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Aug. 17th, 2012 12:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariFour years and one day from the day I settled into Seattle, I've decided it's time to leave.
Quick summary before I go into the details: I moved up from Austin to be with Emily in 2008. I found work at Speakeasy, and settled in. I immediately began hemorrhaging money to the sky high cost of living here, and it wasn't long before the speakeasy job fell apart leaving me even more in debt. I ended up losing the apartment, and being saddled with a $2500 broken lease fee for missing one months rent. I began working for AwesomeJob (aka Nintendo - I kept the name secret for so long because I do have a few very worrisome comic fans). While living with friends, my girlfriend, who had become my fiancee in the mean time) left me. I had nothing keeping me here but a lack of money, and Nintendo. In 2011, I had the chance to go home, but decided to stay. I was living with good friends, and had a good job at Nintendo (albeit as a temp). I became diabetic, which also destroyed my finances again. I signed a two year lease on our house, which I figured would be long enough to rebuild it.
Now that you're up to speed...
Nintendo is a dream job. It quite literally is the best job I've ever had. I've turned down better paying jobs to stay there. When I was hired, they would usually hire a few reps after Christmas. Two Christmases went by without being hired. Which was okay - I like it there and I wasn't going anywhere. And I;d keep trying. I got it into my head that being hired on was what I wanted.
Then the rules changed.
Nintendo was no longer going to be hiring phone reps. In order to have a job, you had to be an advisor. I immediately began going down the route. But something felt wrong. I began worrying about the job, and what it would entail. I'm not a manager...I'm an engineer. But I thought I'd try to spread my wings to help me get hired. I was assigned some paperwork, and very quickly found it unsatisfying.
It ended up piling up and I got more and more of it. And I became severely stressed out. This wasn't what I wanted. And if I got hired, would this be what I'd be doing? Would I end up hating a job I loved so much?
It came to me one morning when I woke up, and didn't want to go to work. That had never happened at Nintendo. I spent the day just severely stressed out and unhappy. I took the next day off. The day after that, I again didn't want to come into work. I did anyways, received more paperwork than I finished. I got two bad reviews on my customer service, my first bad marks since I'd started. Things were deeply wrong.
I talked it over with my advisor, and while doing so I realized what the problem was. None of this was what I wanted to do. I wanted to answer phones, fix problems, work in tech. i didn't want to manage, or administrate. And if I got hired, THAT'S what I'd have to do.
My advisor took me off the administration duties, which was a huge huge huge weight off my shoulders. But by doing so I was commiting career suicide. I wouldn't ever be hired onto Nintendo unless it was for something other than Advisor.
But...what if I could stay on, as a temp? Would that even be feasible? The two month vacations were awesome - it gave me a full moth to go home, recharge, visit friends and family. But by staying, would things ever get better? Would there be raises? What if I got sick again, would I have the same fight I had before? What if I got sick on vacation, where my insurance doesn't apply?
Would it be possible to make a career at being a temp?
Today, I talked to the temp agency, and got some very disheartening news. I'm pretty much at the top of my game temp-wise. The next step would be to get hired at Nintendo, but the only positions would be positions I wasn't interested in. There would be no real raises any time soon, no added benefits. I am as high on that ladder as I can go.
Would it be possible to make a career at being a temp?
No.
The reason I moved up here is gone. While I have good friends, and a good job, the terrible experiences I've had here have over the last four years outweighed the good. I miss home terribly. It's time to go back.
Most of the questions I hear about moving back are "How can you live there? It's so conservative?" My reply is "Be it ever so fucked up, there's no place like home." And The Texas Hill Country is nothing like the rest of the state. Austin is incredibly liberal, and the Hill Country, while not as liberal, is very open. And the rest of the state...well...give it time. It'll happen. We'll fight for it.
I still love Nintendo. I plan to give 110% right up to the very last day. I have a few weeks left at Nintendo before I'm laid off for two months. I plan to go visit home, relax, soak up a little Texas, then come back (yes, I AM coming back). I'll work through what's looking to be a huge Christmas, maybe grab up some knicknacks from the company store for the road. And when the lease is over, I'll go home.
