Happy (Belated) Administrative Professionals Day!

That's right, Wednesday, April 23 was officially Administrative Professionsals Day! So exciting, right?

It's a little silly and all, and I didn't even get a raise, but the faculty I work for did give me these flowers, cards, and even a gift card to show their appreciation. It was a small thing, but still a very nice way to show that you are valued at the workplace.

My old job certainly never acknowledged admin day, let alone give any kind of commendation/reward for their staff members' hard work. 

One Month In...

Hi, y'all!! Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since I started my new job and my new life in Baltimore! The title is a little misleading since I had planned to write this post exactly one month in, but, as you can see, that didn't happen.

A lot of people have been asking me how my new job is going, so I thought I would share my experience here on my first month.

Firstly, let me say that it is hard to compare my new job to my old one; it's really like comparing apples to oranges. I like my new job a ton more than my old one, but the two are in very different environments and deal with completely different issues. In my new job, I am working with medical faculty and residents, compared to working with university students. This means no more student issues or drama and no more making appointments!

Everyone in my new job is very helpful and knowledgeable, and will point you to the correct person for answers. There is a definite support system here that is clearly evident and available. This never happened at Penn. No one knew who to talk to, or who handled what, even if they had been working there for years.

The first thing I noticed was how self-sufficient the doctors were. I do all the admin work for them, but they don't expect me to handle things like sorting their emails, printing word documents, and essentially breathing and existing for them. At my old job, one of the counselors actually had me sort her emails in Outlook by date, and our director would have me print out word documents, which I never understood because in the time it took her to attach the document, send me an email, and wait for me to print it, she could have printed it herself much quicker.

Even though all the people I work with are highly accomplished medical professionals, they don't have the same demanding, self-important attitude that my previous supervisors had, and a lot of them only had Master's degrees, not even PhD's! Honestly, my old supervisors, had way bigger egos than the doctors I'm working for now, and I always felt that they were overreacting and their attitudes were completely unnecessary. I mean, they weren't saving lives, or researching new medical techniques, or anything. They were checking resumes and cover letters and giving job search advice to graduate students with PhD's that most of them weren't even qualified to advise since the majority of them didn't even have PhD's!

Ha ha, enough ranting! I also feel that the admin staff are much more appreciated here. It's nothing big, but there are quarterly and annual staff awards, something that, to my knowledge at least, Penn never had, and if they did, they never publicized it. Now, these awards don't come with a raise or anything, but sometimes it's good to be recognized publicly for your hard work, and not criticized about every thing you do.

The biggest challenges for me is staying focus and managing my time (something I am obviously not doing too well as I write this post at work!). Unlike my previous job, this one has hardly any contact with people outside of my division and the general public. My phone very rarely rings and most of my communication is via email. Because I don't have a supervisors literally standing over my back, and most of the people I work for aren't in the office a lot of the time, I have more autonomy. But with greater autonomy comes greater responsibilities in time management! But I have been doing pretty good in this area. I usually try to do the bulk of my work before I go to lunch, so I can have a slower afternoon, which is when my brain tends to slow down.

I'm not expecting this job to be perfect, in fact I've already experienced some less than ideal situations, but it is a huge improvement on my old job. At least with this job I do have a sense that I can go somewhere with this and get some kind of recognition or at least a pat on the back for all that I'm doing, which was still more than I had been getting.

The End of A Chapter

That last day at work was the longest day of my life- it seemed to take forever to get to 5:00! But I was surprised that I really did feel like I was leaving something behind. Maybe it was the gifts (I got a new Hello Kitty mug!), the card signed by everyone in the office, the hugs before I left, or just the realization that I would never have to deal with the job again, but I did feel a pang of sadness. I completly wasn't excpecting to feel this way.

But it is time for me to move on. I can't let fear of the unknown and longing for what has become familiar to me to stunt my growth in life. And although I had a very heartfelt sendoff, I can't forget what the other days on the job were like, and all the problems I was constantly having.

It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

Image from Photobucket, edited by me in pixlr

This is basically how my day went.

It was the first day of Spring (even though it is still pretty cold), but then I also got called into a meeting with my supervisors today to be informed that if my performance didn't improve I could be fired. They said that I needed to take more initiative, "make the job my own", and "take ownership of the position". I sort of saw it coming, and I wasn't too upset, but I was angry and pretty pissed at the situation. The way I see it, as long as I'm doing the main parts of the job, and things are getting done, all of that extra stuff doesn't matter.

I'm not worried about losing the job, I'm worried about losing the income. There's no way my mom could pay for the new apartment on her own, and I've gotten used to spending money like it's going out of style, not to mention all of my bills, student loans, ect. that I have. I'm worried about letting my family down after they sent me to an Ivy League university, and are so proud that I'm not flipping burgers or working as a cashier at Walmart. I'm worried about how this could affect my chances of getting good references for my next job.

