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Everything Work RelatedSaturday, December 10, 2005
Hey, Wait! I still have a blog?
Heh, long time no post huh? I won’t bother apologizing because I’m sure you all understand how hectic life can be.
Well as I said in my last post, I no longer work at UPS as I have a new job working at a company doing actual IT work!
Well, I’m basically a month into the job and so far things are going great. Everyone is nice and I’m slowing getting to know them. My coworkers have been very helpful and understanding of my learning the systems and procedures.
The place is growing by leaps and bounds and it just constantly impresses me. It’s nice to see a company growing and not doing mass layoffs (You hear that GM? Maybe you should send your execs to come mentor here, so they can learn a thing or two about how to run a successful business!)
So anyhoo, the job is great but just a bit tiring with the commute. I’m up at 6:30am every morning. Shower, shave… you get the idea. I’m on the road by 7:15 and in the lot by 7:50ish. Clock in and at my desk by 8 and spend the day busily working. The day’s over around 5-5:15ish and I’m back out and on the road. I get home by 6 and start the nightly decompress.
That’s why I haven’t posted in a month. I’m usually pretty tired and I get sidetracked doing other things. So Mr Blog gets put on the back burner.
I’ll try to be better about posting now that I’m getting used to the routine. Big things are a brewing and I’d like to try to document it all as I think it would be very interesting for everyone.
How’s that for a teaser? HA!
on 12/10/2005 at 11:19 PM
Friday, November 11, 2005
Goodbye UPS
Such a sad day, heh yea right!
Today was my last day working at UPS. It’s been mostly fun but it’s time to move on to bigger and better things now.
It was a pretty easy day, thankfully. Volume was 147,000 total and 8000 for the area. That means none of us had to work very hard which was nice. We’ve been getting out butts kicked every day this week. The idiots running the unload would screw around all day and barely move anything, then the last hour of the shift they would go crazy and dump on everyone. As a result the PD would burn down and it would take forever to clean up.
Anyhoo, it was a nice day. I joked around with everyone and several supervisors and staff members stopped by to wish me well.
My girlfriend made cookies for me to take in and they were a hit. Everyone was happy to have something good to eat.
The day finally came to an end and I took off. I’ll probably never see the inside of that building again, which will be just fine by me. No more noisy machinery, dirty trucks or heavy boxes to lift.
It’s time to move on and start using my brain every day instead of my brawn.
So Goodbye UPS, it was fun!
Thursday, November 03, 2005
I have a new job!
Actually, I take that back. I don’t have a new job, I have a career!
What’s the difference you might ask?
A job is something you go to every day to earn a paycheck. Flipping burgers at McyDy’s and loading boxes at UPS are jobs. You come to work and earn a paycheck. It’s not something you like to do and it’s not something you dream of doing for the rest of your life.
A career is something you dream of doing. It’s work that you’ve planned to do by going to college or some other educational program.
Without further ado, I’m happy to announce that starting on the 14th I will begin my career as a Programmer/IT Person for Corporate Research International.
Simply put, CRI is a market research company. Companies hire them to do the so called “mystery shopping.” People are paid to go our and eat at a restaurant, buy something at a gas station, etc. They then fill out a report for CRI about the place. All the data is then compiled into reports and stats that the companies can use to do whatever they want.
CRI was recently featured in Inc Magazines list of the 500 fastest growing private companies. Here’s the quote:
What it does: Call center monitoring and mystery shopping for companies such as Papa John’s and K-Mart. Why it’s growing: Its fastest-growing area is integrated voice and Web response, which sends consumers to a website or toll-free number printed on the back of their receipts and surveys them on service.
Anyways, I’m coming onboard as a Programmer/IT Person. For the most part the job is about developing the websites for the customers to fill out surveys and clients to view the compiled reports. However, the job isn’t just sitting in a cubicle hacking code all day. You also do all the general IT work for the company like: system administration, providing tech support for all the employees, networking the offices, whatever else there happens to be.
It’s a very fast paced and active job and that’s just one of the many reasons I’m excited about working there. I’m glad to finally have a job that works my brain for a change.
I’m just such a happy guy today!
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Yet Another Job Post
Man what’s with this posting once a month thing? I must be suffering from bloggeritis. HA!
Well, let’s do a little what’s up with alan recrap…
I’m still working at UPS. Big whoppie. I’m getting kind of sick of the place. Not to say I ever loved the place but just lately I’m really burning out on the whole job. It’s just such a brain-dead job. Loading boxes for 4 hours every day will do that.
I put in to be a supervisor but nothing has happened yet. They move pretty slowly on hiring I guess.
I had a job interview today at a company. I feel it went really well. The person I interviewed with was really cool. He is a techy like myself, so we actually talked about computers and stuff. We seemed to click atleast from my feeling on it.
The place is neat. They seem to be a rather young company that’s starting to grow. That’s something I like! Of the few places I’ve interviewed at they’ve all for the most part been rather old and rigid. They’ve been around for a long time and have their set ways. This place just has a strong open and flexible vibe to it.
As far as the actual job goes, it sounds just like something I’ve wanted to do. The IT group at the company is a bit undersized and so they’re very much jack-of-all-trades. While the job is to do web development work they still want someone that can manage servers, do tech support and even get dirty and help wire the office network.
