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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Getting a Job at a State University: Not All Its Cracked Up to Be



Recently I applied to VCU for a technology services position. I think I was just applying so that the Virginia Employment Commission would know that I was looking for a job so they could still legally send me my unemployment check each week. In the job description it said that I would be providing "tier 1 and tier 2 PC support to the University executive, managerial and administrative staff. Support responsibilities include PC staging for installations, PC and peripheral installations, client software installations, hardware/software troubleshooting and network/domain connection troubleshooting." It doesn't say one thing about having to drive a state-owned VCU van around to deliver/pick up PCs. It most certainly does not say that you are required to have a driver's license in order to have this job. After applying I received a call to come in for an interview. This went very well and I was extremely confident once I left.
Still no one had said anything about driving a van or needing a license. I would have volunteered this information to them had I known it was needed. So then I got hired for the position. Then the boss finally tells me I will be driving and need a license. He starts grilling me about why I don't have the license and could I get it soon. I was starting to understand that the supervisor had screwed up and had hired two people who did not have drivers licenses to fill a position in which they would need to drive all over campus. So then I'm told that I have two weeks to get my license and they'll hold the job for me until then. Long story short, I got my license and started working two weeks ago.
The job was boring to say the least. My immediate supervisor, Mark Cahen, mostly sat at his computer all day doing.....something. Sometimes it seemed like he was doing work and other times he would be messing around on his personal computer all the live long day. We only went out and fixed or installed computers when it seemed like the work was actually piling up around him. The rest of the time I sat in front of a computer and e-mailed, played on facebook, and found as many Chuck Norris Facts (Jokes) that I could.
One day last week, one of my many bosses e-mailed me and said she was concerned that I would not be suitable to be insured by the university because there had to be some reason why I had to pay so much money to get my license back. <-----Basically, pay to work for them. So they forgot to let me know I needed a license to work there, then talked down to me like I was a degenerate for not having a license, and then, once I got my license, they decide that I have to have a perfect driving record in order to employ me.
I jumped through some hoops to get that job. Today I lost it.

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