JobQuest: LEVEL UP!
Feb. 16th, 2011 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
athelindAfter the SRI debacle of 2008, I promised myself that I wouldn't count chickens on any future job offers. If something looked promising, I might let some people know, or drop some hints, but nothing that would jinx anything.
Some people say you don't really have the job for sure until you clock in that first day.
I went one further: I wasn't going to believe that I'd really landed the elusive Real Full-Time Job With Benefits until the first paycheck cleared.
The check cleared Tuesday night.
I am now officially employed as a Technical Writer.
... of course, I'm only 10 days into a 90-day trial period, so there's a part of me that thinks that even this is premature.
This was, for the record, extremely fast-tracked. The Monday before Further Confusion (09 JAN 2011),![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kohai_tiger gave me a heads up about a job listing at his company, in his department. I cleaned up my resume and sent it in.
The Monday of Further Confusion (17 JAN 2011), the last day of the con, my cell phone rang while I was sitting in a panel. I took the call outside, and when I came back, I had an interview slated for Wednesday (19 JAN 2011).
The Tuesday after that (25 JAN 2011), I had my second interview.
My last day at Legends was Friday, 04 FEB 2011.
My first day on the job was Monday the 7th.
Turn-around time from first hearing about the job to starting it: 4 weeks exactly.
I should note that the job boards, the resume shotgun, and all the rest of the knuckle-down, nose-to-the-grindstone, job-hunting-is-your-job legwork aren't what finally landed me the Real Job.
What landed me the job was playing Star Wars D&D twice a month with my friends.
I'm afraid I've learned all the wrong lessons from this.
I love the job.
For those of you wondering what a "Technical Writer" does ... well, so was I, a few weeks ago. Summary: I turn field data into readable, well-organized reports.
The work is interesting, and I'm working with a good team.
During the interview, they were very enthusiastic about my resume and my writing samples. This was the first time in all my time job hunting where interviewers looked at my wide-ranging, eclectic background as an asset. this job can make use of all of my different skill sets—even my time at Legends!
Because of those wide-ranging skills, they're also going to be cross-training me as a field tech as well as a technical writer; at least one person has said "it would be a waste to keep you behind a desk."
One thing I love: after getting tossed into the deep end of the You Figure It Out pool at the last two "Real Jobs" I've had since graduation, and then spending two years in the genial chaos of Legends, I'm in a place where the standing orders are "if you have a question, ask someone"—and the answers generally start with, "let's look it up!"
I'm in heaven.
I made an interesting discovery on my second or third day.
Our company certifies clean rooms, vent hoods, and other lab apparatus for a wide range of companies, mostly in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Our safety-and-technical trainer repeatedly emphasizes during our training sessions that our work insures the cleanliness of locations that make medicine that gets directly injected into the bloodstreams of patients with already-compromised immune systems
Contaminants, especially unsuspected contaminants, could kill people. Lots of people.
And it comes down to us.
Lives are in our hands.
Here's the interesting discovery:
I'm good with that.
I'm a Coast Guard veteran, and my first long-term civilian job after mustering out was pushing hospital patients down to X-Ray and Nuclear Medicine on gurneys. I've had lives in my hands before.
When that clicked during training, it didn't feel like ZOMG PRESSURE. Quite the opposite: I relaxed. Some little ball of tension inside me evaporated.
When I know that lives hinge on the quality of the work I do ... I'm in my comfort zone.
It's odd place to find your comfort zone, I confess.
Maybe it's that, in a job with High Stakes, I don't feel the need to "prove" anything. Simply doing the job and doing it well and right is validation enough.
Maybe it's just that, deep down, I can only really take a job seriously if lives are on the line. "Pfffft. Urgent? You're not bleeding and you're not drowning. Let me tell you about urgent ... ."
Some people say you don't really have the job for sure until you clock in that first day.
I went one further: I wasn't going to believe that I'd really landed the elusive Real Full-Time Job With Benefits until the first paycheck cleared.
I am now officially employed as a Technical Writer.
... of course, I'm only 10 days into a 90-day trial period, so there's a part of me that thinks that even this is premature.
This was, for the record, extremely fast-tracked. The Monday before Further Confusion (09 JAN 2011),
kohai_tiger gave me a heads up about a job listing at his company, in his department. I cleaned up my resume and sent it in.The Monday of Further Confusion (17 JAN 2011), the last day of the con, my cell phone rang while I was sitting in a panel. I took the call outside, and when I came back, I had an interview slated for Wednesday (19 JAN 2011).
The Tuesday after that (25 JAN 2011), I had my second interview.
My last day at Legends was Friday, 04 FEB 2011.
My first day on the job was Monday the 7th.
