About a year ago, I was laid off from one of the best jobs that I have ever had. A friend of mine named Chris knew this and told me to give him a copy of my resume so that if he heard of any openings at Hill Air Force Base, he could make sure that it made it into the right hands. (Chris was a contractor with a company called Rylex and worked at the help desk on the base.) A few weeks ago, Chris called me and said that Rylex had some openings for IT field technicians and that he had finally given my resume to the VP of human resources. Despite his glowing review of me though, I wasn’t sure that I’d get an interview because Chris told me that he thought that he submitted it too late. Upon hearing this, I started thinking that my chances weren’t very good and resumed my normal duties but then I got a call the next day asking me to come in for an interview. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t excited.
Archive for the Category »Work «
Jul 2010
Jan 2010
Since I know a few people who are currently looking for work, I thought that I would post this short video that is sure to help everyone in their job interviews. If you question just how well it can help you, I have just two words for you: it’s Batman. Are you saying that Batman cannot help you? Because if you are, that’s just sad and you’re very, very wrong.
On an unrelated note, I know that our poor blog has been somewhat neglected for the past few weeks. I’m seriously hoping to change that. Since school has started up again though, I’m experiencing a serious time crunch. The fact that I actually work at work isn’t helping either. (I hate it when work gets in the way of my blogging.) I have a few changes in store that will be explained when they happen so please keep coming back, or better yet, add us to your RSS feed so you can know when they happen.
Sep 2009
In my last post, I eluded to the fact that I have gone back to work. When I was laid off from Centercode, my boss told me that he hoped that finances would allow them to hire me back before I found a new job. I told him that I had six months worth of unemployment so the company had six months to get me hired back on. He told me that it was more likely that I’d find a new job before he could bring me back which is exactly what happened.
A few weeks ago, one of our neighbors posted a message on her Facebook page saying that if anybody knew of someone looking for a tech support job to let her know because her husband’s employer was hiring. I took my resume over to him that night and the next morning I had an email saying that the company wanted to do a phone interview with me as soon as possible.
Aug 2009
As many of you know, I have been working as a beta test coordinator for a company called Centercode, Inc. for the past two years. As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Unfortunately, my job was not immune from this English proverb and I was laid off last week. I take comfort in knowing that I wasn’t the only one who lost their job that day but it’s never fun to leave a job that you love going to everyday.
A few days before I received the official word that the company was making cutbacks, my boss pulled me aside and explained the situation to me. Basically, what it came down to is Centercode makes X amount of money per contract and has Y amount of expenses. Because of the situation that we find our economy in, X was no longer enough to cover Y. As pretty much everyone knows, unless you’re a politician, spending more money than you bring in isn’t a good way of doing business. It’s basic math that, unfortunately, led to my termination.
Aug 2008
This week Holly began orientation for her new job. Yes, that’s right. Holly has re-entered the workforce. This time though, instead of playing with surgical tools, she gets to play with real live people.
Let me start at the beginning. A few weeks back, Holly found a job posting for a LPN in the psych ward at a hospital in Ogden. It was a part time position and she was itching to start using her nursing abilities so she applied, interviewed, and got the job.
The job will be good for a few reasons. First, Holly will have better benefits than I do which is never a bad thing. It’s also an IHC facility which we learned from her stint at LDS Hospital is just plain awesome. (They treated her really well when she worked for them before.) They will also work around her school schedule which will allow her to finish her last semester of nursing school, become a RN, then move to a different department (hopefully labor and delivery.) Probably the best part though is that she’ll get experience in a medical field. Sure, she could go to work at a nursing home but who wants to do that when you can work in a psychiatric ward?
Apr 2008
Since Holly finished up her first year of nursing school on Wednesday, she thought that it would be fun to go on a little vacation during her week and a half break. You see, she starts her RN year next week and wanted to do more than just sit at home doing nothing during her time off. I agreed with her and so the planning began.
Since neither of us had ever been to Zions National Park or Bryce Canyon National Park, we decided that we should take a road trip through Utah and enjoy some of the beautiful scenery that this state has to offer. We booked our hotels and I told my boss I was leaving for a few days, then we loaded up the van and started driving.
Jan 2008
Ever since I was a kid, I have enjoyed watching snow fall. I always remember my mom and I watching people try to drive their cars up the hill that we lived on, only to fail and end up walking the rest of the way home. I learned my lesson early on and would usually park at the bottom of the hill and just walk the whole way. It was easier and safer.
Yesterday we had a snow storm while I was at work. It dropped somewhere around 4 inches at my office. Not only was it snowing, it was also very windy. At times, the snow was actually falling up. All of the blowing didn’t do much for accumulation but it made for quite a spectacle.
Nov 2007
I finished my first week at Centercode this afternoon. It was a short week due to the holiday tomorrow and it felt even shorter than it actually was. After three days it would appear as though I have found the perfect job. I like what I do, the commute is very reasonable, and I like the guys that I work with.
I’m gonna keep this short because I’m tired and I’m trying to get caught up on episodes of Chuck, but my job is awesome. So far I’ve spent time playing a video game that was part of a beta test, gotten a sweet Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to go with my company provided laptop, and caught myself up on some TV shows. We have a server full of music and movies/TV shows that we watch on lunch.
Nov 2007
Today I quit my job at Harmons. Actually, today was my last day. I quit last Wednesday.
I decided to leave for a few reasons. The first is that I didn’t feel like I belonged there. I came from an OK job where there was a very strong feeling of camaraderie. At Harmons, the job was good but I didn’t feel the same friendships with my coworkers and I missed that. I don’t think that it’s anything that I did or anything that other people did. I think that it’s just how my personality meshed with other people’s personalities. Everybody was friendly and I felt like a lot of people liked me but something was missing. I don’t know if I was ever fully accepted by some of the people that I worked with and this usually led to me feeling like the odd man out. In order to deal with that feeling, I just worked that much harder. Fortunately, I like fixing computers.
Oct 2007
With Holly in nursing school, there is a lot of stress in our home. As you might imagine, with three children, two dogs, a job, and school, plus a husband that works full-time and also goes to school, Holly was feeling a bit stressed.
Holly’s stress has been magnified with the start of clinicals last week. The fact that she’s doing clinicals isn’t what’s stressful, it’s the homework that associated with them that causes problems. She finishes her clinicals on Friday afternoon and then has approximately 48 hours to complete 40 hours worth of homework. That’s in addition to all of the other studying/homework that she has to do during the rest of the week. The cycle then starts over again on the following Thursday.
