Category Archives: Rat Race

Training in Connecticut

Posted by on July 16, 2008 No comments

Another week spent training has come to an end.  This time the training was much more specific and tailored towards what I will be doing for the next year or so.

I was training at Oracle University and as such was the only Accenture person in my small training group of 5 people.  The training went really well.  I managed to get ahead of the class and finish all the activities a full day and a half ahead of schedule.  This allowed for me to get a “review” session.  I found that this better reinforced the knowledge that I had gained in the class.

This means that I will be starting at Best Buy this Monday and be there for a good 9 months.  By the end I should be an expert in Hyperion.

This trip was my first experience traveling completely alone both ways.  Also my first experience renting a car and checking into a hotel for myself.  I was able to navigate my way around the New York and Connecticut road ways.  My initiation occurred around midnight after a day of traveling.  In my rented ’08 Eclipse it was a rather interesting experience.  The Eclipse drives well enough, but one has very limited visibility.  EZ-Pass is also the only way to deal with toll roads.  Wow!  Amazingly easy!

Downtown Stamford was pretty cool.  I’ve never seen a Target in a downtown environment.  There were elevators between floors and the first 2 floors were parking only.  Definitely different from the way suburbs have their stores laid out.

Most of my free time was spent in my hotel room just watching TV and relaxing.  There really wasn’t much to see or down in Stamford.  At least, nothing was open when I had free time.  The food was good in the surrounding area and in the Hotel.

Pretty uneventful week (and that is just fine with me), but certainly gained a good amount of knowledge.  Now it’s just time to apply that knowledge on the job site.

Windy City

Posted by on June 15, 2008 2 comments

I will be in Chicago for the next 2 weeks for Core Analyst Training.  I’ve told and I’m hoping it will be a blast.  It won’t be all fun and games.  It looks like we will be working 10 hour days and at least part of the day Saturday.  Packing has become my biggest issue.  I’ve never had to pack so many clothes before.  This can be attributed to most of my vacations being focused around beach attire.  Where as the norm for the Q center (Where we will be) is business casual.  I purchased a rolling garment bag for this trip.  I figure it will serve a purpose in the future as well if (and when) I am staffed on an out of town project.

I started a facebook group for CAS and some of the people are talking of playing sports.  This further complicates my packing issue.  I’m not sure how much to bring or what.  I also have no idea what to wear on the way there.  I’m thinking that I’ll just go in my usual attire, jeans and a t-shirt.  I can’t see any repercussions for wanting to be comfortable on the airplane.

This will also be the first trip where my backpack is not my carry-on item.  In fact it won’t even be making the trip.  It saddens me because that thing has been with me everywhere.  It must feel abused being replaced by my laptop bag.  This will seriously hamper the amount of “fun” stuff I can bring with me.  Pretty much space for only one book.  So to help myself I made a purchase.  I purchased an Ipod.  One of the 80gb classics.  The 32gb touch was incredibly tasty, but for $500 I had to pass.  I’ve spent the majority of today with it syncing.  Oye, it’s annoying, but Sync Must Occur!

I think over the course of the week I will try to update a bit on what new toys I got since starting my job.  It’s expensive getting a job.

I’ve been playing a lot of poker this week.  Standing in for Justin and then some for myself.  I’ve made the money in every one so far.  No big amounts (all freerolls or $1 entry fees), but still many hands of poker.

Time to pack.  These next 2 weeks should be a blast, but I sure am gonna miss a few things.  Mainly getting to spend time with E.  Love you hunny!.

23 Plus 0.028

Posted by on June 8, 2008 No comments

I just wanted to thank everyone for the birthday wishes.  I had a wonderful evening at the Saint’s game.  We watched them pull out a victory in extra innings.  Then proceeded to act way beyond our years.  Most of us turned in pretty early.  I feel old, but work has the ability to leave me exhausted.  I can only hope that once my sleep schedule becomes more normalized, I will be more awake in the later hours.

Second week of SDF training is up this week.  We’ve made it past the difficult stuff in my mind (classes.)  Only one more week until we head out to the Q center.  That should be a pretty good time.  Due to some interesting bowling on “First Friday” Greg (from work) and I have lunch paid for on Monday and Tuesday.

Once again, thanks for all the birthday wishes.  Let’s hope this rain lets up!

