The Zohner Family Blog » Work

At Long Last

Jeremiah — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:06:26 +0000

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.

To make a somewhat short story even shorter, I didn’t think that I did very well in the interview. I was only asked a couple of questions and the interviewer didn’t seem very interested in me. Then out of the blue, he asked what my availability was. I told him that it depended on how soon I received an offer if he intended to actually make me an offer. His response was an offer on the spot which I accepted with a big grin on my face and an even bigger grin on my insides. I’m guessing that he had it in his mind before he met me that if I didn’t turn out to be a drooling idiot that he’d make me an offer because I don’t think that any of my answers really wowed him.

The next day, I gave my two weeks notice at MasterControl. I did this with a lot of mixed feelings. The job was mentally draining and I was gone for 13 hours a day but I didn’t mind the work and I like the people that I worked with there a lot. Also, other than an enormous workload that only seemed to grow, my experience there had been pretty positive. Despite the long commute, I had planned on staying there for some time; however, the opportunity working on the Air Force base was too great to pass up so I came to the conclusion that it was time for me to move on. (The fact that they’re paying me more money and it’s only four miles from home doesn’t hurt either. Plus, I’m a field tech. No more spending 11 hours a day answering phones.)

I’ve now been working on base for about two weeks and have loved nearly every minute of it. In fact, I mentioned to one of the guys that I work with that I had forgotten how much I enjoy this type of work. I haven’t really been able to do it for about three years and didn’t realize how much I missed it. Hopefully I don’t screw things up too badly and Rylex decides that they’d like to keep me for the duration of this contract and every other contract that they are awarded.

Help For The Unemployed

Jeremiah — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:53:46 +0000

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.

Back In The Workforce

Jeremiah — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:17:32 +0000

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.

I apparently did pretty well in the phone interview because a face-to-face follow-up interview was scheduled for the next day. I was at my dad’s house at the time helping him with some computer related stuff. This fact came out as I was discussing the next interview with the hiring manager. Once he realized that I wasn’t far from their office, he asked me if I could come in that afternoon. I wasn’t dressed for an interview, unless you count a Nintendo hat and ratty Levi shorts appropriate interview attire, and told him as much. He said that since it was short notice that he wouldn’t hold my choice of clothing against me.

My face-to-face interview went well and I was told to keep the next few days open so that I could come back and meet with one of the vice presidents and somebody from HR. This set of interviews actually came a couple days later. Before I met with the others, I spent some more time visiting with the hiring manager. He was very good at answering my questions and we seemed to get along very well. He even told me that unless I said or did something stupid in the following round of interviews, the job was pretty much mine to lose. I appreciated him being so straight forward with me. This is something that I think is lacking in a lot of business environments.

Despite all odds, I managed to not say or do anything stupid in the next two interviews and was offered a position the following day. I am now a proud member of the MasterControl tech support team. For those who are not familiar with MasterControl, they are a software company that enables government regulated companies to get their products to market faster. (Don’t feel bad if you have never heard of them, I hadn’t either until I started working here.)

The one downside about my new job is the commute. The office is located near the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon which is about an hour from home. Fortunately I can take Legacy Highway and then jump on I-215 so it’s a pretty straight shot without a lot of traffic. Unfortunately though, I don’t get to ride a light cycle to work. It’s probably for the best.

I honestly can’t believe how quickly I was hired and what a good opportunity this is for me and the family. I’m really excited for all of the things that I’m going to be able to learn and for the new experiences that I’m having. The learning curve is extremely long and steep so I’m hoping that I can pick up on things relatively quickly because I hate feeling like an idiot.

Stupid Math…

Jeremiah — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:00:50 +0000

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.

After hearing the explanation for the cutbacks, I realized that Math has once again sucker punched me. For years in school, Math did everything it could to keep me from progressing towards graduation. After almost a year and a half though, I won, striking Math to the ground with an awesome score on a placement exam. Math has apparently been lying in wait since then, hoping for the perfect moment to exact its revenge. It executed said revenge extremely well. Touche, Math.

Since I’m currently looking for work that will meet our needs, I have some extra free time on my hands. As a result, I’ve added two extra classes to my school schedule in hopes of getting done that much faster. Now my days are literally filled with the reading of textbooks. Thankfully they’re on topics that I find interesting.