To me, a job is a way to make money to live off of. I'm not personally invested in my job, I just work there to make money, so I don't really care about all that "making it my own" or "taking ownership"crap.

What happened to the days when you went to work, did what you were told, went home, and got paid, no strings or inflated expectations attached?

Back to the Grind

Well, it's my first day back to work after almost a week off (this is one perk about working in academia; you automatically get long vacations without have to use your vacation days), and I must admit that I'm not too thrilled about it. Now I don't mean to be one of those people who complain about their jobs, (as a matter of fact, I promised myself that I would never be like my parents and get a job I hate and talk about how I hate it day after day) but the longer I stay away from my job, the more I become annoyed with it. Maybe it's the excitement of finally getting a job that's wearing off (but don't get me wrong; I'm still very grateful to be working), or just the anticipation of coming back to work and knowing what I'll have to deal with , such as the dumb students not knowing what they want, or getting an attitude because what they want isn't possible or doesn't exist. I mean, this one guy (a graduate student at that!) emailed me wanting a comprehensive list of all the summer internships for all the consulting firms in the country! I'm pretty sure I was not that dumb as a student.

And then there is the fact that I know more about the job after one year than most of the people on my team. This is particularly frustrating because whenever I ask a question about anything I'm unfamiliar with, no one can give me an answer, and most of the time the first time that anyone has ever heard of something is when I bring it up. I also have to help my supervisors perform very basic functions on their computers (really, you can't sort your own email by the date received)! Personally, I feel that if you can't perform the basic duties of your job, then you shouldn't be allowed to continue working their, regardless of how long you have been in that office, but that's Higher Ed for you. 

Anyway, this is me venting on the second day of 2014.

My Summer Or How I Managed to Survive the Past Few Months

I was originally going to leave the title of this post as "My Summer", which sounded like those papers they make your write in elementary school about your summer vacation that you have to read out loud to the class. But since I 'm an adult now, I thought I'd spice up the title a little, not to mention that "My Summer" is a little misleading since it may invoke images of traveling and having fun with friends and family and all that good stuff. Not to say that my summer was bad, but it certainly didn't include any of the usual summer activities. Just a little warning: this post is VERY long with lots and lots of reading (this is what happens when you haven't written anything in almost 3 months).

Why Can't It Be Like The First Week?

This post has absolutely nothing to do with the Graham Colton Band, it's actually about my first week at work! It all just feels so surreal, like I'm still waiting to wake up and realize that this is all just a dream! Remember how I was always going on about how awful Career Services at my university was, well I can't say anything bad about them now since that's where I got hired! I'm actually working with the two graduate and postdoctoral advising teams, though, not the undergraduate advisors. As the assistant for the two graduate/postdoctoral teams, I not only manage their appointment calendars, I also manage and coordinate all of the events, and do some of the web development! Between the two teams, there are at least three workshops, panels, orientations, or career fairs (which have over 100 employers!) every week each semester, so you can imagine how busy things can get! Actually, it was the event planning that really made me apply for the position in the first place. From my other jobs, I know a lot of people really hate event planning, and get all stressed out and frustrated over it, but I think it's really fun and exciting! Besides, I work better under pressure!

I also like that everyone in the office is pretty chill, but still professional, and there is a good mix of age groups (obviously some older people, but also people in their 20s), and now I get to do real employee stuff like go to meetings (I actually have three each week to "throw ideas around", which is probably going to get tiresome after a point, but for now it's super exciting) and have my own desk!

This is actually a picture of my desk, and no, that isn't my stuff on it. The person who worked there before was nice enough to leave a lot of very detailed manuals and instructions on almost every procedure and situation you can think of, which is what all that paper is! But why is the desk so important that I had to take a picture of it? Well, when I was working my first part-time job last Fall, my supervisor (I really think she had some issues, but I'm not going to go into that) got mad at me for leaving a note with a phone message on one of the desks I was working at, and said, "Don't get comfortable in one spot because you really don't have a place here." I thought this was extremely rude and uncalled for, especially since she yelled all this in the office for everyone to hear how she was telling me off! Anyway, now that I have my own "spot", every time I leave something on my desk, it's my way of saying, "Right back at cha, now what!" to my old supervisor (I found out recently that she either quit, or was fired from that job anyway)! Well, enough gloating for one day; enjoy the long weekend everyone!

Happy Friday!!!

Happy Friday everyone!

This Friday is particularly a happy one for me because I have a job! That's right, after almost a year and I half of job search, putting out applications, and interviewing, I finally have a full-time job!!! I'm so excited, and I want to thank everyone who has given my encouragement and support on Blogger! I technically start the day after Labor Day, but they want me to come in next week as an introductory period, which is great since I haven't worked at all in almost three months and will definitely need the time to get back in the swing of things, as my mom would say!

Hope everyone else is having as happy of a Friday as I am (and sorry for all the exclamation marks, but I can't help it!)!!!

