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Everything Work RelatedThursday, October 21, 2004
Working at UPS - Day 4
It’s the final day of Cornerstone! I’m both happy and sad.
We finished up the last of the videos, oh thank goodness! Then we filled out a bunch of paperwork. There is so much paperwork here it’s unreal. But that should be the last of it for a while.
We had pizza to “celebrate” our completion. It was East of Chicago’s pizza which is ok but I would have preferred Marco’s. It’s free so I didn’t complain.
Then I headed down to the floor. My trainer wasn’t here today so I got sent down with another guy. He had me work over in his area for a bit while he got his trainee settled in then we went over to my area.
They started me out doing some powerloading and recycler chute cleaning just to get them caught up because they were a bit swamped. Once things calmed down they got me hooked up with a scanner and sent me into my truck. The guy and also my area supervisor walked me through the loading process and got me going on loading.
Ok, here’s the proper way to load packages into a feeder (the truck). First read the zip code, state and city on the sticker. If the zip code is good for the feeder then you point the scanner over the barcode. If the barcode was read ok the computer will give a confirmation beep and a green light will show on the finger scanner. If not you’ll get one of two error beeps and a red light on the finger scanner. One possible error is for an invalid bar code. This is usually if you’re not careful and scan the wrong bar code although it is possible to have a bad barcode. The other error is if you already scanned the box and it is just telling you that you have a duplicate scan.
Now it seems like a lot to do but you can do it all in just a few seconds once you get experience. Right now as a newbie it takes me a while since I have to stop and check the zip codes on my wrist chart but one I get to learn them I’ll speed up a bunch.
Wadsworth is a really slow truck so when I ran out of packages which happened a lot the supervisor would have me pick up the slack where I could help out. I’d do some recycler clearing, help load some steel, when things got backed up I’d jump in and do powerloading.
I’m really sore from today. I had two powerloads that were just horrible. I stacked 5 walls of almost nothing but dell computers in one trailer in under 10 minutes. You could stack them 5 boxes wide and 5 boxes tall in the trailer so I bet there were over 100 boxes and each one weight about 50 pounds. That just drains the hell out of you.
I did that for about three and a half hours today. The shift ended and I closed up the truck and headed home. Tomorrow I work almost a full day. I actually have one last video I have to watch as part of my hazmat handling certification. It’ll take about 30 minutes then I’ll be out on the floor. I can’t wait.
on 10/21/2004 at 07:24 PM
Working at UPS - Day 3
Another day has gone by. Day three wasn’t too bad. Watched more videos, whoopee!, on safety and hazardous materials. I’m a bit torn, on one side I’m glad I’m almost done with the videos but on the other side that means I’m going to have to start doing real work and I like getting paid to sit around all day!
The unloaders headed out to work while we loaders stayed in the classroom to get taught how to use the scanners. The scanners that they use are pretty cool. There are two parts to the scanners.
The first is the computer part. It’s about the size of your hand and has a LCD screen and a keypad on it. Just think of it as a fancy PDA. You strap that to your belt and for the most part never really touch it.
The second part is the actual barcode scanner. It straps to two of your fingers and links up using a bluetooth wireless connection to the computer part. All it does is fires out a red barcode scan about once every second and if it lines up with a barcode it’ll be read automatically.
So, after that training I got out on the floor and just schlepped around for the day. I keep the recycler chute clean, did some steel and powerloaded in several trailers. Basically, the normal scanner person just stands at the front of the trailer and scans each package as quickly as possible and then one or sometimes two others will load the packages for him/her. They do this whenever a major load is coming down the conveyers. There’s a little monitor in each area that shows how many packages has been sent to you since the beginning of the shift and also how many are incoming down the conveyer belts from the central sort. The supervisor keeps an eye and when he sees a bunch incoming he’ll yell at people to head to wherever to help out.
I actually like powerloading. I like the teamwork aspect of it since normally you spend all day in a trailer by yourself. It’s nice to be able to help out one another and get to meet the other people working in the area.
So that’s what day three was like.
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Working at UPS - Day 2
Well day two has come and gone.
We watched a bunch of videos again. There were more videos on hazardous material handling and personal safety. Today the loaders also had to sit and watch an hour long video on loading procedures for the different types of trucks. This is really thrilling stuff folks. They are repetitive and boring as watching paint dry!
