I found a better position. I hope I hear back from the hiring manager about it. It is an STE position, and we discussed $16 dollars per hour. It would last me until June, which is good. That means I can have a steady job for the next few months, and also a steady job when I'm moving. Other than that, I have 4 more leads to follow up on. The job I'm looking at and three others are through Volt... I have a back up job through Robert Half Technology... and I have leads for Tek Systems, Aerotek, and Judge...
I have been trying to figure out if I like CareerBuilder.com or Thingamajob.com better. They both seem to give me a lot of job openings, but Volt only uses Career Builder... they seem to both really like me, and they call me back right away. One time, when I applied in the morning, they even called me back that day. I guess all of my managers gave me good reviews, so I get a higher priority, plus everybody likes to see Microsoft on a resume... Volt does over half of Microsoft's hiring. Plus they have VMC... which the "bull-pen" really sucks to work at, but it is a last resort.
The "bull-pen" is this place at VMC. You sign up for it, and technically call you when they need you to show up the next day. However, it is best to just show up at about 6AM and hang out in the cafeteria until 8AM to find out if they need anyone to work. Otherwise, they might call you to come in, and then there is no work for you because it is a first come first serve basis. You are also lucky if you can make $9 /hr there.
The only benefit I can see is that it is better than $7.50 /hr at Labor Ready doing road construction or crap jobs for some contractor somewhere. Also, if you have any knowledge about testing or using computers, or... really if you don't smoke crack you can get promoted to a position where you will make $10 /hr and have reliable temporary work... but they don't like to keep anyone at VMC very long, and once you go through the process they try and keep you away from it. It is kinda a way to weed out the pot heads that think that testing video games is all about playing games all day long... but anyway...
Also I saw this awesome link on cousin Liz's blog: The story of Stuff with Annie Leonard that made me think.
Other than that, I also discovered that the head lamp I got for christmas is perfect for Jaani to use while walking at night. I can put it around his neck, and then he has a light to see and be seen with.
So... that's life in Seattle.
Later,
SteveO
