I recently worked a temporary job at a Call Center. After a couple of weeks, I figured out that it really wasn't a type of job that worked for me. I started trying to put together a series of statements relating to work, what I like to do, and what I'm good at in hopes that I could use it to find my next job. I thought I would take a moment and share that list with you and flesh out some of the ideas within it.
I am at my best when I am in motion.
Now that I reflect on this a week later, I would have to say it's not really true. I think I wrote this out of frustration from needing to stay seated or at least tethered to a desktop computer for 7.5 out of my 8 hours a day at the Call Center. Running and being on my feet constantly can be exhausting, which I can tell you from the Bowling Alley, although I did have a feeling of accomplishment afterward, knowing that I could do it. I think my ideal split is something like 5 hours stationary for 3 hours moving. I definitely need to be up and about to maintain my energy level, but I think you do more intellectually interesting and compelling work while seated.
I am at my best when I touch base with people often.
I like being able to handle my job, but I don't really like to be left alone all day. It was great at the Bowling Alley when I had the freedom to go down and converse with the customers. I usually only felt comfortable doing that, though, if I had a co-worker maintaining his position at the desk. When I work Audio, I definitely enjoy the actual work aspects of my job, clicking on music tracks and deciding what to play, but listening to everybody on headset makes it even better as we comment on the game, crack jokes about recurring programming elements, and then re-focus on the tasks at hand. The same is similar with my volleyball Statistics work; it's great to be good at it, but the team of us that work together have done that for now three years so we can talk smack to each other while getting it done well. That's what really makes it fun.
I am at my best when I can be informal and relaxed.
Which is probably why I won't wind up as a public relations director of a large important firm. I think there's something about formal speech that's really distancing. When I was at the Bowling Alley, I felt that if I could talk to customers about safety issues in a more informal or relaxed "we're all adults here" sort of way, that it had a better chance of building the company's relationship with the customer.
I am at my best when I get to create.
I take pride in creating, designing, and building. Now I know from college that I'm not exactly super at, say, building a 3-D sculpture from cardboard, but I did spend some time building a spreadsheet for the 6-team finals for the Bowling Alley's Wednesday night league. I have designed my own scorecard to take with me to baseball games. I built a spreadsheet that understands that an "X" is a strike in bowling and what that means. I really enjoy these things and would like the opportunity to find more problems to fix through ingenuity and computer skill.
I am at my best when there's something to geek out about.
I had someone tell me not too long ago, and I'm paraphrasing here, but the person said that I have sort of an advanced sense of wonder. At least, I think that's what that person said. Anyway, I really enjoy going "Hey guys, look at this! Isn't this cool?" and I would love to make a part of a career out of it.
This is the part on the list now where I think it starts sliding more into frustration over the Call Center experience, or perhaps the nature of that job making collections calls...
I am at my best when there is a high value on trust.
For the most part, I enjoyed the Bowling Alley job. I had difficulty with it when I had to be careful of certain customers because they seemed to be bringing in and drinking their own alcohol in our establishment. When this occurred, I typically had to tear myself away from touching base with people often and creating relationships so that I could help protect the business interests of the company as well as the general safety of those customers and the people around them (including, perhaps, the people around them in traffic that night). I really want to be able to trust customers; after all, they're the ones giving their money to the company. We should strive to always have positive relationships with them.
I would like my hours to be flexible.
I've spent a lot of my time post-college working nights, weekends, and odd hours. Just recently my work hours were predominantly 9-5:30. I see benefits to both. Working nights allowed me to take care of errands during the week where most people would have to put them off until the weekend. Working days allowed me to do double-shifts and leave the Call Center to go run Audio for basketball games or Statistics for volleyball, where working nights would require me to lose a shift. I would like to be able to do both at different times.
That's about it for the list. I could add some more things, but this is getting long enough. I think this is going to become a series of posts anyway about what I'm looking for in a job and what I can clearly say I can deliver to an employer.
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