So after that we went out to do more hands on training. Today I spent the day just stacking boxes. It’s really an art form in a way. You have many different sizes and shapes of boxes that all must some how fill up the truck. You want to use every possible inch of space.
The basic technique is what they call wall building. You start at the bottom right hand side and place a cornerstone package. The videos say the package should be between 18 and 24 inches in size roughly square. The reality is that that doesn’t always work with what you have so you just grab a box and go.
The main goal is to build the walls as layers called shelves. As you go left to right you try to build across so everything is the same level. Once you reach the end you start a new layer. You’re supposed to interlock the boxes and stack them so they fit together sort of like Lego bricks. This prevents damage to boxes as well as makes it safer for unloaders at the next location. However, once again the reality is that not all boxes magically fit together perfectly so you just start stacking them as best as possible. It gets to be a pain in the you know what trying to keep up a steady pace. You know, people that are good at puzzle games like Tetris would probably do very well at this job.
I just stacked today to get practice but tomorrow I’ll be starting to get training in how to use the scanners. I probably won’t get to use one out in the trucks until the next and final day, Thursday. Friday is actually my first “real” day. I’ll come in and work all day with no classroom time. Scary!
Oh and by the way, they switched me from the Akron, Ohio truck to Wadsworth, Ohio truck. It’s a lower volume truck and fewer zip codes to remember which will be better for a newbie like me. There are only 21 zip codes vs. the 51 of Akron. I’m happier that’s for sure!
Monday, October 18, 2004
Working at UPS - Day 1
Well today was my first day at UPS. It was pretty boring honestly but I did expect it to be as such. For the first 4 days we’ll be doing the training system what they call Cornerstone. It’s just a mix of classroom and hand on training.
I started around 10:45am. We watched some videos about how packages travel inside UPS, hazard material handling procedures, and safety training. That lasted till around 1:30pm. We then were matched up with our training supervisors. The supervisor gave me a short tour of the facility and talked about random things. Then we got over to the area that I would be working and started doing some hands on work. I did that till 3:30pm. I went back up to the classroom and then we talked a bit longer and were taken to see how clocking out works. So I clocked out and headed home.
The location I’m at is a major hub, 4th largest in the US I believe. I’ll be working as a loader so my job will be to get into the back of a truck and load it to transfer to other hubs or distribution areas. The basic task is pretty easy. Boxes come down a chute into the back of the truck. You double check the location (zip code first, then state finally city) to make sure it’s correct. You scan them in then stack them. Do that for 3-5 hours a day and that’s your shift. You’re expected to move roughly 300 boxes an hour. You get assigned a certain geographic area which consists of usually one but maybe two trucks. You have to memorize and know all the zip codes that that truck(s) covers.
For my area that I’ll be doing I have 51 zip codes to know. The problem is that they aren’t sequential numbers. I’m actually going to handle the Akron, Ohio area. The zip codes all start with either 442xx or 443xx but they aren’t inclusive. So I need to remember that 44201, 44211, 44314, 44398 are all valid zips but 44202, 44225, 44350, 44380 aren’t valid. With time it’ll get easy to just know but starting out it’s a bit overwhelming.
Besides the basic loading of your own truck there are other tasks expected of you to do from time to time. The big duh is helping load other trucks when people get swamped. Loads usually end up coming in batches. You’ll get a few packages for a while then have maybe a hundred or more all dumped at one time. So it’s expected that the people in your zone will help out.
You’ll also work the recycler from time to time. Packages are sorted in a central area then send down conveyer belts to each zone. There’s a person called a pickoff that then sends the packages down the appropriate chutes to each of the trucks. When they see bad packages that don’t belong in the zone they send it down a recycler chute. You have to unload this chute every once in a while onto a cart and roll it over to a conveyer belt that sends the packages back to the sorters. Hence getting recycled!
The other task is doing “steel.” Steel is the slang for overweight or very large packages. The conveyer system can only handle so much weight or fit certain sizes. Anything that’s too big or heavy has to be manually moved around the facility. From time to time a little vehicle with the steel will stop and unload your zones packages. Then you have to slug your way through, figure out which truck they go to and get those monsters loaded into the trucks. Which it turns out is a common thing here because Sauders Furniture ships everything UPS and all those shipments go to this hub. When I was touring the facility just about every zone had stacks of Sauders boxes lying around.
