The Job
I promised I'd update more, so here's another one. I started my new job last week. It's going pretty good, if a little slow. I'm rather intimidated though. I've got more to learn in this job than in any job I've ever had before. It freaks me out sometimes. The guy who is supposed to be showing me the ropes (the one whose job I'm supposed to eventually take over) also isn't very much of a 'hands on' guy. Last summer my supervisor was very good about sitting me down and explaining everything to me, beginning very general and then more specific. He also did it in a way such that I didn't feel I was being talked down to, but at the same time I was able to understand the complicated material. This material is just as complicated (a little more so, as there are machines that I have to learn to operate which I've never dealt with before in a real life situation). Yet this guy basically hands me a few books and such to read, has me attend meetings and occasionally I'll take a tour with him or do a small experiment. I realize that he probably doesn't have the time to train me the way I was trained this summer, but I don't know. I'm sure I will learn it eventually, it's just that I'm out of my comfort zone so it will take some time.
Today my supervisor gave me a 'little project'. I won't go into the complicated details, but it involves using visual basic macros in a form in Excel. It's really pretty simple. I just need to make a button such that when the technician presses it, it will prompt him for his initials. Then the macro will enter the initials and the date and time in the squares by a task that the technician has just performed and save the document. I even have a template that is already being used in another area. The problem is I can't seem to get it to work. I played around with it today for a couple hours and I could only get it to save the document when the button is clicked. No text box, no initials or date. I even copied macro code and button into the new worksheet and no dice. I thought I'd wait and see if I had my old visual basic book at home, but nope. It's probably in Michigan, if I still have it. This is really frustrating to me. I really hate programming, and have never been good at it, and this is stuff that I haven't touched in 7 years. At the same time I don't want to look ignorant or obstinant to the people who just hired me, because I can't figure out a simple visual basic macro that took their recent intern a few minutes to whip up. I guess I'll do some more searching on the internet tomorrow to see if I can find something, but right now I'm just feeling slow.
Today my supervisor gave me a 'little project'. I won't go into the complicated details, but it involves using visual basic macros in a form in Excel. It's really pretty simple. I just need to make a button such that when the technician presses it, it will prompt him for his initials. Then the macro will enter the initials and the date and time in the squares by a task that the technician has just performed and save the document. I even have a template that is already being used in another area. The problem is I can't seem to get it to work. I played around with it today for a couple hours and I could only get it to save the document when the button is clicked. No text box, no initials or date. I even copied macro code and button into the new worksheet and no dice. I thought I'd wait and see if I had my old visual basic book at home, but nope. It's probably in Michigan, if I still have it. This is really frustrating to me. I really hate programming, and have never been good at it, and this is stuff that I haven't touched in 7 years. At the same time I don't want to look ignorant or obstinant to the people who just hired me, because I can't figure out a simple visual basic macro that took their recent intern a few minutes to whip up. I guess I'll do some more searching on the internet tomorrow to see if I can find something, but right now I'm just feeling slow.