I’ve posted my resume on all of the major job sites and have even had some interest. Unfortunately, most of the interest I’m receiving has come from companies that tell me I can be my own boss or that I can make $50,000 a month just by working from home for a few hours a day. All it will take is a small investment on my part to get the income flowing. (I guess it’s like priming a pump…) If I were interested in working from home or being my own boss, I can think of more imaginative ways to make a living than what these people are peddling. For example, give me a dollar. Just kidding. Asking for money isn’t very creative. Give me ten dollars.

If you know of anybody who is looking for a qualified IT professional that has help desk, on-site, and logistics management experience, please be sure to let me know.

Back In The Workforce

Jeremiah — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:33:39 +0000

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?

Like I said before, this week is just orientation so Holly has it pretty easy so far. Next week she’ll start doing her real job. I imagine that it’ll be something like working at Arkham Asylum where she’ll encounter the likes of the Joker and Two-Face. That scares me but I know that it’s just my comic book nerd imagination running away. She’ll probably just be dealing with people who forgot to take their medication for depression or schizophrenia. (Although I’m sure that the Joker was prescibed some sort of meds at one point. Think he just forgot to take them?)

Our Trip: A Retrospective Part I

Jeremiah — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:13:39 +0000

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.

Thursday morning, we got up early and left the house at 7:00. I wondered if this was huge mistake because I knew that we would be hitting the morning rush hour. I was right. It took us two and a half hours to get from Syracuse to Orem. By that point, I was totally exhausted and we all needed a break. Holly needed to fill a prescription so we stopped at Target and hung out there for almost an hour while the pharmacist took her own sweet time putting 30 pills into a bottle.

Once we got back on the road, we started making up for lost time. We expected to arrive at Zions somewhere around 3:30 that afternoon. Then we arrived in Filmore. None of us had ever visited the Territorial Statehouse there so we decided to stop. I love history so it was very interesting to learn new things about Utah’s past. The kids seemed to enjoy it as well but Alex was concerned over the fact that they had a jail cell in the basement. He came to the conclusion that since there was a jail, there must be a bad guy somewhere.

After we had seen all that there was to see in Filmore, which didn’t take long, we got back on the road. Next stop: Zions.

Somewhere around Beaver, Holly mentioned that the car sounded funny. She also said that she smelled something burning. I listened and could only hear the road, and I didn’t smell anything, so I didn’t think much of it. We got off of the freeway near La Verkin, which for those of you who don’t know, is a very small town in the middle of nowhere, and I finally heard the car making strange noises. It sounded like something was grinding so I pulled over and popped the hood. Sure enough, something was making a lot of unnatural noises and the smell of burning rubber permeated the air. My first thought was that a bearing was messed up so we decided that we should find a mechanic to see what the problem was. We headed down the road towards Hurricane hoping to find somebody who could get us back on the road.

After about half a mile, we found an auto shop so we pulled over. They were pretty busy but offered to take a look at things. It took the mechanic about 30 seconds to determine that the AC compressor was in bad shape. He told me that it it would totally blow within 40 miles. That’s how bad it was. If it did blow, the possibility existed that the whole engine would be damaged and need to be replaced. At least that’s what the trained professional told me. I could see, hear, and smell that there was a need for this to get fixed as soon as possible. The mechanic told me that he could get us back on the road within a few hours but to properly fix things, it would take a day. We left the van there and walked across the street to a park where the kids played out the afternoon. Three hours later, the van was repaired enough to allow us to drive into St. George and get a rental car that we could use while the van was being repaired.

While we were in St. George, we went out to dinner with Holly’s sister, Carol and her kids. I had told Holly that I wanted to eat at the new In-and-Out Burger. Apparently the lines were out the door and the drive-thru had about 25 cars in it so we ended up going to The Olive Garden instead. The kids all had a lot of fun and it was nice to see Carol.

After dinner, we dropped the van back off at the mechanic in La Verkin and headed on to Zions. It was about 9:00 when we finally arrived at the hotel in Springdale. What should have been a six hour drive had taken fourteen hours! We put the kids to bed and I watched the Jazz lose to the Rockets. There were things that we had planned on doing that night but, because of our breakdown, we didn’t have time to do. It was still a good day though, despite our breakdown.

Remember when you’d be watching a TV show and realize that there was only a couple of minutes left but there was no way that things would be wrapped up before the show ended? That’s what’s happening here.

To be continued…

The Window Across The Street

Jeremiah — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:20:04 +0000

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.

