Day 18, Work at Peer 1
Aug. 18th, 2010 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sparrToday I'm going to talk about how awesome my new job[0] is, and a few slight caveats.
I've been here for 3 weeks now. My first week was M-F 9A-6P, second week was M-F 5P-2A, third week is almost over on my "final" schedule which is Sun-Thu 5P-2A. Schedule-wise, my first bump in the road came this week when word came down that we weren't hiring as many new people as were originally planned in the round of folks I was in. It turns out that someone with more seniority than me isn't getting the schedule change that he was promised, because some other folks got shuffled around due to the change and his slot disappeared. He wants my shift, and multiple levels of management have come to me to ask if I could switch to Tue-Sat. I am not opposed to a temporary shift change on principle, but this is exactly the wrong time for me to take that schedule. The schedule I have now was a big factor in choosing this job over the other options (Georgia Tech made a compelling offer). With my current schedule, I can make it through 7 weekends of conventions and burns and parties in September and October by using just one or two days of vacation. With that other schedule, I would need no less than 11 days, and I won't have earned that many until early next year[1]. I've told management and my coworker that I might be amenable to working alternating Saturdays, but that would be as far as I could stretch my schedule, and even then I would need some of them off. Otherwise, I am being adamant that the schedule I was offered is the schedule that I need to keep. In the long run I'd love to move to a slightly earlier schedule (2PM-11PM would be awesome), or a Mon-Thu schedule with 10-hour shifts, but for right now this schedule is the best I could hope for.
When I get here at 5 the office is still pretty full, but the room empties quickly as 5 and 6 pass, leaving just a core group of us here after 8. Everyone I encounter is pretty personable, and so far I haven't made any enemies that I'm aware of. My immediate neighbors in the cube farm are helpful and knowledgeable, and I'm picking up the day to day grind pretty quickly. Everyone seems to get along, down to friendly banter and joking as well as the occasional nerf dart war.
On the subject of everyday perks and office life, this is a pretty awesome place to work. I have my own computer (which wasn't the case in my last job of this sort, where we shared with network profiles) with two screens. I have complete control over the software on my machine, as long as I can do my job. A few days into my training I took my lunch break to put Ubuntu on it, and have enjoyed beating some of the MS-centric network services around here into submission. We can take breaks on whatever schedule we want, as long as our neighbors are informed and available. My lunch window is pretty much any time between 6 and 12. Our break room has a really nice one-cup coffee maker that dispenses flavors and mixers automagically. Our drink vending machines are subsidized by the company, $0.25 for a can, $0.50 for a bottle. We have a company kegerator and a suggested contribution of $1-$2 per mug of whatever beer is on tap this week (It's PBR this week, was Yuengling before that, and Flat Tire a few weeks ago). The leisure area has a pool table, MAME cabinet, Wii and TV, and some space to just chill.
The real benefits here are pretty impressive as well[2]. My medical / dental / vision coverage starts 30 days in, and I can't wait to get some new glasses and take advantage of the others for some long-put-off concerns. The company reimburses $25/mo for a gym membership, $50/mo for parking or MARTA, up to $3500/yr in authorized college tuition, some unwritten amount of potential certification testing, and a few other things that don't come to mind. Six months in they will start matching my 401(k) contributions up to 4%, and I'll definitely be taking advantage of that[3]. We get 17 days a year of paid time off (vacation + sick), plus two floating holidays (I got 7 hours to spend this year, prorated from the full year's 16), plus the potential to have two days authorized for community service[4].
The neighborhood is pretty awesome as well, definitely better than the last time I worked downtown. The bike racks for the building are inside the parking garage, behind locked gates after hours and on camera 24/7[5]. In the building there's a gym and an expensive restaurant ("Thrive"). Across the street in various directions are a couple of restaurants, and within 2 blocks I have at least 40 more, including the food court inside CNN Center, spanning a wide range of prices and cuisines. Centennial Olympic Park is two blocks away, so when it's not this hot outside I'll have a comfy place to eat lunch/dinner, and there's music and entertainment there on a regular basis as well. I'm 5 blocks from 5 Points MARTA station, 8 blocks from Peachtree Center, and 6 blocks from the Georgia Dome, with a half dozen bus routes coming within a few blocks of the building, so my transit options to get in and out of the area are great.
