job shizzy/wedding shizzy
alright. first things first: the job thing. at 10:15 or so on thursday, i found out i was getting laid off. at about 9:45 the president of delta funding/fidelity mortgage sent a company wide e-mail, explaining that over half of the remaining 1000 employees were going to be laid off effective immediately. the subprime industry has been getting worst, and despite changing a lot of their products delta funding still posted a MASSIVE loss in their third quarter. so needless the say, the moment i saw that e-mail i knew i was gonna be going. sure enough, our VP pulled myself and the marketers into the training room (ironic, eh?) and told us we were no longer needed with the company. i'm not gonna say i was 100% ok with it; i hadn't secured any other job at the time, so while i was getting pretty good severence it was still a little frightening. it was a nice though, our VP came up to me after the fact and said that he was so sorry and that he really fought hard to keep me around. while that is super nice and everything, i wanted to be like, "do you KNOW what i've been doing the last 2 months?!" because in all honesty, i am surprsied my position wasn't eliminated with the first round of layoffs back in august. but whatever! so, i literally grabbed my personal stuff (which consisted of some cough drops and a bowl for my soup....seriously) and a training manual, so i could refer to it as something i helped create. i said goodbye to our HR manager and quality assurance manager, and left to go to an interview i had lined up already. ha.
so yeah, i was KINDA sad...i did like a lot of the people i worked with. however, one person i did not like was my direct report, who is based in NY. as of right now, i am uncertain as to whether or not he is still with the company: as far as i know, training was eliminated. i e-mailed some of the people that are still at fidelity in hopes of finding the answer to that. angel (who was laid off as well) and i are getting lunch with the people in HR later this week to find out more scoop.
so, my other job opportunity: as i have posted in here before, i was not happy at fidelity. i got paid well for what i did, but it was not a good job, hence the job search. one of my endeavors was interviewing with humana, a huge insurance company based in louisville, ky. i applied for 2 positions: one as a pharmacy trainer, another as a customer care specialist. they were looking for someone with MUCH more experience for the trainer position, but i moved forward with the customer care position. i had 2 phone interviews and 2 interviews face to face (the last face to face being last tuesday) and i was offered the position on friday morning. so i guess i was unemployed for like, half a day! haha. the position at humana is completely different from training: i will be answering inbound calls and handling customer concerns, as well as addressing them face to face as neccessary. some might say it's a stepdown from training: i guess it might be, but i am actually excited about this. i love customer service, always have, and i think i have the chance to really shine in this position. the cool thing at humana is they promote very heavily from within. all the people i interviewed with were promoted 2-3 times in about 3 years, which is very promising. if you look on their website, there is not a lot of positions to apply for: they hire low and use talent from within. that is so cool to me. i am going to be MOTIVATED to be successful, because i will be able to see my own career path!
the only downside with this job is the paycut. thank goodness i am college educated, though! the paycut definitely sucks, but i guess it's more money than i made when i first started at TQL, so i know it is definitely liveable. it's also about 5 more miles of a commute, which isn't bad- it's just closer to downtown. i will also be working the 'late' shift once i am out of training, which is 10:30-7. not horrible, but not desirable, i guess. greg is working from home now (he is helping his agents book tribute bands around the country) so we don't have work schedules prohibiting us from seeing each other.
so yes, i am excited about this opportunity and so happy it worked out well! i don't start there til nov. 26, so i might still apply some places here and there, just because i have the time and don't want to miss something awesome. btw...15 vacation days and benefits on day one at this place! AWESOMEEEE :)
greg and i were in toledo this past weekend and we had a very productive weekend in terms of wedding planning. we picked out our food at the country club. we are having:
~cheese, crackers, veggies and dip as our hor d'ovres
~a mixed green salad with gorgonzola, candied walnuts, and a raspberry vinegarette
~a choice of: pan seared chicken with mushroom marsala sauce, or beef medalion with au jus sauce (the beef is far more amazing than i thought)
~red-skinned potatoes with thyme
~some vegetable mix
YUMMERS. everything so so freaking good, so if you are coming to the wedding you are in for a damn good dinner. :)
we also picked out tuxes this weekend- lemme tell you, even though picking my dress out was as easy as i could have made it, picking tuxes out was even easier. so we got everyone taken care of: greg, fathers, and all of the groomsmen. another big sigh of relief!
