A million miles away

Note, Oct. 18: I wrote this entry more than a month ago and never finished it. I thought about deleting the old text and starting over with a fun entry about my job changes. But I realized that this entry was longer than I'd thought, and even with the rant about Westlake, was still something I might want to keep as a snapshot of that time. Mostly it is a snapshot about how happy I was to be changing jobs. I'll write an update soon, but the short version is that although my commute time has actually increased, I don't regret the change a bit. The new job rocks.

"Honey, come and dance with me
'Cause I ain't gonna work here no more."
--David Byrne, A Million Miles Away

I don't usually quote song lyrics, because it is Not Me. I don't usually talk about my jobs, either, because it is not professional. Today, I do both. I will try to be moderate.

I've been working at the same job for 15 months now, which always surprises me when I say it. This was a three-month contract. My plan was to work until Fantastic Fest 2006, leave, then look for another short-term contract writing job. I figured I was burned out on tech writing but I could last anywhere for about three months. The fact that I stayed at this job for this long had very little to do with my loving the work and a lot to do with my loving the paycheck and the flexible hours, and being unable to find anything else that offered both those advantages.

I never did go permanent -- I am still a temp, although when you're a tech writer or engineer, the word "temp" is considered declassee. I'm a W2 contract worker on an open-ended contract. I was able to get group health insurance through the temp agency, which was expensive but better than the Texas High Risk Pool, which as a skin-cancer survivor was my only other option.

I missed working with a publications team -- I am the only writer (or designer, or anything communications-ish) in this office. But the biggest drawback to this job, since Day One, has been the commute. My previous full-time job was 7-10 minutes away from my house, and I could run home at lunchtime if I wanted. Lots of affordable places to eat were nearby, too, and it was easy to run errands on the way to/from work. This office is across town from my house, and I've already described why I refer to the drive as the Highway from Hell. The commute takes 20 minutes on a good morning, and upwards of an hour on a crappy afternoon. I now hate Westlake more than ever, not that it was ever my favorite part of town.

I remembered fondly the days of paid vacation, holiday, and sick days. The temp job was not, as they say, a good fit but it paid all my bills, the temp agency gave me the opportunity for group health insurance, and I learned new skills, like using InDesign and Visio. Still, I kept looking, and recruiters thought I was crazy because I was being amazingly picky about location. I had one actually argue with me when I said I wouldn't work in Round Rock, claiming (wrongly) that there would never be any tech jobs convenient to my North Austin house and that I needed to get over myself.

I had one offer for a state job last year that I turned down because the pay was low and I suspected it would be too inflexible for me in terms of hours and so forth. Through a recruiter, I found a position with a company downtown that seemed quite promising, but the company ended up fighting with the recruiter about fees, and then decided I was too expensive and they should hire someone cheaper with less experience. (I was wary anyway because they asked me to take a copy-editing test and could not, upon repeated request, provide me with a working non-black pen or pencil. After that I started bringing a red pen to all job interviews.) I grew very weary of recruiters generally, which is a whole other rant, and tried to find open positions on my own. I regularly checked Craigslist and the STC job board and the listings at local large high-tech companies and schools.

As a result, I now have a brand spanking new job, which starts next month. I've been hired as a senior tech writer for a large, well-known institute of higher education in town. No recruiters were involved (hah!). I'll be working as part of a large print and online documentation team, which I've met and which seems very friendly and nice. I will still have a crazy commute, but it'll be close to downtown instead of on the Highway from Hell. I can take a shuttle bus to work sometimes if I want. I'll get full-time benefits, and you can bet that my husband and I did the happy dance of better health insurance last week when we found out. (Okay, he didn't dance. But he was pleased.)

Posted at September 11, 2007 03:02 PM