goblinbox

In which I just got out of a great interview. (And the gig is only a mile from my house! Guess who can walk or ride a bike to work if she gets hired!)

OMG OMG OMG I might soon be gainfully employed! In my industry, even!

The hiring company is called Integratechs; the gig is at Walla Walla Clinic, which specializes in family and pediatric care. (They apparently use a lot of cutting-edge medical technology, which bodes well for a girl to have fun stuff to learn and support.) The Integratech guy who flew in from Utah to do interviews was wonderful; well-spoken and intelligent. The local department head seems both smart and mellow and laughed at all my luser jokes. I could totally work for him.

I’m very glad I went with my instinct to dress more formally than I normally would for an IT interview; my normal slacker geek clothes wouldn’t have been at all appropriate.

I’d been sent a questionnaire to fill out prior to the interview. I toyed with doing short, terse answers but decided instead to be myself and give long, sometimes-amusing answers. Apparently it was the right approach as they said they’d enjoyed going through my answers. During the interview we more or less went over the questionnaire items in more detail, covering things like prioritizing and dealing with end users in a thorough but refreshingly light-hearted manner. (It’s nice to be interviewed by geeks rather than pure HR people. HR people don’t tend to understand what it is to keep the tech working.) (Although I don’t know that SLC guy isn’t an HR person; he focused on people skills, yes, but not in a pure HR kind of way. He was great at giving positive feedback. Anyway.)

At the end of the interview, I gave them my references – SLC guy accepted the list and thanked me “for thinking ahead” – and I was told that they thought I’d be a good fit for the position! Squee! They usually don’t say that if you’re not at least in their top three. I get the impression they’re doing more interviews this afternoon, but I hope they continue to like me best!

The job would be, on average, 40 to 45 hours per week, and there are the normal benefits of health insurance and paid vacation. A little bit of flex time for personal appointments, etc, too. Very little to no likelihood that I’d ever have to work through a gig. Good atmosphere. Decent pay. Fun-sounding stuff to fix.

I’m VERY excited about this!

Since it’s a clinic, do you suppose they’d let me wear purple scrubs?

In which I just checked my voice mail.

I have an interview tomorrow afternoon for a helpdesk position at a “medical facility” (probably a clinic, but maybe a hospital, I don’t know because an outsourced IT company is actually doing the hiring). The pay range is $10-$14 an hour, DOE, which is about right for Walla Walla. The two guys I’ve emailed with so far, though, seem like really great people.

The job posting suggested that people without degrees or certifications need not apply, but I applied anyway and they called me back because YOU DON’T GET COMPUTER SCIENCE DEGREES FOR TEN DOLLARS AN HOUR, not even with a high unemployment rate. Plus I also said I was studying for my CCNA, which is true in the sense that I looked at the books the other day, and false in the sense that I haven’t really studied in weeks because that shit is boring. I love networking, but they’ve somehow managed to jargonize and sterilize the material to such an extent that I can barely stay awake the length of a chapter.

It’s amazing. Really. Because I’ll read pretty much anything. I’ve read the back of my shampoo bottle at least two hundred times just because it’s there: THAT’S how boring the CCNA manual is.

But tomorrow’s helpdesk interview is not all that’s happening this week on the job front. Oh, no, it isn’t. A famous tea company also received an application from yours truly last week, and they’ve just called and left a voice mail asking if I can come in for an interview.

They’re in Tigard. Tigard, Oregon. Tigard, Oregon, the suburb of Portland. I haven’t called them back yet because my brain is broken. Sure, I could borrow my brother’s truck and zip over to PDX, crash the night at 80′s, and then pop over to Tigard and say hi to these lovely tea folks… but what if? What if what if what if? What if they actually hire me?

Li’l thought experiment here: could I actually manage a move to PDX? I don’t own a car, so I suppose I could just grab a Greyhound out there, crash with various friends, and take public transportation to work while looking for a roommate on the bulletin board at the local Whole Foods. I guess the dog could stay here with G’ma? (INSERT GUILT TRIP HERE OH GOD I LOVE YOU BINDU.) I could come back and get the rest of my shit later, once I make friends with people who have cars. Not that I have that much shit. Hell, I don’t even own dishes. Actually, I really don’t own enough shit to set up house. I have no furniture. No pots and pans. I’d probably need to rent a furnished room.

To take TriMet from, for example, 80′s house to the tea store in Tigard, though? SIXTY-SEVEN MINUTES, and it costs nearly five bucks. To be at work by 8, one would have to leave at 6:30, which means one would have to get up at… YE GODS. Early, yes, but not impossible.

