My temp agency got me a gig. It had been four months since I had first signed on, and I hadn't gotten a peep from them. I'd check in every week, leaving a voice mail message saying I was available, and then I'd repeat the next week. Eons passed. Then on Wednesday, I got a call. The Computer Systems Institute, a little corporate-run training school, was looking for a part-time instructor assistant for their classroom. 4-8 weeks, low pay, no problem. I said sure.
On Thursday morning I had a successful phone interview; that evening the in-person interview went similarly well. I got the call this afternoon: I have myself a job. I start Monday. This afternoon, I picked up some computer texts, and I'll be spending a goodly amount of time this weekend poring through them.
There's some snags about the gig. For one, I'll be assisting students in MS Office and Quickbooks. I'm an ace in Excel and Word, but know only the rudiments of Powerpoint, almost nothing in Access, and I've never played with Quickbooks in my life. Adding a tad bit of complication to this is that although Tori and I have MS Office on our computer, it doesn't include Access, and it's a newer edition than the software the school trains students on. This shouldn't be a huge problem; the differences between the 2003 and 2007 editions are mostly visual. But it is a bit of a pain. Complicating the issue is that my temp agency has online MS Office and Quickbooks training, which I could take advantage of this weekend. Version? 2000. Another snag is schedule. Although I only work weekdays from 9-1:30pm, that means my volunteering at Open Books is temporarily interrupted, since I work with them Thursday mornings. However, they have a lot of programs I can get involved in, so I'll see what I can do for them.
There's a lot of good things about the gig, too. For one, it's a gig. Over six months without a job was beginning to hit me hard. I hadn't been looking for work as much as I had in previous months. Knowing I have a job, even a temp job, is a huge relief. And it provides evidence to me that I can present myself in an interview well. I also get to improve my tutoring skills, which is nice. Finally, the best part is the opportunity to sharpen my MS Office skills and learn Quickbooks, a mainstay at a lot of businesses. If the worst-case scenario kicks in and it doesn't work out at the Institute, I still walk out of there with vastly improved computer skills. It's a great opportunity.
So I start Monday. The irony, of course, is that Tori has the holiday off, so for the first time in a long, long time, she has the apartment to herself while I'm at work. I just know she's going to celebrate by watching Maury.
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