Rank and File
It really is a good thing Myspace doesn't track the number of times you sign in each day/week/month/life 'cause if it did I think I'd be really depressed and disgusted with myself. I believe this is the double digits for me today. Seems that even when I am busy doing things I still have plenty of time to get online 82 and a half times a day to check on how many messages I don't have. You know life as your average straight male is fairly lonely. I only have 34 friends and I suppose I can't really count 3 of them. One is a ninja and the other two are musicians I don't really know. Now, if I was a 19 year old bi-sexual girl with decent cleavage and no inhibitions I think I could up that number slightly. At least that's what I've figured out from browse *ahem* modifying my browsing preferences. It's amazing how many cute girls you can find when you're overtly looking. Ah, bless the internet, without it I might have to leave the house to meet people.
Really, I haven't even been in the house that much these last two weeks. Kayking, which I will not go into as I've written endlessly on the subject already. Moving, a friend, not me....not yet. She moved out of her place last Friday and I was there. She moved into the new place Sunday and I was there. She needs help picking up a washer and dryer and *sigh* I'll be there tomorrow. I was in Bremerton two weekends ago visiting family...crap, or was that three weekends? Hell, it was...or four? Damn it, I don't remember where I was. I had a job interview with Verizon last Tuesday. A urine analysis on Friday, right before moving. I don't remember all else.
It's not like I've been really busy per se, it just seems like the last two weeks have been really full. Now, you have to understand that I've been unemployed for the last six months. I spent the first two months of that time just travelling around happy to be free of my last job. Friends were getting married and I didn't want to be in town...those are seperate things. At any rate, the last few months of that I've been putting out a lot of applications via the internet (again, no face to face with anyone). The first nibble I got was around the 8th of Sept. for a garage door installation company. A small branch of a large chain. Good people, okay pay, good benefits package, but no vacation or retirement and likely none in the near future. Aside from that I'd have been the 14th employee including the owners. Normally this wouldn't bother me except that I realized I didn't want to do it long term and I'd be looking for other work even as they were training me. Didn't seem right to take a job for a company like that when I knew I might leave at the drop of the hat. So, I told the owner this and turned it down. *Sigh* It's amazing how quickly I rejoined the downward spiral.
About the same time my uncle told me to apply for anything at Verizon that I seemed even remotely qualified for. I'd already applied for "Customer Zone Tech" and got no bites on this, but at least in the process I'd passed the basic electronics/telecommunications pre-employment tests (damn, what a mouthful). Made it easier to apply for the "Buried Service Wire Technician." I didn't think I was qualified for it, but figured the worst that could happen was nothing and that was already what was happening. So I applied anyway. And who woulda thunk it, they called me in for an interview. Well, an interview is overstating it. I showed up 10 minutes late (Fuck you Hwy 26 and your 10am rush hour) and still got offered the job at the end of the interview. How? Well, I'd love to say I just interview that well. I'm good, but not that good. Here's the deal and pay attention, you might learn something.
Verizon is putting a lot of money into FiOS, it's fiber optics system. General service quality with this technology is supposed to be just the bees knees (what the hell does that mean anyway). Till now, which I guess is that last three years they've been subcontracting the installation of these wires out to other companies. The service has been shoddy at best. One report was that a wire required to be buried at least 18 inches deep was only buried 3 inches down. Shit like that. So, Verizon has been building their own crews to do this work to their own standards. This is where I come in. The PDX division is just now being set up, so they're hiring rapidly. Several managers and 44 technicians in the next three weeks. If you're looking for a decent job and don't mind some physical labor I'd talk with Verizon now. What this means, given my education and the fact that I'm sure I did well on the UTB-r (basic apptitude test) and still being 10 minutes late I could probably have pissed myself in the board room and still gotten hired...maybe not. Sometimes it's not just about being good, it's about putting yourself in the right place at the right time. Or in other words, in job hunting terms, putting an egg in every basket you can get close to.
Soooo, after the interview I was on cloud-fucking-nine, and I was there for like four days. In fact, I'm still a little high on the whole thing. It just keeps getting better really. My HR rep called to give me the details. My wages, the union, benefits, etc. and I'm just getting happier and happier that I turned down the garage door place. I'll really be able to live on this job. The pay is nearly twice what I made at Meier & Frank. My raises are every six months the first of which is an entire $1.02 and hour. And Verizon can give merit based raises. Which means if I'm really kicking ass (that is a direct quote from my interview) my managers can put me in for a raise even if I'm not due. I haven't even started and already I've never been treated this well by a company I worked for. I emphasize "company" in that statement. Adam, I loved working with you. You know this, but unfortunately you had no say in the way the store did things, and the store did things shitty.
