I must be going to a good office then.  The lawyer introduced himself by saying "call me Larry", and the unstated dress code is common sense - not necessarily "formal business attire" (I ended up asking because what I saw was all the business spectrum).

Oh well, I've got two weeks to prepare. . .

I'm back doing admin work (Yah!!!).  But . . .  I'm going to be a legal secretary, and while I have lots of general secretarial experience, none as in legal.  And while the lawyer knows this, I WANT to be prepared before I show up on the first day.  Any suggestion?

Oh - details that may help you give me advice:  The lawyer likes to be overstaffed in administration, he does mainly corporate and real estate law, and that I will be shadowing the other ladies a lot at first. The job starts in two weeks.

Thanks,
McBethers

In the Province of Saskatchewan, the province has mandated that all full-time employees (private and public sector) receive three weeks of vacation time excluding stat holidays.

At the place I'm currently working:
> 10 years: 3 weeks
10-24 years: 4 weeks
<24 years: 5 weeks

Of course, the branch I work at has it's own rules about things.  Say, with outright permission from our boss, half hour coffee breaks morning and afternoon (the handbook says 15 minutes), and on one particularly slow day, we stretched it to an amazing 90 minutes.  The boss joined us for that one.

Jwaddington:
Sorry about taking so long to check back - I'm swamped with creating maintenance manuals for 14 projects.

Anyways, if you could, please send a sample of your form to mvlasman@hotmail.com

Thanks.

Does anyone have a form that they use for recording the distribution of digital photos?  I need to create a form for tracking photos of the work at a construction site so we know who's received what and as a cover page to go with the photos.  At this point I don't know if we will be sending them electronically or as a hardcopy.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Yahoo!!!  I got the job!

I've just come back from the second interview.  After a few questions and comments, I was offered the job on the spot.  I'm so excited.  

Now I just have switch from job hunting mode to working mode - I start work on Wednesday.

Finally!  After 4-1/2 months of job searching, not only did I get a job interview, but they just called me back.  They want to do a second interview!

In case you're wondering, I moved to a small city in northern Saskatchewan (Canada) at the begining of March.  On a typical day, there may be 4 new job postings - for things like cashier or farm labourer.  Even networking wasn't turning up any leads. So this is really great news for me. I was starting to get worried that I would never find an admin job.  

I gues that I would be a "Them" or second waver.  

Admittedly, I went to college with a goal of working in parks, but on graduating discovered that there were people who had been trying to land a full time (non seasonal) job for years.  By chance, I ended up doing clerical work and discovered that I was way better at organizational tasks than at leading an interpretative tour.

I've been now doing administrative work for many years and enjoying it, but I wouldn't pass up a chance that at least brought me back to my original industry.

I have to say that personally, I don't care how people see themselves as long as they are professional about the work they do.

That's it!!  That's exactly what I needed to know.  Thanks.

I don't have any interviews yet.

The reason I'm trying to research companies is so I can target them for potential jobs (there's been about 7 job postings for my skills and experiences since January 1 and only one was a good match). At this point in my research, I've discovered there are very few public companies, and very few postings of any type with the big employers (the Saskatchewan government and the pulp mill). The main employers are all the small businesses in town.  So I'm trying - from afar - to learn some basic information about these small companies, i.e. are they a one person show or a company with a small office.

Which is why I'm getting stymied in my research. I'm not sure how to go about the next step.

Anyone have some suggestions on researching companies during a job search?  I've been attempting to look up companies in a city I'm moving to, but information is a bit thin.  

The problems I'm running into are:
- the city is small (<40,000) and the next largest city is about 150km (93 mi) away, so commuting is not a viable option for expanding my job search
- the local phone book is a grand total of 1 in thick - and includes several smaller towns and associated yellow pages
- many of the companies do not have websites

I'm starting to get stumped on next step. I want to make sure that everyone's initial impressions of me are favourable, and that won't happen if I look like an idiot during the research stage of my job search.

I have a Fisher pen, so I can recommend getting one.  And relatively speaking - they are initially a bit expensive (compared to stick pens), but they are worth it.  I bought mine 6 years ago, for $30 Cdn, and I'm still using the original ink cartridge.

As for pencils - when the paper gets wet, pencils tend to dig in and shred the paper.

Just a note on trackball mouse: they take some getting used to, and some people just CAN'T adjust to them. If you do go for a trackball, spend some time at your local computer store and try them out until you find one that you like. I use one with the thumb marble, and I prefer to avoid the ones where you use your fingers to move the marble.  

Don't ask what I do when I have to use a mouse that you have to move. (I "bang" it on the table).

The best experience I had for keeping a work diary is the job where my hours were split among 4 different divisions.  Just for timesheet purposes, I needed to keep track of who and what I was working on.  There were weeks where I had over 15 project codes on my timesheet.  On that job, when review time came, I was able to go through my work diary and document what I did versus my job description.  My supervisor and I were able to sit down and discuss what the job really was (it was a new position), and I was able to negotiate for some extra perks.

Personally, I just like to maintain one because it keeps me accountable to myself during work.  It's easier to avoid the temptation to goof around when I'm going to write that I was internet surfing in my journal (anyone coming by my desk can see it too).

Are often found in camping - and are invariably useless for eating.  The tines are too short for using as a fork and liquids don't stay in the bowl.  There is a tendency to stab yourself by accident.