Hiding in parentville
So I've been hiding in parentville for the past couple months not updating, though I've been keeping track of my friends list still. Figure it's time to give an update of the highlights since Graduation, especially since I've actually done some things lately as opposed to just sitting around resting.
My job hunt is finally making some progress. I talked to Sue Higgins on Wednesday, my former supervisor for two internships and mentor. She was her usual helpful self, and indeed seems to have been very helpful with the job hunt. I've been wanting to look for jobs at the Naval Postgraduate School here in Monterey, but the problem is it's hard to look for jobs there because there isn't any job listing of jobs open on the post that I can find, and I can't easily go in there and ask since it's been closed to the public since 9/11. Sue said the security has gotten a lot tighter since the last time I was there.
I did two internships there, my first one a roughly 90 hour internship for MAOS in Summer 2001, and the second one a couple months of regular work before I went off to Chico State in Summer 2005. NPS wasn't closed at all in the first internship, so I could just walk on through a side street closest to the NPS library, which was where I worked at the time. When I went back in 2005, it was closed and they had erected a fence around it so you couldn't just walk on wherever. Initially, they had my name on an access list while I was working there, so I had to wait for a guard to look me up, but the second or third week, I got an ID card so I could just show that to the guard to get in. According to Sue, everyone has to have a badge on post now, and visitor's have to have visitor's badges.
The tightened security was a little bit of a bummer last time I was there since it meant a little more walking to get to the gate, but it was a pretty nice place to work. It was casual both times I was there, and everyone was friendly, so I enjoyed working there. It was high on my place to look for jobs when I came back to Monterey. And they pay well enough that I ought to be able to afford an apartment close by, so I wouldn't have the half hour walk I had during the first internship to get to work.
Anyway, Sue forwarded my resume to two places: ITACS, and the DLRC. Those stand for Information Technology and Communication Services, and the Distance Learning Resource Center. The second of those is where I had my first internship. Yesterday, I got an email from the ITACS human resources with a systems administration position which looked pretty interesting. I was going to write up a cover letter for it last night and send it in, but I got really tired in the evening and decided to wait until today to finish it.
Before I could get back to it today, I got a call from the guy who emailed me who was following up to make sure I got the email. I told him I had and I was working on a cover letter for it. I wasn't planning on finishing it until afternoon or evening, but I figured if he was interested enough in me to call me, I'd work on it earlier, so I finished my cover letter and sent it in.
I also applied to a part time job at Monterey Peninsula College. I'm not wild about the part time nature of the job, but the job itself sounds more interesting. It's an Instructional Specialist position, which looks like kind of a teacher's assistant kind of job. I figure that'd give me a taste of what being a teacher would be like, which would be rather nice since I'd like to become one some day. And I also figured out who was in charge of the research for the Manpower Department at NPS and asked him if they need any research assistants. He said he wasn't sure, but you never know, so he asked me to send him my resume and references for my previous work at NPS. He said he'd pass it on to a few people who might have interests that would work and would keep me updated.
Of all of those, the last job sounds the most appealing since it sounds like good preparation for grad school since I was told that research experience is key in what grad schools look for in applicants. But it's also probably the longest shot out of the three since it wasn't a formal job posting but just something I looked up because I was interested in it. It's worth a try though, and the Dean of Research sounded promising.
Anyway, that's all the latest job hunt progress. I've been hanging out with Renee a fair amount lately. Monday we went to see Hellboy 2, and then we hung out at my house for the rest of the day. And a week ago Monday, we went to see Kung Fu Panda. I enjoyed both of those movies, thought they were pretty good. And tomorrow we'll be going to see the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight. Renee tried to see that one at last night's midnight showing, but it was sold out by the time she tried to get tickets. I wanted to go to it today, but she prefered tomorrow, so tomorrow it is.
I also scheduled swimming lessons a few days ago for July 28th for myself. I went to the sports center downtown a while ago in the hopes that I could just flail about in the water and figure it out myself, but it became apparent that the do it myself method was not going to work. And it made the cold I had at the time a bit worse, so I put off trying again until just now. I called to make an appoinment a few days ago and was hoping for something sooner, but oh well. Hopefully I won't have any jobs started by then, although I suppose that'd be a nice problem to have because it'd mean I'd have got myself through the interview and actually got a job. I can always reschedule it if that does happen. Mom said something about job interviews taking priority over the swim lessons, which I agree with, but the lesson is late enough in the day that I might be able to do both if I end up getting an interview that day.
Still have a bunch of boxes in my room. I'm leaving most of my stuff unpacked in the hopes that I'll get a job and will be able to move to an apartment and be on my own again. If I end up getting that part time job, I'll unpack though, because I'm not wild about the idea of having boxes everywhere for in my room for a full year. With housing costing as much as it does around here, that part time job wouldn't be enough to pay for an apartment around here. At least not if I wanted to eat at the same time.
I really ought to call Sue back and thank her for her help in the old job hunt. I might wait a little longer until I have more information on the possibility of a position that came from her forwarding my resume, but I'll definitely do that sometime soon. He, the ITACS HR guy, seems like someone who will probably get back to me on Monday since he has been in contact with me so quickly. Which happens to be when my skills assessment is for the Monterey Peninsula College job. I still don't know where exactly I'm supposed to meet for that skills assessment, but oh well, I'll get that information early on Monday so I won't have to wander around MPC asking people where I'm supposed to go.
