Brie's Personal Book of Job

It's official- Baxter made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I'm getting hired permanently at Baxter in Los Angeles. This means benefits, paid vacations, but more importantly: no more job searching. I mean, after my three month probation period.

The plant here in Los Angeles works with human plasma to create hemophilic treatments and immuno-therapies, although Baxter focuses on a number of treatments in plants all over the world. So there's a lot of opportunity to further my career and get trained in multiple areas. For the time being I'm working in the Quality Department- making sure everyone else is doing their job correctly.

The one thing I never thought I'd feel about a new job? Judged.

I've worked at quite a few different contract (read: temporary) positions since I graduated from UCSD three years ago. I didn't mind because Mr. E and I didn't know where we were going to end up, so putting down roots into a job didn't seem like the best idea until we moved to where he would need to work. The first job I found out of LA seemed great- good commute, interesting company products, I liked the people... But the work itself was repetitive, slow and the training vague. I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere in that position, in the department or in the company. So when Baxter called I jumped at the chance.

Here was a homogenous mixture (read: equal) of temps and permanent workers. Kids right out of school and employees who had been with the company for 35 years. We rubbed elbows. We relied on each other. There's a lot of communication and teamwork between all three shifts for our 24-hour facility.

And yet, when I was offered my position (yes, Yes, YES!) I was asked repeatedly by the younger crowd, "Are you going to take it?" As if I had something better in mind. As if I was better than this job. As if a decent-paying position with upward mobility, international locations and paid holidays was something I wasn't interested in.

Let's be clear: I'm not going to school anymore. I have no dreams to be a doctor or an anything-ologist. I don't want a Masters or a PhD. The most I was contemplating was phlebotomy but that's more of a certification anyways, to be honest. So why the well-meaning condescension?

Here's another reminder that I'm not in the same place as my peers. There's a generalization that if you majored in science you're going to continue in science education- because a well-paying job means years of study.

There's a generalization that if you married young you're going to have kids ASAP and focus on family first because marriage and families go hand in hand. Or at least that's what the internet tells me in yet another list.

I tread that line between them- where all I want to do is work. And earn money so my husband can make movies (read: finance his short films until someone else can). We'll add kids in there when we're not eating peanut butter for the month to keep our budget down because that's our choice to prioritize our life that way.

So why the judgement? Next time someone tells you they got offered a job, and their voice has suspiciously climbed six octaves, muster up a little excitement for them. There's no need to squash the sprouting dreams of a new hire. There's plenty of time for corporate politics to do just that.

This. This is Good.

It's been two weeks and I think that makes it official: I'm working and I love it.

After the run-around with the interviews and the employment agency and the phone calls, I finally started my position as a Product Surveillance Coordinator with the Cardiac Rhythm Management Department of St. Jude Medical.

Essentially I analyze and assign priority to complaints from the field about St. Jude's medical devices- namely their pacemakers and associated accessories. Sound interesting? Because it is! When a customer (or a sales rep) calls in a complaint, there are all these forms they have to complete for it to go through our system. As a Coordinator, it's my job to make sure the paperwork is filled out thoroughly and correctly, and then to assign a complaint code- something as simple as "Error Code Displayed" to "Loss of Sensing/Pacing" or even "Device Caused Death".

Every customer explains things differently- or sometimes not at all- so it's essential to follow up and keep all of the information clear and understandable on all of the many forms and databases we use to communicate between ourselves and the FDA.

I'm loving the organization to it- like a many armed machine, each arm with its own purpose but everyone coming together, united in a single goal. Everyone has a place and a job to do, but we all depend on each other to get the job done and presented in a way that positively reflects our company's values.

Give me a few months here and I'm sure that I can tell you all about how awful the system is and how frustrating my coworkers are, but right now I'm in the post-job-search honeymoon phase.

Plus we have a cafeteria that serves kick-ass breakfasts and lunches every day. The downside is that I'm exhausted when I get home so the house is only tidy and not clean and we're down to our very last fresh vegetable in the fridge...That bell pepper is being put on just about EVERYTHING.

Mr. E's job front is looking up, too! After finishing Wish I Was Here, he was rewarded with a much needed week-long vacation. Apparently that's the system in the industry: work hard (12+ hours every day) for a few weeks to a few months and once the project is done you schedule a short break for yourself to take care of things (dentist, doctor's appointments, vacation) and jump back in to the next one!

This project is a pilot TV show called Love, Death & Bowling and Mr. E will be working Sound instead of Production. Although Sound isn't necessarily where he wants to end up, Mr. E has a lot of experience with the sound equipment, as well as mixing and adding sound post-filming, so it's all about making contacts and networking right now. We have a busy holiday season ahead of us!

You Might Notice a Slight Change...

Or you might not. Whatevs.

I was really impressed by my sister-in-law's new blog layout (go check it out!) that I started tinkering with mine. Make it a little cleaner, a little more mature. And then I had a full blown new color scheme on my hands! But I like it and I hope you do too!

Our big news for the month (or two) is that I found a job!
Cue mass excitement.