All in all, I think I'm going to enjoy working here. The work is mind numbingly dull most of the time, and both the work and the customers can be frustrating, but that's nothing new in this field. I am pretty good at the job, getting better all the time now that I'm back in practice, and see myself advancing here if I stay long enough. The money is great, and the benefits just make it better. Good people don't hurt, either.
[0] Linux Systems Administrator 2 at Peer 1. I take phone calls and emails from customers, people who pay us for dedicated computer servers that are installed in our data center and run software for their websites and databases and email and such. I troubleshoot their issues on our network and software problems on their servers.
[1] This is ignoring the fact that actually using that many days would defeat the purpose of them putting me on that schedule, since they wouldn't actually be effectively filling the Saturday slot that needs filling.
[2] It weirds me out that they wouldn't tell me about these things when offering me the position. I was considering competing offers, so I was well into the territory where they wanted me more than I wanted them. All of this information could have been the deciding factor, and they didn't say a word.
[3] You have to be daft or crazy to not contribute to a retirement account with matching funds. Even if you are unreservedly anti-investment and anti-banks, you can put in $10 and get the matching $10, then immediately take out the $20 and take a 40% tax hit and still come out with $12 instead of the $10 you put in.
[4] Cleaning up at/around CoLab? Teaching origami? Working tech or whatever else at a convention? I am sure I can fit SOMETHING that I do into those two days, and save two days of vacation time.
[5] My bike got stolen from the street/martaescalator-side racks at Peachtree center. MARTA refused to release the surveillance video to me without a subpoena, which wasn't worth pursuing. It's nice to never have to worry about that again.
I've been here for 3 weeks now. My first week was M-F 9A-6P, second week was M-F 5P-2A, third week is almost over on my "final" schedule which is Sun-Thu 5P-2A. Schedule-wise, my first bump in the road came this week when word came down that we weren't hiring as many new people as were originally planned in the round of folks I was in. It turns out that someone with more seniority than me isn't getting the schedule change that he was promised, because some other folks got shuffled around due to the change and his slot disappeared. He wants my shift, and multiple levels of management have come to me to ask if I could switch to Tue-Sat. I am not opposed to a temporary shift change on principle, but this is exactly the wrong time for me to take that schedule. The schedule I have now was a big factor in choosing this job over the other options (Georgia Tech made a compelling offer). With my current schedule, I can make it through 7 weekends of conventions and burns and parties in September and October by using just one or two days of vacation. With that other schedule, I would need no less than 11 days, and I won't have earned that many until early next year[1]. I've told management and my coworker that I might be amenable to working alternating Saturdays, but that would be as far as I could stretch my schedule, and even then I would need some of them off. Otherwise, I am being adamant that the schedule I was offered is the schedule that I need to keep. In the long run I'd love to move to a slightly earlier schedule (2PM-11PM would be awesome), or a Mon-Thu schedule with 10-hour shifts, but for right now this schedule is the best I could hope for.
When I get here at 5 the office is still pretty full, but the room empties quickly as 5 and 6 pass, leaving just a core group of us here after 8. Everyone I encounter is pretty personable, and so far I haven't made any enemies that I'm aware of. My immediate neighbors in the cube farm are helpful and knowledgeable, and I'm picking up the day to day grind pretty quickly. Everyone seems to get along, down to friendly banter and joking as well as the occasional nerf dart war.
