Forming Working Relationships

Beyond the perks of my job, the easiness of it, and the flexible schedule I must say the best part of my job is the people that I work with.  Even the ones that get on my nerves constantly help to form a working environment that I think makes the job.  There are people who I can have a long meaningful conversation with and others that I can act like a total fool with, but no one takes themselves too seriously.  In fact, last week we pranked our new manager’s desk.  Our director loved it and our manager, I think, has a new found respect for us.  I think most of all this is what I would miss if I would get a “real job”.   I really do love the people that I work with and I am so appreciative everyday of being able to work with them!

Lovely Mercado

As I stated before in a previous post, the downtown Phoenix campus UTO is responsible for classrooms in four different buildings.  One of the buildings that I have grown to love the most is the Mercado.  Guessing from its name I am going to venture and say that the complex was once to home to shops, but somehow I have a hard time believing that.  It is know that home to ASU classrooms and office space.  The UTO department is housed in a quiet little corner “office”.  Office is in quotes because I have a strong feeling that it is a converted closet (very small and no windows).  But this is why I love this building.  No one really knows about it so it is never packed and since I have been working the classrooms for so long I can easily solve much of the issues that arise.  Plus, everyone thinks it is haunted. 

“Working Adult…?”

I don’t know if it is the same for other departments in universities that hire on student workers, but everyone in my office has a very unique definition on what a “working adult” is or what an “adult” is.  I have been working full time and going to school full time since I was sixteen.  I have been paying my own bills since I was eighteen and going to school, yet I have never really felt like I was an adult.  Even now, I live by myself, pay my own bills, and take care of myself 100% I still have a hard time telling myself that I am a “working adult” and I think it is because of my current job.  The same goes for the other student workers and staff member who are still completing a degree.  We all talk about how we don’t want to graduate because then we will have to enter the “real world” and get a “real job”.  Yet, we are all adults and could easily find work elsewhere.  Perhaps we are all in denial. 

Plans for the final semester

The closure of this semester has really put in perspective how horrible my studying habits have become.  I owe this to the fact that all of my classes this semester were online and I had to one physically to be accountable to.  Not to say that I did horrible this semester, I will be fine, but I definitely feel that there was a big change from previous semester.  Thankfully there is always time to start a new.  I am currently mentally and physically preparing to plan for next semester, the final semester.  Whether this means deleting my Face book account or dedicating all of my spare time to reading and writing then so be it.  I don’t want to look back after I graduate and think. “I did well enough.”  I don’t want to do good enough.   I want to do great.  I want to completely understand and enjoy what I am learning and the only way to do that is commit myself 100% into my studying.  I know that I can do it I just need to create a habit out of studying rather than procrastinating. 

Promotions

I think that I have mentioned something about pending promotion before, but just in case I haven’t I am madly jonesin' for a promotion.  As stated in my previous post, in August it will be two years that I have worked in this position for ASU and I really don’t see myself leaving in the near future.  That being said, it is hard not to wonder if there is something out there that I might not benefit more from.  Don’t get me wrong I really enjoy my job, but I always have the mindset that I should be constantly moving.  If I am not moving and progressing in a company within a certain amount of time I feel like I am wasting my time and will be relegated to the depths of “good enough”.  Meaning, you are a good worker and we trust you so we don’t want to lose you as good worker in the position that you are currently at.  So there is talking around the office of changes and promotions and   I really hope that I am able to showcase my abilities in a way that will finally get me that promotion!

Trade Secrets

In August I will have worked in the University Technology Office for ASU for exactly two years.  Before that I would not have even dreamed that I would ever be considered as “IT”.  I, like many who only deal with IT when something drastic goes wrong, had a limited view on what exactly they did.  If they were called I suppose I thought that they know what they were talking about and were able to easily solve the issue at hand.  Very soon after starting this position my mindset changed.  To be very honest, when you call IT, even when you call IT that have degrees in tech related fields they have no idea what they are doing when they first approach a problem.  Yes, they may know what goes wrong with the system or equipment, but that does not mean that that is what is going on in this specific instant.  After they have eliminated that they problem is not one that is common it is a simple act of guessing and trial and error until a problem is solved.  So, please, next time you interact with and IT person give him or her benefit of the doubt that they do not know everything.  And a little trade secret, when we say, “Let me check my knowledge base.” That just means we are looking it up on Google.

