Job Post Archives
Cool. My younger brother, John, finally got himself a teaching job. :) He graduated with his Masters this year and I think he was starting to get a bit worried about finding a job since, well, it's 3 weeks into August and school tends to start pretty soon. I haven't heard all the details yet, but I know he'll be teaching in Haverhill, MA. Congratulations, little buddy!
Posted on August 20, 2001 1:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The job offers are coming in for Sarah and she has more interviews lined up. This is a good and happy thing. Now let's hope these people will pay her enough. If not, you may see me on a street corner in a nearby urban community.
Posted on November 6, 2001 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Well, I got laid off today. I'm surprisingly calm about it, which is strange, since I usually freak out about money. But I guess I saw something like this coming. Well, not really. But it feels nice to say that. 7 other people went with me, so at least I wasn't alone. I feel bad for others who are in worse situations than I am. So... now I'm on the look out for work. Maybe this will give me a chance to rethink my career path. Or consider other options about what I want to do with my life. We'll see. I just hope I don't lose touch with the people I was working with that I actually liked. That's probably unrealistic, but... I still hope.
Posted on November 7, 2001 7:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Well, I'm not back from the holiday travels yet. But, as Sarah's told everyone that she wants to tell in person, she's allowed me to post here about her news. Sarah got a job! :) She'll be working as a library aide at the middle school of the Flint Hill School in Oakton, VA. It's a part-time position, so she'll have lots of time to do other things. It pays much better than she expected and they budget it out for her so that she'll be paid when she's off during the summer. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. Sarah's thrilled. As an incredibly avid reader, this is a dream job for her.
Now let's just see if I can find one... I've got a few resumes out there, so we'll see...
Posted on November 24, 2001 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Well, I've got a lead on a possible job. The school Sarah works for is looking for a tech support guy. Someone to install software, set up printers, set up scanners, that sort of thing. It's a bit out of my field, but I've been installing software and hardware in my own machines since I was 12 or 13 and I almost completely put together my current machine. So I should be able to handle it. It sounds like the job won't pay as much as I was making before, but a job's a job. Plus, getting a job now might allow the economy and the tech industry to recover a bit by the time the school year's over if they decide to not make it a permanent position. I'm interviewing tomorrow morning, so we'll see how it goes. :)
Posted on December 11, 2001 4:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
I went to the interview today. It was very odd. It lasted about 10-15 minutes and they didn't even want to see my resume and asked relatively few questions. They actually gave me the job right then and would've had me start right away except I was wearing a suit and they didn't want to ruin it. It's only a temporary, part-time thing, but it'll be nice to get some extra money while I'm looking for something else. Which they expect me to do and they're completely fine with it. Which is nice. But it'll be cool doing stuff I enjoy and making some money and helping people out. Hopefully once the holidays are over, something permanent will show up. Until then... this is good.
Posted on December 12, 2001 8:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Hi there. Well, it looks like blogger's back after what happened to the poor thing. Hackers are yucky. Ah well...
The good news is that I have a job interview tomorrow. It's for a consulting firm. It sounds like they pretty much staff projects for people, though I'll learn more tomorrow. But the woman I talked to said they needed 4 mid-to-senior level C++ developers, so hopefully I've got a good shot at getting the job. We'll see what happens, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up TOO much. It'd be great to get the job, though, even if I decide I don't like it. It'd definitely make me feel better.
Posted on December 27, 2001 7:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Hrmmm... well... hopefully blogger's O.K. now. Haven't been able to publish the last few times I tried. And I keep having the feeling I posted SOMEthing else after the 1st, but maybe not. I know I've been quiet. But I thought I posted over the weekend. Oh well. Maybe not. ANYhow...
I'm now employed again. :) The company I interviewed with before the end of the year called my references on Tuesday and had an offer ready for me later in the afternoon. I didn't get to pick it up until tonight, but I accepted. The company seems really great and they're stable. They've been around since 1989. The benefits package was nice. I'm making a substantial amount more than I was at my old job. The weirdest thing is... the two guys who founded my old company were named Jeff and the guy who founded this company's name is Jeff. Spooky. But anyhow... I'm really happy and I'm looking forward to working again. Unemployment sucks. Working is GOOD. Money's especially good.
Thanks to all of you who helped me in any way that you did. And thanks to all of you who supported me when I was laid off. I appreciate it more than you'll ever know.
Posted on January 10, 2002 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Unfortunately, my job has yet to start. They told me it'd start immediately, but it's been a week now. Ah well. I'm getting a bit worried, but I'm trying not to worry too much. I've taken to looking at job ads again, just in case something happens, but I haven't seen anything good yet. Still... we'll see.
Stupid economy...
Posted on January 17, 2002 9:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Well... my job still hasn't started yet and this is starting to get a bit ridiculous. It's been almost 3 weeks now since I signed the offer letter. I can understand the bureaucracy involved, but I'm starting to feel like I'm being jerked around.
