I started working at my current job in 1999. I was hired as a seasonal employee meaning that I only was only supposed to work during certain months of the year (theoretically anywhere between 4 and 12 months). Well, a series of fortunate events made it so that out of my first ten years, I worked a total of nine years and three months, which all things considered was outstanding. After ten years, management was finally able to officially offer me a full-time position to work year-round. The main thing that changed was that I no longer had to worry if my contract was going to get renewed right away every few months or if I’d have to spend some time at home collecting employment insurance. That made 2009 a good year. I celebrated with much spending of money.

Last year I signed a contract for a permanent promotion to the level of job I was doing in the months where I wasn’t working as a resource officer which was at an even higher level. This meant that at most, I could only drop one job level instead of two when needs were lower. That made 2013 a good year as well. I celebrated by smiling. I was happy, but to be honest, the first full-time position meant more because it provided me with security. This time, all I got was to keep the salary I was already making most of the time anyway.

For the past several years I’ve been filling in during the summer as a resource officer, which means that when there are technical questions on how things are supposed to be carried out in our department, I’m one of the people you come to see. I’d have loved to do it full time, but the need for a substitute (which is what I was) was really only there during the summer time.

This year a full-time resource officer position opened up when one of the full-timers took her retirement. Opportunity!

I was unusually stressed while preparing for the interview. It’s probably the most nervous I’ve ever been over something work-related. I’m pretty confident in my abilities to get my work done so I’ve never stressed out over it. But now, the job I’d been coveting for years was finally within my reach. I just had to beat out a dozen or so other hopefuls for it. It could be some time before another opportunity arose (it turns out there’s likely to be another opportunity within the next year as another resource officer is retiring).

The interview went really well. We had to wait for the results to be validated and made official. In the meantime I and two other employees were given interim contracts for the summer, the length of mine made it look like I was the candidate most likely to get the full-time job. That was back in May.

A week and a half ago I was made a formal offer to work as a resource officer full-time which I accepted. The last step required before I could sign was to allow the other employees still up for the job an opportunity to request a review of my nomination. Nobody intended to do so, but officially management still had to wait for the request period to be over, which was on Saturday.

Knowing how eager I was to sign my contract, my boss (successfully) pushed for the paperwork to be filled out as soon as possible. And so it is with much happiness that I can announce that I signed my full-time contract today. Yay me! I will celebrate with some more smiling…and maybe a nice night out over the weekend. 2014 has turned out to be a good year too. Jobwise I’m officially where I want to be.

But what about Animus news? Nothing really to report. My continued employment guarantees that I should be able to continue with the site at my current level of involvement for the foreseeable future. Other than that, well I finally posted a Print ‘n’ Colour gallery for the Krull mash-ups. I’ve got a number of other finished mash-up themes waiting for a similar treatment. I should be doling one out each week for the next few weeks. Be sure to upload pictures of your finished coloured pieces on the Age of Animus Facebook page!

That’s all for this week folks! Have a good week!