Working in the IC

                The Downtown campus is a smaller satellite campus of Tempe.  As a department, the DPC University Technology Office covers four buildings downtown and the one computer lab/library area known as the Information Commons.  The information commons is a unique place to work.  Since it is combined with the library and is open to the public there are a lot of interesting people and issues that we encounter.  To cut to the chase, out of all the areas that we cover I enjoy working in the information commons the least.  It does not matter how long you have worked down there or how tech savvy you may think you are every issue that arises will always through you off.  The printers are very old and jam constantly.  Last week we had four computers completely loss power as student were working on them.  Sure, it is always rewarding when you figure out a problem and come to the rescue of a severely stressed out freshmen, but there is always that looming fear that the person walking up to you right now will throw you that curve ball that you have no idea how to work out. 

Finals Week

                We are currently at in the middle finals week.  The week that every student both dreads and looks forwards to because even though it is a time of all-nighters and cram sessions it also signifies a time of completion and the impending holidays.  As a student who takes mostly online classes finals week has not been that stressful for me, but as a student worker I have learned to expect the worst.  It is a time when procrastination reigns supreme and it seems like every student is printing off study guides and term papers right before their last class, which also means that Murphy’s Law is fully in affect.  Luckily, though, the downtown campus on a busy day probably pales in comparison to the traffic that Tempe gets on a normal day.  Sure the occurrences in paper jams and papers that need to be formatted in certain way are up I still get to enjoy knowing how easy the few next week of my life will be!

Road trip Nation

I just enrolled in class for next semester.  These classes will be my last classes that I will take as an undergraduate in ASU.  I am very excited, but a little apprehensive about the future and the decisions that I have to make.  As a way to explore my options earlier this semester I started to ask people around me who have careers and seem successful why and how they are where they are in their careers.  As I was talking to my manager one day she offered me some really great insight on settling and she also brought up a show.  Her advice based on her own experience was to never settle.  If you are not happy with your choice at the time change, but you must always be doing something.  If you are always working and working on yourself then really have nothing to complain about because one way or the other you are gaining something.  The show that she suggested to me gives the same messages.  The show centers on different groups of three recent college graduates before they settle into a career path.  These three individuals take an RV cross country and speak to people that they have deemed are successful.  Most are and most have similar stories.  Their stories go; graduated from college, worried about life, got a job they thought they were supposed to have, hated that job, found a career that they loved with a lot of struggling and questioning in between.  Since I started watching these people on their journeys I have worried a lot less.  If something is wrong I will know and I will change, but I must not stop questioning and working. 

Wii Day!

I really do have a great job!  It is closing in on the end of the semester and we have a very busy winter session coming up to get all of the computers on campus imaged for spring semester and all the rooms cleaned and ready to go.  So, before we get into the craziness of this we like to have a day to relax.  We try to have a Wii day at the end of every semester.  This is a day where all the IT people from the downtown campus get together and pretty much play games because we all are nerdy techies at heart.  Of course, it is just nice to come in and play around all day, but it is also really nice to get to know the people that you work with in a more relaxed setting.  Last year we had a pot latch style Wii day and for those who aren’t great at the games (me) we also played Apples to Apples.  It was a great time and I am excited for this it again especially since this semester seemed extra stressful!

Student Worker Evaluation

So I don’t know if I had mentioned this in previous post or not, but I am what ASU likes to call a “student worker”.  That means I go to school and work for ASU, but I am not on work study and I am not a staff member so no real benefit.  Also, student workers are technically hired on through a contract.  Meaning that at the end of every semester the staff and manager or whichever department you work in evaluate your job performance and decide if they would like to renew your contract.  If this tradition was kept in the past is unbeknown to me, but it is being set forth this year.   As mentioned earlier my job is fairly easy so I can’t really complain.  That being said I do like to show that I care and if I can go the extra mile.  So I am not too worried that I will be “let go” this coming semester, but it is a little disconcerting knowing that your every move is being judged.  Now, hopefully ever employer does take their employees performance into consideration at least every now and then, but it seems a little more apparent when you know that it is happening.  

