Welcome to Nowhere » employment

The job market’s broken. I actually found one.

James — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 10:15:58 +0000

Well, okay, so it was just one that I could actually apply to and not have me be severely underqualified, but still. This marks the first job application I actually submitted since–now, let me think–March of this year. Yep, in Ottawa, of all places, the market for people with my admittedly somewhat specialised skillset was actually dead for about 3 months. Technically, it’s still dead–the job’s a sales by phone gig at Home Depot, but still. It was more than I was staring at a week ago.

Now, I’ll be very surprised indeed if it actually results in employment prospects. If it does, Jessica will have officially become my good luck charm–the last potential interview I landed, I was hanging out at her place. If I land an interview here, she’ll be up here when I find out. But, more importantly, it will be the first actual interview I’ve had since late 2009. If we are, indeed, heading for that potential labour shortage that’s been talked about before, this could be an amazingly good sign. Or maybe I’m just hoping like hell I can get off ODSP soonishly before it makes me go broke. either’s not entirely invalid and both would be good for me. Either way, this is a start. I’ll take it.

Employment resource centers plus small town living equals not much help.

James — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:33:46 +0000

So, as I hinted at in my last post, I dropped by an employment resource center today. Mostly out of general curiosity–they couldn’t do much worse for me than I have so far, but also because, well, I could. Turns out I might have been smart to keep looking outside of Pembroke–there really, as the guy who worked with me rather bluntly agreed, isn’t much here beyond fast food and/or retail which, while they may be make-work jobs for folks who like that kinda thing, isn’t my idea of a career choice. He did suggest I try yet again to apply to work at Online Support, a local call center in the west end of Pembroke, but seeing as my previous two attempts to get hired there ended up a rather impressive-sounding flop, I told him I wasn’t going to hold my breath on this one. Fortunately, he’s not the type that requires I constantly have my foot in his ass for results–at least, he doesn’t immediately appear to be. So, failing that, he said he’d try and get me into Ontario’s second career program–escentially, a government-sponsored program to fund going back to school to either gain more skills or enhance existing ones in order to make me a little more hireable. Or, in my case, in order to put the extent of my geekyness on paper. I’ll know how that goes within a few days, most likely. Beyond that, I only gained these from my experience this afternoon.

Further proof that I rock at resume-building–it’s not going to involve a major rewrite of the thing, thank god. I’ve already done that dance too often.

My skills, were I not living in a technically dead place like Pembroke/Petawawa, or were Ottawa’s tech sector not currently on life support, would land me just about any kind of entry or second-level position–if they were on paper. Hence, trying to get into second career training.

I got a free thumb drive out of the deal. I already had one, but hey, I’ll take a second. It’s got the logo of the Canadian armed forces on it, and it was free, so how could I say no? I have no idea on capacity, but again, it was free.

So, we’ll roll the dice and see what the hell happens. Worst case, I keep applying for jobs outside Pembroke. Which I’ll probably keep doing anyway. Best case? It’s back to school for the geek in training. And if someone else is paying for it, there’s an increasing likelyhood of me actually focusing more on the learning and less on how I’m going to pay for next semester. Works out to win win for me. In the meantime, anyone have an opening for a techy? Let me know.

Latest knock against my employment attempt: must have prior $company experience.

James — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 13:30:03 +0000

So. I mentioned before I very rarely lately find jobs worthy enough to apply for. And even more rarely do I find jobs that don’t throw a bilingualism requirement into the mix. Which means if I’m lucky, I fill out maybe two applications a month–hello, Ottawa’s much too overused bilingualism rules. How’s it going? I was working at one such application this morning, when I ran into a whole new reason to curse the existence of a potential employer. Upon clicking submit, I get a very polite message informing me that prior experience with that company is required. Say, um, what?

For the record, and the curious, the guilty party this time is Primus Canada. Their job description, what you might be able to call a job description, goes into great detail about exactly what the company expects to get out of a potential employee. Qualifications I easily meet. But, there’s nothing on their site stating that position–or any other, for that matter–requires prior experience with that company or group of companies. You don’t find that out until you hit the submit button on their application. And then you get the afore mentioned very politely worded dialogue box.

A gentle note to Primus. I have what you’re looking for. I worked for a company who could probably knock you around if the two of you competed in the industry. I know a thing or three about unbreaking internet connections the average user screws up beyond all recognition. And I also know a thing or three about things a company like yours doesn’t ordinarily support–including half your own hardware. You want me. So let me apply, dammit.

