New Job, Part II

B has been working at his current job fora month now and it's time for an update.

He was told that it could be a couple YEARS before he knows all that his job entails.  To say it's a huge job is an understatement, I am still amazed when he talks about his job and all that it covers and just how much there is to do and learn.  Even though he is a white collar employee he is working in one of the auto plants and it's truly amazing to think about what is going on inside there all the time.  Currently, approximately 1124 cars are completed in that one plant every single day - that is amazing to think about!  Oh yeah, and did I mention that the plant is MASSIVE?!?  I hope to one day get the opportunity to go inside and have a tour, but I won't hold my breath and wait for it to happen.

He is enjoying the job but there are parts that frustrate him, mostly the fact that he doesn't know what he's doing part of the time.  But he says it's getting better each week.

He had the opportunity to learn more about how he was chosen for the position, one of his coworkers (the manager's right hand man, so to speak) told him that he was lucky.  We know that luck had little, if anything, to do with it.  Heavenly Father had a huge role in B getting this job.  It turns our that the position B was hired for is mostly filled by contractors.  They are not Chrysler employees, they work for outside companies and thus they do not get all the perks and benefits of Chrysler employees.  Needless to say, when a position opens up such as the one B was applying for, they are the ones applying for that job and they are typically the ones who get it.  I mean they want the job so that they can have more job security and better benefits plus they've been doing the job for X amount of years and so they know what they're doing.  These are the 4 other guys that B was up against in the interview process, he was the only non-contractor to apply.  Logic says that one of those four guys should have gotten the job, they already know how to do the job.  But the manager chose B, knowing that it would be a two year investment to train him over choosing someone who already knew the job.  For B to get this job, was unheard of and completely unprecedented but it happened and we must give Heavenly Father all the credit.

The New Job, Part I

By now, pretty much everyone knows that B has started a new job but since this blog is written as a journal for our family I have to write this post anyway.  Yes, even though I am way behind in writing it!

I'll start from the beginning but I'll also try to keep it brief, here goes:

B had been looking for a new job for quite some time, probably close to two years before he found this one.  But we knew he would find a job and believe it or not we even knew when he would find the job, generally speaking.  You see, last year around this time (October/November 2011) B applied for a job that he really, really wanted.  So I kneeled down one night and said one of the most heartfelt prayers of my life, asking that he would get that particular job.  The next day I was struck by a very strong feeling, which I interpreted to be an answer to my prayer, and it was "next year."

I, of course, told B about this answer and his first question was, "so you mean I'm not going to get this job."  Looking back on it I laugh at this question.  But after his initial question he had more questions like, "Will it be a different company? Will it just be a promotion?  When next year? etc. etc." I didn't have answers to any of those questions and so I prayed again and was given a slightly more specific answer, "June."

I will be quite honest and say that I wasn't 100% sure that these were answers to my prayers or if these were just deadlines I was creating in my head.  But each time I prayed about it I received the exact same answer and so we decided we'd just go on as usual.  B kept applying for jobs and doing various interviews but in the end even when he was the most qualified applicant, it never worked out. 

As April came we really began to get excited thinking that whatever was coming would start to come soon.  Then May arrived and we told ourselves that in order to start a job in June we'd have to be interviewed for it by at least May and so when May came and went I really began to question those answers I had received.  But I told myself that nowhere in the answer did it specify what would happen when June arrived.  Maybe it meant he would find the job in June or apply for the job in June, we really didn't know.

And then one day in the middle of June, B came home with what should have been exciting news - he had been given a promotion at work.  I was not excited or happy about this at all!  A promotion was not what we were seeking, we were sick of his current company, of the crappy benefits, of the company politics and their ridiculous way of doing everything.  We wanted OUT of the company, not just a new job within the same company.  I was bitter and angry to say the least.

After a few days, I got over it.  I was able to see that even if this wasn't what we were ultimately looking for that it was a step in the right direction for our family.  It provided us a little extra wiggle room financially, enough to finally purchase a second car. 

Shortly after he started his new position we left for vacation.  When we returned, on B's first day back at work the phone rang while I was changing Q's diaper - I didn't answer it obviously but I could hear the phone saying Chrysler (our phones have talking Caller ID).  Whenever I know someone is calling concerning a job for B I always let it go to the answering machine so that when he gets home he can play back the message and hear it himself.  Well this time they didn't leave a message, I was really anxious about this and so I texted B and then I just decided to call the number back.

When I did this I was able to talk to the man who had called and he was extremely nice and basically told me that he wanted to bring B in for a one-on-one interview (he had already done a phone interview previously) and it was at that point that I knew this was the job that Heavenly Father had waiting for us and that this would be B's new job.

He interviewed with the hiring manager and things went extremely well, but he was told that he would be going up against four others who were internal, because of that we were a bit worried and really didn't see how he would be given the position but a week later B was contacted by his manager and told that he had sent his name on to corporate as the person he wanted to hire and that he would be contacted by them for an interview.  Two weeks passed and we heard nothing and then they finally called.  He interviewed with a panel of 3 and the following day he received another heads up from his manager that he would be offered the job!  It took a few more weeks to get everything organized but on September 11th he was able to put in his two weeks notice and on September 24th he became an employee of Chrysler!