You Can’t Spell Job Without OH BOY!

Posted by on March 28, 2008 No comments

It has been a while since I’ve made a personal blog post; as has been kindly been brought to my attention.  It is because a lot of things and yet at the same time, not much had happened.  I feel confident now in having something substantial deliver to my audience.

Important things first:  I purchased Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Wii) and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (X360).  SSSB is an amazing game with a surprisingly very enjoyable single player and co-op.  I recommend it for any Wii owner.  (We even got Elizabeth to play and she seemed to be having a bit of fun once she found a character she liked.)  RSV2 is a lot like RSV1 with sprinting and a RPG aspect not unlike COD4.  The single player story is fun to play but ridiculous.

Hockey has been down right amazing.  The Gophers went on a streak to beat Mankato 2 out of 3 games that all went into over time to get into the Final Five.  The Gophers then went on to beat St. Cloud State and Colorado College to make it to the championship game.  Ultimately Denver won but The Gophers put up such an amazing effort that it is impossible to be upset.  If they continue to play this hard they have a great chance in the Frozen Four.

This past Tuesday I made crab cakes.  They were pretty good and with some tweaking they could be great.   Perhaps I’ll share the recipe if there is any interest.

I leave on my Ski Paradise vacation soon.  A whole week of water skiing in wonderfully warm and sunny weather.  It should be an absolute blast.  I only hope that my body can survive 4 sets a day for 5 days.  I leave on the 5th and come back on the 12th.

I had a slight cold this past couple of weeks, but nothing Halls cough drops couldn’t fix.

Visited the family on Easter.  Really strange when only half the family is there.

Gas is expensive ($3.10+) and influences me not to drive anymore.  I have the feeling that when I look back and read this post I will be jealous of the low price.

It appears that a lot of my favorite shows are starting to air new episodes again.  Reaper is on, South Park has been on for a while and I think the office should be coming back sometime soon.

The snow is melting and things are heating up.

I got a job.

…

Wait what?  Yup :-)  I have been offered a position at Accenture as a Consulting Analyst and I have accepted it.  The start date is May 27th.  Meaning, I’ve got a couple of months to wait.  However, as an entry level job I would be hard pressed to find anything better in this line of work.  The job will require hard work, networking and perhaps frequent travel, but at this time of my life that sounds incredibly exciting.

The last week or so I’ve spent going through the interview process.  I first was contacted by the recruiter and communicated with her.  After that it was a phone interview.  Having success in the phone interview led to an office visit.  At the office visit I had a couple of interviews and lunch with a fellow potential hire and three employees who were in our position a year or so ago.  Even though it was an interview and interviews are supposed to be huffy, I had a great time and met some very wonderful and interesting people.

I had originally been informed that I could start in April.  This date has be canceled for some unexplained reason.   My guess is that they don’t have enough new hires to warrant batching the training process.  This means I will be starting in May with all the new college graduates.  That’s fine and waiting the extra month while I live on a budget is fine.  Where things get complicated is the 2 weeks of training at Accenture’s campus in Chicago.  This will likely occur at the end of June.  Right about the time Becky and Brad get married.  I can only hope that I’m allowed to fly back, if even on my own dime for that, or that the training wraps up on Friday and we leave Friday night.  If anyone has any thoughts on this I’d be happy for any advice.  What if I’m not able to come back?  For now it’s as the old adage goes, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

I now have about 2 Months (minus vacation) to spend on a side project or catch up with friends, because once I start working I have a feeling I will fall off the face of the earth.  I kid, but seriously during the week I will be a ghost.  You will only be able to catch me on the weekends.  Weekends are pretty sacred at Accenture.   I’d be happy to share more details in person.  I don’t feel comfortable expunging details on the internet, never know who is listening.

That leaves us with today.  I’m going to be picking up the parents from the airport after their two week long cruise.  They have yet to hear about my job, so that should be good news for them.  I’ve got laundry that needs to be done and some other misc. cleaning to do in preparation, so have a great weekend everybody!

Shatter expectations and conquer the world!

Things I’m looking forward to:

  • Starting training for my Job
  • GTA4
  • Spore
  • Water Sports

Things I’m not looking forward to:

  • Juggling personal and work life
  • Commuting/Driving