Also: those questions re: have you ever worked/interviewed with us before? Yeah, even from a company with apparently looser hiring standards they suck. Reconsider. Thank you.

The results of a typical morning job search in 2010. And 2009. And…

James — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:23:25 +0000

every couple days, I’ll accidentally unearth a potentially decent job worthy of at least considering applying. And, every couple weeks, I’ll find one I actually apply to. Apparently, since the advent of this newfangled recession thinggy, that’s the exception rather than the rule. Nowadays, a typical Ottawa job prospect goes something like this.

Must have at least 1 year call center experience. Gotcha.
Must have at least 1 year technical support and/or customer service experience. Gotcha.
Must be able to multitask. It’s a requirement for being a geek, so gotcha.
Must have experience with Windows XP/Vista/2000/any and all past, present and future implementations of windows. Again, required for geek status. Gotcha.
Must have experience with CRM applications (remedy, etc). Gotcha.
Must be a virtual expert in MS Office. Not that it’s hard to learn, but done it.
Must be able to work well under pressure/in a team environment. Easy.
Must be fluently bilingual in both english and French. Well, crap.

And I was doing so well, too. Sadly, unless an employer feels generous enough to train me in it, or pay me to take said training, I’ll just be looking elsewhere. If it didn’t cost so damn much to get there from here for interviews I’d contemplate working in toronto. But, since it does and I’m poor/broke, anyone looking to hire a unilingual geek?

It probably doesn’t help matters much that most of the positions being shopped around now are with companies that have pretty heavy duty government contracts, and so the bilingual requirement is pretty much non-negotiable. A lot of the small, local businesses, or businesses that aren’t almost exclusively government sourced, seem to be slowing and/or stopping hiring for the time being–examples include local companies Protus and Momentus, both of which have a pretty heavy reach in their particular industries–some of which, rather, tend to overlap just a little bit. The same could be said for national businesses like Rogers, who saw an advertisement position pulled virtually the same day it was originally posted–I dunno why either.

This dance has been going on since at least the middle of 2008, when first I started actually looking for work after Dell closed up shop. Probably longer than that, although at least then I was landing interviews with some degree of consistency. It seems only to be more noticeable now that we’re pretty much still trying to fish the economy out of the Ottawa river. Now, this has become the more typical job search routine and not just in the tech industry either. businesses are still shutting their doors, people are still being shuffled around to fill vacancies left over from cost-cutting measures, and companies who haven’t closed up shop have pretty well put the breaks on new hires. It’s a good thing the job search doesn’t piss me off. Otherwise, I’d of probably quit that full-time job a long time ago. Now, if we could just negotiate a pay rate for those of us who’s full-time job consists of looking for a full-time job. Yeah, I didn’t think that’d be likely either.

So they say there’s a recovery somewhere in here.

James — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:27:24 +0000

Reports are coming out now that say there’s some kind of an economic recovery up on this side of the border. GDP’s up, consumer spending’s up, housing prices are up. Employment rate? Well, they still scratch their heads about that.

House prices, sales and starts have all rebounded, consumer spending remains strong, stock markets have partly come back from last year’s low, and the job picture appears to be improving with each new report.

On this, I call bullshit–at least in the Ottawa/Pembroke area, where so far I’ve seen a grand total of maybe 15 jobs posted in the last 3 weeks, and was inclined and not embarrassed to apply for all of 4. Granted, mostly that would be because those 4 were jobs you didn’t need half a dozen highly priced degrees in order to pretend you can actually do what’s needed. Folks are still getting laid off, or in some cases looking for work and not getting hired. And yet economists are saying we’re on our way back. Hey, if they’re saying it, that’s perfectly fine–just as long as they feel like backing it up with solid employment data. In the meantime, anyone looking for an IT geek? Resume available upon request.

Convergys is getting more city help than we did.

James — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:47:48 +0000

In 2008, the majority of employees at Dell’s Ottawa call center got their walking papers. In June of 2009, the rest of them followed suit. And here in March of 2010, Convergys gets ready to feel the pinch. I wrote about it before, when I first read about it. Now, though, it looks like we’ll be seeing a pretty significant change from business as usual when a door closes in the faces of several hundred employees.

Ottawa City council passed a motion just days after the cuts were announced, urging city staff to enter talks to see what might be done to keep the jobs here.

