Joe Job Search

Now that I am unemployed I have been on the job hunt. I sent a resume and contacted Westjet almost a month ago. They have responded that they have received my resume but have made no offer. So yesterday I updated the old work resume (I have a seldom touched work resume and and often updated theatre resume), printed 15 and headed down the well equipped 4th St very close to home. I handed all 15 out to various places (excluding restaurants - I haven't gotten that desperate). I seemed to have some luck. Shoppers Drug Mart interview me on the spot for Cashier and Photo Lab Technician. She called me today to say that the job was mine and they would like to offer full time, day time and weekday, in the photo lab. The money ain't great but I am not waiting for a month and a half like last summer to get a couple bucks more an hour.

Next, the Great Canadian Bagel manager (who hardly spoke English) told me that she has been having trouble getting people to start work - she hires and then by their first day they have found something better. So she told me that if I didn't have a job by the end of the week I could come work for her.

I also stopped at an insurance place. I hesitated but went it. I told them my experience and the owner seemed very happy. He actually told me that I came at the perfect time. They had just had an expert analyse their business and were told to hire another front end type broker to handle the "easy" files to make more time for him. I was willing to hire me on the spot if I were to promise him that I would not be going back to theatre. I said nope, gonna stick with the job that doesn't guarantee me anything except uncertainty. We had a good chuckle - he told me to come back when I wanted a "real job" I told him to call me if he wanted some summer help with experience.

One of my last stops was at Starbucks. I sat down with a manager and another fellow, who I later found out had toured with Riverdance and he was her "Theatre Language Interpreter". Anyway. They offered me a job on the spot.

I had some great luck at other places with people being interested but not quick enough on the draw I guess. Some other highlights include: Saje - a natural lotion remedy place that had a cream called Eczema Ease; Knickets - a store not unlike Urbane; Urban Barn - a chain store not unlike Urbane; and Safeway.

Unless Westjet calls back tomorrow I am going to accept the Shoppers Photo Tech job cause they are regular people hours - Starbucks is a 5am - 11:30pm time swing. And they are offering a whole $0.50 more an hour. Not to mention that I don't like coffee so the perk of getting a pound or whatever a week free is not that big a deal for me. And I don't think I could handle 5am or the people that have to have coffee at 5am.

So much to talk about

First - Vegas is awesome! But much, much more on that later.

Second, today was my last day at Westjet. Yeah! No more call center, no more dumb general public, no more faceless hours of talking about boring things to strangers - for now. I start with Theatre Calgary on Tuesday. First Christmas Carol and then Retreat from Moscow. I am very happy to be returning to my career path.

I will certainly miss the flight privledges!

7 days straight and 2 weeks notice

Yesterday was the first day of a seven day stretch of working. I need to make these trades in order to get the weekend off for Vegas. 6 days and counting.

Yesterday I also talked to my team leader at Westjet and it seems that the longest leave of absence they would give me is one month - no long enough. So it appears as though I have to give my two weeks notice and then when I want to come back re-apply and they will fast track me through a 3 day training and then back to work. So I submitted my letter of resignation yesterday. My last day at Westjet is Oct 15th.

Gonna go to Vegas

While still working at Westjet I think that my mom and sister and I are going to take advantage and head to Vegas for the Thanksgiving weekend! Woo hoo! It should be cheap to fly, and people say that hotels can be cheap to. It should be fun.

Anyone been? Have suggestions?

I love the Food Network

Right now I work nights. My shifts start anywhere after 3pm and go anywhere up to 1am. Kinda sucky. And because of that work schedule I don't get to watch any prime time tv. People ask if I have watched the last "insert great show here" and most definitely have not. I am finding that the only tv I watch now is the Food Network. Licence to Grill and Chef at Home are my favorites. The only problem is, I watch all these cooking shows and learn neat things - and would really like to try them out - but I work nights. All of my supper hours are spent on the phone booking reservations.

The good news. Every four months Westjet does a schedule repreferencing. So today is my last very late night shift. Starting Monday I will be working anywhere from 12noon to 10pm. Which will be great. Logan likes to work the closing shift at work which his 1:30 to 9:30. So we should be able to see each other a little more!!!

Broken record

If you have watched the news at all today, or for that matter any TV channel, you will know that another terrorist / plane plot was discovered before anything actually happened. This caused a chain reaction throughout the world as the various Transportation Boards created bans etc. So today, 8 1/2 hours of "and just so you are aware Transport Canada has put into place a ban on all liquids, gels and creams. That means...... And we are asking you to arrive at the airport 2 hours prior to the fight to get through security - as we are expecting long lines." That is all I did today. There were three times that my screen saver turned on because I hadn't touched the computer for so long. But the lines were jammed. People were calling all day! I do not look forward to another day of it tomorrow!

Just another day...

So today at work, I was working my way through what seemed like a million and half calls, each only seconds in length, feeling like the day was never going to end, when I got what started as an ordinary call. I was just making a booking, like I had done so many time that hour. The guy was conversational and witty, so I joined in the banter. At the end of the call we have a lot of things we have to say, including policies and information, flight details and finally the confirmation number. As I was nearing the end I stopped and said "it doesn't sound like you are writing this down". He replied "I am not". "You probably should so that when you call us back and the agent says 'do you have your confirmation number" you don't have to say ' that nice girl on the phone read all of that stuff to me and I didn't bother to write it down.' "
-okay, here is the highlight
He said, "I guess I am just a mean guy", and I said "I doubt that" and he said
"do you watch TV"
"yeah"
"do you watch Canadian Idol?"
"yeah"
"you know the mean guy, did you notice the email address (it was his name), yeah, that's me."

