I don't much post to the forum but I've been reading it lately and I figgured I'd tell all about my last 2 or so months of life which really amounts to whining because the last two or so months of my life have been less than the best ever.

In case this has not been explained (or understood) before here is some background information: I'm a University Student. I go to a school where there is the option of doing Co-op (and I am). This means that I do four months of school followed by four months of "related" work followed by four months of school followed by...Continuing until 8 school terms and 6 work terms have been completed. (I know it doesn't add up. Most people take 2 school terms back to back somewhere in there) I have finished 2 school terms and a work term. I'm now on my second work term.

Work terms usually pay. The idea is that you can save some amount of money during a work term to help pay for your school terms. It all sounds very nice. But they're not placements. We're not guarenteed jobs. And the economy has not been happy recently.

Now getting this job allowed me to by-pass most of the co-op system as it is set up by the school. I knew very early that I had a job and didn't have to worry about it. My marks jumped by 5%.

I'm working for IBM. It's a large company and they hire dozens of co-op students. So the first two days they had information sessions set up for those of us who had never been here before.
During the introductions and such it comes out that I am actually the youngest and least experienced person anywhere in the building. All the other co-ops are at least in their third year and most of them are taking degrees in Computer Science or Computer Engineering. I've just finshed my first year and I'm taking Math. Now I gather that it's not unusual for IBM to hire mathies and I have taken all the classes that a CS student at my level would have taken but really I don't care much at all about this stuff.

It turns out that the team I'm working with develops and supports a product for mainframes so pretty much any one they would bring in would need to have considerable training to be able to do anything at all. I shouldn't feel so incompetant right?

Also as it turns out no one actually has the time or the inclination to actually do said training.

So for the first two weeks I sit and stare at a wall.

For the next two weeks I do some stupid basic moving files around and follwoing the instructions maintenance stuff that takes about an hour a week and sit and stare at the wall

Someone comes up with a list of stuff I could be doing and a person to tell me how to do them.

I spend the next two weeks the same way as the last two weeks interspersed with people coming around and telling me that they want to reschedule that meeting for the following day.

My co-op advisor comes and tells me that it's my fault that my job sucks, I'm probably failing, that I'll not likely ever find a better one, and that I should take a personality test. I got to a meeting where people tell me that I'd better get moving and get that stuff done. I look at them blankly because I have never heard of the stuff that I'm supposedly supposed to be doing.

I manage to figure out how to do some of the stuff by way of sending a note to the guy who was supposed to be helping me out every 2 minutes or so. I have a few good days.

He goes on holidays. I stare at the wall.

At some point between now and the end I have to write a paper about some aspect of my work.

And that's my job.

Now. In case this post hasn't been long enough and there are still some people reading:

All about where I'm living.

I'm renting a room from this guy whose name is Sam just to be confusing.

Sam is a divorved father of two mostly grown up sons. One's 18 and nearly moved out. The other's 16 or something like that. He lives in a place and a mindset where the size of your house matters. As a result he lives in a house that he can't afford and has 4 extra bedrooms to rent out plus at very nice living room and dining room in which no one ever sets foot.

The older son spent the first few weeks hitting on me. He gave up when he found out that I don't drink. My opinion of him is not high.

The younger son completely does not match his family and generally I feel sorry for hime

One of the other renters is a girl who I knew from school. We had decided to try to find a place together. A good thing too because otherwise I would already be insane. One of the other renters is sullen rather annoying. The last just has a life which means she stays away as much as possible.

Sam himself is very loud, annoying, and always has opinions AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS. I have to work very hard to keep my mouth shut and not tell him that his opinions are all ridiculous. Luckily he's not usually talking to me. I do get to hear him rant (usually to his girlfriend) about such wonderous topics as:
- How much better off all his friends would be if they would leave their spouses and their parents would die.
- How women can't do anything without a man around.
- How everyone who's not him is either rich or lazy or both.
- How much all us renters destroy his house.
- How great our jobs are.
- The best way to cook whatever we're cooking. (He buys the majority of his food precooked and ready to eat.)

He always has the TV on, and looks at me funny when I sit in the kitchen without it on. I don't bother to watch TV even though I have time and there's one availible because whatever I watch he will come in, flip the channels during commercials and complain about. There are no books in his house. He never listens to the radio.

He swears at both his girlfriend and his kids.

Sam advertises that all the rooms are equiped with highspeed internet. This is a blatent lie. For most of the rooms (like mine) this isn't even possible. So no internet access for me.

He advertises private bathrooms, also a lie.

He doesn't advertise that the house is always cold, or that the shower doesn't work right.

Really I shouldn't complain much. It's a nice enough place. But the people...ugh.

So I go home as much as possible and count down the weeks until I get to go back to school.

There. If you got this far you should get a medal or something.

Rivikah