New job

So I've been trying to decide whether or not it's worth posting my thoughts about my new job. I don't really want to get into specifics about my work itself; that would be boring. But it might be nice 6 months from now when I feel more like a seasoned pro there to go back and re-read initial impressions.

This is definitely a very good match for me. It deals a bit more with networking, and I have a Computer Engineering degree, so maybe I'll actually use my degree?! Maybe? Although being out of college for 14 years now I have a lot of catching up to do. My job basically is working on testing of a system that is a bunch of smaller systems networked together. So we test the interfaces, that the systems are functioning correctly, etc.

I was always an earlier person. I am not a morning person but I gravitated towards that to try to avoid traffic in Pittsburgh. At my last job I would start at 6am and I would work 9ish hour days and leave around 4pm or so. At my previous job though I was one of the first people there. I would often leave the lights off and that was when I got a lot of things done. This job is the opposite. Because of the parking situation, at least partly, which I'll discuss later, most people seem to be in before I am. I'm getting in right now around 6:00am.

The commute is awesome! Except for the parking, which again, I'll get into separately. But we live a few miles away. There are two different potential locations to drive to and they're both less than 10 minutes from where we live. In addition, I'm not driving a toll road so we aren't paying those tolls anymore.

One of the hardest things is starting over though. I miss my coworkers/friends. A lot. I did when I switched jobs before as well. But at least then I could still hang out with them where now they are an 8 hour drive away, without traffic. Also, a new job starts out with a LOT of reading and learning. New processes. New ways a company does things. Some of that is really tedious but necessary to learn. And combine that with late pregnancy, oy! I am getting so tired it's hard to read and absorb new things all day. By the end of the week I really need a break. Thank goodness for weekends. :)

I do seem to fit in with my new coworkers though. The 3rd day I was there one of the guys said it didn't seem like that was only my first week because I was fitting in really well. That's a relief! Although "fitting in" and developing friendships are two different things. The friendship part will come with time and I'm not trying to force it at all.

I also think this is a great opportunity and one that could be a career move. Part of the reason I don't want to get into specifics, honestly, is because I don't want to brag, and I'm not sure the hierarchy of things so I don't know what my job REALLY is going to be. But I think it's somewhat of a lead position- it's at least managing things but from a more technical perspective. There are other people who are experts on each system and I will rely on them to help me with the details but still need to know enough to make some informed decisions.

Ok finally, parking. Parking. Wow. It's terrible. At the main location I'm at, there is a garage. There are two types of spaces- general parking and then reserved type spots. My job function actual qualifies for a reserved type spot but the spaces are limited so I'm on a very very long waiting list for one of those spots. Basically I think someone has to quit/retire to open up a spot for the next person to fill in. For the general parking spots you have to get there basically before 6:30am or the garage is full. Then you have to park on the street somewhere and hoof it. So going out for lunch, forget it! They do have a shuttle that goes between the two work locations so at least I don't have to worry about that. If I got the reserved pass, that still fills up but buys a little more time. The feel I get is that then you can get there more around 7:30 and still be guaranteed a spot. One more side note there- it takes me longer to get from the street through the gate into the garage and into a parking spot than it does to drive from where we live to the street outside of work. That in itself is crazy. (It takes me a little less than 10 minutes of drive time but I sit in garage parking traffic for more than 10 minutes.)

The other facility has similar issues but it's a pretty far walk from even the "close" parking lots. The one I try to get into fills up by 6:30am. Then I was curious how far the walk is so I brought my Garmin is and from the "close" lot to my building it's slightly over half a mile. Normally that wouldn't be so bad but wow the weather is so yucky. Snowing, freezing rain, and very very cold wind. So it hasn't been a fun walk. And if you don't get there by 6;30 it's another lot further away. They do have reserved spots you can pay for (privately owned, not by the company). But as of right now I'll be at the first location I discussed most of the time so I'm not going to pay for one of those yet. (The first location is the office complex and the other is the test facility.)

The office complex I usually am at has a pretty nice cafeteria but it's expensive. Since we have rent and are paying a mortgage, I did decide myself to start trying to pack a lunch most days. That also helps me be able to munch throughout the day- it's better right now for me to have more smaller meals than a few big meals. My stomach is getting squished by some baby I'm carrying haha.

Ok another thing, the time keeping is weird. I'm used to charging different contracts and stuff but here you actually have to clock in and out. I've never had to do that before. So you also clock out for lunch and they don't want you to work through. The clock runs on 6 minutes increments so I usually clock out for 6 or 12 minutes for lunch, long enough to run to the cafeteria if I do that. I tend to eat at my desk. Every week I get a certain number of hours for each code and they don't want us to overcharge. The weird thing is that my job function isn't changing but I have to keep an eye on the clock to make sure I switch charge codes before I overcharge something. If I didn't have to physically clock in I could just split out the hours on a time card later. So it has advantages and disadvantages. I just really mentioned the disadvantages but one huge advantage is I don't have to think later about what I was working on to figure out how to charge my time- it's all been done for me throughout the week with the clock.

Speaking of eating at my desk though, there are mice! Nice office building but I was already warned not to leave food out. That's interesting, right?! I used to keep peanut butter and wheat thins at my desk. I guess I still can but I need them to be tightly sealed in tupperware containers or something along that line.

Hopefully this post doesn't come across as too negative. All in all this was definitely a good move for me and like I said, could be something that turns into a career. I know that at this point corporate America seems to not be about retaining employees anymore, but this is one company that does differ from that and is in it for the long run. Changing jobs itself is not necessarily fun and I've never gone into a job figuring I'll be leaving it X years later. It's just kind of happened so far. It also seems like I have a really good, reasonable manager and good coworkers as well, especially the person who is mentoring me at this point.

Ok so those are my initial impressions in a general context. This is where if people are curious, ask away. It might jog things I missed talking about that I wanted to anyways.