[filter - Girlfriends] Major life stuff
I think I totally forgot to post about this - I have been wicked scatterbrained of late. Week before last, I applied for a position within my company/building, in the reporting analysis/admin division. I had my test on Excel and Access earlier this week, and have passed to the next stage, which is the dreadful but doable behavioural interview. (For those who've not been subjected, they throw hypothetical situations at you and you get to explain what you would do and why. Fun times (not).) I expect I'll pass that as well - it's on Tuesday - and go on to the final interview with the manager, which will be later this week. The computer test probably weeded out a number of applicants and the behavioural will weed out more, so by that time I'll have a decent chance at it. We shall see what happens.
I never did hear back from the other HR manager in NorCal, but given the initial response and my own knowledge of how that applies to the sort of things I'm qualified to do in North America, I have discarded the notion of moving to San Francisco. The only way it was going to work, practically speaking, was if I could do it within the company. Since that isn't possible, I've turned my attention back to plan A. SF was actually plan B originally; it kind of moved into prominence for a few reasons, one being that I've been there and I love the city, and another being that the Bay Area and a little beyond it has the highest concentration of people I already know and care about, globally speaking. (I am discounting the bundle of family in Ontario. Yes, I love them dearly, but I have no real desire to spend time with them on more than an occasional basis, lol.)
So, why apply for an in-house position when I still plan to leave? Well, for one, it's a few levels higher than my current job and will pay better. (Possibly even approaching "good" for fuck's sake.) It will be different, not something I've specifically done before, and will therefore actually make my brain do something. It's also a step up corporately-speaking, and regardless of what I do or where I go, achieving two promotions in just over two years with the company looks good. In short, it would relieve a portion of my current frustrations.
And plan A will take time to enact, so I don't feel too bad about applying for a job I know I'll be leaving when that's not going to be for a good six months or more, especially when there *is* such a lot of competition for it. It won't be at all difficult to find a replacement in that case.
So, plan A. That would be England, actually. Where my father was born and I always planned to go sometime but haven't yet. My goal is to relocate in the fall/winter of '07 and move into the adult education field, specifically Functional Skills training in Administration and, eventually, also Literacy. Basically, I want to do what beelzezuk does. :D (And thank you again, dear, for all the talks and advice. ♥) Which has no direct parallel that I'm aware of in Canada, so it's not something I'd really considered before, nor would I necessarily have had the background before now to do it. However, there's another crucial element there: it's something I want to do. Not just because I need to have a job; it's an area that I'm fairly passionate about, that would be using my degree and my full skill set. I haven't had a real goal like that since my second year of university, when I moved into the specialised psych courses and realised that despite all my prep - all my research, all my extra courses, my jobshadowing, everything - I hated it. That invalidated the life goal I'd had since I was six years old. And while I know *now* that some of that hate had to do with where I went to school, and how hard science-focused Queen's is, it doesn't change the fact that losing that goal after so many years working towards it is what began the spiral into depression. It's largely responsible for me getting married, in all seriousness; I was trying not to drown, and he was the only one left to cling to. Of course that didn't end up working out so well understatement but while my jobs since graduating have played to one of more of my strengths, they've just been jobs. Nothing I was truly passionate about, though I confess to missing the hugely discounted and free cosmetics from my first receptionist position at a cosmetics co.. :D In any case, this is my chance to do something that really MEANS something to me, and I am going to take it.
Which means I need to get my ass in gear and go through/get rid of the boxes in the garage, plus a boatload of other stuff, and then when the time comes... *gulp* sell my car. O_O That's what's going to finance this for the most part; there'll be a gap of time when I won't be working right after I get there so I'll need that cushion. It really kind of hurts, the idea of selling Autumn. My car is the first thing I've ever owned outright that was all MINE. I went from a teenager living at home to a university residence to a marriage, so that was a big deal when I bought her. And made my poor dealer do a three-way deal and actually drive to Indiana to get her. *grins* I obviously won't be able to drive her while I'm gone; it'd be a pain for my parents to take care of her; and Autumn has always meant freedom to me, more than anything else - this is just a different kind. :-)
I never did hear back from the other HR manager in NorCal, but given the initial response and my own knowledge of how that applies to the sort of things I'm qualified to do in North America, I have discarded the notion of moving to San Francisco. The only way it was going to work, practically speaking, was if I could do it within the company. Since that isn't possible, I've turned my attention back to plan A. SF was actually plan B originally; it kind of moved into prominence for a few reasons, one being that I've been there and I love the city, and another being that the Bay Area and a little beyond it has the highest concentration of people I already know and care about, globally speaking. (I am discounting the bundle of family in Ontario. Yes, I love them dearly, but I have no real desire to spend time with them on more than an occasional basis, lol.)
So, why apply for an in-house position when I still plan to leave? Well, for one, it's a few levels higher than my current job and will pay better. (Possibly even approaching "good" for fuck's sake.) It will be different, not something I've specifically done before, and will therefore actually make my brain do something. It's also a step up corporately-speaking, and regardless of what I do or where I go, achieving two promotions in just over two years with the company looks good. In short, it would relieve a portion of my current frustrations.
And plan A will take time to enact, so I don't feel too bad about applying for a job I know I'll be leaving when that's not going to be for a good six months or more, especially when there *is* such a lot of competition for it. It won't be at all difficult to find a replacement in that case.
So, plan A. That would be England, actually. Where my father was born and I always planned to go sometime but haven't yet. My goal is to relocate in the fall/winter of '07 and move into the adult education field, specifically Functional Skills training in Administration and, eventually, also Literacy. Basically, I want to do what beelzezuk does. :D (And thank you again, dear, for all the talks and advice. ♥) Which has no direct parallel that I'm aware of in Canada, so it's not something I'd really considered before, nor would I necessarily have had the background before now to do it. However, there's another crucial element there: it's something I want to do. Not just because I need to have a job; it's an area that I'm fairly passionate about, that would be using my degree and my full skill set. I haven't had a real goal like that since my second year of university, when I moved into the specialised psych courses and realised that despite all my prep - all my research, all my extra courses, my jobshadowing, everything - I hated it. That invalidated the life goal I'd had since I was six years old. And while I know *now* that some of that hate had to do with where I went to school, and how hard science-focused Queen's is, it doesn't change the fact that losing that goal after so many years working towards it is what began the spiral into depression. It's largely responsible for me getting married, in all seriousness; I was trying not to drown, and he was the only one left to cling to. Of course that didn't end up working out so well understatement but while my jobs since graduating have played to one of more of my strengths, they've just been jobs. Nothing I was truly passionate about, though I confess to missing the hugely discounted and free cosmetics from my first receptionist position at a cosmetics co.. :D In any case, this is my chance to do something that really MEANS something to me, and I am going to take it.
Which means I need to get my ass in gear and go through/get rid of the boxes in the garage, plus a boatload of other stuff, and then when the time comes... *gulp* sell my car. O_O That's what's going to finance this for the most part; there'll be a gap of time when I won't be working right after I get there so I'll need that cushion. It really kind of hurts, the idea of selling Autumn. My car is the first thing I've ever owned outright that was all MINE. I went from a teenager living at home to a university residence to a marriage, so that was a big deal when I bought her. And made my poor dealer do a three-way deal and actually drive to Indiana to get her. *grins* I obviously won't be able to drive her while I'm gone; it'd be a pain for my parents to take care of her; and Autumn has always meant freedom to me, more than anything else - this is just a different kind. :-)