"Uncle," she cries.
Jul. 23rd, 2008 09:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebThis is yet another entry about my thinking about my job. But that's what's going on in my life right now. (Bored? Skip to the asterisks below.)
Today I was brainstorming and thought "programming." And thought, "Actually, that could be a door to the kinds of jobs I want, because a lot of the openings for people working with academic materials are for programmers." And I thought that since I'm not even getting bites on the kinds of jobs I'm applying for and I don't seem to be making headway on actually creating things on my own time anyway, this opportunity is nothing to sneeze at.
(Hee hee, I just now coughed.)
And then I thought that after ten years of being a secretary and seven years working in a registrar's office, I have had a lot of training in how to be detail oriented. So, maybe debugging won't be quite the torment it once was. I've always known I have the exact right brain to be a programmer, but I don't have the temperament. A very old report card of mine has this comment: "Debbie is easily frustrated. I feel she will outgrow this as she matures." Uh, no.
And when I got home, Robin told me that programming languages are a lot better now. The last time I tried to learn programming (uh, not counting JavaScript) was in 1982.
I've always shied away from programming because I thought it would be boring and frustrating. Even though an extremely high proportion of my friends are programmers and they all claim that it's fun, like solving puzzles, and that it doesn't matter what the program is actually about. And my current job is definitely boring and frustrating.
My employer has an analyst trainee program. It sounds awesome. They are looking for someone with a degree who can make an A on their aptitude test and who has people skills. They train you, then place you. After one year, you qualify for a higher job title (you don't necessary even have to switch jobs to get the new title) and two years later you qualify for a still higher job title. (The first job title is the one I have, so my pay would be slightly less than my current pay, but the other two title changes come with huge pay increases.)
So, if I got this job, then of all the possible sacrifices I thought up, the only ones I'd have to make are settling for a more boring job than what I want (at least at first, probably) and working slightly more hours, plus I'd quickly get higher pay. And of course get to keep my huge piles of vacation and sick leave and my (currently) awesome retirement plan.
I've taken that test before and gotten an A and gotten an interview. I freaked a bit at the interview when I learned that one could be called in to work at Christmas break (even if one had already gotten plane tickets). Now I never go anywhere for Christmas, and even missing Thanksgiving wouldn't be too bad since it would only be for 7 more Thanksgivings (not for practically the rest of my life, like last time I applied for this).
Everyone but me is confident that I could actually do the work. Plus they train you. And they want you to learn, unlike my computer science professor in college who always chuckled, in his snorting kind of way, when people asked about problems they were having. And not in addition to answering their questions, but instead of answering them.
I once (okay, often) resolved, loudly, (and did I mention often?) to never become a programmer. And yet, my friends will not all laugh at me, like they should, when I say I'm seriously thinking about doing it anyway.
First I'm going to talk to some people I know from work who have gone through this program and ask for advice. Everyone says it's good to have mentors. Well, I'm going to try. There are actually two ways to go through the program, and I'll try to get the low-down on the advantages and disadvantages of each, plus all the rumors about the best places to work and the places everyone feared to work (beside the degree audit system) and any other advice. Seriously, I can think of five (count them! five!) different people to contact, and I actually know two of them fairly well and we like each other.
**
Today I took initiative in a social situation. This guy guy arrived at my bus stop after I did. It had recently began pouring down rain, and he didn't have an umbrella. I checked to see if our bus was coming. One was rounding the corner, but then pulled up to the curb too soon. So I walked right up to him and put half my umbrella over him, saying just exactly what I was thinking, which was, "Part of your hair is still dry." His face lit up with a big smile and he thanked me. Then I noted, "It's too late for that other guy. He's completely soaked." Then, "Oh, there's our bus!"
And that was that. Yea, me!
Today I was brainstorming and thought "programming." And thought, "Actually, that could be a door to the kinds of jobs I want, because a lot of the openings for people working with academic materials are for programmers." And I thought that since I'm not even getting bites on the kinds of jobs I'm applying for and I don't seem to be making headway on actually creating things on my own time anyway, this opportunity is nothing to sneeze at.
(Hee hee, I just now coughed.)
And then I thought that after ten years of being a secretary and seven years working in a registrar's office, I have had a lot of training in how to be detail oriented. So, maybe debugging won't be quite the torment it once was. I've always known I have the exact right brain to be a programmer, but I don't have the temperament. A very old report card of mine has this comment: "Debbie is easily frustrated. I feel she will outgrow this as she matures." Uh, no.
And when I got home, Robin told me that programming languages are a lot better now. The last time I tried to learn programming (uh, not counting JavaScript) was in 1982.
I've always shied away from programming because I thought it would be boring and frustrating. Even though an extremely high proportion of my friends are programmers and they all claim that it's fun, like solving puzzles, and that it doesn't matter what the program is actually about. And my current job is definitely boring and frustrating.
My employer has an analyst trainee program. It sounds awesome. They are looking for someone with a degree who can make an A on their aptitude test and who has people skills. They train you, then place you. After one year, you qualify for a higher job title (you don't necessary even have to switch jobs to get the new title) and two years later you qualify for a still higher job title. (The first job title is the one I have, so my pay would be slightly less than my current pay, but the other two title changes come with huge pay increases.)
So, if I got this job, then of all the possible sacrifices I thought up, the only ones I'd have to make are settling for a more boring job than what I want (at least at first, probably) and working slightly more hours, plus I'd quickly get higher pay. And of course get to keep my huge piles of vacation and sick leave and my (currently) awesome retirement plan.
I've taken that test before and gotten an A and gotten an interview. I freaked a bit at the interview when I learned that one could be called in to work at Christmas break (even if one had already gotten plane tickets). Now I never go anywhere for Christmas, and even missing Thanksgiving wouldn't be too bad since it would only be for 7 more Thanksgivings (not for practically the rest of my life, like last time I applied for this).
Everyone but me is confident that I could actually do the work. Plus they train you. And they want you to learn, unlike my computer science professor in college who always chuckled, in his snorting kind of way, when people asked about problems they were having. And not in addition to answering their questions, but instead of answering them.
I once (okay, often) resolved, loudly, (and did I mention often?) to never become a programmer. And yet, my friends will not all laugh at me, like they should, when I say I'm seriously thinking about doing it anyway.
First I'm going to talk to some people I know from work who have gone through this program and ask for advice. Everyone says it's good to have mentors. Well, I'm going to try. There are actually two ways to go through the program, and I'll try to get the low-down on the advantages and disadvantages of each, plus all the rumors about the best places to work and the places everyone feared to work (beside the degree audit system) and any other advice. Seriously, I can think of five (count them! five!) different people to contact, and I actually know two of them fairly well and we like each other.
**
Today I took initiative in a social situation. This guy guy arrived at my bus stop after I did. It had recently began pouring down rain, and he didn't have an umbrella. I checked to see if our bus was coming. One was rounding the corner, but then pulled up to the curb too soon. So I walked right up to him and put half my umbrella over him, saying just exactly what I was thinking, which was, "Part of your hair is still dry." His face lit up with a big smile and he thanked me. Then I noted, "It's too late for that other guy. He's completely soaked." Then, "Oh, there's our bus!"
And that was that. Yea, me!
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