Sunday, August 8, 2010

I'm a Working Girl!

I'm sorry for my absentness, folks, but I'm an official 8 to 5 gal, now. It's been awhile since I've had a set work schedule - 8 years to be exact. It's actually not as hard an adjustment as I thought it would be. I need to come up with some sort of blogging schedule lest I'm forgotten for lack of posting (and commenting), but I'll just have to work on that.

Right now I'm just extremely grateful to have a regular paycheck and I only had to sweat through one interview. I feel really, really fortunate in that regard. I was so freaking nervous in my interview. I'm just not the confident kind. I know I'm a hard worker, but I don't know if I'm perceived as one.

Despite my stumbling over a couple questions, they seemed to like me. I was their first interview and they were only interviewing four other people. I found out later that after they met with me, they cancelled all but one of the other interviews. I interviewed on a Thursday and on Monday they called me in to offer me the job. I started the next day.

It's a small family owned computer software and hardware company. I do administrative assistant stuff, like phones, quickbooks, correspondence, and whatever other support their programmers might need. I'll also get to write some website content which is very cool.

It's an all guy office, except for me and one other girl, but she works off site. They're all very techy, of course, because that's their job - and I felt a little inept at their phone system at first, but I'm starting to settle in now. I like what I do, I get along with everyone fine, and I hope I make them happy they hired me.

I've already had a "maybe I just shouldn't speak" moment. As part of the hiring process, the project manager had sent out a questionnaire and proofreading challenge to all of the candidates. After he hired me, he showed me how I scored compared to the rest of the candidates. He told me I had scored the highest, but as I was looking at his little chart of scorings and rankings, trying to see for myself how smart I was, I couldn't read it for the life of me. I couldn't tell if I was the first vertical row or the first horizontal column or what all the numbers meant, because they weren't labeled.

At times like these, it's best to just nod and smile. It's not a good idea when someone is trying to show you how smart you are, to ask a question, because the odds are it's going to be a really dumb question and give them reason to reconsider their opinion. I asked what one of the scores was and as it turns out, I was reading the darn thing all wrong and he gave me an odd look as he explained I was looking at the wrong row. Now I have to redeem myself and do something smart. I hate when that happens!

The other thing that is a bit challenging is figuring out what these guys think is funny. I make coments in my emails that are meant to be humorous and I get nothing. Crickets. You know what I mean? Like it's so quiet you just hear crickets chirping? It's a bit off-putting, but then again, maybe I'm off-putting to them.

Despite a few jitters, I'm really glad I'm there. I think I'm a good fit for this little company and I hope I can make a contribution to their success. Thanks for everyone's kind comments and support. I'll be around visiting your blogs soon, I promise!

7 comments:

Tracie said...

I was just thinking about you! Congrats on getting the job!

Ms. Understood said...

So happy that you are settling in nicely. Although they don't get your jokes. I love them, especially when they are on post-in, LOL. Have a great week.

Cheeseboy said...

Congratulations! That is so terrific. I want a test to tell me how smart I am too.

I hope this job works out for you.

Unknown said...

Have been thinking of you, my lovely one. Hang on in there, they will soon come to appreciate your sparkling wit!! Always hard in a new place- and those hours must suck hard... xox

Savira Gupta said...

Give them time! They will soon see your with and humor like we all do.
Nice to see you back here

Janet said...

After just leaving a job where I worked with all women, working with a bunch of men sounds heavenly! It was just way too much estrogen up in there! My boyfriend always said, if we only had ONE man, it would have been a completely different environment.

Tree said...

Congratulations, my dear!! I'm sure you are doing an awesome job...otherwise, they wouldn't have hired you. ;)

I didn't drop off from visiting because YOU were MIA....but because I WAS! lol Home recovering from my surgery on the 2nd, and this last week has been a little tough for me, but I wanted to stop by to say hi to my favorite AI gal! :)

I'll be back again soon!