So Jasmine is hired

It hasn't sunk in yet. Let's have a real serious post.

For the past 3 years I have been searching for a job. Sure I've had little respids during Americorps gigs, etc but essentially for the past 36+ months I've been searching for a job. For the past 3 years I have been ridiculously poor, sometimes making less than 500 a month while living in one of the most expensive places in the country.  Always knowing that eventually that I'll have to put the resume out there again.  Needless to say it's not quite easy to say "Yep, I'm done with the search."

It's sort of become an ingrained behavior to constantly network and search.  An in-grained behavior to be super-frugal. I mean I haven't bought a loaf a bread in so long (bake my own) or a piece of fish,  I can't remember the last time I did. So I'm transitioning to a purely networking mindset.  Nevermind the fact I had gone as far as buying a one-way ticket home and started packing my stuff. I started telling my NorCal pals I was leaving and my Dixie family and friends I was returning.  I even started applying for a food license to sell some baked goodness at farmer's markets in South Carolina till I found a full time gig.

And then I was offered a position at Community Energy Services.  it still hasn't sunk in. The first 3 days have been going fairly awesome, I can't wait to really get into my work. That's the other thing, don't get me wrong everywhere I've worked has provided excellent training and been super helpful when I had questions, but I'm used to having x amount of months to really make my mark in life. You should have seen my face when the HR person told me about "after my first year"

I need a California driver's license. My Georgia license expires this birthday, yep staying in California. It's bittersweet, so happy to have a full-time position, happy to stay in the Bay, and yet I had finally accepted the fact that I was moving back home.  That for the first time in my life I'd actually be living in North Carolina instead of just constantly visiting family there.

So what about Hire Jasmine? Well I'm working on my personal site and it will soon be forwarding to there so stay tuned for all the exciting details.

Temp-ing at Solar City

So today was my last day as a temp at Solar City.  Say what? Solar City!? One of the nation's largest and awesome solar/ energy efficiency companies?  Yep!

It was a really great gig, in the short time I was there I think I made a good impression on my supervisors and others I did work for.  I worked in Asset Management, I did a lot of work in Excel, and some other fun stuff.  The last week I got to do interconnection stuff and so needed to check out the single lines.  Awesome stuff, I love any excuse to check out a schematic.

From day one, I felt like a part of Solar City, even though I was "just a temp". Maybe it's because I already knew so many people there in other departments. Or that I had been to the hallowed halls of HQ thrice before.  Maybe it was because I was already" from the industry" and so I really understood all the stuff I was doing.  GRID holds alot of weight in the world of solar. Everybody was so nice, and were willing to answer my questions, even when it was necessary for me to know it, just my own curiosity.

The first days the commute about killed me. waking up at 5:15 to be ready and walk to BART to catch the 6:20 train to the City (SF) to ensure I would be there for the 7:30 shuttle to take me to San Mateo. and then making sure to be out front by 4:30 to take it back to BART to get home around 6:30-7pm.  It was rough. Luckily, I was able to carpool and it helped alot. Only had to walk a few blocks to the meeting point. got to wake up at 6:15. Getting home around 5:15-5:45pm, and in a stroke of irony I carpooled with a bunch  from Engineering.  Oh, the questions I asked them, and too they were so nice about it.

HR was really helpful in helping me in applying for more permanent positions. I even had an interview for a drafter/design position which taught me, I need to re-learn AutoCAD with the fierceness. The design questions were pretty good though.

Overall I really enjoyed it and was surprisingly sad to end my time at SolarCity.  As I often say, the green world is a small one, so you never know when paths will cross again.

(I mean, Solar City is kinda taking the nation by storm)

So why did I leave an awesome temp job and an equally awesome company worthy of name-dropping even after a few weeks?

I got a job offer. Where? What? Did I succumb to another year of service?

stay tuned for details.