Morning update

So, in about 12 minutes I leave for my typing test at Nordia. If typing is all I'm graded on, I'm not worried... at least as long as I'm allowed to use the backspace key. If not, I may be in for some accuracy problems. *grin*

Thanks to everyone who replied to my queries. You guys are great.

Also on the game plan for today: Volunteer Fair at McGill, drop off something at Concordia, karate this evening. Depending on how things go at Nordia, I may or may not do more job-hunting today.

Also, I have a question. As most of you have guessed, I'm planning on making another blog at some point, that will be more content-driven. Yesterday, the idea came to me of using a Bible study guide to read through the entire thing in a year, and post my thoughts and reflections as I go through it. I'd call it something like "A Secular Humanist Reads the Bible," and I would be approaching the text from a literary / social standpoint, as opposed to a strictly religious one. I'd generally just ramble about what I'd read, daily, based on past knowledge and without using too many outside references. Would anyone be interested in reading something like that?

So, that's it for now. With luck, I'll only post once more today to update everyone on the results of the Nordia interview. Cheers!

Gainfully employed

So I got the job. Huzzah. The typing test was ridiculously easy. The rules were that you weren't supposed to use the backspace key, and you weren't supposed to read your own writing as you go. Right. Like that's going to happen for me. It's almost instinctive for me to use the backspace key at this point -- it would slow me down horrifically if I had to stop myself. So, even illegally using the backspace key, I typed 71 wpm, which is fairly slow for me but still high above what they were looking for (50 wpm). I made two mistakes, one a word typed wrong (I was nervous and thinking about not using the backspace key), one "The" spelt "THe," otherwise completely accurate (with the one exception of not realizing they wanted "Internet" spelt with a capital "i"). This is all for the good.

My experience doing data entry and reception actually came in useful -- who'd'a thunk it?

Training is supposed to start Monday, Oct. 2. I'm trying to see if I can push that back to the next training session on Oct. 16 so that I can see go to Toronto and Cooks & Bards. I'm waiting for a call back from the HR person. She mentioned it was an option, so I don't see it being too big a problem, but I'll update this entry when I finally hear back from her.

Edited, 1:40 pm: So I heard back from the HR woman -- training will officially begin for me on the 16th. Now I can start finalizing plans for the Toronto trip. Yay!

The training schedule is a bit weird -- 8:30-3:30 for the first week, 4-11 pm the second week, third week is either day or evening shift (we find out the first week). Pay is exactly what I was making at my summer job ($10.50 / hr), with an extra $1.50 for working past midnight, something I hope absolutely never happens. In a few months, if I get trained on the second system, pay gets boosted by two bucks. I'm not entirely certain what the benefits are -- forgot to ask.

A final note: this does not mean I'm giving up on looking for teaching jobs. I do not want to work at a call center for an extended period of time. This is a means of making some money while the job hunt continues. Yay for networking.