Coffee Crone: Taming Coffee Blog

February 12 2007

It's Off (but not far) To Work I Go (hopefully)

Aclean desk is a thing of beauty. It's also a rarity, around here, especially since it is tax season, and RT has folders all over his half of the gargantuan desk we put together for our home office.

Building the desk out of various IKEA modules was a huge project. We measure such things by the number of Alan wrenches IKEA provides, and, if I remember correctly it was a 27 Alan wrench project. When we first set it all up, it seemed like we had acres of room, but now, with three desktop computers, two printers, and all the misc equipment we have, it looks a bit different. Still, there is enough room so that when I am fixing other people's computers, it still works for us. We look like geek central, but that's not a bad thing.

This is what the work stations looked like initially:

Our almost bare desks.

And this is my little corner of the world today:

My very clean (for me) desk today.

I'm interviewing today for a customer support job for a big tech company. They are looking for someone to provide hardware and software support from home. I have all the qualifications, and I'd love to work for them. I've worked from home before, and I really enjoy it. I like the camaraderie one has in an office, but I can do without the driving and getting dressed up part of that whole scene. Besides, I get to spend the day with my cats and most excellent coffee if I work at home.

Customer service jobs are always challenging. Good companies, like this one, provide their employees with all the training, resources, and backup needed to either help people fix the problem, or to efficiently assess the situation and appropriately pass it up the chain to someone else. The challenge comes in the form of having to be pleasant and warmly supportive to people who may, at least initially, be angry and frustrated.

I've been on both sides in that situation, so I know how terrific it feels when the support person really listens and makes a big time effort to meet my needs and I also know how satisfying it feels when the customer responds well to my effort to do a good job for them.

This job sounds darn near perfect for me, so I'm going to put on my game face, and hope that I come away with a job offer. Wish me luck!

posted by taming at 08:50 | link | comments (6)|
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Comments:

#1 12 February 2007 - 08:57

hi! just drop by...

good luck on that job. I hope to do a bit of online work... however up to this moment, I haven't got the time to do so... hopefully, I can make it happen!

funkeygal

#2 12 February 2007 - 12:06

It's against my nature to wish w$#k on anyone but treats for the fluffy ones must be paid for somehow. Good Luck! I'm really jealous of the from home part, that would make a job darn near tolerable.

rustymadgal

#3 12 February 2007 - 20:07

How did the interview go? Was it over the phone or in person? Somehow, over the phone seems fitting!

The first thing you can do is help me sign up and be a real person on your blog. ;)

Anonymous

#4 12 February 2007 - 21:16

Hope the job interview went well today. What a sweet setup you have. Here it is midnight, and I'm working at my untidy and cluttered desk, and I can almost *smell* your coffee! You are just the sort of support person we all hope for as we wait on interminable hold.

InMyLife

#5 13 February 2007 - 01:57

Alas,

Apparently the job I was so interested in isn't a job at all. Instead, it is a work option for employees who would rather work at home than in the office. It is an option that isn't available until a person has completed the five week training period and then worked on the floor for 3 months. I can't see making the 3 hour round trip for over four months for this job. Nor can I see renting a room in The Big City for that period of time and coming home on my days off.

On the plus side, I passed the tech exam to qualify for working there, and had it really been a job, I would have been moved on to the next part of the process--some sort of simulation testing that takes a few hours.

Nothing else to report.

v

taming

#6 13 February 2007 - 01:59

Ahhh, the fate of the unlogged visitor. Unless you want to sign up for a motime account--which doesn't mean you have to create a blog--your best bet is to simply sign your posts.

taming

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