After reading Jo’s post, I realized I’m way behind, long overdue, and have been silent on this end for awhile.
I’ve been ungodly busy for about six weeks, all in the name of finding, getting, and starting a new job. Finally!
It all started when I got fed up with being behind on rent, behind on bills, and floating checks in order to make it from one paycheck to the next. Never mind the payday loan that I just rolled over again, the car with a sagging bumper, paint peeling, the cruise control that I’ve depended on to allow me to drive long distances, the need for new brakes, etc.. I was holding up fairly well until Rich married and moved out (certainly not a bad thing that he did, of course!), taking half the household income with him. It had been a downhill slide ever since, and I saw only one way out.
What do you do, though, when there’s a recession on and everybody is in the midst of a hiring freeze? Figuring nothing would come of it I posted my updated resume on Dice, fielded the usual phone calls for jobs I wasn’t qualified for, or that someone else had sold their contract first on, thus starting, I thought, another round of disappointment. Ever since Bush signed legislation that gave big businesses tax breaks for outsourcing to other countries, the job field of Technical Support has had the bottom fall out of it. Naturally I expected this round of job-hunting to go the same way as the rest.
A few days after my resume went up, I received a phone call from a recruiter down in Springfield, Illinois, our state capital, and home to a lot of government agencies and workers. The company was Rose International, one I’d never heard of, and the company that now had all of the IT contracts with the Department of Children and Family Services – with four years left in the current six-year contract and probably at least a couple more years beyond that to go. I cheerfully had my phone interview with the recruiter, did everything they wanted me to with background checks, drug testing and such, then… nothing. I was disappointed and about to write them off when they emailed me out of the blue, apologized for the delay, and asked me if I’d still be interested in the position.
At wages that were a third more than what I was currently making, and some really good benefits to go with, you bet I was still interested. What’s more, the DCFS manager in charge of their help desk was willing to wait until my day off for me to interview. I drove the sixty miles, did my best to win them over, filled out a second, very lengthy background check, then waited… again. Just as I was about to give up for a second time I heard from the hiring manager at Rose. DCFS wanted *me,* out of several they’d interviewed. I accepted readily, then sat in shock after I got off my cell phone.
(FYI, the newest trend in job interviewing is via cell phone in your current employer’s parking lot. I’ve seen others do it, and later my then-manager admitted that had been how he’d gotten his job with Mediacom.)
The rest I’ve detailed in a previous post, so as to not be redundant I won’t cover that ground again. 
What it all boils down to is if I hadn’t lost all that weight I would never have had the energy and ability to go job-hunting, interviewing, and all the things that require *drive* to accomplish. I’ve lost 68 lbs and still shrinking, and landing this job has made everything worth-while.
DCFS, so far, has turned out to be as laid-back as Mediacom, with one exception – absolutely no web-browsing except for business reasons. Sigh. I’ll be working third shift, probably take less than ten calls a night, and I can’t web browse. So, I’m going to take all of my unfinished fic on my thumb drive and *write* like crazy. I’m also going to study for a MS certification, since my new manager expects that to be accomplished within the first year. Everyone wears jeans whenever they feel like it, is outrageously silly, and so far they’re going out of their way to make me feel comfortable. My manager comes across as extremely nice – sometimes I wonder if he’s for real, since I’ve been burned so bad by management in the past. However, I’ve watched my co-workers interact with him, all positive, so I have my fingers crossed. They also have a hiring freeze on, but the Help Desk is considered mission-critical, even on third shift due to the 24-Hour Child Abuse Hotline and a couple of divisions open 24/7 in the Chicago area.
I have a real cubicle, 19 inch dual monitors and a dual-processor computer, don’t have to steal pens or use scraps of paper to take notes on, and if I lean out of my cubicle there’s this amazing view of Springfield. It’s *quiet* – the sounds echoing off the ceiling at a call center can be boggling. Monday will be my last day on the day shift; Thursday I’ll start third shift, midnight to nine a.m. Fortunately I’m an owl.
The next step is to move, which looks as though to be over Winter Break when Bobby is home.
Meanwhile, I miss Rich and Kalaab, especially. I’m job-hunting for Richie; he says I’m his job-hunt lucky charm, since every long-term job he’s ever had I’ve discovered and suggested he apply for. I’m still shocked I got this one, since there are *no* Help Desk positions to be found anywhere. None. Nada.
Kalaab’s wife is due within the next couple of weeks, as well, so I’m hoping to see him after the baby is born.
Everything is changing and I’m walking around, bewildered, a little frightened, trying to be realistic. BIG SIGH.
Geez, talk about rambling!
Wish me luck.
