Craziness

I must apologize for not writing, but work has been crazy. What I've decided to do from now on is just give you a day to day perspective of what the working world is like. Let's start last week.

I was back in the office waiting for my project to start. The funding hadn't been approved yet so I pretty much had nothing to do. However, this is usually when you get snatched up by higher level people to work on internal initiatives and basically work on things that no one else has time to. This could be really boring, awful work, or it could be really interesting. I had the opportunity to work on a few process flows that our company is trying to develop in order to serve a broad range of clients. By gathering "best practices" in the industry, you can bring those to your clients and help them to become an industry leader.

Just as I was getting involved and really starting to get work done on these internal projects, I find out that the next day I am going back out to the client. But, it's not for the project I thought. The project either fell through or we decided to stop waiting, I'm not really sure which, but I was placed on a new project. Now I am working with a manager and another staff person my age in order to write business requirements. You probably ask, what are those? Basically it's documenting the process by which something gets done, where the information comes from, essentially what the business needs to do to get from one point to another. It's a lot of talking to different people, figuring out what they do, how they can do it better and what functionalities they need in order to complete their tasks.

So, just as I was getting involved in this project this week, I have to leave to go to New York City for 2 weeks. Though I am excited about seeing old friends (I am obviously going up the weekend before on the firm) I am scared to leave my project because I may not know what is going on when I return. Maybe they'll even replace me. We'll have to see.

All in all I am still loving my job but I feel like I am always behind schedule and have no time to catch up. I wonder if this is how it will be from now on!

Corporate Social Responsibility

When going on interviews you will surely hear all about the firm's vision and mission and yada yada yada. Most likely the firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy will come up and it will go in one ear and out the other. But, if you don't know what CSR is, let me give you an idea. This is a firm's way of taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on shareholders, consumers, employees and the community. This is going beyond the regulatory compliance issues and can differ among firms. For those of you that are green (a.k.a. you love the environment) then CSR is something you should pay attention to and even try to get involved with at the company you end up joining.

What with global warming, pollution, recycling and the like, the environment is something we should all care about. Getting involved at work is a great way to look good in front of your boss while doing something productive. It is also a great way to meet people within the firm who have similar interests. Though the environment is important, it may not be your passion, which is fine, because there are other ways to get involved in corporate social responsibility.

Here are some things you can do to be actively involved:

• Plan a community event (Habitat for Humanity, volunteer at local schools, etc.)
• Organize a fundraiser
• Pick a cause and get others involved

Being Domestic

Though I had my own apartment with friends in college, it wasn't exactly like the real world. For one, I still shared a bedroom. I also had a meal plan for one of the semesters and had lots of free time to make meals or even better, go out for meals with friends. Now, I find myself looking up recipes online to make for dinner parties or just to bring for lunch at work. Wow, I have become classy in my old age. A great place to look for fun recipes are websites like Better Recipes or even on the back of pasta boxes or other basic food packages.

Sundays are great for preparing food for the week, or having dinner with your roommates since everyone is usually around. During the week, after getting home from work (especially if you're working long hours) it's difficult to coordinate apartment dinners and the last thing you want to do is have to spend an hour making something for yourself. So, not only am I learning how to cook (which my mom tells me is important) becoming domestic also includes the dreadful cleaning.

Cleaning is obviously my least favorite thing, considering I am a pretty messy person myself. But, it has to be done, especially when you are having visitors. I never thought I would enjoy dusting, cleaning the bathroom (well, I don't really ENJOY that) but having a spic and span place makes you feel pretty good about yourself.

Starting out a new job will be overwhelming but make time to learn new things around the house too. It will definitely be worth it in the future when you have your own home and aren't just living in a high rise apartment (like me).