The month of May was torture. My job with Retro ended on May 4th and I was to return to the mailroom on May 7th, hopefully for a short amount of time. That was my permanent job classification and my supervisor said it was okay to return. Sometimes you can’t return to your exact job you came from but they will find you something to go back to with your classification. It was really sad packing up my stuff and saying goodbye to the work and the people of that unit. I really bonded with a few of them and I will miss seeing them every day. I believe this was the first time I actually had a “best friend” at work.
I went back
down to the mailroom with my stuff and I truly felt like I had failed. In reality, I had just run out of time
because of the timing of when the jobs I applied for closed. I was so desperate not to go back to the
mailroom I actually applied for any job even outside of L&I. I knew by doing that I was flirting with
something I really didn’t want to do, leave L&I. Based on the past experiences I did not think
I would get any of the jobs I applied for.
The five that I heard back from and wanted to interview me were:
WSDOT –
Secretary Senior
Ecology – Forms and Records Analyst 1
L&I – OA3 in Human Resources
L&I – Program Assistant
DSHS – Secretary Senior
The
interviews were also in that order. I
really wanted the program assistant position because it kept me at L&I and
it was a promotion.Ecology – Forms and Records Analyst 1
L&I – OA3 in Human Resources
L&I – Program Assistant
DSHS – Secretary Senior
I went into
WSDOT and Ecology with a very open mind.
I could nail them or I could do very poorly either way I didn’t know
these people. The silver lining was if I
didn’t get any of them it was good practice at interviewing and I still had a
job in the mailroom.
The first
one was scheduled for May 8th at the WSDOT building on Capitol
Campus in the afternoon. I was not that
familiar with that area except for the DES building where my dad worked. I knew where to park but unfortunately
wherever you parked down there you had to pay.
I literally paid $4.00 for this interview. I didn’t know where the WSDOT building was so
I had to look at the map. 
I walked to the front, checked in with the receptionist and she directed me to the room on the 2nd floor. I was super nervous and very intimidated for some reason. I was told to go into the room and sit and wait until it was my turn. They were in the room with the closed door interviewing someone else. I sat there feeling like I didn’t have a chance and that they would pick someone internally who knows WSDOT already. I made a decision that when it was my turn just to be myself and answer their questions.
When it was
my turn I sat down on a wooden chair and was interviewed by three ladies named
Sally, Lynn and Eileen. Sally was
intimidating just because she was so direct and I really couldn’t read her and
Lynn and Eileen were very mild mannered so it was easier to speak to them when
giving answers. The questions weren’t
hard and geared more towards my personal life than work life. I think they were trying to find someone with
a personality they could work with rather than the task because anyone can
learn a task and not everyone has a good personality to work with. They ended with, “if we were to offer you the
job would you take it?” I had to think
about that really hard and really fast so I could give an answer. At that point I said yes because I really was
desperate to move on from an OA3 position.
Anything that would promote me and give me more money.
I asked them
a few questions and the interview lasted less than an hour. I handed them my “take home” assessment that
they asked me to do prior to the interview.
It was basically a paragraph that I had to edit to the best of my ability. The chair I sat in must have been lacquered
pretty well because after I was done my pants peeled off of it pretty
loud. I hoped that they weren’t paying
attention when I got up. I thanked them
for their time and they said they would get back to me by the end of the
week. This week was just starting and
was going to be long.
My second
interview was scheduled for May 10th at the Ecology building in
Lacey also in the afternoon. I knew
where this building was because of geocaching.
I wandered around the woods near their campus back in the late winter of
2011. I followed the parking
instructions and got a phone call just before I headed into the building to
check in. I let it go to voicemail
because I was not prepared to talk to whomever it was. I recognized the phone number so I knew where
it was coming from. Just before I got
out I listened to the voicemail. It was
the job I was waiting to hear about an interview from. Unfortunately, it was two weeks from
now. I had a huge dilemma. What if I get one of the ones I am
interviewing for now? Do I take
them? Do I leave L&I? Do I say no?
Do I wait for the one I want and hope they offer it to me? I decided to leave my problem in the Escape
and walked into the Ecology building. I
talked with the receptionist and she checked me in and I waited to be escorted
to the room the interview was in. I was
there really early so I had to wait a while.
In the meantime, I texted Trina and told her that I had another
interview to put on the calendar and told her the dates. She said oh wow! I am an interview machine. I sure felt like it the past few days. I made a joke with myself that I would be the
one conducting my own effective interviewing class someday. Like that would ever happen though I hate
talking in front of people.
This interview was very different from the others I have done recently. This one was comprehensive based. They would ask you a question and instead of just answering it point blank you had to actually answer a scenario that involved a task or skill, a relationship with a person (co-worker, boss, customer), explain your scenario and then tell them what you learned from it or if you could have done it differently, would you and explain yourself. It was interesting and I believe I did a good job because I had a ton of personal experiences with all of those things and I could explain myself competently. They seemed to be interested in what I had to say and asked me some follow up questions. When we were done I asked them a few questions myself and they finished by saying that they will conduct second interviews and that they will be getting a hold of people starting next Monday.
