Shot in the Dark

It is late at night and I am delerious from salmon on the brain, but I just wanted to update everyone that I got the job!  Even after I thought I blew the interview, my title is now Associate Planner for Snohomish County Planning and Development Services.  This was all the result of a class assignment for our Senior capstone class where we were required to turn in a final resume, ready to send to a potential employer.  I was going to put it off like everyone else, since I had one that just needed some updating, but the county posted the position the same week the assigment was given.  I took a shot in the dark and sent in my newly updated resume.

Today, I met a whole office full of planners, engineers, permitters, IT, and inspectors, and was shown my cubicle and "a good GIS computer".  I had to chuckle at that one, as sometimes the park planners (including myself) would freeze the Willis Tucker server by using too many GIS applications, to the point of almost crash it on time card day. 

After my intro meeting with one of the department heads, I'm trying to figure out whether it was really my GIS and data skills that got me hired, or if it was my retail pharmacy people skills.  I told them in my interview that I had been called every name in the book, had things thrown at me, and yet I still didn't mind confronting Trouble customers (notice the capital T - Elvis shout-out).  I think all three interviewers wrote down that response, and today I got to hear about "new approaches" and "customer service" when dealing with stakeholders (such as large developers?).  It's all good, I can handle it.

It will be strange not working in a pharmacy full time.  Even when I was 9 my dad had me sweeping floors, filing prescription numbers and filling vials.  I should have known that it wasn't a long-term career choice at that age though, as my favorite part of hanging with my dad at work was pulling the gate down at the end of the day.  It meant it was finally time for the pharmacist to go home, and mind you sometimes this was long after everyone else had left.  So be nice to your local pharmacy staff even when you called in your prescription 4 hours before and it's not ready.  You never whose hand they had to hold that day, or what kind of crazy person they had to deal with.