Yesterday I accepted a job doing something I’ve never done before. Sometime next week I will begin working for a major national electronics retailer. I’ll be selling digital cameras and camcorders. I’ve never held a job in retail before.
I’ve got mixed emotions about this. The job will be paying me significantly less than I’m accustomed to be making but it will get me back out around people and that’s something that I sorely miss. Also the job market is looking up in my field. I’ve had two interviews with engineering companies lately with a second interview at on of them this coming Monday and confirmation that I’m still under consideration at the other. I definately don’t want to leave my new employer in a lurch if either of those two places make me an offer.
Still, what am I to do? I may not receive an offer from either place and unemployment won’t last forever. What I’d like to happen is to continue working for my new employer on a weekend and evenings schedule and take the other job too.
I was asked by all three people who interviewed me, the department manager, the sales manager and the store manager, what I’d do if a job came open in my field. I told them I’d ask for a reduction in my hours. They seemed agreeable to that but I have no idea how either perspective employer might feel about my holding down a second job.
I guess I’ll cross that bridge if I get to it.
About Larry D. Burton
I'm a 55 year old controls engineer who just likes tinkering with stuff.
Finished high school at a local institute of learning. Decided it wasn't a good time to be a healthy, physically fit 18 year old with no college experience. Entered college and started working toward a degree in animal husbandry.
1975-1976
Discoverd that I was not going to be a very good husband of animals so I left school to figure out what I might be good at. A local beverage company took pity on me and paid me to go from place to place making sure their on tap beverages were maintaining their high quality.
1976-1979
Got out of quality control and into vending. Learned about control systems and refrigeration also learned that vending machines are heavy and vending doesn't pay all that well.
In 1977 I found myself married
1979-1981
Dedicated myself to installing and maintaining commercial refrigeration equipment. Found myself on the roof of a local grocery store one night in the middle of an ice storm replacing a compressor and figured it was time to get back into school.
1981-1986
Got my but back into school at night and changed jobs to keep the mechanical and electrical systems of a local coporate hospital in working order. The job expanded to unstopping drains and burning lab samples and amputated body parts.
1986-now
Finished school and took on a job designing, installing and maintaining industrial control systems. Along the way I picked up a bunch of computer skills that became very useful connecting various industrial controllers to one another and moving the data into coporate databases. I now operate Dallas Bay Technologies, a one man shop specializing in technology solutions for industrial problems.
