apete's apage

A place for me to speak and be heard.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

What do I do!

I am trying to decide what to do in order to balance my work and school life for next semester. As school goes, I am trying to do straight HCI or tailor it a bit in order to do something along the lines of Electronic Records and archives. I really don't know yet. I just feel that HCI is a little too focused and I think that I can get the usability and design work that I want done with a few classes and mix it up with some archive classes that I find interesting. I really don't know.

In addition to the school decisions, I need to decide what to do with my job. I have now thought about quitting the job I currently have MANY times. I first thought I was going to do it when I entered school. They let me go part time. I then thought, I'll work until Thanksgiving...and then it was Xmas...and then it was spring break. It just never happened. The money was too good. Summer roles around and I am tempted with getting an internship through the middle of June, but no, the money is just too good. Besides, I don't NEED the internship to graduate. I just have to make sure I take enough practical application classes to get 3 more PEP points.

I have to decide whether I want to go part time or take a leave of absence from work. I was leaning towards the LOA because I have a little bit more in loans and a possible work study availability and I have some roommates to provide me with some rent money. That means I am better off financially. Today, I was approached by a boss' boss' boss type person asking me if I was going to be around because our customer is thinking about starting up a project that they put on hold more than a year ago. It is an intriguing project and I would be interested in working on it. I am also one of the few that has the appropriate knowledge of the project. It's basically a electronic archive that they are trying to migrate to a new software so it does fit in well with my school interests. I just don't know. I really don't think that I can work 20 hours a week and enjoy school again.

13 Comments:

At 10:21 AM, July 26, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Remember you're probably going to want to play broomball again too.

I'd go with LOA. I'm officially on LOA from my old company that I worked for back in PA. They have no obligation to hire me back and I have none to them to go back. But we have the handshake agreement that if the fit is right and they have a position, they like my work and would welcome me back. It's nice because my vacation time, salary level, and benefits are just frozen and will resume right where they were instead of restarting the clock if I go back. It's also a nice bargaining chip when/if you go to look for full-time jobs next year. Personally, I don't think you can go wrong with LOA.

 
At 11:26 AM, July 26, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

In terms of specialization... I think you have to really love HCI to do HCI. If I were doing it all over again, I would have gone for a different specialization and taken some HCI classes while I was at it.

 
At 7:12 PM, July 26, 2005, Blogger cariberry said...

Well alas I am here to state the obvious :-p. But I do agree with Tony...take the LOA so that you can enjoy your time more. And do a part time (less than 20 hours) job that is totally relevant to your interest areas!

 
At 8:11 PM, July 26, 2005, Blogger Noor said...

I say, go tailored. 622 is probably the best HCI class we've got and the only one you really need to do HCI work (in my opinion) . . . and you've already taken it. 682 fills in a few gaps after Judy's class but the gaps aren't enough to make it a complete class (the project is good but unless you really want to do UI design, you don't need that class). If it weren't for me having two programming classes and stats waived, I'd probably go tailored myself. I'm not really looking forward to that human behavior class (after everything I've heard about it) but it is my only HCI requirement left so I might as well go for it.

 
At 1:43 AM, July 27, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tailored! Tailored!

As far as the job goes, I'll just say again what I've said many times already - if it doesn't make you happy, quit. Enjoy your life while you can.

 
At 6:16 AM, July 27, 2005, Blogger Syl said...

ah you slackers. Enjoying life is for the weak. Work as much as you can, take as many classes as you can, get as drunk as you can on the weekends ...

Worked for me ... oh wait, it didn't :-P

Giving advice hasn't worked for me lately but that will NOT stop me. If you don't like HCI completely and utterly and are not willing to live, eat, drink, dream UI design, go tailored!

 
At 8:58 AM, July 27, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm with Sylvie. Hating work is always a good excuse for getting drunk. A lot.

 
At 9:21 AM, July 27, 2005, Blogger apete said...

The financial cusion is such a leash though. I am supposed to only be able to take a 6 month leave of absence. 8 months would be perfect. Why can't they just lay me off? The decision would be made for me and I would be able to be someone who wanted it as opposed to a fellow co-worker who would rather keep their job.

 
At 2:37 PM, July 27, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"...I would be able to be someone who wanted it"

The required comment is, of course, uhm maybe you need to talk to a doctor about that.

After I read this, but before it registered as a typo, and after I thought the comment above, I thought...why not "Be all that you can be"

Join the Army!

 
At 7:15 PM, July 27, 2005, Blogger Noor said...

Maybe you can get yourself fired and collect unemployment? Clearly you haven't watched Office Space or Fight Club enough times.

For the record, I'm only kidding, getting one's self or one's friends fired is not a good thing! ;)

 
At 9:29 PM, July 27, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't know about the firing bit, Milton had it pretty good by the end of Office Space. Just make sure you don't go to work for a company called Pene- I mean Inetrode. And WHAT WERE YOU THINKING! You forgot the first rule about Fight Club. Geeeez.

 
At 9:21 AM, July 28, 2005, Blogger apete said...

Well in Office Space it didn't quite work out. I like American Beauty's quitting scene too. No, I won't burn bridges. I have enough ethics that have me continue to do a good job. I'd feel bad for the customers if I really stunk it up. I do have a reputation to uphold and will need to have references in the future.

 
At 5:00 PM, July 28, 2005, Blogger Syl said...

You don't need those. You could always get a job in India.

 

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