Which I just love the idea of that. Going back to UPS for an example; I get bored doing the same thing all day. The prospect of having some variety every day is nice. It keeps the neurons firing and the brain on edge ready to go at all times.
Anyhoo, I feel good about it and am hopeful they call me back next week for a second interview.
Oh yea… I almost forgot. I just want to give a big thank you to everyone on the Blessed John XXIII Parish Growth Committee. Thanks for praying for me today. I know you’re prayers helped!
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
It wasn't really a meeting
Well it wasn’t much of a meeting. Basically, there were about a half dozen of us there and all we did was fill out paperwork. It was just your run of the mill type stuff. Consent forms for background checks, driving history, education background, etc. Actually the one thing that surprised me was a form to sign over all intellectual property to the company for the duration of employment plus 1 year.
Basically, it’s a contract that says if you invent/create anything, while working there, it’s the property of UPS. It was 3 pages of laywerese but from what I got the jest of it it’s just for things in relation to what the company does. So, if I create a better way to track packages or develop a system to organize shipping schedules then UPS owns it. But I think if I were to invent some new toy or write a book then I’m in the clear. But who really knows with all that jargon they use.
Hmm, maybe I shouldn’t have signed that without first getting some clarification on that from a lawyer. I do occasionally write software. I might to create something and start selling it because I know I could make lots of money. That IP consent form might give UPS the right to take control of that software. Oh well little late now I guess.
Anyhoo, it’s nice to see the ball finally starting to roll. I hope the process goes pretty fast. I’ll try to keep up and make posts about each step of the process. I know this kind of info could be handy for fellow UPSers out there.
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Finally some good news
I put in my Letter of Intent for promotion at UPS a few weeks ago. Yesterday at work I was given a letter to notify me that they got the letter. They are going to have a meeting before work on Tuesday for all those trying to get promoted. I assume it’ll cover the whole promotion process.
They’ll probably go over how the process works, what will be expected of us, etc, etc.
It’s just a meeting so still no guarantee that I’ll get promoted but I’m glad to finally see the process move forward. I was beginning to think that I might end up stuck down here as a loader forever. At least now I know if I work hard I can get a chance to move up to a part-time supervisor position.
Now hopefully I will find a real job in my field soon and not have to worry about any of this but if not it’s nice to have something to fall back on.
Even if I don’t end up getting promoted this time around, I know that I will put in a new letter immediately and try again. I’ll be a persistent bugger and keep trying and trying until they give in and promote me!
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Another wasted job interview
Bloody Hell! What’s a guy have to do to get job around here? I didn’t post about this before because I wanted to try not to jinx myself but since I’m now pretty sure I didn’t get the job then well who cares. They were supposed to call yesterday if I had the job. If not then they’re going to mail out rejection letters. No one called yesterday so.
I found a “Technology Specialist” position at a county ESC (Educational Service Center) that I applied for. They made it sound like a support position in the job description. Here’s exactly quoted what I knew of the job. This comes from an education job mailing list:
Position: Technology Specialist
Qualifications: Degree in Technology preferred. Ability to troubleshoot, maintain, ESC computers and networks.
That’s it folks! I read that and I see tech support for public education. Easy sell baby!
Once I get into the interview and start listening to them it became clear they really wanted a Technology Coordinator. They’ve been without a Coordinator since May I guess. They just didn’t want to pay a Coordinator salary so they concocted this BS position so that they could lowball the salary. How does 23,000 to 36,000 sound? Like a pretty good scam for what you wanted to person to do!
Back to the story. Very quickly they replied and asked for me to send them my college transcripts. Well last Wednesday at 9PM, of all times, the guy called me and said they wanted to bring me in for an interview. There was an opening Monday at 10AM. No problem I said! Except, they are doing things a little different. They want me to do a 20 to 25 minute presentation on the technology that I know. No problem I say again. In my mind I’m saying, “Wholly shnikies! A 25 minute PowerPoint presentation by Monday!?!?!”
So, I spent all weekend working on what I believe is a very good presentation for a support position. Come Monday I go in and I think I did a bang up job. But then the Q&A part of the interview wasn’t perfect. Now I know it’s not kosher to say bad things about a potential employer but I want to get this off my chest!
First off, you have my Resume. You know exactly what my work experience is. Don’t ask me questions that you and I both know I cannot answer! Asking me to tell you about the last in-service I ran or participated in is completely pointless. My only job experience is working as a freaking package handler at UPS. I load boxes into trucks all day.
Seriously folks, if you have to interview someone just take five minutes and compare your questions to the person. Make sure they’re relevant. It makes both of you look stupid when the question is irrelevant and cannot be answered.
Second, you’re interviewing for a technology position. You know, maybe you could try to ask some technology questions. Look, I know you’re not a techy and don’t know anything but at least try. Asking me a dozen generic questions about how I deal with stress, go above what is required of me or work in teams doesn’t exactly tell you anything.
It’s not all problems on their end though. I sort of dropped the ball and didn’t ask enough questions. That probably alone was enough to kill the deal. I can’t help it. I’m shy and nervous so I forget to ask questions.
Anyhoo, it’s all bugger so might as well forget about it. Time to move on and get working on my Church’s website like I had planned to do last weekend.