One Year Job Update

Before I get started, this is a post I thought I would never do because it seemed impossible to reach that milestone. It is also a long overdue post that you guys wanted. But I HAVE FINALLY MADE IT TO ONE YEAR IN MY CURRENT JOB! Yes, I know it doesn’t seem like much of an accomplishment, but to me it is based on my past job experiences. I don’t even know how I am still in my current job, but this is the longest I have ever stayed in any of my jobs. Just like before, I will tell you all about what my job is like, and what this means for my career going forward.

I currently work at a small accounting firm, and NO I am not an accountant, but an administrative assistant. When I first applied for this job, I was a little concerned because even though I did take a couple of accounting classes in college, I did not major in accounting. It is also required to take a special CPA exam to become certified which I also did not do. The only reason why I applied to this job, was because I was applying to a bunch of other random ones (after I quit my last one) in hopes of not being unemployed for a long time. Luckily, I was able to secure an interview and surprisingly, it wasn’t difficult. In fact, I wasn’t asked any questions at all but rather only being about the position. Soon after, I got a job offer, and of course I accepted because it was the only one I got. You might be thinking, why couldn’t I wait to get a better job offer and keep looking? Well, I have said many times that the job search market is very difficult, and I had my fair share of job rejections. Plus, I needed work after dealing with some personal issues, and the location of the job is close to where I am currently living now. That is when I took a gamble at this job as if I was on the witches’ road from Agatha All Along.

Currently, my job entails basically admin-type tasks which is similar to my last one but on a different level since it is in an accounting firm. The most important thing I have to do is process all the tax returns for the clients. Normally tax season is the busiest time of year for accountants which also applies to me. I don’t have to do any calculations; I just have to put the packet together. However, everything has to be neat and perfect meaning all the pages have to be aligned, all parts have to be in the right order; otherwise, they give it back to me and I have to correct it. At first it was difficult, but as I kept doing more of these I got better. I remember I spent an hour and 20 minutes processing my first tax return because I kept messing up stamping the pages, but now I have reduced it to 45 minutes or less. Other tasks I do at work include filing, scanning old files, preparing boxes for shred pickup, answering phones, depositing checks, and preparing the mail. The first few months of the year are mostly busy due to the tax season, but after that it gets pretty slow (which also explains why I didn’t do any blog posts in February and March). Now that I made it into a year in this job, I have to say I am pretty surprised I made it this far. Even though it isn’t the ideal industry I want to work in, the work that I am actually doing isn’t that difficult as long as I keep doing it. As long as I don’t do work related to accounting, I should be okay in this job.

Just like every job I had, it isn’t all perfect. First of all, when I started, I was mainly trained by my coworker who was in the same position as me, and she started 8 months before me. Basically, there is no HR department since it is a small firm, so it wasn’t formal training. In fact, I didn’t get formal training at my last job either as it was done by coworker who eventually became my supervisor (but it was more organized compared to this job). What was difficult about the training was remembering everything my coworker had taught me because if I made a mistake, they would criticize me harshly. There were some tasks where I couldn’t make a mistake at all because the action couldn’t be undone. That explains why most tasks have to be done neat and perfect like the tax returns. Since then, it has gotten easier because we now split the tasks between each other based on what my strongest areas are. Another issue with this job is that the office itself is very old from the infrastructure itself to the equipment. In fact, it is so old that are office phones stopped working one day, and only now were they replaced with new ones. Just last week they were installed and it will take some time to learn how to use them. There is also a lot of old crap around the office that is no longer being used, but is just collecting dust. We also currently don’t have an office cleaner since our last one retired and the replacements didn’t stay that long so if anyone is looking for a job in cleaning offices, let me know and I will message you the address (must currently reside in Hawaii though).

Despite the circumstances I am dealing with, I am satisfied with this job. Right now, I am on vacation at the time I am writing this post. It makes sense I am taking time off since I hit my one-year, and it is a very short week considering it is Thanksgiving. I know the request was approved, but I hope everyone at work is okay with me taking time off. I mean I should have a right to take time off as it helps with my mental health, right?! As for staying in this job long-term, I don’t know how long I want to work there. I still don’t even know what I want to do for my future career. If I jump into job searching again, I am just going to go through the same challenges again. I just hope that while I am still working, I find a future career that I will enjoy. That means, I hope I work hard in this job and still survive as I do not want to relive what happened four years ago.

That is my update on my current job, and I should be proud of achieving this milestone. Plus, I deserve having some time off because of it, especially during the holiday season before tax season. Who knows what will happen in my career going forward, just hoping for the best. I also hope that this job will help me get out of student loan debt which brings me to my next point. Recently I started this student loan challenge where I contribute payment to my student loans based on engagements on this blog from YOU! I want to share an update from the last challenge where I got 32 views on my Wicked Witch/Scarlet Witch updated post so I put $8.00 to my student loans. Sadly, I got no likes on its Instagram post, but I got so many views on the Instagram reel introducing the post. I got a total of 152 views which brings me to $38.00 toward my student loans, so thank you to everyone who engaged with my blog and my Instagram page (@pressure.shock). Now for this challenge, I will contribute 50 cents for every view from this post, like from its Instagram post, and maybe views from a potential reel. Now this is coming from my own expenses so don’t send me any money or I will give it back to you.

Also look out for some exciting holiday posts I will be doing very soon, and they will be very ENCHANTED!