I’d need enough money to survive until my first paycheck. I probably don’t have that, not since I’d be eating out and taking the bus for two to four weeks. Probably no way to borrow, either, since all my relatives are also broke.

So, um, yeah. It’s a definite maybe. Whatever that means.

Gawd. Should I call back? Or just pretend I never got the message? ARGH.

In which I indulge in a little pre-vacation bitching. Don’t even read this, my babies! Save yourselves! Run away!

Feet

I sit cross-legged in my office chair. This is because I am, by nature, a floor-sitter and I don’t really like chairs. Sometimes when I sit like this my feet go to sleep.

Right now my feet are asleep.

Throat

The vague itchy-tickle behind my left tonsil is still there. It’s been at least 36 hours since I noticed it. My throat seems to be a little phlegmmy.

Let it be known that IF I GET SICK RIGHT BEFORE VACATION, I WILL BE ROYALLY PISSED OFF.

Back

My bed is torture. My neck hurts, my back hurts, my muscles hurt, my arms hurt, my hands hurt… constantly. It’s a mess. Yoga doesn’t fix it.

I really need to get off of those 50-year-old totally sprung twin mattresses and on to a foam-core futon or something. Srsly. This situation is off the chain.

Brain

I like my job, but it’s slow. Not a lot of call volume, and only occasional projects. I’m working O/T on Saturday. I will probably watch Netflix vids most of the day and knit on my socks.

Happy Ending

The good news is, though, that I’ve survived my probation period at the new job and have just this week signed up for HEALTH INSURANCE and a DRY LOOP DSL!

And I got paid! I now have all of my NY money stashed. (I just need to stay the fuck out of it for the next nine days.)

And I finally got my swap package finished and mailed out; that’s a bit of stress off my mind. (It took me three months to finish the woman’s slippers; she sent me two cute purses and a camera strap back in August! I’m such an asshole.)

In which there’s an amazing cake!

Today was the office “comfort food” potluck. (I brought a casserole.)

There are two birthdays in the office this month; mine is one of them. And Dani, whom I didn’t even know was a baker, brought in this fantastic cake:

Isn’t that thing just freakin’ awesome?!?

In which this will have to suffice!

I was gonna write about my weekend, but it really needs a particular image to make the post work, but I still can’t send images from my phone to Flickr and I forgot the phone’s USB cable at home so I can’t get the image online until later. Ergo: no real post until tomorrow.

In other news, I just got off the phone with a guy who is running a dual boot XP/Kubuntu box, possibly a laptop. He could connect and surf in XP, but not in Kubuntu. I had him put Google’s IP into the browser and the page didn’t load. I said he wasn’t online. He said he was. I asked him if he knew how to ping. He did not. I told him I’m not trained to support Linux distros, but that I suspected his problem was one of the following: lack of appropriate drivers for the wireless adapter; firewall settings; or conflicts from trying to connect to the same wireless router from two operating systems with the same MAC address. I explained that I couldn’t fix his problem.

He asked me if there was anyone else in tech support who could help him. I said there was not. He asked me if I could ask around. I explained that no one here was trained to support Linux and could do so only from personal experience and that NO ONE HERE RUNS KUBUNTU AT HOME, TRUST ME.

Stymied, he then went into detailed questions about encryption types and the fact that he has a wireless DSL modem with a wireless router behind it. I replied that I had no way of knowing which encryption type he had enabled on his wireless AP and that having two broadcasting wireless routers in his LAN was a personal problem. He then went off on another round of 1D10T questions that were only tangentially related to ANYTHING AT ALL EVER.

I finally said, “Listen! Since you can surf when you’re booted into Windows, we know that your connection works and that your hardware works. Therefore, your PROBLEM is with your LINUX DISTRO and as I’ve said NINE TIMES already I am not required to nor INTERESTED in supporting your issue, and I couldn’t even if I wanted to because YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO PING. So! Go log into Windows, go to kubuntu.org, and surf the forums until you find your answer.”

Moral: if you’re running Linux, (1.) be a geek, and (2.) GET OFF MY PHONE.

In which I am acquiring things.

I now have speakers and a UPS for my work machine. Still waiting on a proper desk and a second monitor. And a vid card.

But still! Getting stuff!

And my boss almost got me an ergo keyboard but they were $60 at Staples so I didn’t get one. Yet.

Also got a skin for my cell phone.

She who dies with the most toys wins!

In which I’m happy.

The new job rocks now.

I have a desk, a chair, a phone, and and extension. I’m taking calls. Co-workers are all adorable and geeky. Got my last direct deposit from the call center yesterday, getting my first direct deposit from the ISP tomorrow.

I have access to accounts and billing software and qhost and the ticketing system and am learning stuff left and right.

