Double Duty

As the days and my assignments get fuller, it seems that I cannot get to this blog as much as I wanted.  I don't think I'm overly busy or more busy than I was in January.  My assignments have been different and require me to spend much more time than I'm used to.

I had a temporary assignment two weeks ago to take over another office's hiring assignments.  This was with the previous manager who hired me for this job.  I was happy and excited to show my stuff.

Ideally, the district hiring manager would be taking over this position that I took over.  She has been recovering from surgery so I was next in line in the district.  Quite an honor.

I spent every other day in San Jose.  I was finishing the onboarding assignments that the manager had completed while his hiring manager was out.  It wasn't easy to be able to keep track of both offices.  I had to use my assistant to take over some of the hiring while I was down in San Jose.  For the time that I spent there, I didn't get to do a lot.  I spent a lot of time traveling.  The San Jose office also takes care Salinas and I spent almost 4 hours driving from where I work down to Salinas.  Half my day was driving that day.

After week and a half of lots of overtime and weekend work to catch up on both offices, the hiring manager came back.  I had a meeting with both the manager and the hiring manager to talk about what I do effectively.  Not realizing that the manager was still on the phone, I talked about what I do, hopefully not offending the manager.

One of the things I kept telling the other hiring manager is that she needs to communicate.  I told her that my boss calls me every day to ask me what I'm doing even though I give him a weekly schedule.  I know that I can't get my job done unless he knows what I'm doing.  

Today after being out of the office for four days, I came back to the public computer in office not working.  Everybody else had tried to get the computer working and it didn't work.  Luckily for me, it worked when I needed it for one of my new hires to finish his paperwork.  But afterwards, it completely died again.  I had to figure out what we were going to be doing, concerning a computer.  Instead we decided that my laptop for work would wind up as the computer to use in the office.  Then, we had to figure out how to keep the computer stable and locked up so that it's available for non-managers but keep it safe.  I spent my day finding bits and pieces of the desk lock so that I can make sure the computer is there for the day.

I'm the type of person who keeps everything because you never know when you're going to need it.  When you finally figure out what it is, you can get rid of it if you don't need it anymore.

My last entry I think I had a job interview.  I haven't heard from them since so I'm assuming I did not get the job.  Today, I got a phone call from a company that sounded really excited to talk to me.  I was kind of excited also.  Interesting that the interviewer asked me to bring some of my writings that I've done.  I get to display a few of my e-mails and responses that I've written very thoroughly.   Writing is one of my strengths.  The interviewer also asked me about PowerPoint examples, although I've never done any for work per se.  I've done PowerPoint for school homework and teaching in church.  It's not as if I couldn't put one together.  I'm quite confident that I can.  It's a fun thing I liked doing for assignments during my studies for my degree.  I guess after doing it 40 times or so it becomes fun.

In a few weeks, I'm supposed to start classes on my Masters degree.  I'm not sure that's going to happen right away especially if things work out like they were supposed to six months ago; job, then moved out, and then school.  I've already been scheduled to work that night and I'm a little surprised.  I need to decide whether or not enough go through it right away or wait for summer.

The whole idea of starting right away was to get into school within my six months of finishing my bachelor's degree.  Well, I didn't make it within six months, so I am going to have to start paying for my loan for school.  I'm just have to figure out a way to get more hours, or a new job.

I really don't want to delay my studies.  If I start now, I'll be done by next summer.  I wanted summer to myself and maybe start my doctorate in January 2016.  But if I wait until summer, I don't think classes start until July or August, which means I'll be spending most of my whole summer studying.  I really don't mind, but I was hoping for some time off between classes.  It depends on whether or not I can stay with this company that I'm with right now.

When I have a feeling that I'm going to get a job, I start planning my life.  Some may feel that this is a way of "counting your eggs before they hatch" but I think it's a way of planning your life for change.  Sometimes though, it's overwhelming when you don't get the job.  It means cleaning the chalkboard and starting all over again.

I should be happy that people are calling me more often than before.  It means that I have something to offer and people want it. 

The company I work for is going to be very, very busy in May.  For the next two weeks all I have is hiring to do.  Not a problem as long as everybody shows up for interviews.  We're starting off slow again but I think if I fill my days up until next week, we'll be good.