The Kansas City Job
I am sitting here Sunday night with very little to do and what seemed like a good idea several moment previously was to run through the various thoughts and ideas that were on the top of my head. Of these I decided it was about time that I took the effort to update things I do every so often.
I am currently in the Kansas City area waiting for Tuesday to come to start work. Tuesday will be my first real job since obtaining a Master’s of Science in April, but in reality it is my first real job with benefits and 401Ks and the things that should be considered. Previously all my work experiences never really had these things. This is definitely a new chapter in my life, especially since I have spent the last 6 years in Utah attending school.
The past month has seemed like a blur. It has happened really fast. The job search had been brutal over the last 6 months until the offer from the company in Kansas City came along. I started looking for employment in late December early January shortly after realizing that my hopes of pursuing a PhD had been dashed. I think I had gone thru 25 weeks of actively looking for a job before I had an opportunity open up to me. By chance back at the end of May, an alumnus (Nathan) had contacted my advisor (Dr. Scott Grimshaw) with a possible set of jobs. I was forwarded the information and I soon wrote an email inquiring more. In what seemed like a lightning strike, I began a quick succession of events that lead to the job.
In recalling the events, it seemed that I sent Nathan a copy of my resume late one Wednesday afternoon and by early Thursday, the HR recruiter had contacted me to complete a Statistical Assessment over the following weekend. I had finished up whatever else I had been working and began working on the assessment early Friday afternoon. In the course of the assessment, I ran into stumbling blocks of sorts and spent most of the weekend trying to reason out the assessment. I felt somewhat proud of the fact that the assessment not only used what I had been taught in a class but forced me to extend my understanding in a different way.
I turned in the assessment that Monday night (the 21st of May) later than I had planned and went home to sleep. I awoke the next morning and went about my day. In the late morning I got a call from the HR person wanting to setup a phone interview that afternoon. What seemed at the time as a whirlwind, I was done with a phone interview in the early afternoon for about 30 minutes when the HR person called back to set up an in-person interview.
The fly-out was set for the following week and I began to prepare. I flew out late on the Tuesday after Memorial day and traveled to Kansas City to interview. The interview seemed to have lasted all day Wednesday, but in reality was from 10ish until 3ish and I was back on my way to Salt Lake City. The interview was a lot of things that at the time just went over my head and didn’t let me focus on one single thing. By the end I was tired and felt like I had been trying to drink from the fire hose while going thru the entire day.
I arrived back in Salt Lake City close to midnight, but not before having fun with flights that were delayed and the possibility of staying a night in either Kansas City or Houston was raised. Luckily I was able to get a flight to SLC back thru Denver on a different carrier. I came to dislike the Denver airport on this trip just for the sole reason of landing on one end of the United terminal and having to make it to the opposite end of the terminal in a short amount of time was a little too tight.
The next morning I had determined to sleep in a little since I arrived home late and need the rest as I justified it. So as I lay half thinking I would get some more sleep around the 9am mark Thursday morning, I got a fun call from the HR guy again with a job offer. Now I was no where close to being fully awake nor was functioning at anything close to enough to fully comprehend what was being said to me, but I do remember the offer being made and me asking how long I had to respond to verbal offer. I made some mental notes after receiving the offer and then quickly got up and moving.
In due course, I accepted the verbal offer for a written offer to be sent to me. I read over to offer and thought a lot about it. I thought about what my options were and then signed and sent back the offer. I had a job to start the first of July. It was the 8th of June and my mind was racing. I had lots to do.
The first task was to begin using internet tools available to look for a place which in and of itself sort of fell flat on itself given the lack of later success in that arena. But then boxing up things and trying to sell things became a priority. I had lived at the same place for 4 years and so there was a lot of work that went into getting ready to leave.
The last weekend in June, the company flew me out to Kansas City to house hunt. I had gone out with a set list of places to look at and appointments and general areas of town to search in. After 2 long days of searching, I had come up flat. I soon learned that most of the places on my list which said they were available immediately meant that the apartments would become available end of July or beginning of August. I did get a good understanding of how the Kansas City Metro area worked though and could by the end navigate myself around fairly well. I flew back to SLC Sunday afternoon and found myself doing the last of my packing.
The enjoyable part of the weekend was on Friday night. I was asked if I wanted to help out on fireworks for a corporate party. I agreed and was taken out to Kearny, MO in the evening. Once we got to the sight of the show, I helped set things up and then for the show I loaded tubes while my friend Mike lighted the mortars off. It was a lot of running back and forth for the entire of the show with not a lot of chance of getting to sit back and enjoy the fireworks. It was fun.
Sunday night Dad arrived in Provo and after jockeying cars and moving things around we crashed at a brother’s house to wake up early and head into SLC to have windshields replaced. A couple hours later we were back in Provo packing up the things into a truck and car to head to Colorado and the parent’s property there. Once in Colorado, I got to spend Tuesday unpacking things, making determinations on what needed to go with me to Kansas City and what could stay, and then repacking the truck and car. It was simply a long day and for good reasons.
Wednesday morning, things were finalized and every ready to head out. I helped out where I could as Dad had a list of things he needed to do before heading to Kansas City with me. By the time the list was completed it was nearly 4pm and we jumped in the truck and head across southern Colorado and Kansas to Kansas City. We arrived late morning (about 11ish) and found a storage unit for me to put all my stuff in. We unloaded the car and the truck and then I put clothes into the car to use. Dad and I toured around the town for a couple of hours seeing things of interest like where I was going to work and where I had been looking at living. Finally the time came; we ate dinner and then parted ways.
The last four days, I have been in Kansas City and I have been filling up my time. Because I do not have a permanent home yet, my brother in law arranged with his aunt and uncle for me to stay with them temporarily and that has been a fun experience. The two in-door cats here have been fun just for the mixture of mistrust the have in me and how curious they can be. Needless to say I have had to clean up a couple of fur balls that are left for me after I have stepped out of the bedroom. I did spend most of Friday and part of Saturday refining my search area on apartments and looking at other options. This has been a combination of looking at different options and locations.
Saturday night, I was again invited to help out with a fireworks show. This one was put on by the same people but there was food prior to it and plenty of things to do. The show was again a load and fire for 30 minute fest but instead of loading I was lighting the mortars. Still it was a lot of little 10 yard dashes away from the tubes after things were lit.
Sunday I awoke and read part of a couple books I have been reading. I got ready and attended church and then came back to read some more. I was planning on venturing out to find a 4th of July fireworks show but about dusk there was a good rainstorm and I just decided to sit it out and finish the book I was reading.