Diary of a Wolfeman

The other day I ranted about how the Job Fair was such a wash, but I may have been slightly ahead of myself. While looking through some of the documentation, I noticed a listing for the local cable conglomerate, and realized I hadn’t checked their job board in a couple of weeks. Lo and behold, their were four positions I qualify for! A single Level I (installer), and three Level III (Internet installer) positions.

Since my last job entailed mainly re-selling their feed to my own customers, I have tons of experience with their stuff, so I hopped on those spots post haste. Basically, they could hire me and put me in a truck the same day with no training, so I’m feeling prety good about my chances.

On the other side of things, my roomie was able to point me in the direction of some work setting up a home network for one of his co-workers which is always nice. As a matter of fact, I get to go shopping tomorrow for his equipment. I love spending other people’s money :)

Those of you that know me know that I’m all about efficiency and appropriate use of time. I hate doing things that take longer than they should, or jumping through a bunch of unnecessary hoops.

A couple weeks ago, I started seeing advertisements for a job fair being held today, where several companies I would like to work for would be recruiting. The website recommended business dress and “bring lots of resumes!” I was quite happy to see this, since I have spent the last several months looking for work and being frustrated by all the “email your resume here” application processes. Sure, it takes less time to email a resume, but I always do better face-to-face. Up until now, I have gotten every job I have ever interviewed for, so I was really looking forward to a chance to actually talk to a recruiter.

So this morning I got up early, actually put on my slacks and my best shirt and caught the MAX out to the World Forestry Center with a big stack o’ resumes in hand. What did I find? Fifteen tables of bright-eyed PR types handing out sheets of paper with the companies’ opennings and a URL on them. “Here’s what we’re looking for, go to our website to apply.”

“Excuse me?! Let me get this straight: you’ve been advertising for open positions on things like the Unemployment Office website with open positions and instructions of ‘come to the job fair to talk to a recruiter’ for the past two weeks, and now that I’m all the way out here you’re telling me to apply online?”

“Well, yes.”

“So there’s really nothing you can do for me here today.”

“We have mints!”

Thanks. Be a good little girl and go fuck yourself now. Be sure to send me the video so I can at least sell it.

Well, I wrote in and cancelled the contract today for the telephone tech support job I have been (theoretically) working for the past two weeks. In that time, I have spent 56 hours on the phone, but was only able to bill for less than 5 hours. As I said before, I would need to be averaging that amount of time daily before it would be worth the effort.

Now, this isn’t the fault of the company I was working for or a lack of skill on my part – there simply weren’t enough inbound calls. There were times every day where the phone simply didn’t ring for over an hour. (And that call was likely to be a hang-up or other no-bill.)

So, back to pimping my own business and looking for a regular 9-5 job.

Well, this has been a learning experience.

First day as a Telephone Geek today, and I never really realized how much trouble I have saved myself by using some simple security measures here on the wolfe-net.

Ever since we hooked up the high-speed data back at the old apartment in Tigard, we have used a router to share the conncection, which includes a built-in hardware firewall, stealthing our computers from attackers.

On top of that, I have been religious about keeping the Windows machines up-to-date via windows update. The same goes for our virus protection, which is set to check for updates every week automatically. Further protection comes from running both Spybot S&D and Adaware, two fine malware-busters.

As a final line of defense, we simply don’t open email attatchments from people we don’t know or when we’re not expecting anything. Just because you can click something doesn’t necessarily mean you should click it, kids.

I am now officially a Geek (As if I needed any outside confirmation!)

I just took a call from my new employers at the tech-support hotline, and the contract package is wending it’s way through the Net to my inbox as I type this. It will be good to be working again!

This job will by no means be permanent, but it beats the hell out of sucking Unenployment’s hind teat any longer than I absolutely have to. Although, since this is a contractor spot, I will still be able to classify this work as ‘self-employment’, which does not immediately discontinue my benefits. (I’ll stop them once real money starts coming in.)

Of course, with any real luck at all, that other company will call me back for regular ole employee work fixing computers.

Still, I say unto you, “wahoo!”

Well, that work-from-home tech support company finally got around to calling me back for a phone interview, and that one went pretty smoothly too. They shot several situations at me and liked the way I handled things, so I think I can expect an offer from them. I did ask about their call averages, and they say 3 to 6 billable hours a day is common, which means that I could make a decent living doing this on it’s own, plus whatever biz I can drum up for my own company.

Maybe I should go buy a lotto ticket…

Just got back from my first interview since being laid off back in March. The interviewer is a fairly large corporation doing a bunch of computer stuff, from basic repairs to full builds, with educational and government supply contracts. (At least I know they’ll be around for a while.)

The interview went well, but it was pretty short. More of a preliminary interview to see whether or not they should keep my resume for round two. I’ve said before that I have been hired every time I’ve been interviewed, but I think this time I have only gotten myself the second interview.

Here’s hoping!

Since I haven’t been getting as much traffic as I’d like to see on the job-hunting side of things lately, I think I’ll take a moment for some shameless self-promotion.

I call myself the Techie From Hell. This is mainly due to my ability to troubleshoot my way through a problem and come to a solution of some sort or another, usually a good one. Much like the Marines, I analyze, adapt and overcome obstacles in my path. I learn quickly and broadly – I often am able to learn enough about my co-worker’s jobs to take over in a pinch, or to speed up my own work by eliminating steps.

I have work experience in the following areas:

• CATV / High-Speed Data / Telephone operations from the distribution plant to the customer.
• Computer networking over LAN, WAN, ATM, ISDN, POTS, DSL, Cable modem, and Satellite.
• Computer repair, configuration and troubleshooting.
• All Microsoft Operating Systems, most Microsoft software suites, Linux (several distributions) and some Mac OS X familiarity.
• Electronics repair, including surface-mount technology (SMT).
• Project management.
• Employee hiring, training and discipline.
• Customer relations.

If any of that sounds good to you, I am looking for an entry- to mid-level job somewhere in the IT industry, but I’m really not being that picky at the moment. Serious email inquiries will be sent a copy of my resume; spammers trying to sell me something will be persecuted to the best of my ability to hound them to the ends of the earth.

Thank you for your time. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled blogging.

A week or so ago the EMC sent me a link on a job, and they have contacted me today. The job is telephone tech support, in a work-from-home environment.

The payscale is both higher and lower than my previous job. The hourly rate is higher, but it pays by billable hours, not straight hours. So, I have to have someone on the phone for a total of 60 minutes to earn an hour’s wages, and I do not get paid for doing research to solve a customer’s problem – the policy is to hang up, do the research, then call the customer back (the company provides calling cards at no charge for this purpose).

A highly ethical way to do it, but it means it is almost impossible to earn 8 hour’s work in 8 hours. Then there’s the time I sit around waiting for a call to come in as well.

The upshot is, a customer calling in to this company for help will actually receive it, as opposed to all of those sub-contracted call centers who are instructed not in solving problems, but in getting you off the phone as quickly as possible.

There is one more reason to get a better job as quickly as possible: the hours. The company has three 8-hour shifts. These are 6am to 2pm, 2pm to 10pm, and 10pm to 6am. Due to my daughter’s school schedule, it means I would be bouncing back-and-forth between the early shift and the swing shift. (No way am I working graveyard.)

All of this is still dependant on the results of my phone interview of course, but I’ve always said, I’ve gotten every job I ever interviewed for.