The 9-5 life (or should I say 8-6:30?)

I’ve now completed two full weeks of work. And boy have I been soaking up a lot!  I don’t know that I can go into too much detail on specificities, but I’d like to share a little about what kind of role I’m evolving into at work.

First, I am the newest addition to an amazing team of individuals that makes up the National Center for Construction Education and Research, Workforce Development team. Our role is primarily business development, outreaching to schools, companies, and groups to encourage the use of the NCCER educational programs that offer standardized curriculum and a portable credential in nearly 60 construction fields (ranging from crane operations to bricklaying). It’s a system through which both construction companies benefit (they have skilled and trained workers) and individuals benefit (their credential proves that they have certain skills, so when the start work for a new company, they don’t have to start in entry level positions). It’s really a wonderful program of standardization for training within the industry and it is supported by the leading construction companies in the world. A very cool partnership really.

The Workforce development team that I am part of is made up of 4 individuals and myself. All of us come from very different backgrounds. One was in construction and then taught construction trades at the high school and university level, another came from managing the workforce development for one of the largest construction companies in the US, another worked their way up from mail room clerk to Executive Assistant for the President of the organization, and then was brought onto the WFD team, and yet another has been there for years and knows more about the employment/unemployment and construction industry data than probably any person out there.  Everyone comes together wonderfully with our different strengths and I really see our team being a force as we learn to work together and assist each other even more throughout our time as a team.

It felt like things started off pretty slow as during my first week the focus was for me to simply meet everyone in the office and read every piece of literature we produce to get familiar with it. But by Monday of week two we found lots of work to do on the basic research for a white paper (essentially an industry research paper) that we’re supposed to have for publication by April 18^th! Such a fast deadline, but our team has come together in an amazing way and I think that we’ll at least have a draft in time.

It started off slow, but I’ve now had an orientation with every department in the company and my collaborative drive is already whirring with ways that we can all work together more. I’m excited to continue diving in and understanding more as I’m continually introduced to new aspects of the company.

And did I mention that I have my own office? It's slowly becoming mine

In the near future I’ll begin traveling (I’m going to be doing quite a lot of it), starting with attending a Master Trainer class (it’s our required “train the trainer” program that every company must send one individual to in order to start certifying educators to teach NCCER curriculum). I’ve already gotten a brief introduction to how our organization supports SkillsUSA (something very close to my heart) and I’m excited to get to play a part in how our relationship works with the organization (we currently sponsor the National Carpentry competition for SkillsUSA).

So much learning. Wonderful people to work with and learn from. And some excellent challenges. I’m very excited to be here and be working!

You Should Probably buy a New Bed

So here I was with a real job and an apartment and absolutely no furniture or the makings of what you need to live in an empty house.  I went on a drive with one of my coworkers to go visit the historic Florida town of St. Augustine and in our conversation, she offered me the use of a futon type piece of furniture that I could use to sleep on until I had the bed situation figured out. I had to buy some pillows for it, but overall it was a great place to sleep for the first few days.

But still, I needed to get a real bed. Still being in the college living expenses state of thinking, I thought to go to Craigslist but upon mentioning this was warned of the rampant bed bug problem in Gainesville and told I should just buy a new bed.

This was another expense I wasn’t particularly expecting, and shoot, how much do brand new beds even cost?  So it was off to a bed supply store for me. I went with the first place that turned up on a Google search for “mattress store” and while the outside looked a bit dingy, inside they had a beautiful display of beds. After a brief introduction of the layout of the showroom, I went bed by bed and found those that felt the best. Going back and forth, laying on different beds, I narrowed it down to two and then started to look into the prices. They were much more than I wanted to pay, but I really needed a bed. I beckoned the salesman and told him that I wanted ‘this’ bed but that I was only looking to pay around $600 (it was priced $825).  He brought it down to $670 for me and with a look of indecision from me he took to his pricing book. He told me that the absolute lowest he could go was $620 out the door and I said “excellent”.

He let me know that the price included a frame, box spring, mattress and free delivery, so it turns out I did even better than I expected! Because they didn’t have the bed in stock it would take till Friday (this was on Sunday) for the bed to come in. I had the futon so I told him not to worry.

They delivered the bed Friday during my lunch break and had it set up in a matter of minutes.  I signed some paperwork and then ate my quick lunch on the bed, contemplating the color scheme I would soon be moving forward with as my apartment was finally starting to take shape!

