Saturday, May 17, 2014

Transition (4) The end, a new beginning


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...

 

 

 

 Here are the link to the other transition blogs:

 
Transition 3

Transition 2

Transition 1


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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