Aviation? Yes Please!

So if you read my post last night you know that a) I live in Alaska now and b) I moved up here with no job prospect lined up. So my first order of business when moving up here was to find a job. Before I moved I had talked to a swim coach up here who is the head coach for the Wasilla Waves who told me I could help out so I had a volunteer position when I got here to keep me busy but no real job. When volunteering the coach had me talk to the Head Coach of Colony High School's team where I agreed to help out with the high school team (which they pay you a stipend for after season) so I was going to have a small amount of income coming but unfortunately not until after season would be over. I love coaching still so I was very excited to be able to have these opportunities but they still didn't pay the bills. So I continued to apply to jobs. Before I had moved I had applied to target and they had called to interview me but told me that they could not do the interview over the phone so I would have to wait until I was in Alaska. When I moved up I called them again and they brought me in for an interview. I got hired as a team member for 10.50 an hour in electronics. They made me wait for a bit for my orientation so I didn't start until the end of August. The job at target was only part time (as all their team member positions are basically) but it was something and it paid more than volunteering. I still needed a real job so between working my odd shifts (some nights till 11pm some times as early as 9am always sporadic and never more than 7.5 hours long) I was applying for jobs still.

As I was looking for jobs on craigslist (a lot of people post jobs up here that way) I came across an extremely vague job description that normally I wouldn't apply to (no statement of where the job was at, etc.) but for some reason this one I felt like I should apply to. It looked to be an ideal job from the description, it had a lot of different aspects, needed someone organized, and had some advertising components to it. I put my hesitation aside of the potential craigslist scam it might be and sent my resume and cover letter to the craigslist email. I got a response the next day from Emilie Saunders the Operations Manager (Emilie trained me and I took over her job as she was moving to Montana) from the Alaska Aviation Museum (turns out that is where I applied to with out knowing) asking if I was living in the anchorage area. I told her I was living in Palmer and hoped for a response back. She had emailed me on friday and monday while I was at home I got a call from Shari Hart the Executive Director at the museum (my boss now) asking if I would like to come in for an interview the next day. I said most certainly and then promptly went and googled where the museum was at so I could find it when I drove into Anchorage the next day. I was very nervous when I went for my interview but Shari and Emilie were both so nice and down to earth that I was put at easy from the start. It was an exciting interview because I loved the job description and near the end of the interview Shari told me I was the best person they had interviewed by far and that she would let me know by thursday on if I would get the job (I had my interview on tuesday). Well as I was driving around about to go to work at Target on wednesday I got a call from Shari and she told me that she was offering me the job (obviously I accepted!). So finally a full time job! I felt very lucky to have gotten a job just two months after moving up to Alaska especially since I don't have the most work experience at this point except as being a swim coach and lifeguard. I started working the week afterward on monday and have been working at the Alaska Aviation Museum ever since and love it!



Working at the Alaska Aviation Museum is a great job and perfect for me. It is a very small organization with only me and my boss being full time employees. My job title is Operations Manager which basically means I am a jack of many trades. I do our accounting other than payroll and reconciliations, I design our ads, I do our donation receipts and thank yous, update our membership database and send out information to our members. It's a great job and I love it, I don't know tons about aviation so this job has also taught me a lot! Here are so cool photos of the museum to check out!

                                                   My office... thats right TWO computers ;)

   
 The Museum's newest baby (on lease) a Zero!                The Museum's other new addition (also being              
                                                                                                                     borrowed) a T-6!

Tomorrow I will post about my exciting outdoor life while I have been here. (Tons of hikes you may have seen photos of on Facebook!) So if you are interested check it out! :)
- Nicole