On gainful employment
Aug. 11th, 2010 01:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterWell, I promised myself I'd sit down and write another journal entry when I had the time, and I seem to have a spare half hour before I go to work, so it seems like a good time to get it into print.
Friday was the last day of training. We took some more calls, and got used to the experience. We also "graduated" and were given little certificates (that the trainer forgot to sign before handing out, so he had to go around and sign each one afterward).
That morning, I secretly passed around a thank-you card I'd got at Wal-Mart the day before so each member of the class could write a little personal note on it to Jared, the trainer. He seemed touched by the gesture, and one of my classmates also approached me afterward to thank me for thinking of it.
But he really deserved it. He had an insane amount of patience, especially for being forced to get up just as early as we all were. And really—can you imagine how tough it must have been to turn a room full of geeks (a number of whom showed all the signs of having Aspergers) into "people persons"?
Monday, I had my first day of the "real" job. I hadn't slept too well the night before—who'd have thought I would have a hard time adjusting to a later sleep schedule?—but I managed to get by. Tuesday was more of the same.
The hardest thing about these calls is that there are so many of them that I don't know anything about. Of course they told us there would be that kind of call during training; no one knows everything. The most you can do is try to use Google to make up for it (it's amazing how many of these technical support issues I can solve just by Googling!) and try to sell them an agent to come out to their place and resolve it if all else fails.
I really hate that I'm not able to make everybody happy, and especially hate it when someone hangs up angry. But I knew going into this there would be that kind of call. It's just the price I have to pay for gainful employment. On the other hand, I have a good supe who is genuinely interested in helping me improve, and I haven't met any colleagues who suck yet. This 8 days a week working thing is going to take some getting used to, but if I could stick it out at MCI I can damn sure stick it out here.
Over the weekend, I happened to glance at the status indicators on the Google Talk box set into my Gmail account. It still had the "Laid Off" status indicator that I used in the early days after Mihlfeld laid me off. As a sort of final punctuation mark to my newly-employed status, I hit "Clear all custom statuses" and started it over with a blank slate.
Friday was the last day of training. We took some more calls, and got used to the experience. We also "graduated" and were given little certificates (that the trainer forgot to sign before handing out, so he had to go around and sign each one afterward).
That morning, I secretly passed around a thank-you card I'd got at Wal-Mart the day before so each member of the class could write a little personal note on it to Jared, the trainer. He seemed touched by the gesture, and one of my classmates also approached me afterward to thank me for thinking of it.
But he really deserved it. He had an insane amount of patience, especially for being forced to get up just as early as we all were. And really—can you imagine how tough it must have been to turn a room full of geeks (a number of whom showed all the signs of having Aspergers) into "people persons"?
Monday, I had my first day of the "real" job. I hadn't slept too well the night before—who'd have thought I would have a hard time adjusting to a later sleep schedule?—but I managed to get by. Tuesday was more of the same.
The hardest thing about these calls is that there are so many of them that I don't know anything about. Of course they told us there would be that kind of call during training; no one knows everything. The most you can do is try to use Google to make up for it (it's amazing how many of these technical support issues I can solve just by Googling!) and try to sell them an agent to come out to their place and resolve it if all else fails.
I really hate that I'm not able to make everybody happy, and especially hate it when someone hangs up angry. But I knew going into this there would be that kind of call. It's just the price I have to pay for gainful employment. On the other hand, I have a good supe who is genuinely interested in helping me improve, and I haven't met any colleagues who suck yet. This 8 days a week working thing is going to take some getting used to, but if I could stick it out at MCI I can damn sure stick it out here.
Over the weekend, I happened to glance at the status indicators on the Google Talk box set into my Gmail account. It still had the "Laid Off" status indicator that I used in the early days after Mihlfeld laid me off. As a sort of final punctuation mark to my newly-employed status, I hit "Clear all custom statuses" and started it over with a blank slate.
