A whole week since I updated. Not meeting my minimum standard, am I?
I have been keeping busy with arrangements for my upcoming (not quite) move to Northern Virginia. (Words are involved. It's like writing.)
I've lined up a place to live: a cute basement apartment in the charming Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria. It's a serious step up from the basement in Georgetown where I lived in 1989, but not quite as nice as my house. Unlike my house, however, the apartment is a ten minute (according to the bus schedule) bus ride from my office. I signed the lease today. My landlady now has more concrete proof of my employment than I do: my prospective employer faxed her a copy of my offer letter, which is more than I've seen.
I discovered that traffic on the Demon Highway is so horrendous I cannot face it on anything like a regular basis. Fortunately for my sanity, there are an Amtrak station within an easy walk of my office and conveniently timed trains to Richmond.
I'm making a list of everything I'll need to set up a satellite household. Damn. This is expensive. And neverending.
195 words | August 24, 2007 11:43 PM | Working for The ManSo what's the deal? What "like writing" will you actually be doing? Which of your many skills has turned out to be the moneymaker?
Posted by: Jonathan Dresner at August 25, 2007 01:53 AMIt's a mystery! I can't reveal too much about the job without revealing my employer and then so much for anonymity.
It's not an engineering job, but I got hired because I have an engineering degree and a pulse (the pulse is optional, possibly even a liability). They are starting me at above entry level because the skills developed over years of translating are particularly relevant to the job. In fact, though no one hiring engineers for engineering jobs is willing to understand it, a translator's cloud of skills (research, reading comprehension, written communication, reasoning and non-numerical problem solving) is relevant to any job.
Posted by: 100 word minimum at August 25, 2007 10:38 AM