A few days later, a conference call between city people, the Contact Centre Association of Ottawa and provincial and federal bureaucrats was held. It was decided that they needed to find out more information from the company about the skill level of their staff.

Well now. The city never offered to get involved when Dell closed, nevermind the provincial or federal governments. Although to be fair, it doesn’t sound like Ottawa center management has altogether much faith in its front-line agents in the first place, so perhaps that’s the difference.

Paul Carr, operations manager for Convergys in Ottawa, tells CTV “close to 200 people have already left Convergys. Six hundred are still here and about 200 will still be working here after the cuts.”

Carr actually expected more would have left already, but people in the contact centre say these are not the most highly-trained people and so job options are rather limited..

Now now, that wasn’t very nice, Convergys staffers. Even if it might be true–hey, I’ve seen the results of some of Convergys’s training; I get to say that. Besides, it’s my blog.

Good to know the city’s finally thinking about doing something though to at least compensate folks for, or help them to deal with, the layoffs. How why didn’t that start happening two years ago? Anyone know?

Dear temp agency. My status is confused.

James — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:14:17 +0000

I finally got a chance to sit down this morning and check my email, after making several dozen laps outside with the dogs–sometimes, house sitting’s quite inconvenient. When I opened my email this morning, a nifty little gift was sitting there waiting for me. In the form of an email from the People Bank, one of the temp agencies I threw an application in with in the early stages of last year. I initially thought it might be a long awaited job opportunity. Or another interview. Or something of that kind of goodness. It would, after all, be the first such opportunity any of those agencies actually contacted me with in, like, ever. Nope, guess again. It was an email asking me if I was still looking for work, still busily unemployed, and still wofully unskilled for any of their 6 degree required positions. Naturally, I am in all 3 categories. So I told them as much.

But now, I just have one small, minor little question. I applied with this particular company in, I believe, February or March of last year–possibly a little earlier. They hadn’t contacted me with anything more than an introductory interview in that time. A year plus later, and I get a standard “Are you still available?” form letter. Meanwhile, at least three jobs have probably passed through that company that I could easily do in my sleep. Their reasoning? They want a current resume. Why? To upgrade my skills. Um. My skills, and resume, haven’t changed. So, um, what?
I like the concept behind temp agencies. But, I’m learning, the actual interactions with temp agencies? I could probably do without.

Suddenly, I’m very glad these guys didn’t hire me.

James — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:46:12 +0000

About 6 or 7 months ago, I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Convergys, an outsourcing company who at the time was handling a contract for AT&T. I didn’t end up taking the opportunity, however, on account of they were very up front about having absolutely no plans for doing, pretty much, anything I’d need them to do in order for me to work there. Like, for instance, installing a screenreader so I can actually use their computers. About that long ago, I stopped thinking about them. And on Tuesday, the office where I would have been working tossed all but a hundred of its employees. Suddenly, I’m actually kind of glad we parted company after our initial conversation. Otherwise I might very well still be exactly where I am right now. Except maybe on employment insurance. Thanks but no thanks–did that dance already. Oh, and as for where those jobs ended up going? You guessed it–overseas. On the up side, at least we’re helping their recovery.

The mommy update, plus the first job application of 2010.

James — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 10:14:26 +0000

As of about 11:30 last night, mom’s surgery was done with and she was doing well. Actually, in my father’s words she was going back to her room and straight to bed. Which, to me, means she’s just fine. They’ll find out today exactly what they found/did/things and when it is she’ll be going home. Again, though, they’ll probably end up releasing her today unless there’s some major funkyness going on. Not that the last 3 days haven’t been some major funkyness, but hey, everyone’s definition’s a little different.

In lighter news, and news more relevant to me specificly, my first job application of 2010 was finally filed last night. It wasn’t anything overly earth shattering. Another customer service job with Rogers Communications, our equivalent of Comcast and AT&T combined. I’ve applied with them several dozen times already, although the last time they actually thought about getting me in for an interview, so we’ll see what happens. In the meantime, I’m keeping my eye out and hoping like hel Ottawa gets a few more tech jobs. What with all the office closures and massive layoffs in the last year or two–Dell, the local outsourcing office of Sytel, and more recently the layoffs and eventual bankrupsy of Nortel–they could use a few dozen. HP has an office there, but if you’re not bilingual you’re not qualified, so we’ll just pretend like they don’t. In the meantime, it’s quarter past 5 and I should be sleeping. Will I? Hmmm. My money’s on probably not. Hello again, screwy schedule.