Update to "Bittersweet Goodbye"

I hate cherries, but I needed a picture of something

There's no better way to dampen your spirits than a nice little visit to your campus Career Services!

So, as you know from the last past, today was my last day at my job. It was pretty emational and full of hugging and and kind, parting words. I was even given a little gift bag: a Lauder c bag (always good to represent), a very good quality Lauder water bottle (can never have too many of these, and this one was way better than the cheap ones the university hands out to undergrads at events), a Lauder black leather traveling wallet (for carrying your passport, money, ID, etc when you travel), a 2 GB USB drive, and a personalized card form one of our coordinators, whom I became great friends with (I admit that I did get a little misty in the eyes when I read it...and I promised myself I wouldn't cry!).

All was going well, until I had my appointment with Career Services after work. This was my first trip to Career Services in almost a year. I actually had decided to not go back after my last visit, but had recently quite accidently got in contact with one of the counselors (long story), so I felt abligated to make an appointment. Honestly, every time I go to career services I feel defeated and depressed, and this time was no exception.

The career councelors like to fill your ears with a lot of empty talk that only wastes valuable time, especially since all apointments are only supposed to last 30 min, no matter what. The counselor I talked to today had a generally defeatest attitude throughout the whole meeting. I began by telling her that I was looking into working for universities, to which she replied (paraphrasing a bit of course) "Well universities don't really like hiring people who have graduated in the last year or so because of student confidentiallity. Actually we had a lot of graduates from 2011 and 2012 apply to our last position, and we didn't even look at those applications." Wow, talk about being encouraging! Although this maybe true, to tell someone this is basically saying, "If you're a recent graduate, don't even bother applying because no one is even going to look at your application." People are often frustrated and discouraged when they go to Career Services in the first place, so the job of the councelors should be to encaurage as well as give advice, not crush any glimmer of hope that person my have at finding a job. Basically, all she did was go over my resume and a cover letter and give me some formating suggestions, which are, of course, always important, but that anyone could have basically given me. Of course by the time she finished doing this, our 30 min were up, and the little advice she did give me (to keep doing informational interviews), was something I had been doing for the past 3 months now.

I'm not saying Career Services is a waste of time, but I have gotten a billion times more great, applicable advice and tons of encauragement in the last 3 months from my supervisors and other administrators than I had gotten in nearly a year from Career Services.

Sorry for this rant, but I just had to get it off my chest, and now I feel all happy and wonderful again, and ready to enjoy my Friday!!!

Bittersweet Goodbye

This picture has nothing to do with my post, but it's cute!!

Today is my last day at my job at the Lauder Institute. This is a very bittersweet parting for me, even though I knew it was coming. On the one hand, the job itself was actually quite boring, and I absolutely hated lifting those huge water jugs to refill the water cooler, not to mention that I'll be out of a job for who knows how long (can't imagine there is much of a need for temps in the summer at a university). On the other hand, I now have more time to thoroughly devote to my full-time job search, and wasting massive amounts of time writing my blog networking. Originally, this was a part-time temp job that was supposed to only last for two months, from the beginning of April to the end of May. However, I was asked to stay on another week, partly because they needed the extra help for an international education conference that's going on this weekend, and partly because they just liked me so much =^_^=

Although Friday was my last day, the office had a special farewell lunch for me on Thursday, since our managing director wasn't going to be in on Friday. The food was delivered from Gia Pronto, and everyone from the office ate with me in the conference room/lobby area. Despite being across the street from my former dorm, I've never eaten there before. We ordered pesto chicken, prosciutto and mozzarella, vegetarian, and turkey and ham paninis, which was all very good (I'm sure I ate way more than I should have!).

I've become very close to almost everyone at the office, and even though I've only been working there a little over two months, it feels like I've been there forever (heck, even the UPS and facilities guys knows me)! Not only has everyone been super friendly, they have also helped me with my full-time job search. When I graduated last year, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do, but many of the people at my job introduced me to people and resources that I would never have found out about on my own, which have given me a better understanding of myself and my career goals. In fact, just working at the Lauder Institute, and in its international environment has made me want to use my language and culture skill to pursue a career that deals with some aspect of international "stuff" (not sure exactly what yet, but it's a start, and much better than where I was 3 months ago)!

The last part-time job I had didn't end too well, mainly because my supervisor didn't exactly take much of a liking to me (topped off by the fact that she obviously wasn't much of a people person anyway). Even there, though, I made invaluable friends and professional contacts. Despite this, the experience left me feeling like a complete failure, even though I wasn't at fault. Working in the Lauder Institute, though, has helped me regain my sense of self, and has even given me new confidence as my goals become clearer. I have to admit working at the Lauder Institute has definitely been one of the best work experiences I've had in my long 5 years of working and interning, rivaled only by my 4 year job at the IT office at the School of Nursing. I will certainly miss everyone at the Lauder Institute!