Zac gets promoted

[ZacFields]

Finally got the promotion I've been wanting for a long time at work. I got called in to discuss "scheduling" and turned out that they wanted to offer me a supervisor position.

It's still a 2nd shift position (3:45-12:15am) like I've been working but now I alternate every other weekend off, and instead of working 40 hours a week I'll be alternating between 40 and 32 hours every other week as well.

I'll be making a some more money, (It's salaried) so it'll be nice to help me get out of all the debt I went into buying crap for this condo in the last year. So that's definitely exciting. But the most important part is that since it's 2nd shift, it allows me to keep going to school so that I know my situation will only get better from here.

Should be done with my bachelors in about 2 years from now, so can't even express in words how great of an opportunity this is. This was the first "Win-Win" situation that I've been presented with in a long time.

Finally got dealt a good hand.

Zac

[96-eclipse-gst]

Congratulations Zac, its good to see that friends are having good things happen to them. Its fantastic that it works out so perfectly for you, considering school and all. Enjoy the job and hey, get some management experience under your belt. Looks great on the resume. Again Zac, congratulations.

[NewSpeedSteed]

Congrats man! You work hard and undoubtedly deserve it. Question though, do you have to talk about yourself in the third person like that? "Zac gets promoted" sounds like someones got a pretty big ego, just playing man. Once again, glad to hear all your hard works paying off.

[Drifte]

way to go. how long have you been with the company? seems like everytime i refresh cru, your getting a promotion. Where are you going to school at now?

[TbTalon94]

Congratulations Zac, Jesse told me this morning that you got it. Great news! It's awesome that nothing really changes besides the amount of pay and steady hours for you! Definatly a win win.

On a side note...bachelors degree in 2years!? Haven't you been going to college now for going on 5years? What is the deal?

[allgo]

congrats zac

[DustinsDuster]

now that you get a weekend off every now and then, we should have a chill night in and hang out sometime. either your place or mine; Kelli and i are in the process of moving into a house right now, and it looks like its gonna be pretty awesome.

congrats man, cant think of someone who deserves it more.

[ZacFields]

Thanks everyone. I couldn't be happier about my situation right now...I guess unless I was making a bunch of money on the stock market or something :)

I'm starting in January at Upper Iowa University. They just opened up a campus in Cedar Rapids so I'll be taking a mix of in-class and online courses. The center-manager here where I work actually went to UIU and he says it is a great school. It's especially good for me because I can take some of the courses online.

Trevor: I never got a degree from Kirkwood, I just took 3 years there taking prerequisites and such. Could have done it faster but I was only taking about 12-14 credits per semester whereas you have to take 15+ to finish in 2 years. So I'm right on track as far as I'm concerned. I took this semester off while I worked on getting everything transferred up to UIU and decided for sure what I wanna do.

Didn't wanna rush school because I want to keep my GPA up enough that getting my Masters is a realistic opportunity once I'm finished with school if I decide to go farther.

Anyways, thanks to all. This is definitely a big deal for me because as I said before it represents a win-win , or rather a win-win-win-win because it's "win" on so many different levels. Couldn't be in a better situation right now realistically.

Zac

[ZacFields]

Oh and Dustin: That sounds good. Ashley still has to work weekends so I'll probably end up trying to find something to do on those weekends when I don't work.

Zac

[DustinsDuster]

awesome man, give me a call if youre bored. we're usually doing something every weekend to break the monotony of the week; and youre more than welcome to come hang out.

[69gt4speed]

Congrats Zac. Tell him we all heard he does a good job if you see him around.

[Ricky]

way to go man! i knew all your hard work would pay off sometime. congrats

[ZacFields]

Thanks again all. I definitely enjoy working here at URrelay where I've been for about a year and 9 months. It's also good that the owner of this company also owns a Financial Planning firm in Indianapolis which is exactly what I eventually want to do one day. So there's at least a resource there to help me find my way when I graduate college.

win-win-win-win-win. Can't say that enough. Sometimes a situation comes up that is just simply perfect for where you're at in your life right now. You have to remember to adjust your expectations based on where you are in your life at this very moment, and how much more you want to accomplish before you would call yourself "settled."

Don't value yourself based on money alone. The money is hardly part of what makes it a good situation. As far as jobs go, try to find one that will get you the experience you need to go where you need to go. You can't go wrong with management, but take a look at the jobs you want to get 10 years from now or 5 years from now. Look at corridor-careers on the internet and see what requirements those jobs have and find ways to make sure you can fill those requirements in 5 or 10 years. If the job you want requires 4 years of sales experience, then find yourself a job that fits that description. Too many people I know get out of college with a bachelors and realize they could have been putting 15 or 20 hours a week into a job while they were in college that could have given them 4 years of the experience that's required for the job they want, and now they realize they've got to spend 4 years after college working in a job that high schoolers and college-aged kids are working at. Lots of jobs require management experience of some kind AND a college education. Best way to do that is pick a job you like, and make sure you work hard so they trust you to work in a management position.

Zac

PS: Another person whom I think is in the most perfect position he can be in right now would be Drifte (Colton K). He's still in college for graphic design and is also getting experience in graphic design. That's a perfect example of a win-win. Don't be lazy, try to work at least a little while you're in college. Work experience is important as long as your grades aren't suffering from it. Ricky (Eric H) is another. I believe he's still in school for Electronic Engineering yet is already working in the field. win-win.

