Friday---what a day!!

Hello! It's Saturday evening and it sure was a beautiful day here in good 'ole Lockport, NY.

Let me tell you, I had one crazy day yesterday!! I had my testing at Geico at 10 in the morning and first let me say that due to my non-working schedule, I've been going to bed very late and waking up very late so it was a challenge for me to wake up on time. I set my alarm for 7:00 and didn't get up until 7:30ish...now anyone who knows me knows that I am very slow getting ready. Amy knows this very well. :)

Anyways, I finally got myself out of here at 9:30 which was cutting it close because Geico is not in Lockport but luckily traffic is not an issue out here so I pulled in to their visitor parking around 9:50. The testing took almost 2 hours and it was kind of intense, or at least I thought so. I was put into a room with maybe 8 other "interviewees" and each of us was assigned a computer, we were given 3 different tests. The first was a reading comprehension test. The second was a 118 question personality test..statements like "I think that rules are made to be broken" and you'd answer 1 if you strongly disagreed or 5 if you strongly agreed, that kind of thing. The third was a combination test. It simulated being in a call center and tested our multi-tasking skills. We were given 20 minutes to learn the 'system' of this fictitious company and then put our headsets on and we had calls and e-mails come in and it was all timed. We had to first determine if the call/e-mail was for the sales, service or claims department...then we had to take the info from that call/e-mail and plug it into 9 various fields and hit "submit" before the timer ran out. Sometimes you'd have a call & e-mail come in at the same time, it was really crazy. We were told ahead of time to not expect to keep up with it all, that it was going to be an unreasonably fast pace...thank god because it was nuts. So in between doing that we'd get a little typing test where we'd have to transcribe someone's insurance claim. It was funny because in the middle of this test I had a "call" come in and the sound on my computer died. I played around with the headset and whatnot and realized that something was wrong and I started freaking out because I was running out of time & my calls/e-mails were piling up. So I got up and found the instructor and he took a look at my computer and determined that it was indeed defective and brought me to a room by myself...which I ended up really liking because then I could talk out loud to myself and no one cared. ha ha. I had to start the whole thing all over and was behind the rest of the class but it was fine. At the end the instructor came in and told me he'd print out my results and see if I passed...came back in and said I passed with flying colors and wanted me to proceed to the next step of the process.

So I went to the reception area to make an appointment for the next step (an actual face to face interview) and they asked me if I could come back at 1:30...at this time it was noon so I figured what the heck. I drove around and found a gas station, grabbed a sandwich and had lunch in my car. Went back at 1:30 and met with a gal in HR and interviewed with her. At the end of that she asked me if I could stick around because she'd like me to proceed to the NEXT step. At this point I figured what the heck, I don't have anything else to do, so I stayed.

The next step was being put into a room by myself for 20 minutes, given sheets regarding another fictitious company along with 5 print outs of customer accounts. I had to study the company info as well as the customer accounts and in 20 minutes the phone in the room would ring and one of the "customers" would be calling me. I was getting tired at this point and a little nervous but it all went well. I took my 3 calls, 2 of which were angry customers and the third was an airhead. Then the HR person called me on the phone in the room and asked how I thought it went, what if anything I would have done differently and I basically told her that I wouldn't have done anything differently. ha ha. Well, only that I did fumble a little bit but that was only because I had only learned of this "company" 20 minutes ago.

So...she comes in and tells me that they'd like me to stay longer for the NEXT step which is shadowing with one of the customer service reps and then interviewing with a supervisor. What the heck, let's get this out of the way I thought.

So I shadowed with this guy Eric for about 45 minutes and got a feel for the types of calls that come in. It was funny because I'm so used to someone shadowing with me at Medtronic, it was nice to be on the opposite end of it for a change.

Did that and then a supervisor named Frank interviewed me for another 30 minutes or so. At the end he said "let me go speak with my manager & I'll be right back". I sat there for about 15 minutes about ready to die of exhaustion and he comes back in and asks me if I have any questions, I said no...he asked me if I'm interested in the position, I said yes...he put his hand out and said "Congratulations, you got the job!!".

WOW!! After 8 long hours of being there, I walked out with a job! I totally did not expect it.

Not to mention when I walked in to the office it was sunny, hot & humid out and when I left it was a freaking torential downpour, thunder & lightning and my nice hair & outfit was soaked by the time I got to my car.

But I got the job!! :)

There is an 8 week training program...can you imagine? They take training very seriously which I totally respect and told them so. Within that 8 week training I will also become NY state licensed for insurance purposes...not quite sure of the exact title or reasoning, but I'll get back to you on that one.

Then when I'm done with the training I will begin a "transition period"...it will take up to 4 months before I'm actually doing the job. I am so impressed that they put so much effort into ensuring that their employees actually know their job.

They have excellent medical/dental benefits, 401K, profit sharing...a credit union in the building...a fitness center that you don't have to pay for and a full service cafeteria which I've heard is very good.

I'll have an odd schedule as they're open 24/7/365....I'll work the day shift which is 9:00 to 5:30, get a 45 minute lunch and two 15 minute breaks. I'll work four week days and one weekend day. That'll be a change but it'll also be nice because on the weekday that I have off I can schedule dr appointments and whatnot. I'll also have to work two major holidays per year, that's my least favorite part but I figure it's just me and it's not like I have children to worry about so it'll work out just fine.

Geico firmly believes in promoting from within and each person that I spoke to whether it was HR, manager or supervisor had started in the position I'll be in.

I'll talk to an HR person on Monday to schedule my physical and drug test and they'll also be doing a background check but I'm assuming that will all go well. Cross my fingers, ha ha! Then we'll talk more about when I'll start the training, I'll get paid for the training of course and my health insurance will kick in the first day of training.

So, that's my story. I just love the gecko!

Have a great weekend everyone!