A Fresh Start

Tomorrow will be an interesting day. Back in January, I submitted my 1028^th resume in response to a posting on the Work in Texas website. The qualifications required generally matched my experience, though the field is not the construction areas I'm specifically experienced in. I didn't hear anything until the first week of February, when I got a phone call to set up an interview. My typical preparation for interviews is to do whatever research I can on the company, in order to have some information going into the process, and to print out some questions that are a combination of general information questions, such as why the position is open and what the timeline to fill the position is, and more in-depth questions, that I believe demonstrate both an interest in the position, but also an ability to think ahead, such as "What are the short and long term goals for the position?" I felt pretty good going into the interview, and that I was as well prepared as I possibly could be for the interview, as well as the abstract reasoning, spelling, and MS Word/Excel testing that I was told to expect. After I finished all of the testing, the interviewer called me back into his office to discuss my salary requirements, as well as let me know that I had scored quite well on the tests. Based on that conversation, I did expect that if I did get an offer, it would be significantly lower than what I'd really like to be making, and certainly not enough to get me back out into my own place before sometime next year. I was fairly confident that I'd interviewed well, with all 3 people who were involved in it, and frankly, was willing to accept a reasonable offer, however I tried not to get my hopes up, or feel too confident. On the 9^th, I got the call back, asking me to come in on the 10^th, (which, coincidentally, would have been Mom's 71^st birthday) and discuss an offer. The money was more than I had hoped for, and one of the best things is that I will be working 4 10-hour days each week, with Fridays off! I am THRILLED with this, I assure you. All was contingent on a clean background check, but since I've not been in trouble, I had no qualms about passing it. On Thursday I got word that the check had come back and I was cleared to start tomorrow. I also received my tentative 11 week training schedule. 1 week in the office, 4 weeks in the field with an inspector, then back to the office to learn the next steps in the process, each building on the previous. I am very excited about the opportunities it is affording me for personal and professional growth, and while I fully expect to take a few days to get back into the swing of a work schedule, I have no doubts about doing it now. I am going to work for a utility engineering firm, and my construction admin background will definitely help, however my understanding is that this is earlier in the process than what I'm accustomed to (as I would assume that by the time construction is actually happening, permits have already been surveyed, applied for, and processed.
My lunch is packed. I've a suitcase packed with an extra day's clothes, just in case the weather turns bad, or is likely to turn bad enough that I wouldn't be able to get up or down the hill safely here at home to get there on Tuesday. Now I'm off to bed for a good night's sleep… it's already not going to be 8 hours, but I'll take 6 or so and be pleased with that!

Looking up

I don't want to get overly confident, but it appears that perhaps things are looking up, at least on the job search front. I had an appointment this morning with a local staffing agency. I had some success with them several years ago, before I had the job I lost this spring. Unfortunately, at that time, the positions they had available were nearly 50 miles, one way, away from my house, and the pay that was being offered would have been eaten up in gas. The good news is that they seemed impressed with my experience, confident that they would be able to place me, and, in fact, have a position that while it would likely be a year-long temporary position, I am an excellent match for, and it's in my industry! And it's less than 20 miles from my house (the last job was 26 or so)! I had put in all of my information online already, so there were only a few forms that I had to complete, and the orientation/office safety video. I just almost couldn't concentrate on it simply because "Sherlock Holmes" had SUCH a HORRIBLE British accent! At any rate, my Excel & Word scores were great, my typing speed was about what I expected, and my Power Point score was better than I had anticipated, considering I've done a whole ONE PPS in my entire life, and I generally don't have access to the program. Now I just have to wait for them to submit my information to the client and see when they want to interview me!

When I got home, I happened to look at my horoscope message that comes up every day on the welcome screen of my phone and found this: If you have been stamping the ground with impatience, dear Libra, waiting for the moment to jump into new adventures with renewed vigor after your meditation during the last few months, know that the moment has almost arrived! You now have the strategy, objective, and means at your disposal to success. Just a bit more work remains to be done. Gather your strength and get ready for action! Now, I don't live my life by the astrologer's statements or predictions, though I am often amazed at how accurate they are. This one came across to me as a positive reinforcement of my morning's activities.

On another note, there's someone in my world that has been quite important to me for awhile now, and the whole situation has had its ups and downs. I finally came to the realization that he is indeed an idiot. I have told him in the past that I need to figure out how not to be in love with him, and for awhile he gives me space, and then he sucks me back in, and I wind up tripping down that same path, flirting with him, looking forward to talking to him on some sort of schedule, and getting hurt feelings when that doesn't happen. It has occurred to me that this is all some sort of game to him, an idea that I resisted for months. If he REALLY wanted me to stop chasing him, and not flirt with him, he has had plenty of opportunities to either ask me directly to stop, or to talk to some of our friends who have questioned him about the whole situation about it bothering him. I am no longer going to stroke his ego just so he can feel wanted, let one of his other female friends, that he really gives a crap about do that. It's not as if he has women fawning over him. I don't know what it is that causes him to be unwilling to spend time alone with women who might actually be available to be in a romantic relationship with him, but for whatever reasons, the ones he will actually hang out and go places (other than with a group) with are all married or involved in committed relationships. My heart will eventually heal from this, but the whole situation is just another in the string of events over the past year that have caused me to question virtually all of my friendships, and my trust in both myself and the people with whom I surround myself. It sucks, and it's going to take me some time to rebuild my faith in my ability to trust what I'm dealing with.

Quote for the Day: Instead of looking at life as a narrowing funnel, we can see it ever widening to choose the things we want to do, to take the wisdom we've learned and create something. –Liz Carpenter