5.9.14
Today marks the end of my first
week at my new full-time permanent job; I am happy to report that the
transition is over, well the part that has to do with my career.
The moment I decided to let go and
let the chips regard my career and life fall where they may, the open happened.
I saw a job unlike the ones I had applied to in the past and thought why not
and I sent in my application and moved on.
Even though I stopped stressing
out about the job, I continued to worry about my finances and having nothing meaningful
to do daily. I had had enough of reviewing, learning new skills and keeping up
with my industry. I had had enough of networking and redoing my resume. I
needed to focus on bring money in to sustain my life, I was not going to let
the only thing I had left, good credit get destroy, I wanted to able to pay my
bills.
This is when I turned to the big
guy in the sky and asked what am I suppose to do with my life, why was I here,
because sitting in a room in someone’s house with debt and no way to afford the
basic necessities was not part of my life plan. I told him that if my job is not ready, he
needed to send a temporary one and money for me to sustain my life.
On January 31st, I was
craving chocolate cake all day but told no one. Later that evening the owner of
the house knocked on my door telling me she brought me some dessert, a normal
occurrence on Fridays. I went into the kitchen and found chocolate cake on top
of the Friday newspaper insert that list jobs. I took both to my room and as I
ate the cake I browsed through the job section. I came upon ad for a company
called SourceHov that needed preppers and scanners. The advertisements said
they were looking to hire 500 for a 3 to 4 month project and those interested
must fill out and application online and go in the next day for an interview. I
had plans to be in Albany for that weekend and SourceHov’s, Kingston location
was on my way, I was glad I could do both. I figured it will also be a perfect
job for me to quit when I get a job in my field.
I was offered a job and decided to
start on Wednesday because the Monday I had an interview schedule at my old
stomping ground McDonalds.
Monday Morning I felt weird. The
weather channel was forecasting snow and I was not sure about the McDonald’s
interview. Though it was 10 minutes away from my house, unlike SourceHov which
was 50mins, I felt apprehensive about going back to McDonalds.
Before leaving the Albany, I
called McDonald’s to reschedule to interview, something told me to stay one
more day in Albany but I decided against it as it was the beginning of the week
and I did not want to disturb my hosts flow.
I got on the road, heading home,
thinking that finally I might have the money to fix the heat in my car and do
my car inspection the next day as my schedule at SourceHov will be from 6am to
2:30pm, which does not leave much time for car maintenance. 15mins from home,
my car started sliding, I saw two mailboxes ahead on the left side of the road
and knew I was going to hit them and I did, after hitting them, my car turned
facing the other direction, it tried flipping over but didn’t as the right
tires were on one side of a snow band and the left was on the road.. As the car
continues to move, I yelled help, help and then remembered the break and pulled
it. I got out shaking, my body ached, head ached but with no bruises.
The next day I was giving a rental
car by my insurance company and days later I found out my car was a complete
loss, my insurance gave me some money for it and it was back to car shopping,
which brought back a new added expense, car payment.
A week later, February 10th,
I was speaking with an uncle on the phone regarding the accident when I saw a
call coming in from a NYC number, I said goodbye and answer, the call was from
MSKCC requesting for me to come for an HR interview. They wanted me to come on the Thursday, as I
hung up the phone, I remembered that Thursday was one of the days forecasted
for a 12 inches of snow in my area as well as NYC which is 80 miles away. I
decide not to cancel and wait and see if they will. I figured I will leave as
early as possible and take the train from Beacon station.
I woke up the day of the HR
interview amazed that the only snow on the ground was the half an inch that had
fallen from the previous day. I left the house at 6 am; I got to the rental
car, after walking 15mins. I started the car to warm it up and decided to clear
some of the snow. As I went to get the shovel out of the car, I found all the
doors locked; yep I had locked the keys in the car with the car running, spare
and all.
I did not know who to call, my AAA
membership had run out and it was 6:30 am and I did not want to bother anyone. I
called out to God for help as I intended to make it to my interview on time.
The job had applied for was juicy, this was a position that seemed perfect for
my skills, training and career goals, I had to do whatever it takes to get
there.
