Thursday, October 18, 2012
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The South Dakota Life, Final Results, & Job Hunting |
I have been a busy bee since I have been home, and I am so proud of myself for finally taking the time this chilly, EXTREMELY windy morning, to update you all on some very exciting news. Of course, I will be saving that tidbit for last, so enjoy the pictures and mumbo jumbo I post in between now and then - no skimming-ahead cheaters allowed! :)
My absolute favorite thing about being back home (next to getting to enjoy time with my family) is remembering how much I love South Dakota. It is such a beautiful area - just the smell of the Black Hills is unlike anything I can describe: So calming, so refreshing, so soothing. It's crazy how you take things for granted - I've heard before that you never truly appreciate the place you were raised until you move away. I spent the entire span of my teenage years talking about how I couldn't wait to get out of SD and never look back. Well, I must eat my words on that one. Now that I'm home, I really don't want to leave. I've been enjoying the beautiful fall colors far too much!
Leia pawing at a stick in the creek at the dog park...Luke's stick, of course :)
Luke waiting anxiously for me to throw his stick for him.
Tug-O-War!
The beautiful creek at the dog park all decorated with the pretty fall leaves.
Emily and I have been kind of indulging, if you will. I was weighing in at 125 when I first arrived here and now I am almost certain I am a few (or more...) pounds heftier. We have been enjoying things like Pumpkin Woodchucks (odd, but so good!) and yummy candies from Harry Potter. I began re-reading the HP books back in Florida...I could never seem to get past the 3rd one and it always took me ages to complete a book so that by the time I reached the end, I could tell you at all what had happened in the beginning of the story. I am proud to announce that I just finished up the 2nd book yesterday afternoon and am beginning on the 3rd today - all within a month!
Is it completely weird that I like how the "soap" flavored jelly bean tastes???
We carved pumpkins a few nights ago - it has been a tradition for Emily and I to carve them together ever since we were little. Em carved a Star Wars thingy of some sort (some kind of space craft), and I bit off a little more than I could chew in choosing to carve Pascal from Disney's Tangled. I just love that little guy! We had just watched the movie the night before, so I was set on creating this cute little chameleon!
As you can imagine, I was awaiting my final results quite anxiously to say the least....as in checking my phone e-mail every time it crossed my mind, which panned out to be approximately every 5 minutes or so. You can surely imagine the mini heart attack I had last Thursday when I saw that I had a message in my inbox with the subject line of "Final Examination". I opened the e-mail to find that one of my reports had apparently not submitted correctly, and it was requested of me to resend it so that the grading of the final could be finished. Naturally, I panicked. Initially, I thought that I had left the typed reports (in print-out form) at home and knew there was no way I would be able to focus for long enough to do the report justice here. To my fortunate surprise, I had saved copies of each of the reports on my laptop and was able to simply attach the Word document to an e-mail and send it off for grading...whew!! I knew it wouldn't and couldn't be long before I received my results, especially since the requested report was number 2 out of 6 total in the order I completed them. I was thinking a couple of days or so...until I received another e-mail about an hour and a half later telling me that my exam results were ready for viewing. Holy MOSES did I freak out! Emily and I had been watching the Avengers and I sprang up off the couch, my heart pounding so hard I was sure it was going to give out, and I raced up stairs to my laptop.
Of course, it would be far too easy for me to be able to click on the provided link and view my exam results directly as I was supposed to be able to do - the process had to be prolonged (AHH!). I ended up having to call Career Step on the phone to get my results as I no longer had access to the course, which meant I could not view the results which were embedded on the course site. As I listened to the elevator-like music on hold, I word vomited to the poor woman on the other end of the phone the instant she answered that I was unable to view my results and was wondering if she could tell them to me over the phone - it was a jumbled, mumbled, million-miles-a-minute mess of words but she somehow deciphered it and pulled up my file. I began to pace in the kitchen as I waited for the verdict. "Well, it looks like you graduated with Honors, so congratulations!" Honors??? Are you serious?!?! She went on to tell me that my scores were 97% on the objective portion and 93% on the transcription/editing...2% higher and I would have scored High Honors with scores of 95%+ on both sections. As you can probably imagine, I was extremely happy. I was expecting to just squeeze by with a passing score on my final - I would have never guess that I would receive HONORS and be just 2% shy of HIGH honors on my first try!
That night, I began my hunt for a job. I applied with a few companies over the span of Thursday and Friday, receiving a few e-mails in response to inform me that they weren't hiring at the time, a few inviting me to take their pre-employment test, and a couple who still have yet to reply.
Taking a pre-employment test! :)
Of these companies, I had always had an inclining towards one in particular - Nuance. The largest transcription company in the world. I had been told by a Career Step employee previously that Nuance only hires students who graduate with Honors and High Honors, which I never dreamed I would achieve. I looked around on Nuance's site, submitted my resume, and forgot about it. I was definitely not expecting a response as they are such a huge company and, I'm sure, have buckets of people applying for what few positions they may have available each day. Imagine my shock when I saw an e-mail response from Nuance on Monday morning - just 3 days later. After watching a webinar with many details about the company, and entry-level position, etc., I was invited to participate in a phone interview the next morning to further discuss the position. I was thinking it was no big deal - just the company being friendly before they extended an invitation for their pre-employement test.
After some quite embarassing phone tag, I finally got ahold of the interviewer. She went into detail about the position, asked me a few questions about my computer, and went on to tell me that she had contacted my school. Apparently, I had scored a decent enough score on my final exam that I did not need to take their pre-employment exam, and the interviewer went on to offer me a position. Was this real life??? It had only been five days since I officially graduated from the course and here I was already getting a job offer with quite a prestigious company! GOD IS GOOD!
After formally accepting the position, we discussed which shift I would be on, as well as my starting date. So, folks, I will be officially starting my training as a Nuance medical transcriptionist on October 29th at 1 p.m. I am still shocked at how quickly I was hired - it seems so surreal!
Now, with all of that out of the way, I have been able to relax even more with not having to worry about job hunting or fretting over my final any longer. I have been enjoying every second I get to spend with my family and am so thankful that I was able to come up here!
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