My New Job.

[Pianomahnn]

(This is going to be a little journal on my first "real" job....feel free to respond, I'm not a hater.)

January 3, 2004

Day 1.

It was very orientationy. Mix in a bit of brainwashing and GO TEAM GO and you have my day. Oh yea, got my picture taken for fancy swiping id card dealies. And I have one of the longest commutes of those I spoke with. Yea me?

The free food is win++. Today I had baked tilapia with some rice and a salad, washed down with icy cold milk. I'm going to try their breakfast tomorrow.

[Pianomahnn]

January 4, 2004.

Day 2.

4 hours of "This is how you open e-mail."

And another 3 hours of horrible group work with very non-social people. I guess things really don't change from college.

Horrible oatmeal was served for breakfast. *gag*

[Pianomahnn]

January 5, 2004.

Day 3 - End of Orientations.

Today was an enlightening experience on the massive advancement opportunites I have waiting for me. No gloating from me. I'm simply feel very lucky right now to have come across this opportunity.

Lunch today was a nice turkey sandwich, salad, and some spicy shrimp pasta thing. The nasty oatmeal served yesterday was made less nasty today when I added some butter and raisins.

It's been snowing like, uhm, a freaking snowstorm all day. It took me 40 minutes to simply exit the company campus tonight. MOTHERFREAKING WTF. 2 hour home commute. I was expecting 3, so that part was nice. w00t...ish.

edit: I'm not in a cubicle. But I share an office with another new hire programmer analyst who actually graduated from NIU a semester after I did. This could be a good thing or a bad........I dunno yet.

[Pianomahnn]

January 6, 2004.

Day 4 - The onslaught begins.

The quantity of information I'm going to be consuming in the coming weeks is daunting. Data models, tables, 45 individual proceses, new programming languages. The nice thing....they don't expect me to remember but a fraction of this stuff. Only that I get an understanding of things. I am, as it were, a conversion programmer, that also has a computer with access to information, which I can reference from time to time.

Lunch was pretty good today. However, my officemates decided talking about reality TV during lunch was a great idea....that wasn't any fun. I discovered the grape juice in the coffee/drink room fridge. It's quality. I also found out that Hewitt used to stock these rooms with coffee cake and the like every day, all day, in every floor in every building. Craziness.

I'm also pretty damned tired. That's just because I live 50 miles away and my drive is a wee bit lengthy. So I have allocate more time to such a lame endeavor. I kinda wish I could move in across the street...but don't at the same time. These are confusing times in terms of housing decisions. Move to Chicago, 30 miles away, or move to another suburb, 5 miles away....what to do, what to do.

[SimpleSimon]

P-mahnn, look at the numbers.

Round-trip commute approx 100 miles per day. At an average fuel cost of about 8 cents/mile, that's $8.00. Plus 3-4 hrs/day drive time. Don't know your hourly wage, but cost it at say $15.00/hr. Another (averaged) $52.50/day lost. Then wear and tear on your vehicle is probably another .20/mile - another $20/day lost. At that rate it would be cheaper to take a weekly rental on the nearest Economy Suites at $189/week - with that you get daily maid service!. You'd still save at least $200/wk.

[Pianomahnn]

January 22, 2004.

End of Week 3.

Things are going quite well. I'm keeping busy learning the ropes of the company, working on very n00b projects, but I'm happy with that. I am enjoying the people with whom I work, and am growing more comfortable in my surroudings each day.

The two guys who will be giving me assignments/projects/work/whatever are very friendly and fun to be around. Generally, everyone I've run into is like this. The higher-ups are, of course, a bit more intense, but have shown their lighter side more times than I would expect.

For a first "office" job I'm very content. I miss not being on my feet all day, and get very ansy if I sit for more than an hour or so. I venture around, walk up and the stairs a lot. I'm just not a sitdown for hours kind of person.

And having lunch on premesis is nice. 45minute lunches, heck maybe even an hour, are nice. No driving to someplace, spending my precious money.

I worked until 6 on Friday. 50 hours this week. Not bad. Since I'm driving so much my days are normally a good 13 hours. I do nothing during the week outside of driving and working with a bit of eating. I didn't know what to do with myself today...so much free time. :-D

Yup...things are lookin' good these days. I'm glad college has paid off.

[Asmodeus]

That last sentence sounded a bit sarcastic.

[Pianomahnn]

It wasn't.

[Pianomahnn]

Update.

SAS is a pain in the ass. It's a powerful language but completely retarded at the same time.