Most recently, for about the last year or so, my career has been more turbulent than the airplane I was on outside of Saint Louis International during a snow storm. Hopefully, some of the text below can give you some insight into what I do for a living, what I'd like to do for a living, and why things have been as turbulent as they are...

For the longest time, I had always wanted to get into the computer field. And after one short semester and then leaving Christopher Newport University in December of 1995,  I had the chance to work for a small company in Williamsburg called Network Dynamics, Incorporated. I started as a Data Conversion Specialist on the midnight shift, and quickly I learned the ways and was given the title of Assistant Supervisor. Although the Supervisor was hardly absent, being given that title also gave me authority to learn the ways of middle management.

After a while, I became very upset with some things that had been going on at Network Dynamics, namely the inability to pay their employees on time. So, I decided to return to college, where I went to Thomas Nelson. Yet again, after a semester, I returned to NDI, in the capabilities of Electronic Data Conversion Specialist. I spent a 6 month stint in the EDC Department, and after a vacation, I was switched to the Data Conversion Department yet again. After approximately a month on second shift DCS, I was given the opportunity to be Midnight Shift Supervisor. I jumped on that chance in under a millisecond, and back to the good ol' midnight shift I went.

I am going to take a quick pause here to reminisce and spout a few random things here that I should have said to people a long time ago, yet I never did. The nine months that I spent as Supervisor were the best nine months of my career at NDI. I woke up every night, went to work, and didn't care about the financial status of the company. I was finally in a position I enjoyed, and a position that I would have willingly stayed in until either my demise, the demise of the company or the demise of midnight shift. When I was approached about a transfer, I should have declined. After all, I had spent 6 months in the EDC department, and I knew I didn't like it... but I thought that things had possibly changed, and I was wrong, I still hated it.  Some people thought that I didn't like EDC because of my boss, and that impression was extremely misinterpreted. Although my boss in the EDC department had his way of being jokingly caustic, and I mean that with the most respect because he joked on everyone equally, I just hated EDC.. it had nothing to do with my co-workers in EDC and nothing to do with the management. I was also mad at myself... I allowed myself to be taken out of a position that I enjoyed and had busted my rear end for, and allowed someone who I didn't totally feel was ready for a supervisory position. My Assistant Supervisor was a good guy and a good worker, and I had known him for a while before he got hired at NDI... but he got offered in 5 months what took me almost a year and three-quarters to achieve. And I really didn't think he was ready. So, towards the end of my time with NDI, I hid behind the, "I'm tired of being underestimated" excuse and left the company. Hindsight is always 20/20 and it was nobody's fault but mine. I had the job I loved, but I gave it up. In all honesty, if I could, and if I hadn't burned bridges, I would return to NDI as a Data Conversion Specialist. Maybe in another year in a half, I'd have the supervisory job again: only this time, I wouldn't give it up. Not willingly at least... At NDI, at least I felt like I had a career...

After my 9 month supervisory stint, I transferred over to the Electronic Data Conversion department, where I helped them with one of NDI's largest contracts. After that, I was put back on first shift, where I had a horrible time, mainly because of my dislike for EDC. So, as time progressed, I looked for any excuse to get out of EDC, but I couldn't get into the department which I had the most interest in... Networking. So, I left NDI, and decided to look for work elsewhere.

I spent the next three months "off", not by my own choice, mind you, but by the fact that no one would hire me and then sweeping plans for the summer kicked in. After attending a Gateway Job Fair in early May, I was very sure that I wasn't going to hear anything from them. Surprisingly, in September, I did.

From September to January, I worked at Gateway as a Technical Support Representative, primarily in the Modem/Gateway.NET queue. Let me be the first to tell you, it's fun, but it's hell. Being a TSP, the first thing you have to do before every call is prepare for someone who's irate and who has a very low image of the Technical Support department, and most times, even people who aren't irate have a very low image of the Technical Support Department. And it was practically for that fact that I left. Around Christmas time, without regards to families, we were forced to work, and then around the beginning of January, I got into a "discussion" with management about my times being too long. I was told that I was taking too long even though Gateway knew they were shipping out faulty programs and hardware that could take a while to fix. In short, they wanted me to run through the motions and get the customer off of the line, even if that meant ACTING like I had fixed the problem. Needless to say, this concept didn't sit very well with me because I viewed each customer as myself, when I got my first computer. Gateway's customers spent anywhere from 900 - 3000 dollars on an investment in the computer industry, and as far as I was concerned, they deserved quality for their investment. And as I was so bluntly told, "[TSP's] are not here to make sure every customer is satisfied. [TSP's] are here to preserve Gateway's profits and to try to suggest the customer continue to purchase from Gateway." After I was told that I knew it was time to part ways, even if it meant destitution. I pride myself on a few things. Honesty, integrety, beliefs and hard work. It may look like I want everything handed to me, but if I have to, I'll move cinder blocks to save for my Porsche. But I was not about to let some big corporation run my name through the mud, as we always had to give our name and our badge number to customers. Not to mention that I was also told that when a prospective employer requests a reference, they would get a copy of my Gateway file. And I wasn't going to let Gateway's Anti-Customer attitude go on my record for future reference. So as of two weeks from my birthday, January 8th, I parted ways with Gateway, and had a renewed sense of small business.

And that brings me to current date. Yet again, it's been 3 months, and yet again, I'm still unemployed. Troublesome, yes, but I keep going along with Wendy's support. Over the past few months, I have sent out several dozen resumes, and followed them up to no avail. So, the turbulence continues. At least, with a little luck, I'll be returning to college this fall to pursue my history degree with a minor in education.And this time, there won't be any more of this "one semester" crap. But, if for some reason, I can't get into college this year, I'll try again next year. And until then, I'll keep busting my chops until I can find a job somewhere, hopefully as a personal computer technician. Or maybe.. as a Data Conversion Specialist for ARI/NDI.