This city has not been kind to me. It took a lot of effort to finally find a job and move here and while I’ve loved it, it’s been a rollercoaster since.
I got laid off a few weeks ago. I thought it might happen and wasn’t at all surprised when I got the call. They had been letting people go left and right and while I was undoubtedly the best in my department and hardly paid more than anyone else, the owner didn’t much like me because I don’t kiss ass and I expect respect. I think what did me in was when the engineer was more interested in shifting blame than doing his job and I offered to do his job for him.
I can’t say I miss the place. The owner shows no logic in his decision making. Hard work means little to him. If he takes a shining to you, then you could do no wrong. If not, then you could do no right. Once you’re on his bad side, you’re just fucked. He laid off a few people that left everyone befuddled as to why he chose them. It almost seems like he’s trying to run his company into the ground. I would’ve left a while ago, but I started going back to school part time and they were willing to work with my schedule so I figured I’d do what it took to make sure I could continue with my classes.
Maybe I should have looked harder for another job back then. Even though now I’m tasked with finding a new job, I feel like there’s so much less stress in my life. I no longer have the dread of going to work wondering if I’m going to be griped at for something that didn’t even happen on our shift. I could list several examples where they insisted we did stuff that we didn’t, and then when it came out that it wasn’t us, we heard nary a word for it. In fact, I think that’s part of why they sent me home; it was in their head that my department had made a lot of mistakes even though almost all of them weren’t actually ours.
Nevertheless, the long-term future isn’t looking too promising. Like I said, I started going back to college part-time for electrical engineering. My job was second shift so I’m taking classes in the afternoon. Since not a lot of my classes from my previous degree transferred toward this one and I’m only taking two classes per semester, I’m a long way from graduating. I really don’t want to take even a single semester off. Registration for spring semester starts next week and I was hoping to have another job by now. I’m not sure if I should register for afternoon classes and look for another evening job or register for evening classes to allow me to look for day jobs. There are more day jobs than evening jobs, but not by as much as one might think. It can be easier to get evening jobs because most people don’t want to work them. I can more easily schedule classes in the afternoon plus I’m not much of a morning person and find it almost impossible to wake up before 06:00 as some jobs require. I worry that whichever way I go will end up being the wrong way.
Additionally, the job hunting isn’t going too well. I’ve been worried that potential jobs aren’t going to be willing to work with my schedule but I’ve only even had one interview. I had to turn that down because they expected me to be able to work at least 72 hours a week. I’m not sure if I should look for jobs that match my experience or ones that would match what I’m going to college for. I’m not nearly far enough to get an internship, but I would hope I could get something remotely related to electrical engineering. I’ve been applying for both and not having luck with either. My cost of living isn’t all that high, but I can’t afford a really low paying wage either. It’s irritating seeing job listings that only pay around $10/hr when they should pay more.
I reluctantly took the full loan amount for my financial aid and will probably do the same next semester unless I’ve found a job by then, so I think I can make it through spring. The situation isn’t yet urgent. Once I run out of money though, I’ll be forced to drop everything and move away. I hope like hell it doesn’t come to that. Anyway, I thought I’d get some things off my chest and maybe get some advice since I suck at making decisions. You’d think that after being in the working world for 14 years, I’d have it figured out but I’m a lot better at doing jobs than getting them.