de train boss! de train!!
Oct. 24th, 2002 05:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
strangeanimal... or How I Got To See A Lot Of Massachusetts Courtesy The MBTA (or, how I spent my day).
(and you would think that MBTA stands for Metro Boston Transportation Authority? I did. I was wrong. It's Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority.)
ANYway... since I finally got my Social Security Number yesterday, this enabled me to start the Job Search in earnest. So yesterday afternoon was spent in communication with placement agencies, job search websites, etc.
and, as a result of yesterday, today was spent in Boston (the Financial District to be exact) at a placement agency. having never dealt with one before, I must say I was fairly impressed... they're an older outfit (30+ years in business) and seemed to have a solid rep.
my "staffing consultants" (their term, not mine) were nice, very helpful... though the entire place looks like it could have been staffed by Disneyworld employees.
seriously... everyone working there was a female between the ages of 24-30. none gorgeous, but all reasonably attractive. are there any men, or women above 35, in HR?
so they tested my typing and MS Office skills... turns out I'm "advanced" with MS Office (I had checked off "intermediate") and can type FIFTY-ONE words per minute. which stunned me... I don't even touch-type properly!!
prospects look pretty good... they said there were a few possibilities for the immediate future, and we'd see how things go from there. and if this finds me something halfway enjoyable, halfway rewarding and with decent benefits, bonus. (bonuses are cool too.)
... and getting back to the MBTA, a good chunk of today was spent on buses and subways and trains, oh my. thankfully, Rox dropped me off in Lowell this morning to start me off... after that was a 45-minute train ride smack into Boston (got off next door to the Fleet Centre) and a few stops on the "T", aka the subway.
the train ride was reminiscent of the commuter trains in Montreal's system... that, and the ride took up almost exactly as much time as reading the morning paper. bonus!
the ride back was about the same, plus two Lowell buses for short hops, to get dropped off about a block from home. again, very cool.
... so, working in Boston (which is pretty much a given) will be tough, in that I've got at least an hour to travel each way. but, if I use my time well (ie: read/work on the train), and schedule my travels carefully I won't be wasting much time during the commute.
and no, driving into Boston is NOT an option... the traffic here is sick. trust me... Rox and I drove to a park'n'ride outside of Boston before 7am two weeks ago and the traffic was crazy.
... wooo, that was a long post. my fingers must still be jumpy from the typing tests.;)
(and you would think that MBTA stands for Metro Boston Transportation Authority? I did. I was wrong. It's Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority.)
ANYway... since I finally got my Social Security Number yesterday, this enabled me to start the Job Search in earnest. So yesterday afternoon was spent in communication with placement agencies, job search websites, etc.
and, as a result of yesterday, today was spent in Boston (the Financial District to be exact) at a placement agency. having never dealt with one before, I must say I was fairly impressed... they're an older outfit (30+ years in business) and seemed to have a solid rep.
my "staffing consultants" (their term, not mine) were nice, very helpful... though the entire place looks like it could have been staffed by Disneyworld employees.
seriously... everyone working there was a female between the ages of 24-30. none gorgeous, but all reasonably attractive. are there any men, or women above 35, in HR?
so they tested my typing and MS Office skills... turns out I'm "advanced" with MS Office (I had checked off "intermediate") and can type FIFTY-ONE words per minute. which stunned me... I don't even touch-type properly!!
prospects look pretty good... they said there were a few possibilities for the immediate future, and we'd see how things go from there. and if this finds me something halfway enjoyable, halfway rewarding and with decent benefits, bonus. (bonuses are cool too.)
... and getting back to the MBTA, a good chunk of today was spent on buses and subways and trains, oh my. thankfully, Rox dropped me off in Lowell this morning to start me off... after that was a 45-minute train ride smack into Boston (got off next door to the Fleet Centre) and a few stops on the "T", aka the subway.
the train ride was reminiscent of the commuter trains in Montreal's system... that, and the ride took up almost exactly as much time as reading the morning paper. bonus!
the ride back was about the same, plus two Lowell buses for short hops, to get dropped off about a block from home. again, very cool.
... so, working in Boston (which is pretty much a given) will be tough, in that I've got at least an hour to travel each way. but, if I use my time well (ie: read/work on the train), and schedule my travels carefully I won't be wasting much time during the commute.
and no, driving into Boston is NOT an option... the traffic here is sick. trust me... Rox and I drove to a park'n'ride outside of Boston before 7am two weeks ago and the traffic was crazy.
... wooo, that was a long post. my fingers must still be jumpy from the typing tests.;)