Down Time

As difficult as my job can be at time when you aren’t certain what is wrong with a room and how to fix the problem it is a fairly easy gig.  The only problem with this is that there is a lot of down time.  I hate down time for many reason.  One of the biggest is that I am a pretty honest individual and sitting around doing nothing while I get paid just rubs me the wrong way.  So in order for that guilty feeling to go away I end up creating things for myself to do, which is the second thing that I hate about down time.  I will clean, test equipment, create unneeded documentation just to sooth that beast inside of me.  On top of this I work 14 hour shifts so there is only so much cleaning, testing and documenting that I can do in a 14 hour work day.  I need to figure out a way to satisfactorily use my down time during the day.  It does, at least, give me time to get some homework done!

On the Job Training

One of the greatest things about my job is the constant training that I receive in all aspects of the field.  Whether it dealing with people, co-workers, computers, and audio visual equipment.  I have had a great opportunity to receive knowledge that will look amazing on a resume in a time that relies heavily on technology.  I really feel that this experience will benefit me as much as they degree that I am currently working on.  

Working with the Public

Every single job that I have had in my life was around the general public and was very customer service oriented.  Starting this job over a year ago I knew going in that it was going to be largely customer service based.  I was okay with that, actually it was one of the only things that made me confident in learning and pursuing more responsibility.  That being said, my mind has changed.  It is possibly a cliché how IT is thought of by people that need them and how IT is viewed internally.  Every time I answer a call I could face someone who knows nothing about technology and is irate that their computer won’t start or a perfectly nice professor that is dealing with malfunctioning equipment.  Either way these years that I have been working with the public has made me very cold towards people.  I have figured out that if you greet people as an IT person with a smiling face and a friendly attitude they will always view you as what they preconceive a IT person should be viewed as.  Whether that be as a helpful member of their institution or that person that tells them that everything is wrong and we don’t know when it will be better and we don’t know how long it will take because surprise surprise we don’t know everything!

Getting Ready for Spring Semester

It is not yet half way through November and plans are already in the progress of being made for spring semester and how preparing for spring semester throughout winter semester.  The biggest changes that is in the process for our downtown Phoenix location is the refresh program.  The refresh program happens every five years for all campuses of ASU.  This is a time were computers and AV equipment is “refreshed” or in other words we get rid of the old and bring in the new.  We got the okay to purchase the needed equipment last week and if all goes well we will be installing and testing equipment throughout the winter break.  Usually we only have spring imaging to worry about during the winter break, but if we do get new equipment it will be an extremely stressful and busy break.  In the end though, hopefully, this will be better for everyone involved.  The professors will benefit from have newer equipment that will have less faults and the students will benefit from this new equipment in the classrooms and a few one-to-one stations that are planned to be installed in the information commons area.  Personally, I will be happy to be ensured plenty of hours during the break since there will plenty of work to do!

Career and Internship Fair

As I stated in the previous post, this semester has been very tight and it seems like I have been working everyday that there has been a career fair or any career services event.  Luckily, though, I was able to attend a few events last semester.  One of the events that I attended was the internship and career fair.  Unlike the career panel I did not leave feeling very confident about my degree or future career perspectives.  There were a few issues that I faced during the fair.  One of the biggest obstacles that I felt that I faced during the fair was that whenever I told that anybody what my major was they instantly had a blank stare on their face.  No one knew what an Urban and Metropolitan studies major was so they didn’t think that it could fit into their field. Another thing that I didn’t like about the career fair was that at the time I was looking for an internship and there didn’t seem to be a lot of internship opportunities or the panelists were from private businesses that didn’t provide internships.   I was very discouraged after the event, but it did motivate me to pursue internships outside of what public governmental sphere.   

Career Panel

This semesters schedule has been so going to the career services events has been difficult.  Luckily, I was able to attend a few during last year.  One of the events was a career panel that featured non-profit and governmental sectors.  I thought that the insight that they gave in applying and preparing for a career was very interesting.  They focused in on specific majors that looked attractive in a field and even what your social media profiles should look like.  A few people from the non-profit sector urged us to intern as a way to get into the field.  Also, they stressed that the career choice that you make now isn’t necessarily the one that you will end up with.  After the panel I was able to talk to a UMS grad and discuss a little of the hardships that someone with our degree faces in the career field.  I took away from that panel a better idea of what I wanted to do and what I needed to do if I wanted to be in those specific fields.   Since it has been close to a year since I attended I have been able to accumulate more advice, which has only intensified what was being conveyed in that event. 

