Greetings and Salutations!!!!!! For it is I...Layton and my world of opinion...Everyone is entitled to have their own opinion, I just choose to express mine here. HAHA
Well...I was reading some of my old posts, and when I saw that the last post I wrote was just before I started school...I thought it was time I picked this hobby of mine right back up where I left it. So the question is...where do I begin?? Well...let's take it from the top...
As some of you may recall, I was laid off from my last job at Northrop Grumman after being there for 12 years in November of 2012. After I enjoyed family time for the holidays, and survived on the very small severance package I received, compared to the other companies we worked with who gave out much larger severance packages, I started to panic as I needed to find a job. What would I do? Where would I go? Who was hiring just after the new year? It became very apparent to me that this opportunity was not going to just happen, and would require a lot of work and effort. Well, I began looking and searching, and doing everything I could with the unemployment agency and the various job hunting websites to find the new path that I was going to jump on. The problem was that all of these positions required something I didn't have, and they really were unwilling to trade all of my years experience in the work industry for...a degree.
So...I decided to get off my butt, and finish what I started over 20 years ago...and I found a college that would take my credit transfers, and transfer my military background to college credits, and I started my online schooling. The way it worked was 1 class at a time, 5 weeks in length, which equaled to a normal 12-15 week course crammed into those 5 weeks. It was certainly not easy, and it meant I would have to miss out on some things whenever I was invited somewhere. As hard as it was, I stuck to it, and I put school first. My family supported me, my friends supported me, although I know some were not too happy when I had to bail out of gatherings because of school. It sucked to do it...but I stuck with it, and showed my kids that school should come first above all else. And if you play hooky for a day, you have to work twice as hard to make up for it. There were times when I just needed a break, and so I took one, but then worked twice as hard to get back on track. But the important thing is that I never gave up...and I kept pushing forward. The end result was a double bonus for me. Not only did I graduate college with a degree in business, but I made the Dean's List for every semester. I never had the best grades in high school because I never really pushed myself, so I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it by pushing myself hard and I achieved my goal with Dean's List!!
School lasted just over 2.5 years, so the funny thing for me when I was finished with it all, was what do I do now?? I had to learn, as crazy as it sounds, to hang out with people again. After the first two weeks of being done with school, and being bored outta my mind, I was driving my wife crazy. She was like...go out, do something, stop being annoying, go find a hobby...so I did...before she may have killed me!! HAHA
But let's backtrack for a minute...because I was not unemployed the entire time I was doing school. I had a couple of opportunities at different career paths. One opportunity that was knocking, had slammed shut for everyone who was being hired because of the Government shutdown back in October / November of 2013. They were about to offer me a job, after they sought me out, and a successful interview with a panel of managers from the company. But alas...it just didn't happen, wasn't in the cards, so I started to lose hope at that point. I started to doubt myself and my abilities. Then another opportunity came along, and it was a second chance with this company, but as hard as I tried, I just could not make it work for me. It involved selling life insurance and such to families that requested that you come out to see them. My problem was that I could not even get in the door, and that makes it more difficult to try and sell anything at all. So that lasted for about 2 months with nothing in return from it other than a good friendship with someone who was teaching me. They left the company as well because it wasn't working out for them.
Then I received information about a new warehouse opening up in Robbinsville, and they were going on a mad hiring spree to get people inside. The company was a Seattle based company...you may have heard of it, called Amazon, and I decided to apply for a job there. While I didn't get the job I initially applied for, I did get a job with them regardless. And it was my foot in the door. I have now been working here since the warehouse launched in July of 2014. I have been promoted twice since being here, one was a seasonal position for Peak which is the holiday rush, and one permanent to a supervisor back in May of 2015. I enjoy working for this company. And while there are people who are not able to handle or deal with the warehouse setting and washed out, there are those who have come along and either gone on to bigger and better things. And I have made some very valuable friendships with several people at this place. I don't know where I am going, nor do I know how long I am staying, but I am staying here to work hard and move up the ladder as best I can and be as successful as I can be with this company.
Well...that's all I have for now. But I do have more thoughts and opinions...so only time will tell when I will be able to write more on a consistent basis and keep expressing myself here.
Until next time....
