Work?

Well, here we go -- it's already nearing the end of January and I'm just getting to my first post of the new year. I am off to such a great start. Despite the bad start in the blogosphere I'm off to a fantastic start in the careerosphere. That's right folks, Johnny's finally going to start a real job!!! Wednesday I was offered a position with Ernst & Young. If you don't know who they are shame on you. They are one of the "big four" accounting firms in the US. Yes, I'm beginning a career in a field that has nothing to do with my major but I think a lot of people do that. Being a global company they offer competetive salaries and great benefits. I start on Feb. 4. My first three days are orientation. Day one in the SLC office and then they are flying me out to California for days two and three. I don't know why but I think that is so cool. The job will require some crazy hours for about six weeks around tax season (like 60-70 hrs.) but they'll reimburse me for the overtime. You would not believe how excited I am about this. I feel like I won the lottery. I got my offer letter via FedEx yesterday and signed it and sent it back (FedEx). I'll be working at The Gateway in SLC. It's pretty much downtown. So now Kristen and I have the exciting task of finding a place. It's really fun and exciting but at the same time really overwhelming. We're going to rent (probably an apartment or condo) for a year or two and save up for a down payment on a house and hopefully (fingers crossed) then we can get into a home.

You know, it might be kind of long but I'd like to share the story of how I actually got this job. Things just really fell into place and I firmly believe that the Lord had a hand in this one. At Kristen's request I signed up with a temp. company just before Thanksgiving. It's a good thing I did because they had an assignment the following week for me to start. At that assignment there were two other temps working with me. We got to talking about the job search and one of them mentioned that I ought to look into going through a recruiting company (he gave me the name of the one he had used before). This is something that I had no knowledge about and would never have come up with on my own. Anyway, I scheduled an appointment and met with one of the recruiters at this company. I think she was really impressed with me and liked me. I told her, "You know, I don't look that good on paper but if I could just get my foot in the door somewhere I would make a great employee, and whoever hired me would be impressed by my work." A few weeks later (two days after New Years day) she called up and said that Ernst & Young was hiring and would like to interview me on the 16th. Waiting those few weeks for the interview was torture but I did my research and practiced interviewing with Kristen and my mom. My mom was really nervous for me but I just had a really good feeling about this job from the beginning (despite being very underqualified). The interviews went really well and then they actually had me meet with someone about a different position that they were hiring for (a good sign). The next day I had a phone interview with another person in California. When I interviewed they had told me that they hoped to come to a decision by the end of the week. So, the next week was torture as I didn't know but finally on Wednesday I got the call. They actually offered me the job that I hadn't applied for (better pay but more work). Everything just came together in a way that I know had nothing to do with me.

So, my position is Client Support Services and as far as I understand it I will be in contact with corporations that send their employees abroad and the employees themselves so that if they paid taxes in the country in which they were working they don't have to pay US taxes all over again. It will be cool to be working with international offices and such. I don't really know all the details as I haven't started yet.

Now, for those of you who haven't fallen asleep by this point I realize that I have been tagged and intend to follow up with that shortly but just give me a moment to bask in this!