In other jerking around news, Capital One sent me an offer that sounded sweet. No interest until June and then a fixed 8.9% APR after that, which was slightly better than I already had. So I decided to try it, since no interest for a few months would be nice. So eventually I get something from them telling me they need proof of address, so I send them what they ask for. About a week later, I get a letter from them telling me that they received my proof of address, but they can't find an application in my name. Why do they think they asked for a proof of address? Blah. It makes you wonder how these companies function.
Posted on January 29, 2002 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Paul's recent post hit fairly close to home for me. For quite some time now, I've struggled to figure out what to do with my life. It can be difficult to get what you want when you don't know what it is. There tend to be fairly standard paths towards achieving most career goals, but when you don't know what you're shooting for in the end, it's difficult. Computer science was something I was fairly good at and comfortable with and it promised a fairly well-paying job when I got out of college. I don't know if it's the job I had or the career path in general, but it's certainly not what I'd call fulfilling. I've pondered various things I have any interest in whatsoever and I've usually completely failed to find any way of making a living doing any of it. Not exactly what I'd call encouraging. Ah well... I'm sure it'll come to me eventually. At the moment, I'd just like a job that lets me continue living here, thank you.
Posted on February 11, 2002 12:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Yes, I'm still here. Just been quiet and busy lately. I've been back at Sarah's school doing some work for them, so I've gotten a bit of extra money. We also went to Ohio for the long weekend, so I wasn't around to post then, either. The rest of the time... well... you probably don't wanna know what I was doing anyhow.
I had a job interview today, though. A small company out in McLean. They do linguistic software. Sounded like a neat place. There will be a second, technical interview for me if they liked me enough. Hopefully they did. I don't interview well and I tend to suddenly forget what it was I did in my prior job and such. But... we'll see.
Give me job. Give me job now. Give me?
Posted on February 20, 2002 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Well... I got called back for a second interview with that place I interviewed at last week. It's today at 1:30 and hopefully it'll go well. This one's a more technical interview. As I tend to freeze up in interviews and practically forget my own name, I hope it'll still go well. This may not be my dream job or anything, but at the moment, I'm not feeling too picky. Maybe after this, I'll go see a career counsellor or something. I have too many minor and, often, fleeting interests to try to figure out what else I might like to do with my life.
Posted on February 26, 2002 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Well, my day didn't go so wonderfully today. I got up in plenty of time for my interview, which was good. But then it all went downhill from there.
First off, I left at a decent time for my interview. Then as I was passing the mailbox, I thought I'd check the mail, so I reached for my keys. Which weren't there. I'd actually managed to lock myself out of my apartment, something I've never ever done. So I ran over to the apartment office and the door was locked. Luckily, I saw one of the managers coming up the sidewalk, so I got her to give me the keys to my apartment. I managed to make it to the interview with just 10 minutes to spare.
But I don't think the interview went too well. I guess my knowledge has been sort of dulled by a reliance on tools. I usually look stuff up that I need to know. And there are other things I just take for granted, so I've forgotten. They were simple questions that I didn't answer correctly. And I also was so nervous that my little sample bit of programming that he had me do was screwed up. But... I don't know... maybe they'll take my nervousness into account. Supposedly I'll be told on Monday whether I got the job or not.
The one bit of good news is that I got a call from AOL. Unfortunately, I missed the phone call and when I called back 5 minutes later, the guy was gone. So I'll try tomorrow. I know AOL isn't a great service, but... it's close by, it's a big company so I'll hopefully get decent money and benefits, and I'm sure they're more stable now that they've merged with Time Warner and all that. But who knows? Hopefully I'll get an interview with them. Since I'm still so unsure about what I want to do for the rest of my life, it might be nice to take something that pays well and all. So... we'll see.
Could've been a better day, though, that's for sure.
Posted on February 26, 2002 9:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
It seems my usual bad luck is holding true for me. Though I missed the AOL guy's call by 5 minutes, when I called him back, he wasn't there. I've tried calling him at least a dozen times each day since, leaving 3 messages, but I haven't gotten in touch with him at all. I was hoping to get an interview in before the other company decided. Oh well.
Sorry I've been so quiet lately. All of this stuff hasn't put me in an especially wonderful mood.
Posted on March 2, 2002 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
I'm starting to think that this guy from AOL doesn't exist. I figured if he suddenly fell ill, he'd be back today after a nice weekend of rest and relaxation. But no. I tried calling again today several times and got nowhere. I really have to wonder if the computer created this guy and created a voice for him and is mocking me. From what I could tell, the guy's name is Matt Canada. Seems suspicious to me.
In other news... well... there IS no other news. My life's boring.
Posted on March 4, 2002 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Well, my employment woes continue. I finally decided to get in touch with the place that supposedly hired me about 2 months ago. Though I hadn't heard from them for about a month and they'd told me that I was going to be kept in the loop, I'd given up on calling them, since they kept just telling me that it hadn't started and they didn't know when it was going to start and they'd contact me when they knew anything. Of course, I always ended up having to contact them. But anyhow... I found out that the client I was going to be working for, AMS, didn't get the funding they needed for this project, so they were going to handle it all internally. Oh, and they had no other C++-related projects that I could be considered for. Yay.