When layoffs hit home.

James — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:48:09 +0000

In 2008, the Dell office in Ottawa I was working at shut down, giving its employees a bit over a month’s notice. In early to mid 2009, my father’s job with a transport company went from under him as the company itself ended up being bought up. On Friday, my mother was informed as of the moment she was told, she no longer had a job at the local hardware store. And today, I got to learn my uncle, who’d been working at a local vehicle repair shop for at least the last year or two, also no longer has a job. All of these signs the recovery we’re being told is heading our way isn’t actually here yet. fortunately, there’ll always be a demand for mechanics, for technicians of a computer and otherwise variety, for truck drivers–my father’s already found himself a better job than he had. But when of all places, losses start to hit a small-ish city like Pembroke, you know there’s problems. And at times like this, I’m reminded of something I’ve said more than a few times, even before the recession. Economics suck. Plain and simple. And sometimes, they like to remind you they do.

The almost not quite maybe not interview.

James — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:46:44 +0000

For approximately 24 hours, I flirted with the prospect of maybe having something that vaguely resembled employment when I got back from Rochester. I received an email from what I assume is an HR person from the Canadian Automobile Asociation (CAA), specificly their north east Ontario branch, requesting an interview. I’d had one with them a bit over a month ago, which ended up going not entirely badly. I figured this would be about the same–possibly a little better, depending on whether or not they were considering it my second in the series of interviews they typically do pre hiring. Since she didn’t say, I assumed she didn’t but there was that possibility.

There was just one very small, minor, niggling little problem. I’m in Rochester until the 24th of the month. Not against my will in the slightest–one tends to be a lot more willing to do things like that when one’s significant other has a crapload of events coming up over the course of the next week or so. The problem arose when I brought that up to miss interview chick. She had her heart set on interviewing everyone, in person, this Friday. And she wanted to interview me, in person, this Friday. Not opposed to that, I told her I’d love to–but I’m out of the country so could we do it by phone instead? Apparently not. “I prefer to do interviews in person,” was her officially and formally written way of telling me it wasn’t really open for negotiation. She included a halfway attempt at appeasing me by offering to try and squeeze me in next week. I told her again, sure, but we’d have to do it over the phone. I got another diplomaticly written response this morning, which escentially translated to thanks but no thanks.

Folks, I’m not hard to work things around as long as I have adequate notice and am not in the middle of other, more important things. I’m not even opposed to shuffling things around so I might be able to fit some new engagement or priority in at near last minute–provided the shuffle won’t result in more of a headache than just leaving it alone. But for all my flexibility and ability to actually survive a schedule that changes more often than I change my socks, I still can’t appear to be in two places at once. If in the course of a conversation I inform you I can’t do what you want when you want due to unavoidable physical limitations–such as, for example, my inability to fly from here to Ottawa for the interview, that should not translate to my saying I’d be more than happy to rewrite a week of already made plans for the sake of what may amount to a 20-minute interview. If I can’t show up until the end of the month, I can’t show up until the end of the month. If there are alternatives, and I provide them, I’m no longer the reason things didn’t get accomplished if you then refuse said alternatives. I prefer to do my interviewing in person too. However, that wasn’t an option for this one. Inability or unwillingness to adapt on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine. Now, then. Where’d I put my other applications?

How’d I get here?

James — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:11:28 +0000

I keep threatening to do that post about what the hell happened to me since the last time I was actively blogging (Um, LJ-ing, perhaps?). Well, consider this my attempt at doing so. I’ll warn you in advance there will probably be things that get missed–it *has* been about 4 months, after all.

For starters, there were more than a few trips across the Canada/US border between myself and Jessica, who’s rarely updated LJ is over here for anyone who doesn’t already read her. Things in that department I don’t think can get much better. Well, beyond the elimination of the border but eh, that’s coming. Beyond that, I’ve been doing a lot more experimentation with Gentoo, my for the moment linux distribution of choice. I’d messed around very briefly with Debian and Ubuntu, but couldn’t get quite what I wanted out of those distributions. That, plus I rather like a challenge and Gentoo definitely provides that. I kept an old HP laptop around for the purposes of experimentation–and, actually, it was the same laptop I did most of my blogging on in the old days–so I can break it 6 ways from Sunday and not really be set back more than a couple hours’ tinkering. Works perfectly fine for me. In addition to that, I’ve been continuing to pound pavement in hopes of landing me a job. Not an easy thing to do when every day the unemployment line gets longer, but we manage. This in between trips to catch up with family, because… well, you know, they don’t tend to like it when you avoid them for long stretches at a time.