The next week was more relaxed since I didn’t have any interviews to do or turn down. Now I had to wait for the job I actually wanted after Memorial Day. I was really hoping that went well and they picked me. I figured with the track record of my previous interviews I should get that job right?
A lady
walked up to me and asked if I was Val and to follow her. She told me a little bit about the Ecology
building as we walked to the farthest end of the building. She said if you were to walk from one end to
the other I would be about a quarter of a mile.
Dang.
We got to
the room and I introduced myself to everyone and sat down. They handed me the questions and I read them
and hoped I had an answer for all of them.
I did thankfully. I took the same
approach as I did with the other interview this week. Be myself.
It’s easy, authentic and smooth.
I know myself better than I think I do.
They took turns asking the questions and I did my best to answer
them. A lot of them were task related
which made me question what kind of person they were looking for. The lady in charge of the interview, LeAnne,
was also a direct person but not as brash as Sally was at WSDOT. You could tell she thrived off of specific
information so I tried to cater my answers to be specific and not broad (and to
try really hard not to ramble.) Some of
the questions they asked follow up questions on and I did my best on those as
well. About half way through some people
knocked on the door and asked if we were supposed to have this room and LeAnne
said yeah, we booked it weeks ago for interviews. It turns out LeAnne and her interview panel
were in the wrong room so we had to switch rooms in the middle of my
interview. I found this hilarious and it
didn’t bother me at all. I wondered
later on if this a little bit of why they offered me the job, because they were
in the wrong and had to interrupt my interview.
Probably not but it was fun to speculate. We finished up the interview, I asked them
questions and they also asked me if they offered me the job would I
accept. Of course I told them yes. I didn’t want to be an OA3 anymore.
I thanked
them for their time and followed LeAnne to her cubicle to get ready for the
assessment part of the interview. I
basically counted fake money, put them in categories and added them up on a
10-key calculator. I haven’t used a
10-key calculator in at least a decade but probably longer than that. She told me there were instructions and that
I had everything I needed at this desk.
I would have 20 minutes to complete everything and would be stopping by
to let me know how much time I had left.
She handed me the envelope and I began.
I followed that instruction sheet word for word I did not want to make
any mistakes because I have high standards for myself.
I got them
categorized how they needed to be, written down with the amounts and how many
of each and then started to add them up.
I had a hard time with the 10-key calculator just because I was really
out of practice. I had to start over
several times just because I was pressing the wrong keys. I finally got it to do what I wanted and got
the total but I had forgotten to print out the final total with the
additions. It was on the calculator but
it wasn’t on my final tally. I already
failed this assessment because it was supposed to be on one slip and not
two. I had to do two slips. I got them on the document and stapled the
slips onto it and initialed both slips.
Maybe they like seeing initiative or I know what to do in a bind? I put the money back into the envelop and she
stopped by and asked if I was done. I
said yes and handed her back the materials.
She escorted me back to the front and gave my guest badge back to the
receptionist and escaped.
I called
that number back as soon as I got into my vehicle. I could not pass this job opportunity
up. It was Patty, the admin from OMD,
she wished to schedule me for an interview and gave me the dates again. Why were they so far away from today’s
date? I just went with it and scheduled
a time for the Tuesday after Memorial Day.
So that meant I was really going to have a hard choice because I bet
WSDOT and Ecology would get back to me before I even had my interview for OMD. I really hoped that this all worked out. Fingers crossed.
I got a
phone call earlier in the week from OHR for an OA3 position for the front desk
area. I only applied for this position
to stay at L&I because I really didn’t want to be an OA3. That interview was scheduled for Friday. This week just kept getting better and
better. May was trying to murder me.
Thursday
night Tim texted me basically telling me that DOT is going to offer me the job
and that I should take it. I was so
conflicted I didn’t even want to think about it. Friday morning Sally called me and offered me
the job like Tim said she would. I asked
her if I could have the weekend to decide and she said yes.
Friday was a
blur. I just wanted to get all of these interviews done so I could have some
rest, relaxation and some peace of mind.
