Saturday, June 28, 2008

Schools over, still busy with work though!


Spring semester has finally finished. I earned a 907/1000 and reached (barely) the 4.0 mark. My passion for that class quickly sank, and near the end I was heavily procrastinating. I am very happy that the class is finished with. Technical Writing was a very interesting class, but with my time devoted to work, I just couldn't appreciate the work I had to do, since it was usually on limited time and therefore rushed. I'll definitely make sure not to have a job interfere with school this Fall semester.

I earn $12/hr for an electronics assembly company. Although the pay is very nice, at $16 in gas per day working and 1.5 hours spent driving each work day, the pay after factoring in these two variables comes out to only be $8.42 an hour, a very significant decrease ( ( 8 * 12 - 16 ) / ( 8 + 1.5) ). Although I haven't told my manager or anyone at my company yet, I may stop working at my company sometime in August in favor of a tutoring job. I was offered the tutoring job by Monroe County Community College, and the job provides a wage of $7.15/hr with reduced tax. In essence, I would earn $1 an hour less than at my current job. In addition, I wouldn't have to work Fridays, freeing up more time for school. My current job is somewhat stressful, usually because I'm constantly being rushed to finish jobs that require absolute perfection. It does get old fast when your boss is giving that angry look of "why aren't you done yet!??!?!" when you know that you are going as fast as reasonably possible. This just introduces more stress on the job and makes me cause more mistakes, which I really don't need once school starts again. I don't need the responsibility and concern of doing jobs and trying to maintain what is going on while trying to learn several subjects at school. I really like my job, but it is becoming more unrealistic as I work there longer for me to continue working there. I can't say anything for sure, but with another student being hired to do the same job as me, it will help if I decide to depart from the company.

I have finally received a hard copy of my diploma. Although my education is far from over, it is nice to have a diploma that represents two years of hard work, along with a nice official transcript showing my good grades. I achieved Summa Cum Laude, and feel that this diploma is just one more tool that will help me to get an engineer internship next semester. With experience at an electronics assembly company, experience tutoring for electronics and mathematics, and my personal hobby knowledge of digital electronics, I really hope that I can get a Computer Engineering Internship. Those type of internships seem rare, so all I can do is hope and constantly keep an eye out for opportunities.

I also spent a decent chunk of change for Pimsleur's Japanese 1. I bought it used on Amazon for half the price, and plan on re-selling it soon. I am currently on Track 9 of 30 and feel like I am learning a lot. I can ask basic questions like what are you going to buy or eat, can say good morning and afternoon, and other basic things. Since I drive 45 minutes to and from work everyday, that extra 1.5 hours time is put to good use studying a language. I decided to learn Japanese for two reasons, one being that I have no radio and so have a lot of free time when driving for something like this, and secondly, this is a skill that I have seen in several job listings. I love Japanese entertainment, and have no issues with spending otherwise wasted time learning something like this.

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