I had sushi for lunch today because one of my co-workers IMed me to see if I had an order (I totally did) and then ran and picked it up!

Life is good!

In which I’m all settled in.

Started the new job Tuesday. I like it here. Not much training to speak of but since this is my fourth ISP I don’t really need much. What I do need is a desk of my own, an extension, a headset, and some logins and I’ll be just fine.

Took a tour of the data center. Went up on the roof of the Baker Boyer building to look at the wireless installation. (Pics as soon as I get my cell phone-to-Flickr issue sorted.)

I took some calls today: same stuff I’ve always done. Easy peasy! I just have to remember to answer the phone with the correct company name.

I love the staff; everybody in here is great.

Now I just need to accomplish a nice comfortable late shift and permission to bring the blue dog in with me and I’ll be all set!

In which there’s really great news! Three times over!

Today has been the longest, slowest day ever. I’ve been here since ten and haven’t even been on the phone for two hours. It’s that dead in here.

Which means that the day has been dragging by with incredible slowness.

But when the day is over, I will officially be on vacation! Which is so awesome I can’t even express it.

But to make it all even better, this afternoon I got a job offer. And I accepted it! I GOT A NEW JOB! I GOT A NEW JOB! I GOT A NEW JOB! I GOT A NEW JOB! I GOT A NEW JOB! *snoopy dance* Whoo hoo!

Oh, and on Tuesday, my bento article will be in the paper – perhaps as the main feature in the Food & Lifestyle section of the Union-Bulletin!

In which it went really well!

I had an interview today at 1:30 at an ISP/CLEC¹. It’s about four blocks closer to my house than the company I work for now.

I did well in terms of enthusiasm and communication. I probably took a little too much control of the meeting overall, but I always do that when I’m nervous in interviews. They liked my résumé. They liked my experience. They’re growing, and there’s growth opportunity.

They said they’d let me know by Friday.

I think I may have flubbed up once: the leader was trying to end our overly-long meeting by explaining that they did have other people to interview. I replied, ‘Oh, of course you do, of course you do. It’s just that you’re not going to like them as much as you do me,’ and he kind of gave me a weird look.

But other than that, I think the interview went really, really well. I liked both of the guys who interviewed me, they more or less told me that I’m perfect for the job, and I’m certain the guy who would end up being my direct supervisor wants me in his department in the worst way.

Here’s hoping I get a call on Friday from someone offering me a new job!!!

—
¹ ISP Internet Service Provider. CLEC Competative Local Exchange Carrier (small telephone company).

In which I give you a peek at an interoffice email I just sent.

This really happened, and I really sent this email to my boss.

Hello M—,

Friday evening I hung up on a customer. Twice. Here are my notes:

6/19/09 Cust put new CC on file. He wished to argue with me about how expiry dates work, I disconnected the call when he began to yell. He called back and told me I’m “full of shit” and that he intends to get me fired. I gave him my name and my supervisor’s name and hung up on him again. -mm

In the first call, I thanked him for putting his new card number on file and tried gently to terminate the call. He wanted to explain that his card had “never expired” (although in the same breath he told me he’d received a new one in the mail) and that B– is “the only company” who is unable to run charges against an expired credit card. When his pointless lecture escalated to the edge of abuse, I said I was not interested in arguing and that I was ending the call. Then I hung up.

When he called back, he told me I’m “full of shit,” said I didn’t know what I was talking about, called me “young lady” with contempt, and said he would “get me fired.” He proceeded to argue with me again about our stupidity in not being able to charge an expired card, and didn’t slow down at all when I asked, “Do you really not have anything better to do on a Friday night than yell at someone who makes minimum wage?”

I told him to call in Monday and report me to my supervisor. I gave him my name, and I gave him your name. I refused to give him my last name when he demanded it (or yours, for that matter). Then I told him I was ending the call, and hung up on him again.

He has called back in at least eight more times – and hit all the queues: billing, reception, tech, and sales. I have not answered any of them.

I forwarded the one voice mail message he left to your box.

Cheers,
—
Michelle M—–
Support Technician
B— M—— Internet

http://www.—-.net

(800) 485-XXXX xXXX

P.S. …before I managed to send this, he called back YET AGAIN, this time from a different number. I answered with my name, and he said “Hello Michelle, I need to speak with someone in billing that’s NOT YOU.” I said, “There is no one else. I’m the only one here.” He said he’d call on Monday and hung up on me.

I’m sure he felt very powerful when he did so.

Of course I don’t actually make minimum wage. but he didn’t need to know that.

Seriously, how many people with MBAs yell at call center drones and don’t understand that you can’t run a credit card without the correct expiration date?