Since graduating college, I had been searching for a full-time job. I’ve been working in education-related jobs for a while, and wanted to find a full-time job that would benefit from my prior work experience. Two years later, I didn’t feel like I had gotten anywhere. My two part-time jobs paid enough to support myself, but they had no benefits and they were pretty much dead ends (raises didn’t even keep up with inflation)
I knew a few people who worked for the local transit authority as bus drivers. While being a bus driver didn’t sound like the most glamorous job, the pay/benefits were pretty good, and there were lots of jobs that the company hires internally. My plan is to build up experience/seniority and work my way toward a position there that is in tune with what I feel confident doing. Even if switching positions isn’t as flexible as it seems, I’m still working at a job where I’m making more than I was, and saving for retirement.
It does seem odd I’m getting so excited about being a bus driver, but I guess the excitement is doing something different for the first time in two years. I might like it even less than I enjoy my current jobs, but at least I’ll be saving up enough money so that going back to school/relocating will be more of an option.
My father-in-law is a city bus driver, and he loves it. He was a salesperson for decades, hating every moment of it, and part of what he loves about bus driving is he drives his routes, and he goes home. It’s that simple. As he has gotten seniority, he’s driving the plum routes now (all evenings and weekends off), and he’s loving it even more.
So, congratulations! This might just be a pit stop on the road of your career, or it might become your career - who knows?
Congrats on the new job! It’s pretty nice when you’re in your new job and you can see all of the improvements from your last job as time progresses. Now you don’t have to feel trapped in the tutor job!
Rather well, actually! I was lucky, when they mailed me all the paperwork, they gave me a starting date which was practically a month down the line. So letting my boss know wasn’t bad since they have a ton of time to find a replacement. I knew that telling them so far in advance didn’t give them ANY reason to try to expect me to find someone to take my place. It was fine.
My landlord, who happens to work for my new employer (helped me a lot on what to expect, and to avoid worrying unecessarily about little things) was happy too- since it bumps him up on the seniority ladder. He mentioned the timing was good, because every body they hire after me is that much more seniority I’ll have from the get-go. The training ‘class’ I am in is also really big, and they basically draw numbers to determine seniority from all the people hired at the same time. The more people in the class, the more chances I’ll have it even more. Even better, their union’s contract gets renewed in January/February, which will hopefully be good for me.
We’ll see how it pans out. I’ll probably have to work on xmas (not that big of a deal, considering how much I can stand to make on that day ) but doing it for a year will put me in a considerably good position.
) but doing it for a year will put me in a considerably good position.