Ask Erik: Episode Sixty-Two

To Erik: How's the job going so far?


People who know me learned that this week I started a brand new job, and I'm pretty excited about it.  It came about primarily (because after four months flailing around trying to just get interviews I found it hard to believe at the time my resume had anything to do with it) due to someone I know speaking highly of me.  I did well in the interview, and the position was offered shortly afterwards.

I won't go into a lot of detail what I'm doing and where I'm working, but it's similar to the job I last did with some minor changes.  I'm still being trained, obviously, but here's my impressions so far:

The environment is a lot more relaxed than where I used to be.  People have more space, there isn't the same constant stream of pressure to meet deadlines set by companies you're contracted to, and the workload is more tightly focused, allowing you to pay attention to one duty/job/client instead of constantly being pulled out of it like I was before.

The building itself is really pleasant, with both a break room and a cafeteria, several sitting areas, and, best of all, bathrooms that aren't stained and/or falling apart.  I won't miss being able to pick floor tiles off of the ground and toss them around like an incorrectly made Frisbee.

The parts of the job that will be challenging and/or the most frustrating happen to be the things I took the most pride in getting accomplished at my last job.  Attempting to work out with businesses over the phone what their regulations are and why something was processed a certain way (and whether it was correct or not) lets me pit my mind against a large system, and every victory performed in that kind of job is extremely satisfying.  The sense of accomplishment at beating a system that big feels like a genuine Herculean feat, not just another day at the job.

My coworkers are extremely pleasant.  Granted, I've only known them for two days so I still have that "fresh meat" stink about me, but where my last office seemed to swell with politics sometimes amongst a few regular individuals, I haven't heard much indication that this office is anything like that.  There's a lot more camaraderie, and people in departments I'll have little to no interaction with seemed to want to go out of their way to know my name.  It's a much tighter community, and I've felt more welcome there than I did for a while at my last job.

Now, the commute is a bit further, but it's closer to major roads allowing me to not worry about getting there during bad weather.  The parking lot is larger, and a side entrance leads almost directly to my work area.

I'll have updates as the job progresses, but I'm extremely excited about this opportunity, and plan on giving it everything I have.  Granted, this might make my posts a bit shorter (or larger events like movies will be a bit more spread out or more closely done after weekends), but I don't plan on giving up on this in the slightest.