Thursday, October 18, 2012

Adventures in Employment Land

The time had finally come.

The time when I had to face the fact that my children are growing up. The fact that they did not need me home during the day because they simply were not home. They were at school. All day. Five days a week. And they both HAD been for a little over 2 years now.

Which meant it was time for me to get back into the workforce, ease my husband's financial load a little bit (although it DOES mean they all now must take on a lot more of the household chores burden).

So off I ventured, lost in the world of employment seeking. I had dabbled into self employment as the creator of baked goods and jams, as well as back into my field of expertise- Education- as a substitute teacher, but did not find these to be either feasible or wholly enjoyable.

So I entered the land of What-On-Earth-Am-I-Supposed-To-Be-When-I-Grow-Up...a place I had not been since high school. Scary stuff. I had people suggesting a lot of different things, but nothing seemed to really resonate.

But there had been one thought in the back of my mind. I had taken this thought out of its box a few times over the past few years, then quickly shoved it back when people reacted with near horror at times... "WHAT??? Why would you want to do THAT??"

I finally ended up at a career fair about a month ago. I wandered around, feeling the same overwhelming feeling of not being qualified for most, over qualified for some, and seriously not interested in others...and then my job from the box was there.

I thought about it for awhile, bounced it off a bunch of people, rolled it around for awhile, and finally took the plunge. I filled out an application, fired off my resume, and waited. It was a mere few days before I got a response.

They received my application, would I be able to come in for an interview? Sure, absolutely. So I got all dressed up, presented myself to the powers that be, smiled and nodded and obviously did not make a complete fool of myself with my answers to their questions, and left with an armful of forms to fill out, booklets to study, and a possible training date...and an appointment to observe someone actually doing the job.

It is now two days later. The paperwork is all filled in, submitted, checked over. I have studied a fair bit, but still have some hefty studying to do before I take the written test in a few days. I have spent about two hours observing. I have had a medical, and will have a drug test, and a criminal record check. And I start training in a few weeks, with my final practical exam in about a month, I am guessing, at which point, all going well, I shall be back in the land of the employed.

What am I going to be when I grow up? It looks like I am going to be a school bus driver. This could be a lot of fun. :)