I made a call to the house I was
staying, no answer, I called some cell phones numbers, and got no answers, as I
trekked back to the house practically running, my phone died. I got to the
house and the owner of the house told me she had tried returning my call, she
told me to call the police to help me. I did and an hour later I was off. On my
way I stopped at a gas station, asked to plug in my phone so that I can turn it
back on. I got to the train station to catch the train on time. It was going to
get me to the city 3 hours ahead of time...As I tried to buy the ticket the
machine would not corporate, I decided to use another. As I bought the ticket
the 8:45 train came and went. I got on the 9:15. After about an hour on the
train I looked down at my phone to see it ringing; I normally have it on with
the ringer off. I answered it was hiring manager, checking to see if I could
still make it as every other interviewee had canceled because of the weather.
He decided to change the location from 41st which was closer to the
train stop, to the hospital at 67th street. I said it was okay, as I
had plenty of time. As I looked for my
metro card and train map I found 20 dollars. I got to the city; the snow was
now a slushy mess but I am happy to report had a great first interview. The
manager told me to contact him in a week if I didn’t hear back.
The next Monday I was leaving for
work at 4am, 45mins early because of the snow and as I backed out I hit a snow
bank putting a dent in the rental car.
After a week, I sent an email to
the hiring manager as I had not heard back, he responded he hadn’t heard back
from the manager and he would follow up. When I got home I received an email
asking me to pick a time to come any day during the week. As I discussed this
with my land lady, I decided to go on Thursday as snow was on the forecast
for most of the days that week, as I was
responding to the message, thank God it was after 5pm, one of my land lady’s
grandson, hit a key on my computer and the half email was sent. I could not
recall it but had to send an apology and stated that I could come on Thursday
at 2pm.
That week, I had decided on a PT
Cruiser from a mechanic and was to pick it up on Wednesday. I told myself if my
own car I would drive to the city if not I will take the train as I did not
want to drive the rental car anymore. When Thursday arrived I still had the
rental car, I wanted to clean it, fill up the tank as I was driving by car
rental office on my way to the train station but I decided to wait until after
the interview to do all this...
At about 9:30 whiles on the train, I looked
down and saw that I had a miss call from the hiring manager. He had left a message informing me to not come
for the interview as the Finance Manager I was to meet had call in sick. I made
it to grand central station, when to the bank, caught the train back, dropped
the rental car off nervously and picked up my new car from the mechanic.
The following Tuesday, I was sent
home early from my job at Sourcehov because they did not have any work for us
to do, upset a sent an email to the hiring manager asking if the Finance
manager was ok, he responded that he hadn’t heard back and he would follow up.
Hours later, he emailed back, wanting to know if I can come the next day at 2pm,
I agreed and went in and met with my new boss. That was a great interview, I
loved our interaction. It reminded me of a dream I had; in the dream I had an
interview with a man in NYC and we were laughing and it had gone greatly.
Weeks went by I started getting
nervous and I tried my best not to analyze the interview. I kept telling myself
that “the job for me is finding me and we will come together in perfect
harmony”-a mantra I learned from Nancy Johansson on 12RADIO.
On April 1st I received
a call from MSKCC, telling me to come to the same location where I met my
current boss, to meet with and administrator on Friday at 12:30 pm. I
agreed. I meet with her, and she
informed me that I would know my fate regarding this job within 2 weeks.
On 4/14/14 I got the call from hiring
manager, he told me it was down to me
another person and they wanted to move along with my references. I requested helped from people who had agreed
to do it prior. It was tax day and I was worried about one person’s
availability as he is a CPA, but as luck would have it he came through by the
Thursday. On Friday the 4/18/14 on Good Friday, I got the call; Feeling
relieved and accepted their offer. They gave me a start date of May 5th.
Following the offer, I had to make
a quick trip to the city to meet with HR and employer health, on the day I was traveling
to London, England for my grandmother’s 90th birthday. Luckily my
flight was at 9:30 pm from JFK, so like the trooper I am, I got up at 4am left
for NYC around 5:20 am, did my errand, drop off my car in Kingston NY, caught
the Amtrak train and made it to JFK for my flight.
Now on to other adventure, stay
tuned...
Transition 2
Transition 1
