Well, after roughly 14 months of mostly being out of work, I've finally landed a full-time I.T. job! I worked my first week this week with another electronics recycling and reselling company in Taunton. Being full-time, I have a lot more hours, but I feel fully ready to take on the task, especially if me and my brother are looking to move out of our parents' home.
I had my interview on the last Monday of October, and during the interview one of the guys I spoke with who'd become my supervisor was especially pleased to hear about my former position, especially since he used to work at that same place before I did! I was pretty much a shoe-in! Then the day after I returned from Furpocalypse 2025, I got the news that I was hired! Such a great thing to come back from a furry con to, and right before my birthday no less!
The hours started off seeming grueling, especially since I have to wake up at a practically ungodly hour, a quarter to 6 AM. This is the time my brother wakes up on weekday mornings for HIS full-time job, a paraprofessional at the local high school. We both start our shifts at 7 AM, but usually the place I work at closes up at 4:30 PM. Exceptions are Fridays, where we get every other Friday off! The other Fridays, we get out at 3:30 PM, like today. Driving to work seems somewhat easier than when I worked in Berkley, being a 20-22 -minute drive in the mornings (I'm glad I was able to get my car repaired for this!), though of course the commute home is a bit longer.
At my job, I am currently generally working on "harvesting" junk laptops - i.e. I remove the internal storage if there is any, remove any stickers the previous owner may have added, and log it into our database and pack it in the proper bin. Most of them are Dell (my preferred Windows PC brand!), but I've also worked on some HPs and Lenovos and others, even those big heavy boxy Panasonic "ToughBooks!" But on Tuesday I was shown some of the ropes on how we install Windows 11 on the compatible laptops. Wednesday, I got to be a big help to my supervisor in how to connect a T2-equipped MacBook Pro to our host Mac (a Mac Studio!) via Thunderbolt 3 and boot said MacBook Pro in DFU mode for wiping and resetting. (The MacBook Pros have MDM enrollment, unfortunately, so we can't really do anything with them for the time being.) My supervisor found me a big help there with my advice and directions, and so eventually he'll likely put me in charge of the Apple products we get. And today I was shown how to "audit" laptops, boot onto them with our external Linux-based laptop testing software to see if they were still locked in some way.
I really hit it off with my supervisor, especially since he formerly worked at the place I used to, and I'm getting along well with my other I.T. co-workers. Some of us like to joke around, and most of us like to listen to classic rock music as we work. But our facility has REALLY tight security, and so employees who aren't in head/management positions aren't allowed to bring their mobile phones onto the job, since photography isn't allowed and they also don't want us checking up on social media and stuff like that on said phones. But I was permitted to bring my iPod Classic to the job for listening to my music! (It kind of helps cement my status as an Apple expert there.)
So with this, I will be making content online somewhat less frequently, though this evening I still was able to squeeze in a Fursuit Friday photo!
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/63067361/

And so there you have it. I've finally got a productive I.T. job again, and I hope to work there for a very long time.