Wallace Library (Circulation Department)Having been a Library Assistant in high school paid off. I landed a great job when I got to college. Way better than food service. The only thing better probably would have been a computer lab assistant, however as fate would have it, I got a taste of that later on. I worked at the library in the Circulation department for quite a while, moving up through the ranks from a level one peon to a level three student supervisor. During the summer of 1992, I actually tried to become a full time library employee (after discovering the Penn State wouldn't be able to admit me to the Elementary Education program), but they hired Wanda, instead... Just as well. If I had actually been hired, I probably wouldn't have gone into IT. After "coming back" to RIT for the Information Technology program, I worked again in the Circulation Department.
Reed Hahn Litho.
I worked for a place called "Reed Hahn Litho" for a couple weeks while I was home for the summer after my first year at RIT. It wasn't a particularly thrilling couple of weeks, either. I spent most of my time putting the gold
foil GH's on Gertrude Hawk chocolate wrappers, and the rest of it making huge "bails" of scrap paper from the printing process.
Quality Inn on the Beach (Daytona, FL)
While I was in Daytona for my Summer Project with Campus Crusade for Christ, we were required to get jobs in the community, and this is where I worked. I nearly got fired because I was a lousy maid, but they discovered that I had a knack for taking inventories of kitchen units and I got to do that for the rest of the summer. (I much preferred it, too).
Kelly Temporary Services
While looking for a way to pay for my expenses in the Fall Quarter between trying to leave RIT and trying to get back in, I worked as a temp for Kelly Temps (Yes, I was a "Kelly Girl" -- what a sexist slogan!) I worked for two places while I was a temp: Sentry (the company that makes those fire safes) doing nightly backups, and Strong Memorial Hospital's Lab Medicine division (as a secretary).
Library and InterLab Assistant
I kinda "phased" my way into the job of lab assistant in the Information Technology lab (also called the "InterLab"), still worked a few hours at the library while I worked a few at the InterLab (this seems to be the way of my life now, working in a few places at once).
InterLab Assistant
I finally decided that it was time that I left the library behind and work as an assistant in the InterLab for all of my available time. A great place to
work, the InterLab... the only drawback is that now, several years later, people still ask me questions when I go in there.
Harris Corp. (RF Communications Division)
My first coop. I worked in the Human Resources Department installing and training the secretaries in Windows. I also worked on a few database projects including starting a windows application to track applicants in Access. Can't say I really enjoyed it all that much, but it was good experience and I enjoyed the people that I met there. Very nice folks.
Wallace Library (Vax Internet Area and Systems Department)
Well, I found myself back at the library. They had just decided to create a brand new area at the library, and the job of helping to set it up, train employees, and generally help make things work was one well suited to a coop experience. I came highly recommended because of the work that I had done for the library in the past. I also wound up starting to work with the Systems Department on wally (the Wallace Library's Webserver)
Wallace Library (Systems Department)
During this quarter, I continued to work on wally, creating a snazzy interactive map and a nice staff directory. Also learned how to do some cgi-bin stuff and just generally get around a web server. The web seems to have become a major part of my life since then.
Various Jobs
During the summer, I continued to work for the library and also helped design RIT's new home page. And right towards the end started to get involved with my new job at RIT's Center for Digital Media while getting everything in order for my first quarter of Graduate School.
Teaching
I'm an Adjunct Professor. Yes, officially. I'm also a Graduate Student. Yes, officially. This doesn't happen very often. To my students, I'm a Professor; to my Professors, I'm a student. I teach undergraduate level classes for both the Information Technology Department and the Center for Digital Media. It started out with Lab Proctoring and Survey of Computer Science, and has become Electronic Imaging and Introduction to Multimedia Production.