Figured I’d take a moment to post a small update while eating lunch. This is my second full day at the new job and the first on which I’ve actually helped resolve a few issues. The biggest challenge is, of course, learning my way around and this process isn’t helped by the fact that the building is one big triangle that looks more or less the same no matter where you are. It makes getting turned around pretty easy, but I’m starting to pick up on the minor cues that give you some idea of where the heck you are. There’s still a large part of the building that hasn’t had offices built in it yet, though, so anytime I stumble into one of those areas I know I made a wrong turn and should try a different route.

After only two days here I have to admit that I’m seriously hoping this gig goes full-time before too long. The opportunity to expand my skill set is just incredible with everything from Windows 2000/XP/NT/NT Server/Server 2003 to SGI Unix boxes to Redhat and SUSE Linux boxes including Linux clusters and plenty of opportunities to learn more about network administration. There’s new technologies coming in all the time and it appears there’s plenty of resources to get the job done. The company is straddling that medium/big sized threshold right now so a lot of the stuff I had to deal with at Ford in terms of restrictions or limits on how to accomplish things doesn’t exist here. Granted some of this is the early infatuation that sometimes comes with a new job, but it’s all very exciting and the people I’ve met so far have been very supportive.

Shortly after I arrived here last Friday I was introduced to the CFO who sat me down and said that he was aware the current position is below my skill level, but they offered it to me because I’d been out of work for so long and they wanted to help. I was told that he fully expects me to continue to search for a good full-time position and that if I need to take time off to go to an interview that all I needed to do was let my manager know about it and it wouldn’t be a problem. He reiterated that this job could go full-time with an increase in pay at some point, but he couldn’t make any promises so he didn’t want to discourage me from considering other offers if they came along. I thanked him again for the opportunity as any income is better than no income and it sure beats the hell out of working for Best Buy or Meijers.

The job is officially considered part-time and temporary, but there’s no stated limit on how long I can hold it and I’m able to work as many hours as I want so I’ll be pulling down a full-time schedule as much as possible. I’m considered hourly so when I don’t work I won’t be getting paid so the week between Christmas and New Years is going to eat into my first paycheck and I’m back to being paid once-a-month, but other than that, and the lack of benefits, I can’t complain too much. The drive isn’t too horrible though it gets sticky in a couple of spots. All in all I could be—and was—worse off.

Of course life isn’t content with giving small victories without a corresponding defeat. The same day that I started this new job my wife, Anne, was let go from hers. This is going to make it particularly difficult to keep the bill collectors off our backs until my first paycheck comes in on the 10th of next month, but we’ll try to find a way to pull it off.