And yes, the bed is wonderfully comfortable. I hadn’t had a new-new bed since I was a child so I’ve been feeling very spoiled (thank goodness for tax returns to make it possible!)

Setting up life

My goodness, I can’t believe that nearly two weeks have now passed of me living and working here in Gainesville! In this post I’m going to explain the process of me getting set up with an apartment, and car, though I may have to expand into tangential posts to explain everything because they’re just been so much!

Work had flown me out to Gainesville three days prior to my official start date so that I had some time to start getting my life settled before starting to work. I enjoyed a number of café’s and restaurants and even made my very first friend while watching a soccer game at a local bar called Mothers (excellent spot).

Apartment Hunt

In the first two days I think I visited every apartment complex in the city that had open units. It’s a really interesting dynamic here. First, cost of living is much lower than what I am used to (thanks for the inflated sense of apartment value SD) but prices still are high in some areas due to proximity to the University of Florida. The range of apartments is huge. Some are tall towers resembling hotels, others are little bungalows spread out around “ponds” (which honestly are enormous puddles that stick around all year because of the mass amounts of rain). Some are renovated and beautiful, others are very obviously used and lived in. And most of the one bedrooms’ are shaped exactly the same way—more of a long mobile home than an apartment, so as you walk in from the door you pass through each living space individually.

For me it came down between two quite different but individually beautiful places. It turned out the smaller of the two one based on proximity to things and price, and after a week here I’m so so glad with the decision.  While I’m not currently in my exact apartment that I’ll live in for the year (I wanted one surrounding the inner lawn with a pool, they said it would be open, then the people didn’t move out when expected so I said I’d take another apartment till they move out. Well, they’re out and I’m just waiting for the okay for me to switch places!)  It’s wonderful because the community is ultra quiet, the place is small but very cozy, and I even got out to enjoy the pool and sunshine today (though I didn’t last long in the 90 degree heat!)

Vehicle

I really wanted to get a vespa when I moved here. They’re extremely affordable, fun, and the weather is usually nice enough to warrant riding one. While I had much family opposed to such an idea, I was just not feeling the whole “buy a junky used car” option that seemed like my only other choice. But, before I moved to Florida I had done some research on car leasing, just in case I’d need a car after all.

So here I was, set on a vespa, and then in talks with my boss (wonderful guy) he made it very clear that a manager level employee should probably have an enclosed vehicle, particularly as I may be looked to travel in it occasionally. I wasn’t really interested in buying an old used car and I sure don’t have the funds to buy new, but I had looked into leasing as a viable option. The only problem there is that leases usually require a few thousand dollars down and really excellent credit. Fortunately for me, I heard of this thing called Swap-a-lease, where you take over other people’s leases, getting out of all the multi-thousand dollars of origination and lease fees. You simply apply for a swap and then start taking over payments.  I had spoken with a number of car owners and was ready to move forward with a lease option with someone but they kept falling through.

Finally, I got fed up with waiting around on people and decided to just go to the dealer.  I changed from my after-work running clothes and called the Toyota dealer to ask if they’d be willing to talk with me about leasing if I showed up about 5 minutes before close. They said come on in and so I did.

I sat down with a gentleman named Mike and told him what I wanted. I specified a monthly payment, told him I didn’t want to make a down payment but if necessary I could, and that I wanted to walk out the door tonight with a car.  Of course, car dealers love to hear that so we discussed car options (thought thinking back I just told him “get me a car at this price”, so when he came back with a Camry at the exact prices I asked).  The reason I got it so cheap (this payment was less than anything I had heard of for a lease, let alone a brand new upgraded Camry—he asked if I planned on coming in on the last day of the month and told me that’s the only reason I got such an amazing payment! Talk about fortune!

I filled out paperwork and he realized I just graduated from college. Turns out Toyota has a program for recent grads where there are no down payments or origination fees if you graduated within two years! So there went the biggest fee I was expecting to pay, I simply gave him my first month down payment in cash (I had it because I was expecting to move forward with a vespa purchase in cash)!  Then he sent my paperwork to be processed and we walked outside where I picked my exact vehicle from the lot.  After I chose it, we finalized paperwork and I made plans to go back the next day and get my car! It’s a 2011 Toyota Camry and it has all the perks, electric windows and locks and CD players and an AV hookup. It’s quite nice.

So there I was, papers signed for a brand new car and an apartment to move into whenever I was ready! My work was relieved when I told them I had signed a contract on a place-it meant I wasn't going to decide to leave anytime soon!