Loving the job market

After 3 long years working at the bottom of the "food" chain at a McDonald's "Restaurant", I finally gave up. After learning the job from the ground up, taking in every piece of information I could about what was expected of me and generally working to be the best in the business, things all went horribly wrong.

Within the management team there were a group of people who understood that I knew what I was doing. It was believed by most of the team that because I was so utterly quick, I must be taking some sort of dodgy shortcut, or many of them. The people who understood me were high enough up in the rankings that they could keep me covered from taking any flak. They kept me informed of changes to the rules, so that I wasn't accidentaly breaking any of them, and generally talked people out of trying to cause me trouble.

Trouble is, they all quit within a two-week period.

A week after the last one left, my shifts were cut. In half. No warning, no discussion about what I was doing wrong that made them choose to punish me, just a sudden lack of income. Luckily, I was already earning far more money than I needed, and, assuming this was a one-off event, I rode it through. The next week, when those hours were cut in half, I knew things were about to get messy.

Time for this rat to jump ship.

So, on a Monday, I sent out an application to a local telco, looking to get myself a door-to-door sales role. The money was excellent and it looked to be a very interesting role. Before midday on Tuesday, I'd been offered the job, on one proviso, I had to buy a car. By the next Monday. With no capital.

By the time it got to Thursday I realised I had no hope of meeting the deadline, so I went and hunted down another job. The advertisement read: Entry level call centre. I figured, 'why not?' and sent off an email. By the end of Friday, I had the job, start Monday. Unbeknownst to me, this "entry level' job was in the largest telco in the nation, which, also happens to be the largest, most profitable company in the nation as well.

Oooooohhh, yeah...

I've taken a 30% increase in my wage, for more reasonable hours than the relatively random shifts I used to be on, I have my own desk, get more breaks in less time than I used to, am allowed to pretty much do whatever I like between calls as far as the internet is concerned, (of course there's the standard 'inappropriate material' clause, and I have to be a lot more security-concious than on my home PC, but hey, they're letting me write in my blog...) and work with a friendly group of people who don't mind listening to my ideas..

In just under two week's time here, I've received full training and been throw right into the fray. The job isn't simple, but it's more about quick-thinking than the ability to concentrate. There's a good level of variety, and for the firs time in a long time, I feel as though everything I do actually contributes to a larger whole, and that contribution is actually appreciated, and not just to a few people!

So, the summary. In less than 7 days I managed to get two jobs, both excellent, considering my lack of work experience in any field, and ended up working the one that provides me with a massive amount of perks.

So, is this karma? Intelligent design at work? God's grand plan? I just don't know, at the time that I needed salvation, I received it. After doing some pretty solid physical labour for 3 years, I now get to sit on my butt and do pretty much whatever I want, so long as I do my job, which allows me plenty of free time. For example, I browsed Wikipedia for entertainment yesterday. Today, I'm writing this. I love it.

Thankyou God/Allah/Ishnu/Steve/Whoever else wants to claim having a helping hand in this.

Love you guys. Gals. Beings of indeterminate gender...