The Year In Review (part 3)

(continued...)

As promised....here is the link to the video slidehsow I made for the first portion of Tony and I's trip to Europe. I will post a link to the slideshow I made for the Italy portion later.

Upon returning from Europe I had to start looking for a job. Most people were asking me if I was going to start subbing as a teacher. I was a little hesitant to say yes because I didn't really feel like it was the right thing for me. After a lot of deliberation, I decided that I would put teaching on hold for a while and pursue some other things that had been on my mind. I spent part of every day looking for a job in Prince George that I might like. There were several places that I thought were pretty good and would be what I like to do: UNBC, The Airport, The Northern Health Authority, Shaw, and NoraTek. Lucky for me, a teacher from the University moved away a few weeks before he was supposed to start teaching a Web Design course using a program called Dreamweaver....so, with the help of Tony Donovan putting in a good word for me, I managed to scoop up that job. It was a 5 night Continuing Studies course, so there wasn't too much to prepare for...I just had to make sure everyone was making progress and learning the program. In the process of teaching Dreamweaver I began to realize how much I like doing web design. I started working on a new version of the Camp Morice Webiste and found that the day would slip me by without even noticing. It was pretty fun.

I actually got interviews at Shaw and NorAtek as well. The Shaw people were looking for an installation guy (which means pulling wires and installing cable in other peoples dirty houses), so I wasn't really interested in that. And NorAtek brought me in for a 3 hour interview and offered me a job a few days later for $16/hr full time working from Tuesday to Saturday. I would be doing tech support on the phone and driving (using my own car) to clients workplaces to fix any computer problems they might have. They also told me that I would be doing some web development, but infrequently. It seemed like an OK job, and a good opportunity to learn a lot more, but the pay wasn't really what I wanted it to be and the work schedule would have interfered with a lot of the extracurricular things I like to do. I don't want to live to work...I want to work to live. Work should be something I enjoy doing, but it should not be the main part of my life...it only needs to be a piece of the puzzle.

Up until the NorAtek job offer, I was considering starting up my own web design company. And after the job offer I was thinking that NorAtek would be a 'safer' choice for me because I would be guaranteed wages and hours; starting up my own company would bring no guarantees and it would completely rely on me to make things happen. Now, don't get me wrong....I know I have what it takes to be successful...I just thought that the NorAtek job would be a lot easier.

Now, at about this time one of the employees at my dad's Financial Planning office (Money Concepts) got accepted to be a firefighter in Fort St John (his dream job). So, Money Concepts was now short an employee. I approached my dad and asked him how many of the responsibilities of that job I would be able to take over if I were to come work there. He said, "Probably a little less than half...but then you'd be around for tech support and other things as well.....why?" After he said that the wheels were turning in my head an in less that half a second I had everything figured out. I proposed that I come work for Money Concepts part time and then take the other half of the part time to develop my web design company. I could even use the same office for both jobs. That way I could have some guaranteed hours in order to pay the bills and live comfortably, and all the money I make from the web design company would be a bonus (or part of my retirement...whichever way you want to look at it). I should probably note that living on a part time job is pretty easy when you've been a student for 6 years and figured out how to live with just the basics.

I will wait to the next post to reveal which choice I made....

(to be continued.....)