So, that’s about it for today. I’ll do a write up for each day this week about what I learned.
Friday, October 15, 2004
About freaking time I got a job!
Well I was called today by UPS to come in for a second interview. I went in last friday for the first. It wasn’t a real interview. They just did a group tour and tried to make the job sound as hard and scary as possible to chase of the lazy bums.
Anyhoo, I came in and was hired. I’m very happy to say the least! It’s the day sort shift and I’ll be making $8.50 an hour. Not to shabby.
That’s all for now. Have a nice weekend everyone!
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Second Interview - Afterwords
The second interview seemed to go very well. I’m actually a bit disappointed by it. I had planned and prepped for a major trial by fire. Instead all I got was a rather plain and simple interview.
I met with the same lady from the first time. We chatted for a few minutes while we waited for the programming guys to show up. It was just the usual small talk about weather, what I did over the Labor Day weekend, etc. They showed up and we did introductions and the like.
It started out pretty much the same. I told them about myself. I then was asked to list a few positive and negative traits of myself. You know that’s a really hard thing to do! Trying to come up with something original instead of the same junk everyone says that is. I mean you know everyone always says they’re a hard worker for positive and most will say they’re a perfectionist as a negative. So, I tried hard to come up with something different and original that should make them remember me if nothing else.
After that they started asking more detailed questions about topics more related to computers. How much experience I had with COBOL for example. What kind of website development I did with PHP. Linking to databases and the likes.
The one guy did make a bit of deal about the fact that I haven’t ever had any paying jobs during college. I tried my best to play it down and point out that I may not have had any working experience but I believe I would still be able to walk in and be just as productive as any other person.
I then asked a few questions about what the daily work schedule would be like for a programmer there. I think I asked about overtime and working weekends. I also asked about what kind of timeframe it would take to get to learn their systems and start being a productive member.
That was about it. They all thanked me for coming in and said they would contact me next week when they made their decision. So now I just have to wait and see. They didn’t say how many they were interviewing but they did say they had others to interview before they made their decision.
The tone of the interview was rather light and happy. The two guys made plenty of wise cracks and joked about the work. For example when I asked about what the daily work schedule was like the one guy laughed and jokingly said to the other guy that was a good question and he would like to know that himself. The guy then wise cracked back that they mostly talk on the phone and play mine sweeper. Then he explained what they really do. These sort of playful jokes happened a few time during the interview.
I guess I’m not sure how to take the joking attitude of the interview. On one side you can see it as a good thing. I have enough education that they don’t see the need to bother too much with technical skills and instead focus on how well I’ll fit in with them. Do I laugh at the silly jokes and appear to be relaxed around them, etc. Of course on the other side you see it as a bad thing. After they start interviewing they realize I’m not going to fit their needs so they just joke around instead of asking any serious questions.
I would assume it’s the good side but the fact that the interview went so short has me a bit confused. The first interview was about 30 minutes so I really was surprised to see the second one only take 30 minutes as well. I really expected it to be a bit longer interview with perhaps some test of my skills and maybe even a short tour of the facilities.
Oh well no use wringing my hands and second guessing things now. They’ll contact me next week one way or the other. If things work out good then I’ll have a great job to start my career. If things don’t work out then I’ll just go get a job at home depot or staples like I had been planning on last week.
Thursday, September 02, 2004
Advice on Second Interview for Programmer Job Needed
I’m going in for a second interview Tuesday afternoon for a Programmer / Analyst position. You can read how the first interview went here. Since the first interview was pretty vanilla I know this time around I should expect it’s going to be a gauntlet. I’m just hoping some people can give me pointers on what to expect. Why kind of things they’re probably going to throw at me.
As I said before they provide computer services for Public Schools. Services like accounting, payroll, reporting, student registration, attendance, grade reporting, etc. It’s a pretty old school shop that has big HP Alpha servers running OpenVMS and they do all their software in COBOL and 4GLs. They’re actually starting to convert the systems to a mixed COBOL / JAVA environment. COBOL for the backend but with new JAVA front ends for the clients from what I understand.
Anyhoo, I’ve already pulled out my COBOL book and re-reading it and they know I only have passing experience at JAVA but I’m also starting to read a few intro to java tutorials/etc… Maybe I’ll run out and pick up an O’Reilly book or two on JAVA tomorrow.