Good luck Les, and I hope this leads to bigger and better things.

Good luck, too.

Good luck, three!

Gotta get that foot in the door!

Yes!  I’m glad you’re going for it, and good luck in turning into something more.

It’s an entry level position paying only $15 an hour

~Twice what you got before, and if people can live on $7/hour this shouldn’t be much problem, hypothetically if you had a lifestyle that $7 would just about support you’d have all that money again on top of it to use on non-critical things

and I’m way overqualified for it

miss some off the list, the only thing is you’d have to lie about what you were doing in study years if it were to be asked, but that’ll only really happen if you havn’t had many employers (and hence recent history stretches back to student days). I’m wondering if my degree course will actially make me less employable if I were to state it, because I’m adverse to high paid jobs (it would make me feel more was expected of me and that they’d have more reason to sack me)

and will probably offer me some form of medical insurance

a strange concept in this part of town, in terms of medical expenses I assume the poor is paid for by the state for the life threatening stuff but I wonder what happens about the non-threatening stuff like optitions and dentistry. If there is a some kind of free healthcare service in the us is it conditional on finances or is it an option open to anyone? Because even if I had the money there’s no way I’d pay 3 digit sums for something I didn’t have to

in terms of medical expenses I assume the poor is paid for by the state for the life threatening stuff

You would assume wrongly. Even the health insurances appear to be getting more creative about denying coverage for life-saving treatments.

By the way, remember the sick bays in Star Trek - The Next Generation? Allegedly one of the displays was titled “Medical Insurance Remaining"…

Funny that American conservatives complain that national health insurance gives foreign manufacturers an advantage over our manufacturers, and this is somehow an argument against national health insurance. 

The NHS and free pre 18 education is possibly the best thing about the UK, and there is a NMW, lowish unemp and lowish inflation- and relitively low violence. Worst things would be tax, running a car, buying a house, tv programs
In other words you’l be looked after but spend most your life paying mortgage

The UK must look like some conservatives view of ‘communism’ if the welfare state was publicised

Read a review of Michael Moores new film where he does what he does, this time against the US medical system. 1 in 6 denied health insurance. What happens to them? do they just suffer.

I don’t recall the details, but there are risk pool insurances that will take you if you can documentthat the regular insurances won’t take you.

What happens to them? do they just suffer

If they’re just left to die I guess that’s one way of shortening the waiting lists and avoiding the need to pay for healthcare for them. You see, once all the poor are dead the wealthy make up a larger proportion of the population, and they vote favourably for as little drain on the taxpayer as possible

End the problem of world hunger - with a nuke

Funny that American conservatives complain that national health insurance gives foreign manufacturers an advantage over our manufacturers, and this is somehow an argument against national health insurance.

Caught that detail in other threads - Canada’s socialized (though by no means comprehensive) health-care does lower costs overall in some places - major trade centres can boast coverage especially well, which cuts costs for prospective employers.

I remember back in the days of The Awful Truth with Michael Moore that he was smacking the HMOs pretty bad. He sticks to his guns, at least. Unfortunately, his guns seem to be aimed at his own people :S, and not overly effective against anyone else.

Maybe off topic: the Google ads on this page are all about God.  The last link is especially interesting:

THE BIBLE REVEALS NEXT AND LAST POPE WILL
BE A DEVIL IMPERSONATING JOHN PAUL II

I can’t help but wonder how these particular ads are chosen.  But perhaps Google knows something we don’t: Les, which “Big Three” are you working for anyway?

Well this was fast, I got a call back yesterday asking if they could interview me at 3PM and then the recruiter remembered that I was in the middle of my work day. Asked if I could possibly make it to an interview today at 2PM so I swapped my Saturday off with a coworker who has today off and I’m sitting here killing some time before I have to leave for the interview.

The recruiter seems to think that, based on my qualifications, this is a slam dunk unless I totally screw up the interview and I would tend to agree. If I get it I’ll be headed back to General Motor’s Tech Center campus, a place I’m familiar with as I was part of GM’s Y2K upgrade panic and spent a good portion of my time upgrading the PCs in the various buildings there. I might even run into a familiar face or two though it has been almost ten years since I first worked there.

Les, I hope this works out. I just wish you’d land a permanent job that pays a living wage. Not that you need me to tell you that…

Les:  I e-mailed you an article you should read.  Something to think about.

“Permanent job"… that would be processing licence applications at the DMV.  Anything related to technology is a tightrope act, alas.

Permanent tech job= any job that lasts long enough to get your first vacation.

  That’s not a bad definition!

The interview went well. Very well. I wasn’t home for two hours before I got a phone call saying they wanted to hire me.

As it turns out this is very much bottom-rung entry level work. I’ll be on the Add/Delete/Move/Refresh team which means I’ll largely be putting PCs in place for new hires or removing them when they leave or moving them from point A to point B. The busy work will be when they “refresh” the hardware or software for a site as that’ll mean being part of the team that goes in and swaps it all around.

The “break and fix” team is the one that does the true desktop support role and it’s always possible that I’ll be able to move up to that, but I’m starting at the bottom so this is truly like starting all over again. Needless to say the job search won’t end with this new position, but it does give me a little more elbow room during the continuing search. If nothing else it should make it possible for me to afford to study up and take a few certification tests to get something on my resume that’ll show I know what I’m doing.

Now I just have to go in and try to explain to my boss at Meijers that they want me to start this coming Tuesday and, as such, I won’t be able to give her the full two-weeks that are customary. I’m thinking I’ll offer to at least work weekends for a few weeks to help offset the problem if she wants me to do so.

Cindi, I got your email and I’ll definitely look into it. Thanks.

Yay for Les.

I’m thinking I’ll offer to at least work weekends for a few weeks to help offset the problem if she wants me to do so.

Just make sure she’s sitting down or she’ll fall over; I’m sure she won’t be used to that sort of consideration.

I liked Timmeh’s “Permanent tech job= any job that lasts long enough to get your first vacation.”

Good luck on your quest. Hope you get to have many more than one lotta holidays.

yea!

Good for you, Les.  Once you become more to them than a resume, I have a good feeling you’ll work your way back up again quickly.  You gotta do what you gotta do, and lift-and-shift can be borne for a while until you can find the next opportunity.