Monday, January 20, 2014

{Employment} Past, Present, Future

I must admit this post turned out different than I originally intended. I also, started writing this in August, but it really couldn't have been finished until now anyway. I needed the reminder at the end to trust God. 



As of this summer I will have been in the adult workforce for 16 years. A year and a half ago I passed up the longest-I've-been-at-the-same-employer, milestone. It's hard for me to believe that I've been doing the same job for 6 1/2 years.

With that in mind, here's a look at my job history since I graduated college in 1998:

  • 3 years as the middle school secretary for 550 kids - living on Guam, right after college
  • 1 year floating between an insurance company in Kansas and temp work in Minneapolis
  • 5 years at MBU (formerly MBBC) and Upper Krust (the Pie Shop) with random odd-jobs thrown in now and then
  • 7 years (June 2014) as a client service associate at theJob (As previously stated, I try to keep the name of my current place of employment and co-workers's names off the blog.)

This past August I was told of a potential change from my current position, but we first had to hire someone to replace me. Initially we thought it would be easy because they offered the job to someone who applied for another position but the person turned it down. It actually took two months to find the new hire, and then we waiting another three months for them to actually start working. Her first day was January 2nd.

My new position was supposed to be mostly projects and the like, but over the past five months (or maybe from the beginning??!), my boss got a great idea for me to become an OSJ, a designated supervisor for all things compliance. He told me of his great idea during my annual review in December, which was about two weeks before the new person started.

Basically an OSJ is the person who approves the securities business that our firm processes. Maybe it doesn't sound so complicated to you, but I will have to take several tests and go through hours of studying. At one point I will be sent off to a class to help me prepare for one of the big tests.

None of my new job responsibilities are to begin until the new girl is well on her way to being trained. The training will take a couple, a few, several months. The timeline is a little unclear at this time, but the sooner I get her trained, the sooner I get to start studying. THEN, the sooner I pass all the tests, the sooner I get a raise.

How 'bout that?! A raise! So that's exciting, eh?!

My boss is proposing for this to all be in place by July. I have my doubts, but he is a very optimistic person and I'm more of a pragmatist (defined as a practical person).

(Random Fact: the new girl's name is my name just spelled with Cs and no K.)

So there you have it: my new job is just around the bend and will probably be happening about the time I'm 16 years into the workforce. Looking back at how far I've come I think this is a pretty good place to be. Could I- would I- should I have done things differently to get where I am? Maybe. But for me, I'm trusting that God had me in the various jobs and places to use me for His purpose.

I'm definitely challenged as I look at my present situation (training the new girl) and my near future transition (studying, testing, learning), and I need to trust God to bring me through these challenges and to bring honor to Himself.

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