I called the place I interviewed with last week, but the guy wasn't there, so I left a voice mail. I don't have a good feeling about this one.
The quest for the missing AOL guy is still ongoing. I tried writing some e-mail to what I thought might be a general AOL employment e-mail address. I'm also going to possibly try to call the main AOL line and see what's up with this guy.
Anyhow... that's all for me right now. Blah.
Posted on March 7, 2002 10:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Yet another update on my job hunt. I got a mail from the company I interviewed with, saying that they went with another candidate. Which is what I figured anyhow. However, there's a possibility that this job I've been doing at the school Sarah works at could become permanent. It wouldn't start for a few months, though, and I don't know what the salary would be like, but it's a possibility. And it'd be interesting to do something with computers besides programming. I've always wanted to explore other areas, but it's kinda hard to do without the training and I couldn't afford to get the training before. So we'll see.
In other news, Sarah reports that the new Indigo Girls CD is pretty good. Some great stuff on there but some so-so stuff, too. I guess I haven't really been totally infatuated with their albums since Swamp Ophelia, though. There have been some really great songs here and there, but the last few albums just haven't been solid love for me. Ah well.
Posted on March 12, 2002 8:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Well, it looks like I probably have a job. I still have to think about it a little bit because it'll require a pay cut, but... it could be an interesting opportunity and it IS a job, which would be a rather nice thing for me to have.
The network administrator for the school Sarah works at isn't coming back next year and I apparently impressed the other tech people enough that they were pretty happy when I said I was interested in the job. A bit of a scare happened when I went to meet the headmaster and he thought I was interviewing for the help desk position they also had available... and only offered me $35k. I can't even live on that. But... the misunderstanding was rectified and a more reasonable offer was made. It's still a $7000 or so pay cut, but that's better than an $18,000 pay cut. I'll take a look and see if I can live with it. It'd be a neat job and it really doesn't seem easy to get this kind of position without having experience already. I have a lot of desktop troubleshooting experience, but I don't know much about network administration. But they said they'd pay to send me to Novell classes and do some training and all that, so it'll be great and I'll learn a lot. It'll be nice to get exposed to another area of computers that I wouldn't easily be able to.
Posted on March 22, 2002 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Well, I started my training today for my new job. I've been sent off to learn Microsoft stuff, since most of the people working there now know mostly Novell and don't really know much about 2000 Server and all that. So far, the class has been fairly boring and I haven't learned anything new, really. But it's only been one day and I figure things will pick up soon. Hopefully.
I've added a comment feature to my MP3 of the Week thingy that I don't think anyone's listening to anyhow.
That's about it for me. It's damn hot out, so I'm glad the place I'm getting trained is heavily air conditioned. Woo!
Posted on June 10, 2002 7:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
One class down, one to go. It's too bad this isn't going to get me any type of certification or anything, but that's a bit more expensive. Or a whole lot more expensive. But anyhow... the first class was pretty good. Seemed to go a bit too slow in some places and maybe a bit too fast in others. But the fast places seemed to be designed to make you take the next class or the next two in the series, so I understood. Hopefully this will arm me with the knowledge I need to do what needs to be done in my new job. I'll find out soon enough.
I wish I wasn't such a slow reader. I honestly don't know why I'm so slow. I read a lot as a child, fiction and non-fiction both. But it hasn't helped my reading speed one bit. Even a comic book takes me longer than I feel it should. The point is, I have a stack of both books and comic books I haven't read yet. Dammit.
Posted on June 16, 2002 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Well, this week was supposed to be my first week at my new job. But I'll be taking another class before I start. This one should be great for my new job, since it's about integrating Novell and Windows 2000, which is the type of environment I have to deal with at work. This should definitely help me feel more confident about being able to perform my duties. The class runs until Wednesday, then I get the 4th off, so my first day of work will be Friday. :)
I'm keeping the latest MP3 of the week up for a day or two longer, since I put the last one up so late. Yay!
Posted on June 30, 2002 4:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Well, in about 7 hours or so, I'll be at my new job on my first day. Hopefully everything will go well. I'm not really qualified for the job, so I'm a bit worried about that. But... they seem to have a lot of confidence in me and my ability to learn. So maybe I won't completely destroy their network. :) We'll see what happens. If all doesn't go well, maybe you'll see me in the unemployment line again soon and all my stuff will end up on eBay so I can pay my bills. Yay!
It'll be nice to have a permanent job again. Though I've been carrying around all this debt for so many years, I still don't feel comfortable when my financial footing is that unstable. It drives me nuts not to have a steady income. Maybe this will bring my stress level down a bit.
Anyhow... I'm employed. Now to get all those job web sites I signed up at to stop sending me mail. :)
Posted on July 5, 2002 12:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Well... life's been hellish lately. I've been working 12+ hour days, including the weekend, and I've generally had little time to do much else. A friend came down to visit this weekend and I barely got to spend any time with him. Ah well... at least we got to play some multiplayer Halo.
Anyhow... this'll be short. I'm exhausted. I can't wait for the weekend...
Posted on August 28, 2002 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)