(no subject)
Today was a great day and technically it’s not over yet. I woke up naturally with the sun shining through my window at 5:50am, something that happens every morning, oddly enough at the exact same time. I closed my blinds and went back to sleep until my alarm went off at 7:30am. I went on over to begin my shift at YogaHop and got home around noon. Breakfast was in order but I went for the milk and cookies instead, and then had my bowl shredded mini wheat, strawberry flavored. My dad went over to his friends house, as usual, and wasn’t planning on being home until later in the night. I love having the house to myself. I was able to wash my car and then lay around on the couch for a while, listening to the music I had playing from my bedroom.
Finally, around 4pm, I showered and redeemed my last coupon code for Redbox that expires today. My mom recommended I watch “We Bought A Zoo.” Seems like it’ll be a cute, easy movie. Im saving it for Sunday since I’ll have most of the day to myself again due to my dad heading back out for lunch with his buddies. Well, I came home from my Redbox journey and got started on my yard work list. Just some little trimmings around the curb. There’s one plant that bloomed out of nowhere that is covered with flowers, which means its covered with bees. It has to be trimmed because its hanging over the curb and into the street and I really don’t want people to complain. But there’s bees. So I don’t know. I attempted to trim it, but I would hear a buzz fly by my ear, and flinching while holding a chain saw type machine is not the brightest idea. I skipped around it and now its more obvious since all the other plants in the area are in order.
After an hour of yard work time, I came in to watch an marathon of Undercover Boss. I have a love/hate relationship with this show. I really enjoy the concept of watching the CEO of a company go undercover and do the bitch work of the business, aka, the entry level jobs. Then he learns from it and can make improvements. What I dislike are the people on the show. Everyone has their sad story that I don’t have the desire to listen to. Therefore, I pulled out the work I brought home from the office and began on that. It’s nothing too crazy, just some outlining and highlighting things I need to add into my excel sheet. I have six packets and got through three or four of them. Not too shabby for a Saturday’s night of work.
This sparked my next adventure. I took a break and began thinking about eLearning and how much I enjoy it. Everything I am working on at fresh & easy is eLearning related and it’s something I want to pursue in more detail. I went online and began Googling for a good two hours. My first discovery was Masters Degree in E-Learning Instructional Design which I found available at CSU Fullerton. But, turns out my years of bullshitting during college will hold me back on that. I would need a GPA of 3.0 to be accepted, plus a good score on the GRE or GMAT which I really don’t want to deal with at the moment. So, I took it down a notch and tried looking for certificates. This is more achievable in the short term. I found UC Irvine offers an online program and I haven’t been able to see any barriers preventing me from signing up. I keep looking for them, but it looks as though it is something I can just enroll in without having to meet any major requirements. That doesn’t sound right and its something I am still trying to research more of. It does say it’s good for HR professionals, which is kind of describes me. Im just not as “professional” yet. I hope it is that easy to get into the program. If I do get it, I would be certified in E-Learning Instructional Design, and that’s pretty damn cool. To give a little brief on what that means, I’ll copy and paste the first few lines from the online brochure. I’ll be, “Building skills in developing and delivering online learning that are integral to addressing the task of training online. Content also provides the knowledge and skills for planning and designing e-learning instruction in training areas to match today’s varied company business needs based on identifiable learning objectives, rapid authoring tools, content requirements, and outcomes.”
It’s only six classes for a total of 15 units, two months per class. And price wise is $550 per class. Im sure my dad would provide assistance for anything that could lead to a better future for me, but I think this is something I want to take care of on my own. It works out really nicely that I make a little over $550 per week with fresh & easy, so everything seems like it will match up in my favor.
Im really excited and have already signed up for a free Webinar that will take place in August. It is an hour long session from 11:30a-12:30p and discusses assessment and practice in e-learning. It “introduces best practices in assessment and practice in synchronous, asynchronous, and blended learning. We will also examine different examples of fun interactions including case studies, simulations, and games.” Plus, it will give insight into one of the classes required for the certificate, and gives pre-registration advisement for people like me that have an interest in the program. From there I think I should have a better idea if this is something that applies to me or not. The date is August 9th, when I’ll be at work. I checked my calendar and as of now, I’m free. There’s small meeting rooms for us at work when we need quiet time to focus, so I’m going to reserve one, go on my lunch break, and enjoy how this plays out while eating my sandwich. And… if this all works out the way I want it too, I’ll be able to have UC Irvine mentioned on my resume. Kick ass. Haha. After completing that, hopefully I'll have two years of HR working expierence under my belt and I can begin to study up for my PHR certification. I love having plans.
We’ll see what happens. My overall career goal is to be a part of training. The company I want to work for when Im settled long term in my career is still up in the air. I think I need to find my passion and purpose, and then find a company that matches what I stand for. My first step is to gather as much knowledge as I can about eLearning and in person training to weigh out the pros and cons. Hm, let me rephrase what I said earlier. My overall goal is to be head of the training department. I love control and I would want nothing more than to be the one implementing a new training program and designing everything about it. But for now, I am a small intern. Granted, I am still creating a big new hire orientation that is done electronically, but still, an intern. On a side note, this orientation is to go through a soft launch to everyone at the corporate office on July 23rd or the 30th at the latest. So far it’s only been seen by Catherine who is my director, Damon who is the guy that originally had this idea, my manager Valerie, and a few interns during a meeting. So this will a huge progress step. Can’t wait for the feedback. Alright… that’s enough of all this work stuff and day dreaming for tonight. Good night ya’ll.