annnnnnd....TOMORROW NIGHT IS CHRIS CORNELL!!!!!! ahhh, needless to say i am SO VERY EXCITED!! there is nothing better than seeing a show with someone who is as big of a fan as you are. granted, i think i am a larger fan than greg, but he has been into chris longer than i have so that's that. the venue is about an hour and a half away, and since we both have flexible schedules we will be heading up fairly early to snag a good spot. hopefully i will get even better pictures this time around!!!
so yeah, i was KINDA sad...i did like a lot of the people i worked with. however, one person i did not like was my direct report, who is based in NY. as of right now, i am uncertain as to whether or not he is still with the company: as far as i know, training was eliminated. i e-mailed some of the people that are still at fidelity in hopes of finding the answer to that. angel (who was laid off as well) and i are getting lunch with the people in HR later this week to find out more scoop.
so, my other job opportunity: as i have posted in here before, i was not happy at fidelity. i got paid well for what i did, but it was not a good job, hence the job search. one of my endeavors was interviewing with humana, a huge insurance company based in louisville, ky. i applied for 2 positions: one as a pharmacy trainer, another as a customer care specialist. they were looking for someone with MUCH more experience for the trainer position, but i moved forward with the customer care position. i had 2 phone interviews and 2 interviews face to face (the last face to face being last tuesday) and i was offered the position on friday morning. so i guess i was unemployed for like, half a day! haha. the position at humana is completely different from training: i will be answering inbound calls and handling customer concerns, as well as addressing them face to face as neccessary. some might say it's a stepdown from training: i guess it might be, but i am actually excited about this. i love customer service, always have, and i think i have the chance to really shine in this position. the cool thing at humana is they promote very heavily from within. all the people i interviewed with were promoted 2-3 times in about 3 years, which is very promising. if you look on their website, there is not a lot of positions to apply for: they hire low and use talent from within. that is so cool to me. i am going to be MOTIVATED to be successful, because i will be able to see my own career path!
the only downside with this job is the paycut. thank goodness i am college educated, though! the paycut definitely sucks, but i guess it's more money than i made when i first started at TQL, so i know it is definitely liveable. it's also about 5 more miles of a commute, which isn't bad- it's just closer to downtown. i will also be working the 'late' shift once i am out of training, which is 10:30-7. not horrible, but not desirable, i guess. greg is working from home now (he is helping his agents book tribute bands around the country) so we don't have work schedules prohibiting us from seeing each other.
so yes, i am excited about this opportunity and so happy it worked out well! i don't start there til nov. 26, so i might still apply some places here and there, just because i have the time and don't want to miss something awesome. btw...15 vacation days and benefits on day one at this place! AWESOMEEEE :)
greg and i were in toledo this past weekend and we had a very productive weekend in terms of wedding planning. we picked out our food at the country club. we are having:
~cheese, crackers, veggies and dip as our hor d'ovres
~a mixed green salad with gorgonzola, candied walnuts, and a raspberry vinegarette
~a choice of: pan seared chicken with mushroom marsala sauce, or beef medalion with au jus sauce (the beef is far more amazing than i thought)
~red-skinned potatoes with thyme
~some vegetable mix
YUMMERS. everything so so freaking good, so if you are coming to the wedding you are in for a damn good dinner. :)
we also picked out tuxes this weekend- lemme tell you, even though picking my dress out was as easy as i could have made it, picking tuxes out was even easier. so we got everyone taken care of: greg, fathers, and all of the groomsmen. another big sigh of relief!
annnnnnd....TOMORROW NIGHT IS CHRIS CORNELL!!!!!! ahhh, needless to say i am SO VERY EXCITED!! there is nothing better than seeing a show with someone who is as big of a fan as you are. granted, i think i am a larger fan than greg, but he has been into chris longer than i have so that's that. the venue is about an hour and a half away, and since we both have flexible schedules we will be heading up fairly early to snag a good spot. hopefully i will get even better pictures this time around!!!