Jobby Kinda Thing

[miss_yt]

Well, I have a job now. Sort of. I have to complete a trial assignment so that they can decide to hire me.

The company is a small consulting group in Detroit that primarily serves academic institutions. They look up funding resources for their clients. My trial-run job is to write an executive summary of various grants and training resources provided by the federal government for the purpose of improving a university's security, disaster preparedness, emergency warning and disaster response systems. I've already found some stuff and have the beginnings of a good-looking list, although never having written an executive summary before, I'm not sure if it looks right. My potential employer did not provide me with a template.

Now, about the job more generally: it will be ten to twelve hours a week, which I can fit into my schedule without too much difficulty - I just need to cut down on things like, say, putzing around on the internet or reloading my LiveJournal friends page over and over again hoping for a new post (yes, I am pathetic). The problem is, I will have to go into Detroit twice a week for administrative assistant duties. Detroit is half an hour to 45 minutes away when the traffic is not bad, and to be fair I will probably not be driving during rush hour. However, with the weather getting colder, I will soon have to contend with driving on icy roads, and my misadventure the one time I drove my car on wet pavement here makes me less than confident about my ability to do that. My mom's worried about it too. The commute will also lengthen my effective working week and make me use a lot more gas.

Mom suggested that, after I do this assignment and see whether they like me or not, I should tell my boss about my lack of driving experience and possibly try to get out of the office stuff and just do research stuff. I'm not sure how to do that, but it's definitely an issue I have to address.

Fortunately I don't really need the money (although getting 13 dollars an hour and thus having to use less of my savings would be nice), but I think I do need something like this on my resume, or at least it would be very good to have. It could also lead to a summer internship. And I need to have an internship in my program to get credit.

I'm glad that I got this, but I'm a little nervous about it.

Comments

[plus-c.livejournal.com]

I hear you about the driving thing - we were all there once! I think though, that rather than try and avoid those duties, you should think about improving your driving skills instead. Here's a couple of places to start:

Driver's Edge, while aimed at younger drivers, will help build the skills and situational awareness that you'll need to survive driving in and around downtown Detroit. Street Survival is another school that comes highly recommended.

Get in touch with your local Sports Car Club of America chapter and go autocrossing. There's no better venue to build driving skills at street speeds. You'll gain faster reflexes, and you'll know more about your car and how it handles at the limit.

Finally, when the snow starts to fall (and I recommend this ONLY AFTER YOU'VE DONE ONE OF THE ABOVE TWO THINGS), go to your local Wal-Mart parking lot late at night and try to get your car to slide. Learn what the limit of the car is in the snow in a non-threatening environment (i.e. without other cars or people to hit), and remember to drive under said limits on the street.

Don't be intimidated by driving in a city - once you get some seat time and experience it won't be a huge deal at all. But I definitely recommend some good professional instruction for building skills and confidence.

Good luck with the job thing!

[miss-yt.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Although it's not the city driving that worries me so much - I've been to the office before (for the interview), and it's in a sort of suburban area on the outer edge of Detroit. Once you get off the highway it's only two or three turns to get there. The street is relatively quiet, too. Although getting back on the highway was a bit tough because the city streets are not well-maintained or well-marked (fortunately I have a GPS device).

It's the icy driving I'm worried about. Got any resources I could look at for that?

[plus-c.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like professional winter driving instruction is nearly as accessible as general driving schools - but the same sorts of principles apply.

Don't drive over your limit - take it slow if you need to.

Learn what it feels like when your car is about to skid, and how much countersteer you'll need to straighten yourself out. (See my earlier comment about finding a large empty parking lot to do this.)

Generally, the better you know your car and the way it handles at the limit, the better you'll be able to handle the ice. Again, autocross comes in quite handy for that, and you may want to explore the dirt-based form of the sport, which is called RallyCross.

[plus-c.livejournal.com]

Oh, and if you can afford it, a set of wheels and snow tires for the winter would help immensely. Recommended brands include Nokian (the model is called Hakkapellita or something similar) and Bridgestone's Blizzak line.

[plus-c.livejournal.com]

Note - the SCCA calls autocrossing "Solo" - it's their trademark for the sport. I just realized that as I was surfing the site and noticed that they don't really use the word autocross.

[nightengalesknd.livejournal.com]

Job! Go you!

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

Since you want the job for non-monetary reasons (experience, resume building, networking) more than the cash, I recommend that you don't try to get out of doing the parts of the job that involve being on-site and interacting directly with the other people at the company. It is much easier to build professional relationships via face-to-face interactions.

Also, as plus_c said, you'll benefit more in the long run if you just learn how to drive in the snow. Like anything, it gets easier with practice and experience. You should be able to avoid driving in the worst conditions, anyway, since they only want you there 2x a week, if they are flexible about which two days you can go.