The Beginning of a New Chapter

I know, the titles of the last two entries are quite cheesy, but they truly reflect my attitude toward the whole job change situation.

I wish I could have posted on Monday right after I finsihed my first day at SAIC. I left work on Monday excited about my new job. An excitement that I'm still experiencing. I'm still in training though, so we'll see if this excitement holds up when I actually start doing real work. :-p

The environment at SAIC is similar to ICASA, but extremely different in lots of ways. SAIC is more organized and structured. It's a Fortune 500 company and has employees located all over the world, so the structure and organization is expected. When I arrived for my new employee orientation on Monday, they took me to this room that looked and felt like a board room, complete with tall black chairs and a telecom telephone. It felt so cool.

During my orientation I felt like management textbook exploded in front of me and came to life. For those of you who don't know, I'm taking MGT 330: Organizational Behavior this semester. In this class we have been studying different management styles and techniques. During my orientation I was picking out all the management theories that are being practiced at SAIC. I definetly give the company an A for using a wide variety of motivational theories. No wonder why this company is so successful!!

During orientation, I also realized that I'm going to have to adjust from being a student worker at NMT with almost no "rights" to being treated as a full-time non-student employee. Although my position is a part-time intern, I'm finding out that this only is a title and a dictator as to how many hours I can work. It seems like the only difference between part-time and full-time employees at SAIC are the number of hours each type of employee are suppose to work and a couple, not many at all, differences in the benefits package. For example, as a part-time intern, I'm eligible for paid-holidays,medical benefits, and a retirement plan. That's completely unheard of at NMT. You don't get crap as a student worker at NMT. So these are the types of things that I'm going to have to adjust to at this new job. It's a different mentality and work environment, but so far I'm liking it.

Today was my second day on the job. In all honesty, I think they are having a hard time getting me set up and ready to work, i.e. getting me a computer, a place to sit, and allowing me to finish all the training that I'm require to do. I'm not upset or furstrated because I understand how things just don't fall into place sometimes. Meanwhile, I'm learning the ends and out of the company, meeting people, and reading about the my group's work. I now know how to get into the restrooms (they are locked), who I need to go to for questions, and where the water is located, which is not too far from the office that I'm projected to work in. Although, when I worked at ICASA, the water cooler was about 4 feet away from my desk. Can't beat that. :) (These are the important things in a job - sarcasm).

So, after day two on the job - I love it! I think this move was the right thing and I'm glad that I decided to work for SAIC. Like I mentioned, there are a lot of adjustments that I'm having to make, but that would be for the majority of job changes. Although I usually frown on major changes, this one I'm smiling at and am looking forward to adjusting to. Sigh...I'm growing up.....meh.

I'm looking forward to Friday because I get to work the entire day. Ouch, I haven't worked a full eight hour day in a really long time. It should be interesting. Hopefully the three o'clock sleepies won't get the best of me. But the coffee pot is next to the water...and that's not too far from the office......

~Carmelita

The End of a Chapter

After more than four years of working at ICASA, I have decided to leave the company. Today was my last day there, and on Monday I will start a job at SAIC in Albuquerque. Things seem to be changing a lot faster than I had anticipated, but I'm excited about this job-change.

A couple of weeks ago, SAIC offered me a job as a Technical Writer Intern for the Albuquerque Business Unit. I have actually been working on getting this job since the beginning of October, and it was finalized two weeks ago. Steve and I had already discussed whether or not I should take the job, and we both agreed that it would probably be the best thing to do, not only career-wise, but for us as well. So, I accepted the offer, and told ICASA that December 1 would be my last day.

It's been a weird week. I've been frantically trying to finish projects and "train" coworkers on tasks that I do that need to be done. I knew that today was my last day, but it never really sank in that I was actually going to leave. ICASA has been part of my life for the last four years, it's hard to imagine my life not working at ICASA. Most people at ICASA are not just my coworkers, they are my friends too. I've developed great friendships there that I treasure. I had often talked about quitting before, but I never did anything about it. There was a point at one time that I thought I would be working for ICASA forever!! Guess God had other plans!

So today was it, my last day at ICASA. It was a nice day - to got to socialize, they had a going away lunch for me, and I got lots of nice gifts! At the end of the day, I cleaned up my desk. I didn't realize how much I "decorated" my desk. I filled an entire box with stuff, and when I was done packing, my corner of the room looked really bare. I think my decorations added life to the Intern Pit, which is the name of the office that I shared with five other interns. It was a bit sad packing up and turning in my badge. My badge has been a source of stress for the last four years because I'm really good at misplacing it. I'm proud to say, however, that I have never outright lost it. I've always been able to find it.

Sigh...so today I left ICASA, and on Monday I go to work at SAIC. The first day will be filled with orientation stuff, but it's a start to what I hope will be another great work experience just like ICASA. Maybe it will be better! Who knows. And then again... I may hate the new job. I'm doubting that though.

I'll have to write more about the job once I start. This is a big change in my life, and both Steve and I are excited about this change. Pray for the best!

~Carmelita