I began working at Wells Fargo Bank as a temp through Talent Tree on April 15th, 2003. All I was told about my job before showing up was that my call-center experience (Stream) would be needed. At the time I lived in Murrary Hill and had an hour commute via Tri-Met to the center. After arriving for the first day I discovered that I was headed for an inbound-assistance line that helped bankers and customers with their home equity applications. After six months of work as a temp, I was hired on with Wells directly on October 1, 2003. I officially became the last remaining member of a six-person class.

I continued working on the service team through May 2004, handling an estimated 30,000 phone calls in that year and one month. The company decided to promote the entire team, as upcoming changes needed us elsewhere. I accepted the promotion and began training with twenty of my teammates around May 20th, 2004.

Almost immediately my then-supervisors approached me about a new position that they thought I would enjoy. They felt that my technical, logical, and organization skills would make me a prime candidate for a new position. I applied, interviewed, took a test, interviewed again, and on June 14th 2004 I began as an Operations Analyst.

The job was so new it was essentially undefined, I just knew I’d be involved with “various projects”. For the first six months, I investigated the phone system. In October 2004 I had completed a 24-page report detailing the problems with the phone system, and presented it to senior management. It was an extreme over-achievement, as I had simply been asked to present some of the problems, not document every single issue. Though I may have stolen a spotlight, I got a lot of recognition from the senior managers.

Eventually, I was awarded the Rookie of the Year award for all of my work with the telephone system (out of which came the T.A.S.R. application). Though I was happy with the award and certainly happy with the recognition, I was afraid I may have set the bar a little too high for myself.

As 2004 changed into 2005 the focus of my job changed a bit. I had discovered all there was to know about the telephone system, so I needed different work. In April 2005 we began two large projects, one that would last until May 2006 – remodeling the interior of the building.

2005 was a very busy year. Lots of Access databases, hundreds of Excel reports, hundreds of meetings, tens of reports, a few presentations, etc. I taught an email management class to the senior managers in April or May, and I most likely would have done another for supervisors if I had stayed. Though I never did receive a similar award as 2004, I won seven Excellence In Action awards, 5 Team Member Awards, and a plant.

I’ve taken excellent care of my Zebra plant, and have actually had it for more than a year now. This type of plant is said to do very well in an office environment, and though I don’t talk to it and I haven’t named it, I’m attached to it. I’ll definately bring this plant to my new job later this month, and see how it does with a bit more natural light as well.

2006 isn’t much more exciting than 2005, the same old reports and meetings, and other stuff.

I spent so much time on so many projects that never saw the light of day. So many heads spent so much time arguing about the best way to do something that it never actually gets done. The IT department is a group of guys who work with computers because they get paid to, and don’t know a single thing beyond what they read in a Microsoft book. Their lack of passion for technology and their ignorance immediately made my job more difficult. I lost all respect for the IT manager after two utterly stupid and unfair phone conversations with him.

Wells lost Beth and I as customers almost two years ago, and I would never recommend their products. Everything is so political that it’s embarrassing and a lot of what I do is extremely pointless – either because some technology is broken and requires manual work, or because some one thinks it would be nice. I’ve done it because I got paid, and because I certainly found an amazing position considering my age. To receive two promotions in two weeks and to get so many awards makes me feel good, and I had some good friends as well.

However, those friends will be the only thing I miss when I leave.