Sep 17, 2007

One Week: The beginning

So, last week marked my first week at <redacted>. Long story short, I love it. If it wasn't marred by the memory of all that was <betterjob>. Sigh. I can liken my first week at <shithole> by comparing it to trying to take a drink out of a fire hose. Doing customer service and sales and tech support for something you really don't understand is a bit overwhelming. I'm the only person in my department, so I have no one to account to but M-E. Let me start over. (See why I haven't written in awhile? I can't form a coherent snentence.) 

<shithole> does advertising for 3 fields: Carpet Cleaning, Remodeling, and Real Estate. You'd think, with my past experience as a Carpet Cleaner and CSR for Remodelers, I'd be there. Well, you'd be wrong. So very wrong. They stuck me in Service For Life!(tm) Which is basically a lead generator tool for realtors. I call up realtors to walk them through their online orders with our system, which somehow saves them a ton of money and gets them a ton of leads. Which would be fine, except when the website won't help work or they have any questions. See, I was hired because they REALLY needed someone, and so no one has really been able to train me that thoroughly. At first, I would say, "I'm sorry. I'm new here. Let me go ask someone who knows what they're doing." Which would mean either a) I would find someone there to answer a simple question that made me feel dumb, getting an answer that made me feel dumber, or b) that I would wait while someone who knew what they were doing became available, I would ask them a question, but I had to wait so long that the person I had on hold hung up. 

 Now, before you think I was being sarcastic when I said I love it, hear me out. (You've read it this far, just stay with me) That was just the first 3 days or so. After I got the hang of things (ie: just promise them whatever they want, they'll love you!) and know what I'm talking about, or at least know enough to fake it, it's a lot of fun. Being able to help people, the good kind of stress of doing 7 tasks at once, taking people's money for a product I'm not sure is good for them. It's awesome. Moving on. My courses are great, I really enjoy my Math class (haven't said that since, well, forever) and my Master Student course is fun as well. Tracie is still looking for a job, it's hard to find somewhere good enough for her, she's too over qualified for pretty much any editing job around here, but we'll find somewhere she can bless with her talents and labors soon. That's about it for now, keep reading, maybe someday I'll write something interesting! (ie fiction. I mean creative fiction ;) )

4 comments:

Heather Mae the DIY Gal said...

Hi Austin,

I am glad that you found something. Your post is funny. Your writing style is very similar to Tracie's.

Good luck with the job. With time and practice, you will be the pro, and everyone else will be coming to you for the answers and feeling so dumb. :)

What is the name of your blog so that I can put the link on my blog?

Heather Mae the DIY Gal said...

Never mind. I just scrolled down, and found your blog link. :)

Anonymous said...

The Aquabats belong on your music list.

Anonymous said...

The Aquabats belong on nobody's music list.