[96-eclipse-gst]

I definately know what you mean Zac. My big problem right now is that I can't decide what I want to do with my life. I always thought I wanted to go into Automotive Technology. Which I certainly would love, if I could get a job afterwards, modifying cars for performance. Unfortunately, that just isn't a viable option around here. In all honesty I don't even need the education to do that, it would just teach me those things that I don't already know.

Also Trevor, Brad (his brother) and I are trying to get a fab business up and going. It will just take so long for it to be successful. I work really hard at my job and whats sad is I know, its not going to pay off for me. There is no chance to move up. Just sucks..

[StreetSweeper]

Congrats Zac!! I guess im on track allso then, Currently in college for CNC machine and work at a Machine shop running a CNC horizontal machine.

[ZacFields]

George, you're definitely right. Going to school and getting on-the-job experience at the same time is the new age way of doing things. We went through a period in which you just needed a college education to get you where you need to go, and now it just simply takes more than that, and its because everyone's going to college now. The anty continues to go up and you've got to stay ahead of the times.

Andrew: You're still young yet. There's no rush to decide what you want to do with your life. I mean... don't wake up one morning and be pushing 30 and finally realize you've waited too long to make a move on something, but if you don't know right now then the best thing to do is take some time (possibly a year or two even) to figure out for sure what you want. Too many people go to school just to be in school and realize 2 or 3 years later that they've wasted their lives.

As for your fab business. I dont' know too much about it. But I think I have the general idea of what you guys are trying to accomplish, and I have some good ideas for you guys if you're interested. The whole board doesn't have to hear them, and I have a feeling you guys may have already thought of most of what I have to say, but even if I'm able to give you guys a couple extra ideas, it could definitely help out a little.

lol.... I feel like I'm acting a little conceited right now.... I don't want anyone to think I"m trying to come off that way. I'm not perfect.... in fact there are a lot of things I wish I would have done different up to this point, but that's exactly why I have all this advice to give. I feel like I've lived 50 years already :)

[96-eclipse-gst]

I for one don't think you are coming off in that kind of way. A great thing about online forums. You can post your thoughts, ideas, etc. Someone will be there to "ground" you. If your feeling completely lost and ready to give up. Its nice for people to get reassurance. I think thats how your coming off.

I have taken a year off and feel no closer to coming up with an idea. I have continued my education as I work though. Taking a few classes at K-wood and also been going to training through work. Our senior technicians are about ready to leave or retire. Basically one other guy and I are suppose to "take over". It will be a pay increase but nothing substantial. It would be an extra $1 an hour. If i continue and get ASE certified then it would be ANOTHER $1 an hour. So, as of now thats my idea.

As far as our business. Trevor has decided to "hold" till after the holidays. Which I agree since its hard to get appts with lawyers, accountants, etc. After the first of the year. Hopefully we should be starting to get things going. I would certainly be interested in hearing some of your ideas. If they havent been thought of already. Maybe it will instill something that could be a basis of creation later on. PM me and we'l talk.

[Ashley]

dont feel bad about not knowing what you're gonna do.. i went through a year at UI and a year at kirkwood and had no idea what i was doing.. my majors changed from: pre-med to nursing to accounting to surgical tech to END technologist.. and then i took a year off and went back and forth between about a million things. and finally settled back into nursing, so i'll start school again in the spring. :)

i read somewhere though that most people who go to college wind up either not using their degree and working in a completely unrelated field, or going back to school for a different degree after they actually start working in the "real world" with their degree. kind of funny.. but kind of a bummer, too.

[ZacFields]

I honestly think that eventually the standard will be to take 1-2 years after high school figuring out specifically what you want to do. It's what a lot of people are doing nowadays and it's honestly a good idea. People are working until they're 65 now. And by the time we get to be 65 they'll probably be working until they're 70. Lifespans are just getting so much longer and we're working later... so going to college directly after high school is no longer as important, because you're going to be working much later in your life than your parents probably did.

Our parents had to get into college right after high school because back then people were only working until they were 50 or 55, because lifespans back then were only in the 60's. So graduating college when you were 22 meant that you only had about 30 years to save for retirement. Now, if you graduated college when you were 30, you could realistically still have 35 more years to save for retirement. Graduate at 25 (about 2-3 years later than normal) then you've got 40 years to save for retirement.

In this day and age, your entire 20's can really be spent figuring out what you want to do. I mean... I wouldn't recommend waiting until you're 30 to decide. If you can get into your 401k at work starting when you're 20 or 21, that's the best thing ever because you're talking about 45 years worth of compounding interest and gains. You could make $25,000/year for the rest of your life, but if you put 6% into your 401k starting at age 20 or 21 you could have 1.5-2 million or more in there when you retire.

For a while I felt rushed to decide what I wanted to do....but it's just not realistic to stress yourself out over it. Take care of everything that you can take care of now, but if you can't decide right this moment then there's no need to stress over it. Enjoy your youth.

The human mind is fully matured at age 25. So look at it this way: Your mind is not operating at it's fullest level until you're 25. That means any decision you make before 25 has got a big chance to be regretted later. That's why taking your time with these things is important.

Zac