Work starts on the 23rd this month. Maybe that's why I'm trying to pack as much in as I can. My free time is going to drop dramatically in three weeks. Shit, I better get crackin'.
Proud to rejoin the rank and file.
Really, I haven't even been in the house that much these last two weeks. Kayking, which I will not go into as I've written endlessly on the subject already. Moving, a friend, not me....not yet. She moved out of her place last Friday and I was there. She moved into the new place Sunday and I was there. She needs help picking up a washer and dryer and *sigh* I'll be there tomorrow. I was in Bremerton two weekends ago visiting family...crap, or was that three weekends? Hell, it was...or four? Damn it, I don't remember where I was. I had a job interview with Verizon last Tuesday. A urine analysis on Friday, right before moving. I don't remember all else.
It's not like I've been really busy per se, it just seems like the last two weeks have been really full. Now, you have to understand that I've been unemployed for the last six months. I spent the first two months of that time just travelling around happy to be free of my last job. Friends were getting married and I didn't want to be in town...those are seperate things. At any rate, the last few months of that I've been putting out a lot of applications via the internet (again, no face to face with anyone). The first nibble I got was around the 8th of Sept. for a garage door installation company. A small branch of a large chain. Good people, okay pay, good benefits package, but no vacation or retirement and likely none in the near future. Aside from that I'd have been the 14th employee including the owners. Normally this wouldn't bother me except that I realized I didn't want to do it long term and I'd be looking for other work even as they were training me. Didn't seem right to take a job for a company like that when I knew I might leave at the drop of the hat. So, I told the owner this and turned it down. *Sigh* It's amazing how quickly I rejoined the downward spiral.
About the same time my uncle told me to apply for anything at Verizon that I seemed even remotely qualified for. I'd already applied for "Customer Zone Tech" and got no bites on this, but at least in the process I'd passed the basic electronics/telecommunications pre-employment tests (damn, what a mouthful). Made it easier to apply for the "Buried Service Wire Technician." I didn't think I was qualified for it, but figured the worst that could happen was nothing and that was already what was happening. So I applied anyway. And who woulda thunk it, they called me in for an interview. Well, an interview is overstating it. I showed up 10 minutes late (Fuck you Hwy 26 and your 10am rush hour) and still got offered the job at the end of the interview. How? Well, I'd love to say I just interview that well. I'm good, but not that good. Here's the deal and pay attention, you might learn something.
Verizon is putting a lot of money into FiOS, it's fiber optics system. General service quality with this technology is supposed to be just the bees knees (what the hell does that mean anyway). Till now, which I guess is that last three years they've been subcontracting the installation of these wires out to other companies. The service has been shoddy at best. One report was that a wire required to be buried at least 18 inches deep was only buried 3 inches down. Shit like that. So, Verizon has been building their own crews to do this work to their own standards. This is where I come in. The PDX division is just now being set up, so they're hiring rapidly. Several managers and 44 technicians in the next three weeks. If you're looking for a decent job and don't mind some physical labor I'd talk with Verizon now. What this means, given my education and the fact that I'm sure I did well on the UTB-r (basic apptitude test) and still being 10 minutes late I could probably have pissed myself in the board room and still gotten hired...maybe not. Sometimes it's not just about being good, it's about putting yourself in the right place at the right time. Or in other words, in job hunting terms, putting an egg in every basket you can get close to.
Soooo, after the interview I was on cloud-fucking-nine, and I was there for like four days. In fact, I'm still a little high on the whole thing. It just keeps getting better really. My HR rep called to give me the details. My wages, the union, benefits, etc. and I'm just getting happier and happier that I turned down the garage door place. I'll really be able to live on this job. The pay is nearly twice what I made at Meier & Frank. My raises are every six months the first of which is an entire $1.02 and hour. And Verizon can give merit based raises. Which means if I'm really kicking ass (that is a direct quote from my interview) my managers can put me in for a raise even if I'm not due. I haven't even started and already I've never been treated this well by a company I worked for. I emphasize "company" in that statement. Adam, I loved working with you. You know this, but unfortunately you had no say in the way the store did things, and the store did things shitty.
Work starts on the 23rd this month. Maybe that's why I'm trying to pack as much in as I can. My free time is going to drop dramatically in three weeks. Shit, I better get crackin'.
Proud to rejoin the rank and file.