checked regularly back in Phoenix.
I gave him my resume and we parted ways. I have a standing invitation to come by the hospital for a tour of his IT dept, something that I'll definitely take him up on.
The one problem with the hospital is my school hours. It's a full-time job, and though they allow flex-time, the training period would be difficult with me needing Monday and Wednesday afternoons off.
In the parking lot I checked my voice mail, sure enough it was the guy from NMSU. I called him back, left a message on his voice mail and told him I'd call him back Tuesday morning.
Tuesday morning. Call the NMSU guy back, he offers me the job and I accept. I'll be going in early Wednesday to do paperwork, a minor panic when I couldn't find my document lockbox that had my social security card. But it was found, and I should be fine for the morning.
About 20 minutes after I get off the phone with my new boss, I get another call. This one is from Staples, wanting me to come in for an interview. I politely declined, saying that I'd just accepted a position. Had they been a day earlier, it might have been reversed. I was actually kind of hoping for the Staples job, the pay probably would have been similar, but with more hours and an employee discount, it would have been a decent job.
Now I'm waiting to see if I hear from the cell phone company!
I think this will be my last week with AZ Dept of Education. I had a program that got overwritten that I needed to recreate, and I finished it up about an hour ago, ran it, inspected the new result file against the old files, and everything looks good. Updated the documentation, and I think I'm done. I'll be finding out tomorrow.
My last paycheck got screwed up, my boss didn't fax in my time sheet before the payroll deadline, so I was paid 11 hours rather than 31. Needless to say, it had just a bit of an effect on my check. Since it looks like I'll only be getting 5 or so hours for this week, that extra 20 hours will be nice.
The University job isn't that great, it's 19 hours a week, no benefits, and pays something like $6.91 an hour. And it lasts for the remainder of the semester. It's basic help desk: password reset, problem solving, and lots of computer set-ups. Pretty simple stuff. What I'm hoping is that I'll be able to wiggle my way into working with their routers, their wireless configuration is pretty bad and I know that I can improve it. As little as that job will be paying, I definitely don't consider myself bound to it, but I'd like to work through the semester in hopes of improving their wireless network.
(brief back-up: last week I went down to Alamogordo and put in applications at Staples and a cell phone store. Sigh. I am so eager to get back into retail!)
Algebra class, no problem. Algebra lab, instructor was stuck in Las Cruces so lab was cancelled. This left me with a bit of dilemma as I had an extra hour before my photography class, three hours instead of two! I decided the most productive thing to do was to first go to Admissions and find out the state of my student records. I had some problems getting my records from Phoenix transferred up, eventually everything arrived. I got in to see a counselor, but it turns out that the transcript processing is done in Las Cruces and they now have only one person doing such evaluation, and mine hasn't been done yet. She also said that they are very liberal in applying credits, so that was nice to hear. I also got a good breakdown of what I'll actually need for my degree, and it's going to be a lot of work! I have something like three drawing classes(!) to take, among various studio classes. Man, a degree in photography is going to be a heck of a lot more than just shooting photographs!
So I'm still in a holding pattern until my transcripts are evaluated and I'll be getting a letter when it's done.
This is where my day really starts twisting.
I was vacillating between going to a full Mexican restaurant, trying a new restaurant, or wimping out and doing Taco Bell and reading a book. Well, I decided to wimp and it turned out to be the best decision that I could have made.
I'm sitting there in about the middle of the restaurant, eating something somewhat flavorful and not as horribly bad for me as other places that I could have gone to, and my cell phone goes off, I had it set to vibrate. It was a New Mexico number that I did not recognize, so I let it go to voice mail. I was fairly confident that it was the guy from the University offering me the position. Yes, I should have taken it, but (a) I don't like talking on a cell while in a restaurant, and (b) I really didn't feel like talking to him at the moment. If I had the position, I had the position, and getting back to him a little later wouldn't matter a huge deal.
A little later, when this guy sitting by the entrance gets a call on his cell. I'm not eavesdropping, but my ears turn on when I hear 'drops' and 'wings' (drops refer to a network connection, or cable drop, and wings generally refer to hospitals). A few other words and phrases and it becomes apparent that this guy is involved in the computer department at the local hospital. I've been keeping an eye on the hospital's web site to see if any IT positions opened up, nothing so far. Not wanting to be impolite, I sped-up my eating a bit while keeping half an eye on how close he was to finishing his meal. I finished, packed up my book, disposed of my trash, and walked over. I excused myself for the interruption, asked him if he was involved with the computer department at the hospital, and he was. In fact, he is the VP of their computer department.
I told him up front that I was looking for a job, I didn't want any risk of appearing smarmy and not being direct on it. We had a good conservation, he told me that he was looking for someone to run the help desk and that there would an opening late in the month as he has a worker from Canuckistan whose visa would be expiring (he should have gotten an American Express) and he'd have to resign. He also suggested applying at the City of Alamogordo even though they don't usually have positions listed on their web site, and he said the school districts in both Alamogordo and Tularosa (just N of Alamo, maybe 15 minutes further) have good computer departments and he gave me the name of the guy for Alamo school district!
I'm a little ticked at myself at not thinking of checking the local school districts as that's something that I checked regularly back in Phoenix.
I gave him my resume and we parted ways. I have a standing invitation to come by the hospital for a tour of his IT dept, something that I'll definitely take him up on.
The one problem with the hospital is my school hours. It's a full-time job, and though they allow flex-time, the training period would be difficult with me needing Monday and Wednesday afternoons off.
In the parking lot I checked my voice mail, sure enough it was the guy from NMSU. I called him back, left a message on his voice mail and told him I'd call him back Tuesday morning.
Tuesday morning. Call the NMSU guy back, he offers me the job and I accept. I'll be going in early Wednesday to do paperwork, a minor panic when I couldn't find my document lockbox that had my social security card. But it was found, and I should be fine for the morning.
About 20 minutes after I get off the phone with my new boss, I get another call. This one is from Staples, wanting me to come in for an interview. I politely declined, saying that I'd just accepted a position. Had they been a day earlier, it might have been reversed. I was actually kind of hoping for the Staples job, the pay probably would have been similar, but with more hours and an employee discount, it would have been a decent job.
Now I'm waiting to see if I hear from the cell phone company!
I think this will be my last week with AZ Dept of Education. I had a program that got overwritten that I needed to recreate, and I finished it up about an hour ago, ran it, inspected the new result file against the old files, and everything looks good. Updated the documentation, and I think I'm done. I'll be finding out tomorrow.
My last paycheck got screwed up, my boss didn't fax in my time sheet before the payroll deadline, so I was paid 11 hours rather than 31. Needless to say, it had just a bit of an effect on my check. Since it looks like I'll only be getting 5 or so hours for this week, that extra 20 hours will be nice.
The University job isn't that great, it's 19 hours a week, no benefits, and pays something like $6.91 an hour. And it lasts for the remainder of the semester. It's basic help desk: password reset, problem solving, and lots of computer set-ups. Pretty simple stuff. What I'm hoping is that I'll be able to wiggle my way into working with their routers, their wireless configuration is pretty bad and I know that I can improve it. As little as that job will be paying, I definitely don't consider myself bound to it, but I'd like to work through the semester in hopes of improving their wireless network.