Talked to a real live celebrity today - and I don't even feel that I came off like a total looser at the end. I actually feel that I was pretty witty. (unlike the time I met Great Big Sea... big time looser Stacey!!!)

Choices...

I am sure I am like most people when I try to not work on my birthday. It only makes sense, it is your day and you don't want to spend it at work. And now, I also have an anniversary to try to not work on. We want to try and do something for our first anniversary.
What the hell was I thinking when I arranged for them to be 6 days apart. I am gonna struggle with this for the rest of my life. This year my birthday is on a Monday and my anniversary on a Sunday - and yes I am schedule to work them both. So at work I posted for someone to take my shift on our anniversary. Well, she will take it, if I trade to work the weekend before - my birthday weekend. Decisions.

So I said that I would trade - which will give me three days off for next weekend. Logan also starts another week of holidays at that same time. So we have decided to go to Montreal for a couple of days.

(as a side note, Logan's next week of holidays are in Aug. I happen to have gotten the same week off. So we are gonna hit the east coast for about a week, and then go home for our (my) family reunion.)

It is now official

I wrote my final yesterday. 98%. Whoo hooo!
Tomorrow is my last day of training.
I am officiall an employee now - as you can see from my very official ID.

My favorite thing about flying.

It's not the snack mix or the child sized cup of pop, or even the WestJet song we were serenaded with tonight - it is the clouds. Both flights this weekend were from cloudy city to cloudy city. As you climb through the air you leave the dreary, gray light and disappear into white. And if you are lucky - as we were on the way home tonight - it is not a solid band of clouds but there are gaps. There were empty pockets of space so you could see the other clouds and their shapes and levels. And then you burst through and it is like a fluffy carpet - and in this case the sun was setting so they were glowing pink. It is fascinating to me the different ways clouds are shaped - and how soft they look. And from above, no matter how thick and gray below, they don't look that menacing. The sun is out and it is like you could run around on the layer of cotton candy.

If I see another hand in the air...

Today was the end of the second of four weeks of training for WestJet, and I couldn't be more frustrated. The class moves so slowly that I might kill someone - I'm actually not sure how I have not done so yet. The class style is "wait for everyone to be on the same page". There are some people out there that I am unsure how they get to work every morning. And the groans are getting louder as they ask for clarification on the same thing for the fifty thousandth time!

Today we spent the entire day with a different "teacher" for Customer Care. We were talking about call flow and how to fill dead air while we are typing or looking something up. The teacher says "it could be as simple as an open ended question about why they are traveling - so instead of saying "So you are going to your daughter's wedding" say "tell me about the wedding plans"". This lady actually put up her hand to ask for a definition of an open ended question and if she could get a couple more examples of "good ones". And the worst part is that she used to teach. I know that this may not be the appropriate forum to vent - but HOLY CRAP!

In lighter news - we used my fight prevailed for the first time yesterday - Logan flew to Regina. I have to say that I felt so proud while I was walking through the airport that I almost wanted to put on my WestJet ID. It is cheesy but I have never been so brainwashed by a company - I am really proud to be associated with them.

Best job perks ever!

On Friday - for the last few hours of training I sat on the phones with a lady that has worked there for 4 1/2 years. One of her first questions was "have they showed you how to look up your flight perks?" They had not. As a WestJet employee I pay $2.50 for a plane ticket anywhere in Canada WestJet (and a couple other airlines) fly. Of course, we have to pay the GST, Airport Improvement Fees and Surcharges. Every airport is different.

To fly out of Calgary I will be paying $23
out of Regina $18
out of Toronto $7

to name a few! I am so excited about this job. So, needless to say - we will be flying all over the place this summer!

The only bad news is - I do not get "buddy" passes until I finish my probation. So not until Aug. So for the rest of you, no cheap flying yet (except the mom's who are down as my "parent passes").

Just as much a keener as ever.

In high school, and university to a lesser degree, I was all about marks. I worked as hard as I could to get perfect grade while putting in as little effort as possible. Today, and this whole WestJet experience, are just further proof. Yesterday on a little quiz I got 100%. Today we were to write an exam that we were allowed to bring in a cheat sheet for. Even though I did not feel as though the material was challenging enough to warrant a cheat sheet - I made a beautiful sheet. The teacher featured mine as a good example of choosing important information. When the exams were returned at the end of the day I saw 30.5/31. I asked about the 1/2 mark (knowing that I was right). He said that he would check it out and let me know if I could have that half mark back.

Meanwhile, in order to "pass" and continue to work you have to achieve 85%. Over half the class did not meet that bench mark. There I am, at the front of the class discussing 1/2 a mark.

Oh well, old habits die hard.

WestJet, WestJet, Ra Ra Ra...

Well, I have a job. It has been a while. But I am now a "WestJetter". I started with them on Monday and it was the best brain washing seminar I have ever been too. They sure believe that they are the best and do a really good job of convincing anyone in earshot of the same!

Monday was all about learning about the company and getting excited about it and for it.

Tuesday was an intense day of learning a new computer program.

Today we had our first test. (I got 100%).

There is tons to learn - I guess that is why training is three weeks long!
I feel like I am back in school. And not University, but high school. We are playing silly ice breaker games, memorizing pages after pages of details - and the teacher is giving us all of the answers. But I certainly don't miss the homework or cramming or teachers taking ten years to get the whole class on the same page.

I have a "mid term" exam tomorrow - however we are allowed to bring in a double sized 81/2" x 11" piece of paper with anything on it as a cheat sheet. This should be a piece of cake!