I'll keep you posted on the updates in the grand job hunt. Here's hoping for the problem of excess, that would be wonderful.
My job hunt is finally making some progress. I talked to Sue Higgins on Wednesday, my former supervisor for two internships and mentor. She was her usual helpful self, and indeed seems to have been very helpful with the job hunt. I've been wanting to look for jobs at the Naval Postgraduate School here in Monterey, but the problem is it's hard to look for jobs there because there isn't any job listing of jobs open on the post that I can find, and I can't easily go in there and ask since it's been closed to the public since 9/11. Sue said the security has gotten a lot tighter since the last time I was there.
I did two internships there, my first one a roughly 90 hour internship for MAOS in Summer 2001, and the second one a couple months of regular work before I went off to Chico State in Summer 2005. NPS wasn't closed at all in the first internship, so I could just walk on through a side street closest to the NPS library, which was where I worked at the time. When I went back in 2005, it was closed and they had erected a fence around it so you couldn't just walk on wherever. Initially, they had my name on an access list while I was working there, so I had to wait for a guard to look me up, but the second or third week, I got an ID card so I could just show that to the guard to get in. According to Sue, everyone has to have a badge on post now, and visitor's have to have visitor's badges.
The tightened security was a little bit of a bummer last time I was there since it meant a little more walking to get to the gate, but it was a pretty nice place to work. It was casual both times I was there, and everyone was friendly, so I enjoyed working there. It was high on my place to look for jobs when I came back to Monterey. And they pay well enough that I ought to be able to afford an apartment close by, so I wouldn't have the half hour walk I had during the first internship to get to work.
Anyway, Sue forwarded my resume to two places: ITACS, and the DLRC. Those stand for Information Technology and Communication Services, and the Distance Learning Resource Center. The second of those is where I had my first internship. Yesterday, I got an email from the ITACS human resources with a systems administration position which looked pretty interesting. I was going to write up a cover letter for it last night and send it in, but I got really tired in the evening and decided to wait until today to finish it.
Before I could get back to it today, I got a call from the guy who emailed me who was following up to make sure I got the email. I told him I had and I was working on a cover letter for it. I wasn't planning on finishing it until afternoon or evening, but I figured if he was interested enough in me to call me, I'd work on it earlier, so I finished my cover letter and sent it in.
I also applied to a part time job at Monterey Peninsula College. I'm not wild about the part time nature of the job, but the job itself sounds more interesting. It's an Instructional Specialist position, which looks like kind of a teacher's assistant kind of job. I figure that'd give me a taste of what being a teacher would be like, which would be rather nice since I'd like to become one some day. And I also figured out who was in charge of the research for the Manpower Department at NPS and asked him if they need any research assistants. He said he wasn't sure, but you never know, so he asked me to send him my resume and references for my previous work at NPS. He said he'd pass it on to a few people who might have interests that would work and would keep me updated.
Of all of those, the last job sounds the most appealing since it sounds like good preparation for grad school since I was told that research experience is key in what grad schools look for in applicants. But it's also probably the longest shot out of the three since it wasn't a formal job posting but just something I looked up because I was interested in it. It's worth a try though, and the Dean of Research sounded promising.
Anyway, that's all the latest job hunt progress. I've been hanging out with Renee a fair amount lately. Monday we went to see Hellboy 2, and then we hung out at my house for the rest of the day. And a week ago Monday, we went to see Kung Fu Panda. I enjoyed both of those movies, thought they were pretty good. And tomorrow we'll be going to see the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight. Renee tried to see that one at last night's midnight showing, but it was sold out by the time she tried to get tickets. I wanted to go to it today, but she prefered tomorrow, so tomorrow it is.
I also scheduled swimming lessons a few days ago for July 28th for myself. I went to the sports center downtown a while ago in the hopes that I could just flail about in the water and figure it out myself, but it became apparent that the do it myself method was not going to work. And it made the cold I had at the time a bit worse, so I put off trying again until just now. I called to make an appoinment a few days ago and was hoping for something sooner, but oh well. Hopefully I won't have any jobs started by then, although I suppose that'd be a nice problem to have because it'd mean I'd have got myself through the interview and actually got a job. I can always reschedule it if that does happen. Mom said something about job interviews taking priority over the swim lessons, which I agree with, but the lesson is late enough in the day that I might be able to do both if I end up getting an interview that day.
Still have a bunch of boxes in my room. I'm leaving most of my stuff unpacked in the hopes that I'll get a job and will be able to move to an apartment and be on my own again. If I end up getting that part time job, I'll unpack though, because I'm not wild about the idea of having boxes everywhere for in my room for a full year. With housing costing as much as it does around here, that part time job wouldn't be enough to pay for an apartment around here. At least not if I wanted to eat at the same time.
I really ought to call Sue back and thank her for her help in the old job hunt. I might wait a little longer until I have more information on the possibility of a position that came from her forwarding my resume, but I'll definitely do that sometime soon. He, the ITACS HR guy, seems like someone who will probably get back to me on Monday since he has been in contact with me so quickly. Which happens to be when my skills assessment is for the Monterey Peninsula College job. I still don't know where exactly I'm supposed to meet for that skills assessment, but oh well, I'll get that information early on Monday so I won't have to wander around MPC asking people where I'm supposed to go.
I'll keep you posted on the updates in the grand job hunt. Here's hoping for the problem of excess, that would be wonderful.