Back in the day when I was working at a potato fresh pack company I was driving fork lift and running the main control center. I had some computer skills but not a great deal until my friend Matt helped me over the years to get my computer skills better. One day while at work, I was in the office filling out the paper work for the load of potatoes I just put in a rail car. When the big boss of the plant came out who said he was getting some air because he was frustrated. I asked what the problem was and he said the person he hired to get his computer up and running was 2 hours late and he needed to get to work. I told him that I could get his computer hooked up with no problem. He looked at funny with the facial expression of "you? a mere forklift driver?". He did however give me my shot and I had his computer up and running in about 20 minutes strait from the box. It felt like I was a kid with a new toy. After I got him up and running about 2 hours later the big boss came out into the warehouse looking for me wanting me to do the same to 5 other computers. This was when my forklift carer was done and my computer carer was born.
I was then put in charge of what was called the crows nest which had several computers to monitor and change all potato routs through the belts. I was able to get more training and hands on experience through out my time. When I would come home from work I had several friends and neighbors ask me for help with there computers and again with the help of my friend my computer skills improved. After another few years of that the potato plant ran into some financial difficulties and had to close and that put me out of a job.
At this time DELL had moved into the area and several people said it would be best for me to go apply and work for DELL. When they would ask me that my facial expression and thoughts were that they were out of there minds, this was professional work and in my opinion I did not have near enough skill to do that kind of work.
I had decided to go against my friends and family suggestion and went to work for a lumber yard that has been in operation since like the 1940's called Stars ferry building supply. My job was to take care of the yard and run deliveries with the occasional help with customers. For all there paper work everything was done on paper. For some time I started to get back into the frame of mind of a forklift driver because that was also part of my job and I did that allot when we would get resupplied. I started falling into a comfort zone and at times felt as though I was in a slump, but I was working and bringing home a pay check.
Then one day as luck would have it the store manager called us all in for a meeting and told us they were going to upgrade and bring in 5 new computers. We were all happy to have them go make work easier. That was not totally the case. One day as I got my delivery set up I went into the office to get my paper work and found all the office people staring at the screen. I asked if they were ok and with them saying yes I went to do my delivery. The job took an hour as there were special instructions as to were everything went. When I got back and walked into the office those same people that said they were fine was still staring at the screen not knowing what to do. I was able to take the mouse and keyboard and show them a whole new world. As I would go out and work I would get called into the office and help them with the computers, soon I was given a radio so when I would be out in the yard I would be able to be called so I could help them. Then it stated to be that I was constantly in the office helping and working on the computers if something went wrong. Suddenly I the forklift mentality left and my computer life kicked back in again.
So with that came my friends and families suggestion to go work for DELL. This time I remember thinking to myself, "why not, what will they say, no?". I went online and with the help if my sister-in law Misty in getting my resume set up I was able to get an interview with DELL.
I got the job with DELL right on the spot. I was in total shock. I was actually doing something I liked to do and I was helping people. I got hooked into the job, I even won awards for my technical skill and my skill with the customers. there was one award I got when allowed me to work with Flat screen monitors instead of the old 12 or 13 in CRT monitors everyone else was working on. I had 2 20 in flat screen monitors that were just awesome. I even won a brand new FREE computer wow. We had a meeting one day and one of the big wigs from Texas was there to let us know how the business was doing and all the numbers. they had a computer they were raffling off and everyone needed to write there names on a ticket. when all the business was done they pulled out the basket with the names and low and behold they called mine. I was in shock so bad that it took them twice to call my name and the guys around me had to snap me out of shock. Its been a year and a few months now that I have had this computer and its been awesome , Windows 7 running on it is amazing.
With this job also got me a certification with Microsoft, My MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional). It was a hard test to take but one I got it the opportunities have been coming in, OF course in any job there are going to be people that make the job great and their are people that make the job just crappy. There were several of the crappy people including a supervisor that didn't have a clue about business and then try to make life hard because they want you to do things that would make the team hate each other or want you to join there church or something like that. Then it turns out that he gets fired because he takes the company credit card and shoots up a huge bill of allot of "stuff" and gets caught. He is then ordered to pay it back but wont and gets fired.
After that fiasco we got T.J. our new awesome boss. He and our team coach Derek made our team which was so feeling down that they made us the number one team for all of DELL. that went on for quite some time until the unthinkable happened.
With this horrible economy and business shutting down I thought that would not happen to the computer industry, boy was I wrong. The big bosses thought it would be a great idea to let go the best group in all of DELL. The excuse was that DELL didn't own the building that was in Twin Falls ID. DELL has 3 other huge buildings that needed to be filled. The bosses did say that anyone could apply to go to one of the buildings in Oklahoma. After allot of thought and prayer the answer to my prayer was to stay in the area and be close to my family.
I was so angry that finally I had found my niche in life, something I was good at and it was ripped out from under me. In all the jobs I have done I was always failing or getting into some sort of trouble or being put in another department. I would do my best but it wouldn't seem enough and now everything was going great until they pulled the rug out from under me. I am over it. I understand what has happened and am moving on. this is just another chapter in my life that has now come to an end. So what am I going to do? That's easy, Turn the page.