Then there was the move. I’d spent the last year and a half or so on employment insurance while I looked for work, thus enabling to keep my rather nice–even if I do say so myself–apartment in Ottawa’s west end. Not having found anything though, it became necessary for me to find somewhere else to call home lest I end up going very broke very quickly. So, on October 23rd, everything I own and a few things I forgot I owned got stuffed into one box or another, and carted an hour and a half away to this, a basement apartment who’s upstairs neighbour has perhaps one of the creakiest floors I’ve heard in my life. Now, I’m still looking for work, still finding time to do a little geeking, and still–at least, as of about 2 weeks from yesterday–making trips across the border when I have the time, money and transportation. Not a whole lot has changed, save for my mailing address–which I’m still finding things that didn’t get the notification of that change–and the fact some things in life just plain aren’t as convenient as they were a month ago. But, win some, lose some. That be life.

Once I have the space in this apartment, and everything I’ll immediately need to do so out of boxes and set up, I plan to get back into tweeking the laptop and making things work just that much better. And, with a little luck and a small miracle, it might result in me accidentally coming up on a skill or three I can put in a resume. Never hurts to say you can do something, particularly when that something didn’t require you shell out money you don’t have for a college/university education. Of course, if I don’t get that out of it, then maybe I’ll just have a computer I can use should I ever decide to wipe windows off this one. Either way, I can’t find a down side here.

Well, that’s the summer and part of spring in a nutshell. Not very exciting, just… chaotic, really. Semi-organized chaos, but still. And if this is any indication, the next couple months don’t plan to be any different. Which, surprisingly, is how I like it. Can’t very well go researching new and somewhat impressive things to buy if you don’t have time to, after all.

Searching for the elusive new job.

James — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:28:59 +0000

After Dell’s closure in June of last year, I’ve been devoting much of my time to trying to find something remotely resembling work that I can get into. I’ve had several interviews, but that’s usually about as far as they go. I have another this wednesday for the CAA–I’ve had conversations with them before, so this shouldn’t be entirely too difficult.

I attribute part of my amusement at an observation I made yesterday to boredom, and perhaps to being still a little overtired, but a random stat circulated around Ottawa news outlets yesterday morning put a somewhat ironic smirk on my face. In the month of October, 800 full-time jobs were created. But yet, in that same period, unemployment went up by almost half a percentage point. Guess I’m gonna have more competition for that position than I thought. And the search continues.

Not a meme, but an update.

James — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:08:00 +0000

I know Shon (thecrazykiwi) tagged me for some meme-type thinggy earlier, but to be blatantly honest, I don’t even post consecutively in 8-day strings so it’s just not getting done. that having been said, the day was not completely devoid of win. I got up this afternoon (yes, I slept until late afternoon. Sue me.), and found this email in my mailbox.

Hi James,

Please call me when you are available and we can schedule an interview.

Best regards,

Natalie

So, as soon as I can get this chicky to actually answer her phone, I’ll schedule my interview for this coming Tuesday (it’s when my wheels will actually be able to be my wheels). So to answer the unasked question of at least one person as to why I would dare to be so ungreatful/insensitive/whatever as to not change my return date so I might be able to stay in rochester longer (someone actually tried giving me that lecture before I left), that’s why. Get over it, and yourself, plz. Kthx.

The interview is for a temp agency that Trish actually dropped my name in for reference purposes with a couple days after I fled the country. I’ve been trying to get a steady line of communication going with them since then, and they just now managed to respond to my email. tomorrow means phone calls, scheduling, and hopefully, god willing, employment. Or at least another door to open. Oh yes, and putting my foot in the asses of certain nosey people whom I barely know and who should, for that and other reasons, stay the hell out of my business. But that’s for a whole other rant when I actually feel like ranting.

Forget workopolis. You might find your next job on Twitter.

James — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:50:00 +0000

That’s at least according to this article, which goes into some detail as to how a man who ended up getting laid off from his previous job found himself moving to Texas to take up a publishing job with a different company. As long-time readers of this piece of randomness know, I’m a tweeter. But I, er, rather, never thought for a second about using it as a means of winding up gainfully employed. Perhaps I aught to start?

My girlfriend is awesome. And, the job market may suck slightly less today.

James — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:54:00 +0000

Or maybe not, but work with me here, dammit. Jessica (samari76) just kicked the royal shit out of her latest test, but I’ll let her tell whoever she pleases all the gory details of that one. And in slightly more w00t style news, I can has repeat job opportunity plz? I wrote a while back about a job I’d applied for with a company owned by Momentus ltd, that I of course ended up not getting (stupid being overqualified and all that crapola). They told me then to keep an eye out, as they’d probably be looking to fill positions in the not too distant future that my qualifications would be more suited for. I wouldn’t call it necessarily a position needing to be filled in the *immediate* future, but… hey, 8 months later isn’t half bad in today’s economy. This one’s actually labled as a tech support job, so we shall see if that makes it automaticly within my realm of qualifications/abilities/skills/whatever and go from there. As for right now, Jess should be just about done with class and on her way home, and from there, I do believe we have some cellebrating to do.

Dear job market: you need to fuck off now.

James — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:04:00 +0000

On the bright side, I wasn’t left chasing this chick for upwards of a month like I have been other times. On the not so bright side, though…

Good Afternoon,

Unfortunately we have just received word that our client has filled the allotted unilingual English opportunities with them and will only be considering bilingual French and English or unilingual French candidates going forward.

Any candidates who have already been interviewed with Bell will still be in consideration however those who are pending resume review or interviews with our office will not be able to be considered further.

You will remain in our pool of qualified technical representatives and we will continue to consider you for future opportunities with our other clients.

Please keep an eye on our website; Adecco.ca for future opportunities and be sure to check JobBank, Workopolis and Monster and to apply with other agencies as well.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Well, I guess that just leaves me with only one option. Who on that side of the border wants to put up with me for a couple weeks?

I’ve graduated!

James — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Well, sort of. Y’see, I’m slowly beginning my exit from the coughy mchackencough school of hell, and instead I’ve enrolled in sniffle mcsneezy university. What 2 days ago was a semi-irritating chest thing is apparently morphing into a wicked evil head cold of d00m. Same thing happened with the motherling, which only confirms whatever this thing is was obtained either directly from or at the same time as her. Fortunately, this phase of whatever it is I got stuck with waited until now to show itself, as opposed to Thursday, so I didn’t need to go into the interview with a pocket full of tissues and a constant appology. Also in slightly bright-side-ish news, I usually kill colds relatively quickly. So whatever it is that’s making the rounds probably has another day or two at most. Which is just awesome, because while it’s not the cold itself that usually bothers me, it’s being restricted to remain near a source of tissue of some variety that does. I don’t often wind up sick with anything, but when I do, it’s usually one hell of a knockout punch. I think I’ve managed the worst of it though. Now if we can just convince the rest of it to get the hell out of me a little tiny bit faster, I’ll be absolutely extatic.

And, in unrelated news, because this entry can’t *all* be whining about the fact I have become sniffle mcsneezy, I’ve heard absolutely nothing thus far regarding said interview. I was supposed to hear something by end of day yesterday, but that didn’t end up happening. Figure I’ll give them a little bit more time, and if I hear nothing still, there will be a bus ticket purchased, and a girlfriend paid long overdue attention to. As for right now, though? I believe I need a coke.

uuuuuggggg, motherling made me siiiiiick.

James — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 01:23:00 +0000

Energy is at a premium right now, so this will be a short one. The interview went relatively well. They’d already filled one of the positions they were hiring for (figures it’d be the one that pays more), but I was able to stick my name on the list for the second. Yes, it’s downtown and pays a little less, and yes it’s for the *other* evil empire, but… eh. It’s a paycheck that doesn’t come from the government. *And* it’s a permanent position (not bad for a temp agency). Which means said paycheck doesn’t necessarily have a time limit. I’d of just liked to get my foot in the door with the other one at the same time. Ah well, can’t have everything. But I can sure whine about not having everything.

My trip to Pembroke didn’t leave me completely emptyhanded, though. I came back with some kind of congesty coughy hacky thing. Mom and I both ended up with it, though we haven’t a clue where from (I blame her just on basic principle). I’m hoping I’m over it in the next couple days, though. I’d hate for a possible interview next week to be slightly made a tad more irritating than it needs to be by this damn thing. It’s kicking mom’s ass pretty good though. After dropping me off here post-interview, she headed it up back home. Where she promptly passed out on the coutch. She called me at a bit after 5 or so… or maybe it was 6… eh, one of those, anyway. And, I imagine, she probably went back to sleep not long after that. Which is what certain individuals say I should do, but… eh. I’m home now. Back to the keeping of odd hours. Plus, I’m kind of expecting groceries to come knocking. Even if they are about half an hour past when they were supposed to be here. So instead, I shall go attempt to find my lung. I think I left it in the bedroom…

Either I am good, or I am still unemployed.

James — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:33:00 +0000

I should know within the week…ish, if all goes according to plan. I applied for a position advertised by Adecco, another local temp agency in these here parts, at about the end of last week. I’ve been in almost constant contact with them since Monday about that and one other position they think, based on my resume, I just might qualify for. And, after a lot of back and forth over the phoneand through email, I now officially have yet another interview with yet another temp agency tomorrow morning. Both jobs I’m up for consideration for will be covered in the interview, seeing as they’re both fairly identical with the exception that one’s doing IT support for employees of a company, whereas the other’s putting me back in a position more similar to my days working for Dell. They both pay roughly the same base rate as well, so it ends up working out in the long run regardless which job I end up landing. The only real difference other than the end user to be supported? One’s close to where the old office was, the other’s downtown. So it looks like there will be a definite return to Ottawa tomorrow, now for two reasons. My return home, and my possible (as in, good lord I hope so) return to employment. Yes, it does mean I had to sort of postpone the seeing of the girlfriend if I land either job, but we both agree it’s more than worth it in the long run. Just means I might be working rather than sleeping on easter Sunday. I’ll get over it. As long as it means I’ll be working.

I just keep coming back.

James — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 00:06:00 +0000

It’s been a pretty close to uneventful week this week, both on a personal front and, as per usual, on an employment front. Still looking, still applying, still not getting people calling. So I pretty well decided today is the day of escape. I’m spending the weekend (well, plus tonight) at the parents’ place, and will probably wind up going back to Ottawa somewhere in the neighbourhood of Monday-ish. Mom and aunt Holly dropped by this morning, at about 11:00 or so. Almost exactly when I expected to see them. What I didn’t know they planned on doing, however, was coming back to Pembroke via the casino. I had absolutely no money for casinoing, and really wasn’t in a casino mood today to begin with. Probably because of the afore mentioned lack of money. But, apparently, they had their hearts set on going. So mom gave me $10 and it was donated in an hour. Of course, then aunt Holly was all in a panic because she might not make it back to Pembroke in time for her to go to work. Dear family: I love ya, but you fail epically at this whole planning and organization thing.

We ended up making it though, even if she was 15 minutes late for work and pretty well had to be dropped off there. Which probably didn’t sit all that well with her either, but she’ll get over it. Mom and I came back here, where I was promptly damn near run over by dogs. I pesterred them for a bit while she went to pick something up for supper. Queen dramatus persona decided to drop by for a bit while we were eating, and sort of stuck to us until aunt Holly was off work. Then she went to pick her up, dropped her back here, and promptly fucked off back home. We all sat around talking for a bit, then drove her back home so she could do what she needed to before bed, seeing as she’d been up and on the road since 7:30–see, Jessica (samari76), I knew even if they left at 7:00 or so like they planned they wouldn’t get to my place before noonish. And now I’m sitting here, hoping this computer doesn’t go sideways while I go through email and bother folks on LJ.

I did have an interesting time though with getting to know Gina (nightdrake) beyond the realm of LJ, being that she’s staying at jessica’s place at least until Sunday or so. I had a few conversations both over IM and over the phone with her, which kind of alternated from amusing to downright hillarious. They both seem quite comfortable together, minus the fact methinks 13-hour days are starting to catch up with one of them. I did suggest a long weekend should be taken at some point so that the favour can be returned, and she at least seemed to consider it, so we’ll see what happens in that regard.

As for now, though, I should probably go attempt to rejoin the land of the halfway living. I may or may not be back at the computer later, and MSN, at least, will probably be up if I am. Right now it’s still signed in from home if it’s signed in at all, so folks IMing me there just aren’t gonna get an answer. Sorry. Anyone looking to get a hold of me on AIM or Yahoo, stick to MSN. This computer may catch fire if I install those two. I shall return, at some point. And anyone I am owing comments to will receive their comments. Maybe.

Lazy fucking friday.

James — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:54:00 +0000

Absolutely jack shit planned today, with the exception of looking for and filing job applications, as per usual (total filed thus far today: 1… I fail). Aside from that, continuing to get things sorted out, or rather try to get things sorted out, so I can actually file my income tax before April this year. And, unlike last year’s rather way beyond irritating governmental fuck up, I should actually be able to figure my way through doing it without having to get both parents and a small miracle involved in processing the return. Or, I’ll have a justifiable excuse for completely going apeshit on the first customer service moron to pick up the phone. Again. As for right now? Hmm. I’ll figure that out when I feel like moving.

And out and about I go.

James — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:09:00 +0000

Today, after pretty much getting caught up on admin stuff that needed catching up on, and dealing with a few more LJ children, I finally got a chance to head out and figure out exactly how much weight I’d be losing trying to get myself to and from my potential job site. It actually isn’t a whole lot different from the route I’d of taken were I still working for Dell. Except, of course, for the fact it’s on the complete and total opposite side of town, but still. It takes just as long to get from here to there by bus, and by the looks of it, the layout of the area I get off the bus is pretty similar. There are, of course, a few subtle differences in how the actual property is structured, but still, if I do wind up getting this job, shouldn’t take me a whole lot of effort to get used to that. It’s a bit of a longer walk to get from the apartment to my stop, but if I *really* wanted to play the lazy card, one of my usual stops does service a bus that stops at the new one anyway. So it doesn’t necessarily have to be any more complicated than that. Of course, that would probably require I wait upwards of half an hour for that bus, as opposed to just leaving a little earlier and waiting like 10 minutes for the one I actually have to catch, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. I think I’ll head out again on Thursday, just tomake sure I’ve got everything squared away mentally. Assuming they don’t call me between now and then with an offer of a position, but methinks that would be getting a little tiny bit ahead of me. If it turns out not to be something I’ll immediately use, I still know the city that much more than I did 24 hours ago. Still no loss on that front.

I… might… be employed.

James — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:46:00 +0000

As I sort of hinted at earlier this week, I wound up with an interview scheduled for this past Wednesday. Which, actually, was rather convenient since that was my planned return home date anyway. Mom had a doctor’s appointment that morning, though apparently on a whim she decided it’d be much more fun to skip that. I dunno, I’m smart enough not to try getting inside her head. We *planned* to be on the road about 8:00 or so. Instead, it ended up being closer to 9:30 or 10:00 before we even got as far as the gas station. After that, though, it was pretty well clear sailing to Ottawa. We swung past my apartment so I could pick up a couple things, then headed for the interview. Got there 5 minutes late, but largely because the directions we followed to get to said place had us going out past city limits, then coming back in. Google, you disappoint me. The interview itself lasted maybe half an hour. He basicly quizzed me on all manner of customer servicey type stuff, sort of “what would you do/how would you react if…” type situations. He asked me to bring references with me, which near the end of the interview he said he’d be contacting. Apparently, there’s 15 contract positions he’s trying to fill that are due to expire in mid march. From those 15, he says, 6 of them will more than likely move on to occupy permanent positions. I sort of semi-like my chances of getting on permanently with those numbers, not that I expect it to be something I’d stick with permanently. But, as I told a few people after getting out of that interview, it’s something to fill the gap between several months of unemployment and that job that actually happens to be in my field. If something comes up that makes me think maybe, even if it happens to be halfway through the contract position, I’m sure as hell still going for the interview. Absolute worst case at that point, my start date is effective the monday after the termination of my contract, permanent offer or no. And the beauty of working here, even if it turns out to be on a full time basis, is theytry to keep a 2 days on, 2 days off rotation. So I can still work my ass off, and schedule an interview for one of my free weekdays. So, while I’m still unemployed, there’s now a questionmark next to it. As opposed to the questionmark being beside length of unemployment. Which… well, there’s still one there, but oh well. Can’t have everything going my way all at once now.

Writer’s Block: Dream Job

James — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:40:00 +0000

I’ve actually had several, but the one I think I’d of most liked to get into if I was able to would be to manage a sports team. Ideally, hockey or baseball, but just something to do with that aspect of life. Something to be said for actually having a say in the potential outcome of the game. Yes, I love watching both hockey *and* baseball. But I think I’d like to actually be behind the scenes, of sorts, for a pro team. I know there are several things I’d of done differently last season if I were managing my baseball team of choice. A couple players I’d of not bothered signing, a few players I’d of tried a touch harder to get. Oh, and I’d of ripped out 3/4 of their current starting rotation. Perhaps that’s why I’ve kind of been drawn to simulated baseball games like the previously mentioned Sim Dynasty…