Calibration Calls

Recently I was given the opportunity to join my manager and director in analyzing calls and chats that come in through the Blackboard Student Services help center.  This entails my listening to the calls and looking at the web chats and judging whether the customer services provided was up to ASU standards.  I also look at whether the information provided to the customer was the correct information.  This opportunity has given me the chance to adjust the way I see my job so I don’t make the same mistakes that I might see in the call center agents.  Also, it has given me a sense of pride in my job and the institution that I represent.  I want take the mistakes that the agents make and I give critique.  I want them to be courteous to the customer and give correct information because at the end of the day they agent does not represent ASU, I do.  The calibration calls happen once a week and I am really enjoying them.  I hope this will open the door for more things along the road.   

I QUIT!

Well the title says it all.  I should probably give a little back story.  I am using my job as a technology consultant as my internship (officially), but I wanted to do something else that would give me firsthand experience in some other field.  In a previous post I stated that I did get an internship at a venue/events coordinator company.  Since it was located downtown and had connections to some of the more interesting structures and local companies in Phoenix I thought that I could get a really good idea of different aspects of the city.  In reality, I got to get a good idea of how appease a bride. The company, it turned out, mostly catered to weddings and due to my schedule this was the only thing that I was going to be exposed to.  I had a chance to blog for them (mostly about wedding stuff), but considering how much I enjoying blogging I thought it would be best not to pursue that. 

                I don’t like to quit and I am wouldn’t consider myself a quitter in any sense so the decision took me a very long time and I felt horrible about it. When I say that I will do something for another person in a business sense I take it very personally.  They are relying on me and I have a reputation to uphold.  With the internship though, I just couldn’t justify it in my schedule.  If I felt that I was learning something extraordinary or that I it could open doors for my in the field that I am studying I would have stuck it out, but none of that was happening.  I was answering e-mails and when I did work event s I was guarding art and greeting people.  It just wasn’t worth it.  So I quit.  I have more time to for school and work now, which makes everything less stressful.   It wasn’t a total waste, though.  I learned what I don’t want to do, what kind of culture I want to promote, and that if it something is not benefiting me I should just let it go.  Perhaps, it is not such a bad thing to be a quitter? 

And proud of it!?

Excuses and Lack of Motivation

Although writings on the topic of excuses and lack of motivation could fill up entire libraries I will shorten this entry to my experience as of late.   As I might have mentioned in previous posts, I will be graduating (come hell or high water) in May.  So it is without saying that I am extremely anxious, but when I get anxious I also shut down almost completely.  I have already finished two classes for this semester and since they were shortened classes I went full steam.  Now I am completely worn out.   This brings me to the part about excuses.  I am a firm believer in the no excuses policy or that excuses are like a certain part of the human anatomy.  Yet, that rule does not seem to apply to me when I am justifying why I am starting my research paper hours before it is due or why I am just considering which graduate program I want to apply to.   Nope, I have excuses to fill the Grand Canyon for those things.    I try to relieve the situation by being super organized and dedicated for a week and them, again, I lose steam and fall off the wagon. 

One excuse that I do standby is that I get tired of reading chapters from a text book and regurgitating the information in a neat little package that will suffice in the eyes of the professor without really caring about what I wrote.  This scares me the most.   It makes me think that my lack of motivation is because I don’t care about my major?  Have I spent these last two years of my life dedicated to a field I have no interest in?  The thought of this horrifies me.  But, it can’t be true.  I do love learning about the city, the people, and the way they interact.  I just never have been the person to sit back and learn second hand, just facts no passion. 

Here comes the catch.  In order for me to be involved in the city or learn firsthand how it develops I have endure this year and another two of graduate school.   I fear and I know that I will continue to struggle with excuses and lack of motivation.  This has never stopped me before, in fact, I do very well under pressure!