Turn-around time from first hearing about the job to starting it: 4 weeks exactly.
I should note that the job boards, the resume shotgun, and all the rest of the knuckle-down, nose-to-the-grindstone, job-hunting-is-your-job legwork aren't what finally landed me the Real Job.
I'm afraid I've learned all the wrong lessons from this.
I love the job.
For those of you wondering what a "Technical Writer" does ... well, so was I, a few weeks ago. Summary: I turn field data into readable, well-organized reports.
The work is interesting, and I'm working with a good team.
During the interview, they were very enthusiastic about my resume and my writing samples. This was the first time in all my time job hunting where interviewers looked at my wide-ranging, eclectic background as an asset. this job can make use of all of my different skill sets—even my time at Legends!
Because of those wide-ranging skills, they're also going to be cross-training me as a field tech as well as a technical writer; at least one person has said "it would be a waste to keep you behind a desk."
One thing I love: after getting tossed into the deep end of the You Figure It Out pool at the last two "Real Jobs" I've had since graduation, and then spending two years in the genial chaos of Legends, I'm in a place where the standing orders are "if you have a question, ask someone"—and the answers generally start with, "let's look it up!"
I'm in heaven.
I made an interesting discovery on my second or third day.
Our company certifies clean rooms, vent hoods, and other lab apparatus for a wide range of companies, mostly in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Our safety-and-technical trainer repeatedly emphasizes during our training sessions that our work insures the cleanliness of locations that make medicine that gets directly injected into the bloodstreams of patients with already-compromised immune systems
Contaminants, especially unsuspected contaminants, could kill people. Lots of people.
And it comes down to us.
Lives are in our hands.
Here's the interesting discovery:
I'm good with that.
I'm a Coast Guard veteran, and my first long-term civilian job after mustering out was pushing hospital patients down to X-Ray and Nuclear Medicine on gurneys. I've had lives in my hands before.
When that clicked during training, it didn't feel like ZOMG PRESSURE. Quite the opposite: I relaxed. Some little ball of tension inside me evaporated.
When I know that lives hinge on the quality of the work I do ... I'm in my comfort zone.
It's odd place to find your comfort zone, I confess.
Maybe it's that, in a job with High Stakes, I don't feel the need to "prove" anything. Simply doing the job and doing it well and right is validation enough.
Maybe it's just that, deep down, I can only really take a job seriously if lives are on the line. "Pfffft. Urgent? You're not bleeding and you're not drowning. Let me tell you about urgent ... ."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Congrats!
Date: 2011-02-17 06:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 06:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 07:30 am (UTC)Might I suggest that you continue building your portfolio on LinkedIn. You may not be looking for work in other places, but it will help you move up in your current job. Down the road a few years, as other people have moved on, they may well be Important People in other companies that can help you find even better positions. Also, you may end up being an Important Person to help someone out.
I'm in a class now about Change. One thing that is very true these days is that change happens a lot, and it can happen quickly. Those that are best prepared for it handle it best.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 07:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 07:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 07:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 08:48 am (UTC)I'm having to think about similar work myself. What are the hours like? Lots of meetings?
no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 11:57 am (UTC)At worst, it's something to add to your resume to help you get the NEXT job, at best, it's a chance to start catching up. Either way, you win.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 12:08 pm (UTC)Congrats
and good luck - it sounds like a place with it's collective head screwed on.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 12:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 12:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 01:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 01:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 01:53 pm (UTC)We have two text books in the class that are excellent reading:
Managing Transitions (3rd edition) by William Bridges
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 01:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 02:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 02:56 pm (UTC)I wish you continued luck with this new jorb!
no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 05:17 pm (UTC)Also, every technical writer I've known has always been an awesome person. Maybe a little bit crazy, but awesome. As an awesome (and maybe a little crazy) person yourself, this just greatifies the aforementioned fit.
Also also, holy shit, EMPLOYMENT! Congratulations, and I hope this is the start of something big.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 07:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 08:01 pm (UTC)I'd sort of like to ask you for help with a reccommendation and whatever for your old job, but while I'm sure I have the customer service chops, I actually don't know whether I'm enough of a comic fan to do it well - do you think I have a chance?
no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 08:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 04:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 09:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 10:33 pm (UTC)I'm not sure if I would be all that comfortable with something where I was always worried about lives being on the line, I'd be paranoid about every little detail and never get things done... but after working as a volunteer firefighter, it did give me a new idea of what an actual emergency was, suddenly a down or slow server doesn't seem like a real crisis anymore, so I can stay more level headed and work better though issues...
no subject
Date: 2011-02-19 05:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-19 05:33 am (UTC)In any case, congrats! }:->