On the subject of everyday perks and office life, this is a pretty awesome place to work. I have my own computer (which wasn't the case in my last job of this sort, where we shared with network profiles) with two screens. I have complete control over the software on my machine, as long as I can do my job. A few days into my training I took my lunch break to put Ubuntu on it, and have enjoyed beating some of the MS-centric network services around here into submission. We can take breaks on whatever schedule we want, as long as our neighbors are informed and available. My lunch window is pretty much any time between 6 and 12. Our break room has a really nice one-cup coffee maker that dispenses flavors and mixers automagically. Our drink vending machines are subsidized by the company, $0.25 for a can, $0.50 for a bottle. We have a company kegerator and a suggested contribution of $1-$2 per mug of whatever beer is on tap this week (It's PBR this week, was Yuengling before that, and Flat Tire a few weeks ago). The leisure area has a pool table, MAME cabinet, Wii and TV, and some space to just chill.
The real benefits here are pretty impressive as well[2]. My medical / dental / vision coverage starts 30 days in, and I can't wait to get some new glasses and take advantage of the others for some long-put-off concerns. The company reimburses $25/mo for a gym membership, $50/mo for parking or MARTA, up to $3500/yr in authorized college tuition, some unwritten amount of potential certification testing, and a few other things that don't come to mind. Six months in they will start matching my 401(k) contributions up to 4%, and I'll definitely be taking advantage of that[3]. We get 17 days a year of paid time off (vacation + sick), plus two floating holidays (I got 7 hours to spend this year, prorated from the full year's 16), plus the potential to have two days authorized for community service[4].
The neighborhood is pretty awesome as well, definitely better than the last time I worked downtown. The bike racks for the building are inside the parking garage, behind locked gates after hours and on camera 24/7[5]. In the building there's a gym and an expensive restaurant ("Thrive"). Across the street in various directions are a couple of restaurants, and within 2 blocks I have at least 40 more, including the food court inside CNN Center, spanning a wide range of prices and cuisines. Centennial Olympic Park is two blocks away, so when it's not this hot outside I'll have a comfy place to eat lunch/dinner, and there's music and entertainment there on a regular basis as well. I'm 5 blocks from 5 Points MARTA station, 8 blocks from Peachtree Center, and 6 blocks from the Georgia Dome, with a half dozen bus routes coming within a few blocks of the building, so my transit options to get in and out of the area are great.
All in all, I think I'm going to enjoy working here. The work is mind numbingly dull most of the time, and both the work and the customers can be frustrating, but that's nothing new in this field. I am pretty good at the job, getting better all the time now that I'm back in practice, and see myself advancing here if I stay long enough. The money is great, and the benefits just make it better. Good people don't hurt, either.
[0] Linux Systems Administrator 2 at Peer 1. I take phone calls and emails from customers, people who pay us for dedicated computer servers that are installed in our data center and run software for their websites and databases and email and such. I troubleshoot their issues on our network and software problems on their servers.
[1] This is ignoring the fact that actually using that many days would defeat the purpose of them putting me on that schedule, since they wouldn't actually be effectively filling the Saturday slot that needs filling.
[2] It weirds me out that they wouldn't tell me about these things when offering me the position. I was considering competing offers, so I was well into the territory where they wanted me more than I wanted them. All of this information could have been the deciding factor, and they didn't say a word.
[3] You have to be daft or crazy to not contribute to a retirement account with matching funds. Even if you are unreservedly anti-investment and anti-banks, you can put in $10 and get the matching $10, then immediately take out the $20 and take a 40% tax hit and still come out with $12 instead of the $10 you put in.
[4] Cleaning up at/around CoLab? Teaching origami? Working tech or whatever else at a convention? I am sure I can fit SOMETHING that I do into those two days, and save two days of vacation time.
[5] My bike got stolen from the street/martaescalator-side racks at Peachtree center. MARTA refused to release the surveillance video to me without a subpoena, which wasn't worth pursuing. It's nice to never have to worry about that again.
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With all the "life" stuff
Date: 2010-08-19 02:54 pm (UTC)