(http://positiverecognition.wordpress.com/2011/07/07/motivate-your-staff/)

Slacks and Open-Toed Shoes

So, I am going to take this time to explain my whole internship “deal”.  At the end of last summer I had already signed up for my internship class and was just going to use my job as a Technology Consultant at ASU as my intern experience.  Well, I thought that is all well and good, but I really want to go out into the real world and experience different fields so I have somewhat of a grasp on what I want to do after I graduate.  So I applied to two vastly different internships.  This first was at the Phoenix Family Advocacy Center.  This is a place where they help mostly single women with families who find themselves in need of assistance due to economic insecurity or because they have been abused.  My goal going into this degree and the Public Programs arena was to help people.  So I thought that this would be a great opportunity for me to help people and experience all aspects of this city.  I interviewed for this position and was told that I did great, “very personable”.  I thought, “Great, you have to be approachable and personable especially when you are assisting people who have been abused.  I totally got it!” Oh boy was I wrong!  The ONLY critique the interviewer could give me was that I wore the wrong clothes…. WHAT?! My down fall was slacks and opened toed shoes.  I wasn’t going to be able to help my fellow women because of slacks and opened toed shoes?  Makes perfect sense, Family Advocacy Center, your priorities are correctly placed! But, I digress.  If it wasn’t meant to be it wasn’t meant to be. 

 They just don't get my style!

My second attempt at an internship was at Downtown Phoenix Venues.  They rent out and assist with special events focusing mainly on downtown Phoenix.  Perfect, I am a UMS major, I love downtown, and it would be great to know what is going on around in my city!  Long story short; I dressed in my lucky black pencil skirt, CLOSED toe shoes, and a great top!  I got the internship.  That being said, my interviewer noted that they were basically working in their pajamas the whole day.  I was beginning to like this place even more!  So there you have it.  I still work at ASU and I have an internship with DPV, which at times can be stressful to juggle everything.  I mostly struggle though with the fact that I can’t do much.  I communicate with leads and am even starting to blog for them, but I am not physically present a lot of the time.  Hopefully they don’t mind, but everything that I am able to do I try to give it my all!


Photo: http://www.typef.com/article/dress-fashion-interview/

Does this get easier?

So… as you can probably tell by my lack of submissions and the general layout of this site I am not very keen on the “blogging”.  It is not that I don’t like writing or that I dislike the idea. Okay, I kind of dislike the idea, but I just feel that no one wants to hear me whine about my life (which is often the case in personal blogs).  Though, since this is for a class and I have to do it I will try my best to be both entertaining and enlightening.  It will also be nice to write about something other than Elizabethan London theatres or how important public transportation is in an urban environment.  Very, if you were wondering!  I will take this first post to introduce myself and then probably go into my first “intern” experience as a rock guard on the next post (be excited!). 

 *not actual rocks I guarded 

Well, my name is Jacqueline , Jackie, Jack or just J, point is I don’t care what you call me.  I am a senior this year and will be graduating with my B.S. in Urban and Metropolitan Studies in May. Very excited about this!  I am almost 100% sure that I want to go to graduate school next year, though; I don’t know what I want to study.  The difficulty with this major I have found is that it is very vague and a lot of people don’t know what it entails.  I don’t know how many times I have told someone that I am an UMS major and a blank stare appears on their face.  Perhaps any other UMS majors have had the same experience (please say you’ve had!)?  At this point the only thing that I could see myself doing and loving would be teaching and writing.  If I could be the next Peter Hall or Jane Jacobs that would be AMAZING!  To be able to learn about the city as if it were a living entity and then write about its history and how to make it great again would be a great end to this journey.

 Jane Jacobs 

 

Besides school, I work.  And besides work I try to juggle the guarding of the rocks (you’re getting excited I know you are!).  One big fault of mine is that I tend to bite off more than I can chew.  Sure, I choke it down at some point, but that raw feeling as all the work, papers, and endless discussion board post slides down my throat is not pleasant.  I’ve started whining!  Well, that is my cue to step away from the keyboard.  Hope I did this right!

Photos

(http://mbyers.net/stoneroom/stonehenge.html)

http://www.greenbuildingsnyc.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/jane-jacobs1.jpg