I'll be working with St. Jude's Medical on a team that processes and assesses product complaints for their products- mostly pacemakers and fibrillators. I'll have to pull out all of my old textbooks (and some Internet-sleuthing) to make sure I remember all of my circulatory pathways. It's still a contract job, but there's the possibility to stay on after the contract is up. I start Septemer 30th.

In the vein of jobs, Mr. E's got extended one more week, although shooting on Wish I Was Here by Zach Braff has officially ended. Mr. E's just mopping up the loose ends around the office and with post production- and then he's done! He's on the lookout for another project to work on as well.

Sort of seems like we're passing jobs off!

Keep on the lookout for this blog in October: I'm participating in The Nester's 31 Days, which means I'll be posting once a day every day for the month of October. Sort of like the NaBloPoMo I did in February, only this time I get to choose the topic! So I've got a little something near and dear to my heart, funny, sweet, sassy, honest and above all else, my own experiences. It'll be fun, I swear.

Movies This Week
What Dreams May Come

Monster's University

On Set +1

One of the perks of marrying into the industry is that I get to take a sneak peak at what goes on...without actually being terrified about my job security. Every time I think that Mr. E has an awesome gig I'm reminded that he could get fired over guacamole on his boss's lunch.

So when Mr. E offers to pick me up during work I'm both intrigued and seriously worried for his job. Then again, in his workplace it's common- even expected- to prank, cuss and do your own grocery shopping.

I really detest driving in new places (like a broken record over here) but I'm actually a fairly good passenger/navigator/backseat picture taker, so all in all I'm kind of a toss up on road trips. We drove from the production office in Burbank to set in LA. Now, set is actually divided into multiple locations including base camp and the shooting location, as well as additional smaller satellite locations. Each day a set map/location list is sent out to all of the appropriate parties...and it's about here I think that my small experience as a stage manager would have helped tremendously if I wanted to pursue film. 

Really the call sheet has all of the relevant information for everyone- closest hospital, a small map of the surrounding streets, the locations of all of the pieces and parts to set, the names and numbers for all the people who are on call for the day, etc. Traffic is highly regulated by a single security officer and a network of trailers- no stars on the door but the porta-potty I used was one of the nicest I've ever been in. Mr. E has to tag his car with a "Wish I Was Here" card so he passes scrutiny.

Apparently in LA there are all sorts of yellow signs up on the lightposts- this direct you to a film set! Once you notice them you'll start to see them everywhere. They're semi-coded as initials so Wish I Was Here became WIWH. I spotted another for C6- any ideas??

We stopped by a satellite location to drop off some high-res photographs that the Visual Effects (that's VFX, guys) made for the artist. There were two retaining walls in a residential neighborhood that the city permitted to be spray-painted for the movie. I can only imagine how much that would cost! Seeing as how they were in plain view of the street, I could resist snapping a picture, but seeing as how I'm not looking for any legal attention, we'll keep it a sneak-peak peek.

Really, the city of LA is fascinating- there are truly all walks of life here. All I know about the city is what I've seen from movies (go figure) and it surprised me that it was both similar and so very very different. Don't call me an Angeleno yet!

Pre-Interview, Interview

Confession: I hate driving new places. I get some serious anxiety- my body shakes, I cry, sometimes I shout to myself. In fact, most times I shout to myself.

It's really not pretty.

Not actually where I was, but I drove by it enough times trying to find parking. via

Case in point, my job interview today- went fantastic for anyone who was wondering. But I broke the cardinal rule of interviews...

I was 45 minutes late.

Now, for someone who absolutely detests when others are late- this was a big deal. My entire moral system was crumbling. How can I show these people that I'm dependable? How do they know that they can rely on me? How will I get this job in the face of all these other applicants who are most likely ON TIME? How will we pay our bills? On and on and on.

It certainly doesn't help that the CD Mr. E put in the car to pump me up for the interview is a soundtrack- complete with suspenseful music, tracks 7-10. It doesn't help that I'm fairly sure this part of LA was birthed into this world grimy and run-down. The one way streets? The aggressive drivers? The sights and sounds of downtown? The creaking in the backseat I'm know is just junk left over from the move but sounds like my car is breaking down?

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Of course I called ahead. Of course I had my GPS with me. And this was the only thing I had on the agenda today- so I was free as a bird to cower in my little apartment with the dog as soon as it was over. Which is basically what I'm doing.

Why, oh why, did an introvert and directionally-challenged individual like myself move to LA county?

For love.

Stupid, stupid, love.

LOVED This Week

Apparently this week I was lovin' some plants. This was the first week our jasmine bloomed. We rent a little house that just happened to inherit some INSANE jasmine out the backdoor- which is actually the front door more often than not. So starts the season of spending all of our time in the backyard just to soak it up until we have to move!

This week Greg was gifted with succulents which he graciously decided to share. Yeah, we water our succulents with syringes. And coffee dregs. But it's nice to look at something living at the office!!

 Is using the work camera stealing office resources?