Finally, after a full year, it has happened. I have a new job.
I'll be working with a lovely classmate from Marine Biology (she'll be doing her honors, I'll just be doing the work), and a Dr from DFO doing Eel research as well as database updating. Sound impressive? I certainly think it's a step up! Definite raise in pay, full time hours, 16 weeks of work. Slight downside of the fact that eels are nocturnal, and so to observe and research them, the work needs to be done at night. In Basin Head. Am I put off? HELL NO!! I'd say a night spent on a boat in basin head getting better pay and actually doing something along the lines of what I want to do is about, oooohh 10 million times better than a call center night shift, where they'll give me an extra 1$/hr as compensation for ruined mental/physical health, and decline of all social skills and abilities. And as a bonus, the database work will be done at the DFO building beside the coast guard, so I can very easily bike there. I really enjoyed biking to work (on nice days) when I worked at the marina, so yay, I get to do it again! And did I mention it was on a boat? Oh yeah, I'm working on a boat again.
I totally lucked out on this one. I had been talking to this Dr about a possible masters, but since I didn't want to move to Halifax for two years, I had to turn him down, but thank god I did it nicely and professionally! He actually took me at my word when I asked him to keep me in mind for any future projects, even if they were on a volunteer basis. So, he called me up and asked me to come down and talk about a position they were putting together. I was expecting just a "here's what I'm thinking, are you interested in applying?" type deal, and it turned into "show me every knot you know, what is the life cycle of the Atlantic Salmon, how many 100W lighbulbs would it take to blow a standard circuit breaker, and why does latitude increase as you move left across a map of Canada?" And then he offered me the job. And I took it. Then I went back to work and quit. And that felt really good.
So I put in my two weeks to be professional, and put off my start date at my new job so that I could do so. Someone whispered to me >>hey, careful, don't burn any bridges...<< so I did my best to keep my absolute estaticness in check, and not scream out how happy I was that I was leaving hell. Have they tried to make me feel guilty since? Kinda. More than a little bit. Have I felt bad about it? Nah, not really at all. I'll miss my coworkers, but I'm kinda hoping that the fact that myself and another very pleasant tech have quit in the past month from my department will be looked on as a reflection as poor management "restructuring" decisions since no one had quit in over a year.
This is kind of scary. The job is 16 weeks, so come September, I'll need to do something new. Might just kick my arse down the right road for once.
Thursday, May 11
