January 2012 I was hired by the U.S. Department of State.
February 13, 2012 I was sworn in at the U.S. Consulate in Vienna Austria, as an Official employee.
February 14, 2012 I worked my first official day at the U.S. Public Diplomacy Vienna Training Office.
April 11, 2012 I almost walked away from my job in frustration.
It has been a challenging transition period in my life. I am hopeful that all the intensive training I am doing will give me more employability in the future. And that very soon I will be a happy effective employee.
My job is a flexible time- 20 hour a week job. It is flexible in that some weeks I must work more that 20 hours a week in order to fulfill my job requirements. And it is flexible that I can work shorter or longer days in the week as long as I work 40 hours in a 2 week period.
Sometimes I have found juggling my other responsibilities around the job really difficult.
And I have been surprised at how exhausted I am at the end of the day.
Slowly I am developing a routine at home. And slowly I am gaining competency with my tasks at work.
I was perfectly honest in my job interview that I was completely unfamiliar with the data bases and computer programs I would be required to manage and work with. For the most part learning the new skills has been interesting and fascinating.
I hope that as I gain confidence in my job I’ll have more energy in the evening to return to some of my hobbies, like posting blogs. :-)