I didn’t want to think about this anymore. I just wanted a job that was permanent, full
time,I didn’t have to really dress up for and the supervisor was easy going. I knew there was a perfect one out there even
if I had to take one I really didn’t want to do for a while. That afternoon I went up to OHR and checked
in for my interview. I followed them to
the director’s office, sat down and introduced myself. I already knew one of the interviewers but
didn’t know the other two (they must have hired them after I left OHR in 2016)
and I think it will give me an edge over the competition since I have worked in
this department in the past.This interview was very different from the others I have done recently. This one was comprehensive based. They would ask you a question and instead of just answering it point blank you had to actually answer a scenario that involved a task or skill, a relationship with a person (co-worker, boss, customer), explain your scenario and then tell them what you learned from it or if you could have done it differently, would you and explain yourself. It was interesting and I believe I did a good job because I had a ton of personal experiences with all of those things and I could explain myself competently. They seemed to be interested in what I had to say and asked me some follow up questions. When we were done I asked them a few questions myself and they finished by saying that they will conduct second interviews and that they will be getting a hold of people starting next Monday.
Monday was
super busy. With trying to do my job in
the mailroom to deciding which job I wanted to do from all the interviews I did
last week, I was stressed out and my body knew it. I needed either a longer weekend or an actual
vacation from everything. After our mail
runs and just before my break, Sally called me asking if I wanted the job. I had to take it. I had to move on from this position. I was so torn though. I didn’t want to leave L&I. I sucked it up and told her yes. I hated myself afterwards but kept my smile
going for everyone else around me. They
were all proud of me. I was only proud
of me for going through the gauntlet of all these interviews and making it out
alive but it was the wrong job and I knew it after I said yes. The countdown begins. I milked every ounce I had left at L&I
because I knew it was drastically going to change. That afternoon OHR called me to offer me a
second interview. I could have gone
through with it just for practice but that wasn’t fair to the other candidates
since I just accepted a job. I politely
turned down the second interview and asked if I could have some feedback from
the first one. They told me absolutely
and scheduled me to meet with Heather next week sometime.
Tuesday I
didn’t feel too great and had to go home around 9. That afternoon LeAnne called me offering me
that job which I never thought in a million years she would offer it to
me. I had to politely turn it down
because I accepted another job and asked for some feedback on why they picked
me. She really didn’t have any good
reasons but I thought my 10-key calculator mishap must have not mattered. I thanked them for interviewing me and I
appreciated the time they spent on looking for someone to join their team. They now had to go with their plan B. The next week was more relaxed since I didn’t have any interviews to do or turn down. Now I had to wait for the job I actually wanted after Memorial Day. I was really hoping that went well and they picked me. I figured with the track record of my previous interviews I should get that job right?
The OMD
interview was also scheduled for the afternoon.
That day I did my work and after lunch changed into my interview outfit
and briefly went over the information for this position so it was fresh in my
mind. I was super nervous. I was more nervous for this one than I was
for the others. I tried not to put that
much pressure on myself but it was really hard not to. I wanted this job. I wanted to stay at L&I. Either way though I had a job. I had income.
I walked
downstairs and waited in the Rotunda like they had asked me to. One of the women came out and escorted me to
the interview room which was downstairs the south wing. They were very chill ladies and I really
liked that since I was putting so much pressure on myself to do well. I introduced myself to everyone and they
asked me to sign a piece of paper so they could do a background check and they
had me read the position description before we started in on the questions. They all took turns asking me questions and
again, I did my best to answer them being myself since that has seemed to work
the last few times. I felt like it was
going well and that I would make a great impression on them so they would
consider me for the position and I wouldn’t have to go to DOT for too long. I also decided to not tell them about my
current situation but I did tell them about my unique situation I found myself
in with Retro and the Mailroom. I knew I
was going to have to go to DOT before they made their decision since I was
starting at DOT in three days. I asked
them a few questions about the position and approximately, when they thought
they would decide. They were hoping by
the end of the week to early next week.
Ugh. I knew I was going to have a
dilemma if they picked me.
That Friday was very sad for me. I had to turn in my badge and parking pass to the State Patrol in the Rotunda. I was going to miss the people and the work I did here. It was hard to leave. I was sad. I hope a job opened up so I could apply and come back.
I started my new position as a secretary senior in the Local Programs Division at DOT on June 1st. The first few days were hard and I don't mean the tasks.
I started my new position as a secretary senior in the Local Programs Division at DOT on June 1st. The first few days were hard and I don't mean the tasks.
On June 6th I got a phone call from OMD calling to tell me that it was VERY close and they went with the other candidate. Two things were going through my head at that exact moment: the hope for returning back to L&I was gone andI was very disappointed but I didn’t have to have that hard conversation with my supervisor about leaving DOT after I was just hired. I was stuck at DOT for a while and the transition was starting to get to me. I was alone with my thoughts most of the day while I was trying to learn my new tasks. I did a lot of thinking after that phone call. I wondered who they picked instead of me and why. I asked Dana if I could get some feedback from my interview and she told me she would help me figure that out.
As I was
getting more familiar with my surroundings, the people and the tasks, I was
getting more bored as the days went on.
