Work stuff

So, the new person in Romance Studies came a week ago today.  Consequently, tomorrow was to be my last day at Cornell, and this week I was only going to come in half days to help the new person get situated.

Yesterday when I got to work I was told that I wouldn't be there today nor tomorrow as another office needed me to temp and that also there was an opening in Physics for a part-time job that I might be interested in.  So, after one pm (when I would have gone home), I went over to visit the office where I am today and then went over to Physics to talk about the job there.  

The job here isn't too bad so far.  It's actually two part-time secretarial jobs stuck together, one being Cornell in Washington, a sort of internship program and the other CAPS, China and Asia-Pacific Studies.  The phone has only rung twice, first someone from Cornell in Washington giving me a rundown of what I should expect for the day and then someone that I forwarded to the office in D.C.  I haven't heard a word from CAPS yet...  Mostly I've been catching up on reading blogs, which is nice.

So, the job in Physics....  It's part-time, which is great.  25 hours a week, with maybe a full day on Monday and shorter hours the other days, but still five days a week.  The title is Undergraduate Coordinator/Events Coordinator.  This means I would help the undergraduate figure out which classes to take when, answer all sorts of questions and be generally helpful, publicize events, organize receptions, book hotel rooms for guest lecturers, etc.  I'd also help write up some stuff to attract more students to the major.  All in all, sounds pretty good.  It would also pay pretty well and I would get benefits.

Downsides: it's a lot closer to a real job than I've ever had before, which scares me.  Two weeks vacation time (not counting the week between Christmas and New Year's which I would also have off) for the entire year....   No more summers off.  I've been pretty spoiled with the student life and being pretty uncommitted to any job I've had...

The more I think about it, the less it scares me and the more it makes sense to apply for it.  But there's still some of me saying "AAAAAAAAHH! RUN and HIDE!!".  This is a bit ridiculous, I admit.

More benefits:  Benefits, better health insurance.  Also, if I do this instead of some minimum wage job for fewer hours during the week we'd save more money sooner...which means having kids sooner would be easier, at least financially.  Also the job does seem fun and challenging and having spent much time in department offices asking questions during my undergraduate years, I really think I could empathize with the students....  I'd be much less likely to get bored than in some data-entry or filing sort of job (though I'm sure there will be at least some of that as well).

And, of course, there's always the possibility that I do apply and don't get the job.  There will probably be around 60 applicants.  

So, those are most of my thoughts for today.  Though, if it stays this slow (I've only gotten one more phone call and still no one has actually come into the office), I might post again later....

Ciao!