Normally, I keep the blinds at the window by my desk semi-closed. They create too much of a glare on my computer screens and I despise glare. Yesterday though, because of the snow, and my love for watching it fall, I opened them up.

As I was watching the snow fall, I looked at the building across the street and noticed that there is a window on the fifth floor that is broken. It’s not just a little crack either; it’s a huge hole. I can see right through the reflective coating on the glass and right into the window. Of course, I’m two floors lower so I can only see the ceiling but my point is that it’s a big hole.

Seeing such a large hole in a window got me wondering how it got there. Did a disgruntled employee have their boss tell them one too many times that the TPS reports now require a coversheet and throw a red Swingline stapler through the window out of anger? Or maybe some kids were playing baseball amongst the cubicles and one of them hit a foul ball? What if somebody had a birthday and the ratio of people to cake was too big? Somebody could have thrown a fork at the person responsible for buying the cake and missed, hitting the window instead.

While I’m not sure how the hole got there, something obviously went through it. Whatever it was, it’s possible that it hit somebody walking on the sidewalk below. That probably wouldn’t be so bad if it was a Nerf ball, but if it was a baseball or a stapler or a fork, that could get ugly.

Brief New Job Update

Jeremiah — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 05:27:37 +0000

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.

Well, I need to go make some salmon pate for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. If I don’t get a chance to post tomorrow, I hope that everyone has a great holiday.

I Quit

Jeremiah — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 03:44:37 +0000

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.

The main reason that I decided to quit though was that I hated the commute. I was spending anywhere between two and three hours a day driving to and from work. That alone was barely manageable but then I’d end up driving all day to and from stores too. Even though I was getting reimbursed for my mileage, I was driving a lot and spending a small fortune in gas. Plus, my car has 192,000+ miles on it. It’s not going to last much longer and all those city miles that I was putting on it probably weren’t a good idea.

So what will I be doing with my time you ask? Well, let me tell you. A few weeks ago, I responded to an ad for a beta test coordinator that Holly had sent to me. I wasn’t really serious about it and didn’t expect anything to come from it. Then I got a call last Monday asking me to come in for an interview. I went and the co-founder of the company confused me with another applicant. I figured that I had no shot at getting the job based on the qualifications that were being read off that weren’t mine so I just tried to have fun. I guess I did well because the next day I got a call saying that I got the job. I could hardly believe it.

Starting Monday, I’ll be working at Centercode in Ogden. They provide software services designed to help companies conduct successful beta tests. Some of their clients include Microsoft and T-Mobile. I’ll be responsible for getting the beta products to and from the testers. My job isn’t as technical as I’d prefer but I’ll get to play with all sorts of technology before the general public. That’s a really good thing.

My commute will be cut but almost 40 minutes each way, plus I’ll be able to work from home if I want to. I also will be working with a bunch of guys who are like me; they like sci-fi, computers, and are all-around geeks. I also get the sense that they like each other and enjoy working with each other which is something that I’ve been missing.

This is going to be a fun challenge that I’m really excited for. Wish me luck.

Stress Reduction Time

Jeremiah — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:48:29 +0000

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.

Another source of stress has been the dog. Savannah has been causing all sorts of problems ever since we moved. I’m not sure if it’s because we got another dog or if it’s because we moved to a yard without a fence. No fence means that she has to be tied up when she goes out. Either way, she’s developed a very anti-social attitude and prefers to sulk in the basement by herself, only coming upstairs to steal food from the kids or to pee on the carpet. Holly has had enough of this behavior so she got rid of her on Sunday. It came as a surprise to us. I have mixed feelings about Savannah being gone. On one hand, I miss her because, for the most part, she was a sweet dog. On the other hand though, it’s a huge relief to know that I don’t need to worry about her running off or stealing food from Hannah’s plate. One source of stress is now gone.

On Saturday, Holly quit her job. We determined that it was what was best for our family. Holly is so stressed about no having enough time to get homework done that something had to give. We’ve committed ourselves to getting her through school so quitting that wasn’t an option. Obviously, sending her to live by herself for a year until she graduates wasn’t an option either. That left work that could be cut out. Quitting makes two sources of stress gone.

Despite everything, Holly is getting A’s in all of her classes. She’s been working very hard and usually has some of the highest test scores in her classes. It’s only going to get harder but she’s going to be fine. We’re all very proud of her.