by jltitus on February 26, 2007
I’ve been meaning to write this blog post since last Friday but in typical fashion I’m busy as ever which is a good thing. Let me just start by saying, I LOVE MY JOB… well, JOBS.
Thursday and Friday last week I got the opportunity to go to our downtown offices in the Montgomery Building (used to be the old Montgomery Wards building). Going there was sort of surreal because the place is so huge. It’s like 9 stories high but the thing is, it just feels so massive, maybe because there’s nothing big around it. I walked into the main part of the building and looked for an easy way to get to the 6th floor to meet up with the person I was supposed. Of course I took the elevator, couldn’t find the stairs, but I got sort of freaked on the elevator as it’s glass and you can see out in the middle of the building where the seating for the cafeteria, etc is and me with my love of heights didn’t like that so much so i just stood facing the door hoping it would go fast enough so I didn’t have to think about where I was. Thursday I spent time with our Fulfillment Services branch of the organization and then on Friday I spent with the “traditional” side of the house.
It doesn’t seem like there’s that much that makes the two groups different but there it. FS (Fulfillment Services) do not have anything to do with customer service. If there’s any issue with a change or anything they kick it back to the agent. Traditional on the other hand is all about customer service and going the extra mile. What’s different too is that FS ticketing agents have to be able to use 4 different databases as not all airlines, etc use the same database where as those that are traditional just use one database. Traditional have customers from only one company. What do I mean? Well agents are aligned to a company so they only get calls for a particular company rather than from any company like FS.
Spending time at the offices was very interesting and enlightening. I don’t think I’ll ever book a ticket somewhere unless I’m sure about the whole trip because from the back end making the changes is quite intensive. I also got the opportunity to be double jacked in and listened to both the agent and the customers call and got the opportunity to help in a few instances. It was so cool and fun but I’m glad I’m not in customer service. One of the many times I was listening this customer wanted the agent to find him a hotel in Federal Way that had a kitchen and was available for 2 weeks. I think the agent and I spent about 15 minutes to find him one only for the guy to tell us that that was the hotel he was in and he didn’t like it. OK, so the agent and I look and find another one after another 15 minutes and were ready to book the guy only to find out that they guy was going to go check out the hotel and would call back if he wanted us to book it. Argh!!! I don’t know how the agents do it.
I was really glad I got to opportunity to go there for a few days because it gave me a great perspective of the employees and their needs when it comes to training. I also got to meet one of the guys in my group too which wasn’t too bad.
Tagged as:
BCD travel,
organization
by jltitus on February 21, 2007
I can’t believe today is the end of day three of my new job. I really wanted to post about my first day but honestly didn’t get a chance to post about anything until tonight. Let me just say…. I LOVE MY JOB!!!! I love the fact that I get to work from home doing the things I love. I love designing online training and the creative process of it all and I’ve finally found a job where I can do that. It’s so nice to have a few hours of meetings every day and then spend the day designing and organizing an online course.
I think the most interesting part of this week so far was the concept of reporting for my first day of work. I do have to admit that it was a little different calling in to talk to my manager rather than meeting someone in person. I really, really like my manager and I’m VERY excited about the projects I’m working on. One of the first projects I’m working on is overhauling a few courses that are part of the New Hire course work for new employees. I’m really excited because I’ve basically been given no limits on the project, meaning I don’t have a lot of rules to conform to regarding a template or anything. I’m excited about having the ability to really create a wonderful product that WOWs my manager but more importantly gets the right content across to the user. I’m excited too because the company I work for uses Captivate and I’ll get the opportunity to really build my skills with Captivate and use Captivate 2.0. I can’t wait.
So things are going well, very VERY excited about things and my manager. Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you about one of the other perks I get besides the fact that I have a job with good pay. I also get an IATAN card. What’s that? Well, it’s a special card given to travel agents and those that work for travel agents. It’s pretty cool because it means SAVINGS galore. I’ll get things like; 50-75% on Hotel Stays, Up to 55% Discounts on Airfare, Free First Class Upgrades, Deeply Discounted Rental Cars, Half-Priced Theme Park Admission, Cruises for $35/Day, Free Show Tickets, Free Meals and Much, Much More! Another thing that I get is two free round trip airline tickets each year anywhere in the US, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. I guess there are more perks too but I’ll find out about them on Monday when I attend the HR conference.
Tomorrow and Friday I get to head down to our offices in Portland and learn more about what the travel agents do behind the scenes when people book a flight or trip. I’ll also meet with the fulfillment group too to see how they do their job. I think it will be an interesting and educational time and fun too. I have not a clue about the travel business but I think after this week, I’ll know a little more.
More later…..
Tagged as:
BCD travel,
job,
working
by jltitus on February 5, 2007
Well I’ve got a job. Actually I have two companies fighting for me. The first company, XYZ Travel, called this morning and offered me a full time job that’s also a work from home position. Score! I had interviewed with the company the last couple of weeks and was hoping I would get the job. Well, they offered me a job so I took it. I’ve been hoping for the job and was excited when I got the offer. After that I contacted another company, ABC, that was going to hire me on a contract basis, again work from home, to see if we could work out something where I could work some nights and weekends for them to catch up with everything. Well, the ABC manager called me about an hour after I sent her the email and told me she’d just talked to the COO about me and was prepared to offer me $10,500 than the offer XYZ had made me. We talked about benefits and things but I told her I’d need to get back to her. I contacted the manager at XYZ to let her know I had a better offer that I’d have to consider. She asked me what was the amount I was looking for because she really wanted me. I told her and she let me know she’s calling me back in the morning to see let me know if she can meet my base salary. So tonight Eric and I need to sit down, weigh the options and decide. Too exciting to have people fighting over me.
In other news, my new laptop is in which means ANOTHER trip to the Apple store to swap computers and hope the new one doesn’t have any issues.
Tagged as:
BCD travel,
job
by jltitus on February 5, 2007
After long last I got a job! WOO HOO and it’s 100% from home with is too awesome for words. As of February 19th I will be employed with BCD Travel devloping online training for them. I am so excited and can’t wait to get my hands dirty again. Thanks to everyone for their support and help.
Tagged as:
BCD travel,
job