I knew this job was not challenging enough for me. I've already mastered
like 80% of it in less than a month. Is
this really how my time was going to be spent here? I had a few moments where my performance
ruffled some of Sally’s feathers. I
wasn’t sure if it was really a mistake or she interpreted it wrong and used me
for her frustration. I wasn’t sure so I
just let it go. She seemed to just let
me learn by myself on my own time. There
really wasn’t a lot of guidance and/or training so I had to just wing it some
days. On the days she was gone I got my
normal breaks, the days she was there it seemed like I didn’t get any breaks or
there were rules to them. It was weird.
I got one more phone call early June that I let go to voicemail because I didn’t recognize the phone number. Later on, during one of my breaks, I listened to it. It was from DSHS and they wanted to interview me for a secretary senior position I applied for in April. I thought about calling them back but then got distracted. A few days later I called the person back and left a voicemail declining the interview. There was no way I was going to work for DSHS. I never heard back from her.
A few minutes later Dana emailed me telling me that they might call me. I emailed her back too late already have a huge dilemma. She told me that it was going to be fine and that it will all work out. Yeah, she didn’t have to have that conversation with my supervisor! I called Liz for her advice and I called Linda for her advice. They both basically told me to do it but in reality they really meant, do what makes you happy.
At lunch time I drove over to L&I and got the information I needed. It was so nice to be back I actually smiled the entire time. I saw Laura briefly and Liz met up with me after I talked to the UR ladies. It sounded like a job I could handle and I was going to say yes to them. Bam Pow!
The rest of the day I was nervous. How was I going to break the news to my supervisor? How was she going to react? I have never been great at work related confrontation just because there is so much more on the line than in your personal life. I decided to do it after lunch. I didn’t want to do it but I wanted to do it to get it over with. It was literally ruining my day and it’s only Monday. However, I had half of Thursday and all of Friday off so it was a short week. I felt sick to my stomach that I made the decision to leave and now I had to go talk about it to the place that I am leaving. Ugh.
I went into her office on Tuesday, just before doing the mail, and verbatim I said, I don’t feel well. She goes, oh? I told her that L&I called offering me a promotion and that I was going to take it. I thought she was going to be upset and maybe say something snarky but the complete opposite happened. She added, okay, well…thanks for letting me know so we can get the process started. I had already talked to my HRC about what I needed to do and she said talk to your supervisor and then write an email to my supervisor resigning my position and cc her on it. I told her I would have that done before the end of the day. My last day at DOT was going to be the next Friday, June 29th and I would be starting my new position at L&I on July 2nd. After I was done, I was so relieved that it turned out to be quick and painless, however, the rest of the week I felt like she was ignoring me and barely talked to me. She had to have been a little mad about it.
Before I left for my mini vacation to the Tri-Cities she told me that they were going to hire the lady who they turned down for me and that I was going to spend most of my last week training her. I wish I could have had someone train me for the job but I had no control over that. We can wish in one hand and crap in the other right? I had to think of this opportunity to make myself look good while I trained the new person. I mean, they must have felt highly of me and trusted me to train someone even though I’ve only been with the program less than a month. That or they really didn’t want to take the time to train her? I will never know.
It was actually nice to come back from the Tri-Cities knowing I had an easy week ahead of me. I met Michelle and we got to know each other as the week went on. I started off with the letters, then moved onto the mail, filing, closing and opening projects and so on. I showed her how to do everything and then progressively let her do them. We both learned how to do archive boxes since that was something I had not done yet. I told her that our supervisor would have to show her the scheduling and purchasing tasks since that is not something we got into yet. I could not wait until Friday. When that day finally came I smiled uncontrollably. I was so happy to leave DOT and go back to L&I. I took the last little bit of my belongings and headed out to the parking garage one last time. I don’t have to come back here or pay for parking again!
It was annoying that I had to leave L&I to get a better job at L&I. It was draining and I am glad it is finally over…this was the unknown thing that I talked with Tim about several times while I was in Retro. I had no idea where I was going to end up and if I was going to be happy doing it. The hardest part was losing my connections I gained here at L&I. I always saw people doing stuff with each other or making friends or whatever else was going on but because I bounced around all over the place, it was hard to connect with people. I believe Liz is that person I was supposed to meet and become friends with. We connected in such a way at work that I don’t think we would have if our path’s crossed in a different situation. I missed that connection while I was at DOT and I am glad I have it back. (Even though it didn't last very long.)
This is just one more story to add to my resume. Like I mentioned before so glad that this is over and I can focus on a job and be great at it. I am now back at L&I. I am the Program Assistant in the Office of the Medical Director within the Utilization Review team.
My first day was pretty standard for a new person. New badge, new parking pass, paperwork new desk, learning my job and getting to know my new co-workers and supervisor. I am getting paid more and it isn't that stressful of a job. I can wear whatever I want, set my own schedule and my boss lets me take my days off as long as it doesn't conflict with someone else. So far so good.
Next Adventure: 4th of July
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