Job Hunt Update (Otherwise known as WooHoo!)

Since May when I finished school, I have been posting and submitting resumes. During an average week I would apply to between 20-30 jobs. I have only heard back from 4 companies in all that time. One wanted me to complete an assessment test and send it back to them. Two just sent me emails saying no thank. And the last one HIRED ME!!!

On Monday I applied for a job with Sutherland Global Services. Tuesday of the same week I received a call from them and did a prescreening interview on the phone. I guess I passed the prescreening process because at the end they wanted to schedule an interview for Wednesday at 1:00pm. The interview was a two part process. The first part was an assessment test, which took me about an hour. The second part was the actual interview, during which I met with the 3 of the 4 department heads of the division I would be working for. The interview went very well. They said they had to contact HR but that I was at the top of their list. One hour after leaving I received a call from the HR department during which they wanted to schedule a time to meet so they could present a job offer to me. On Friday I went in for that appointment and accepted the job.

So here is a little bit about what the company and what I will be doing.

Sutherland Global Services Inc is a premier customer management company with 18 years of practitioner heritage in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). Sutherland helps Fortune 1000 companies' design, build and manage their customer management operations. Sutherland's customer management operations centers are located in the USA, Canada & India. Headquartered in Rochester, New York, Sutherland's global workforce includes over 10,000 employees.

I will be a Level 1 Help Desk Analyst for the Blackboard division. It will be helpful for me to explain what blackboard is and does.

Blackboard is a company that provides educational institutions with software and hardware that help teachers and student interact with each other better. Blackboard has outsourced their technical support to Sutherland Global Services.
That is where I come in. I will be one of the people the school technical administrators call when they have issues with Blackboard. From what I have learned so far I will be working in a group of 3-4 people and our group will have 70-100 Blackboard clients assigned to it. I start on August 21st.

Gaming Away

For a long time Caleb has been wanting to build his own computer. Finally he he researched everything, got some help from Ryan, and had the money saved up to do it. All the parts arrived and he was so excited. Ryan came over and they put it all together and then had to wait and wait and wait for everything to load. All went well. A couple of little fixes and it is working like a charm. Caleb is loving how much better the effects are on his game. Plus now my computer is upgraded with the old computer parts.

The Golf Pro

So I have decieded to take up a new hobby and by the title you can tell it is golf.
Today I purchased a complete set of Walter Hagen golf clubs. It just so happens that Walter Hagen is a Rochester native.

Me with my new clubs.

Al, the guy that helped me pick out the clubs, said "Now you know you can't play in flip flops."

I talked Camberly into going to the driving range with me. Here are some photos she took of me trying out my new clubs.

My great back swing.

My great follow through.

It's a good thing you can't see the ball in the pictures because it didn't always do what it was supposed to.

Letchworth State Park

Saturday we took a drive to Letchworth State Park, also know as "the Grand Canyon of the east." It is about an hour south of Rochester. Right when we drove in there was a pull over/overlook spot with a great view of the canyon. It was very vast (although not nearly as large as the actual Grand Canyon). The biggest difference was all the greenery. Here there are trees growing all up the walls and this gives it a very different look.

At one end of the park there are three waterfalls. We walked to each of them and had fun taking lots of pictures--trying out our camera and the "lessons" from the family reunion.

On our way home we stopped at a little pizzeria in one of the towns near the park. Next time though we will plan ahead better and pack a picnic lunch because the park has tons of different sites with picnic tables. It was a fun day, made all the better by the beautiful 70 degree weather.

American River Rafting Trip (Short Version)

On Friday June 21st I flew to Sacramento, CA for a river rafting trip with my dad and his friend Mark.

When we arrived Mark drove us to Lake Tahoe. We did a little site seeing there and then headed back to Auburn for the night. We woke up on Satureday and went white water rafting down the American River. I fell in 5 times, one of which I thought I might die. I am a little sore today but can't wait to do it again.

The start of Tunnel Falls Rapid.

I am the one in the front right of the boat or bottom left of the picture.

 Do we look scared?

Where did I go?

There I am.

Watkins Glen State Park

This past Saturday we decided to go for a little day trip down to Watkins Glen State Park. They have a gorge with a river and waterfalls along a 1.5 mile hike. It was overcast and rained a little but it was not too hot. The water and vegetation is beautiful. After our hike we found a picnic table to have lunch and then it started to pour. Fortunately we were under a tree and didn't get too wet. We hurriedly ate and ran to the car. It was a lot of fun. We definitely will go back some time for more pictures and enjoyment.

Butterfly garden

While, Caleb's parents were visiting we went to the Strong Museum of Play and visited the butterfly garden. It was amazing to see all the different butterflies flitting around. Some of them were so pretty but they would not hold still long enough to get a picture. Oh Well.