My very own "Lost Weekend" is finally coming to an end.
Quick summary before I go into the details: I moved up from Austin to be with Emily in 2008. I found work at Speakeasy, and settled in. I immediately began hemorrhaging money to the sky high cost of living here, and it wasn't long before the speakeasy job fell apart leaving me even more in debt. I ended up losing the apartment, and being saddled with a $2500 broken lease fee for missing one months rent. I began working for AwesomeJob (aka Nintendo - I kept the name secret for so long because I do have a few very worrisome comic fans). While living with friends, my girlfriend, who had become my fiancee in the mean time) left me. I had nothing keeping me here but a lack of money, and Nintendo. In 2011, I had the chance to go home, but decided to stay. I was living with good friends, and had a good job at Nintendo (albeit as a temp). I became diabetic, which also destroyed my finances again. I signed a two year lease on our house, which I figured would be long enough to rebuild it.
Now that you're up to speed...
Nintendo is a dream job. It quite literally is the best job I've ever had. I've turned down better paying jobs to stay there. When I was hired, they would usually hire a few reps after Christmas. Two Christmases went by without being hired. Which was okay - I like it there and I wasn't going anywhere. And I;d keep trying. I got it into my head that being hired on was what I wanted.
Then the rules changed.
Nintendo was no longer going to be hiring phone reps. In order to have a job, you had to be an advisor. I immediately began going down the route. But something felt wrong. I began worrying about the job, and what it would entail. I'm not a manager...I'm an engineer. But I thought I'd try to spread my wings to help me get hired. I was assigned some paperwork, and very quickly found it unsatisfying.
It ended up piling up and I got more and more of it. And I became severely stressed out. This wasn't what I wanted. And if I got hired, would this be what I'd be doing? Would I end up hating a job I loved so much?
It came to me one morning when I woke up, and didn't want to go to work. That had never happened at Nintendo. I spent the day just severely stressed out and unhappy. I took the next day off. The day after that, I again didn't want to come into work. I did anyways, received more paperwork than I finished. I got two bad reviews on my customer service, my first bad marks since I'd started. Things were deeply wrong.
I talked it over with my advisor, and while doing so I realized what the problem was. None of this was what I wanted to do. I wanted to answer phones, fix problems, work in tech. i didn't want to manage, or administrate. And if I got hired, THAT'S what I'd have to do.
My advisor took me off the administration duties, which was a huge huge huge weight off my shoulders. But by doing so I was commiting career suicide. I wouldn't ever be hired onto Nintendo unless it was for something other than Advisor.
But...what if I could stay on, as a temp? Would that even be feasible? The two month vacations were awesome - it gave me a full moth to go home, recharge, visit friends and family. But by staying, would things ever get better? Would there be raises? What if I got sick again, would I have the same fight I had before? What if I got sick on vacation, where my insurance doesn't apply?
Would it be possible to make a career at being a temp?
Today, I talked to the temp agency, and got some very disheartening news. I'm pretty much at the top of my game temp-wise. The next step would be to get hired at Nintendo, but the only positions would be positions I wasn't interested in. There would be no real raises any time soon, no added benefits. I am as high on that ladder as I can go.
Would it be possible to make a career at being a temp?
No.
The reason I moved up here is gone. While I have good friends, and a good job, the terrible experiences I've had here have over the last four years outweighed the good. I miss home terribly. It's time to go back.
Most of the questions I hear about moving back are "How can you live there? It's so conservative?" My reply is "Be it ever so fucked up, there's no place like home." And The Texas Hill Country is nothing like the rest of the state. Austin is incredibly liberal, and the Hill Country, while not as liberal, is very open. And the rest of the state...well...give it time. It'll happen. We'll fight for it.
I still love Nintendo. I plan to give 110% right up to the very last day. I have a few weeks left at Nintendo before I'm laid off for two months. I plan to go visit home, relax, soak up a little Texas, then come back (yes, I AM coming back). I'll work through what's looking to be a huge Christmas, maybe grab up some knicknacks from the company store for the road. And when the lease is over, I'll go home.
My very own "Lost Weekend" is finally coming to an end.
