So last Octboer, I posted a thread asking for advice. I applied to a number of jobs and got job offers from two places. One was a sales position at Rainier Arms, and the other, an assembly job building machinery involved with concrete prep and finishing. The advice I got was great, and that was to go with the production job.

It has gone very well. I love what I do, my bosses are awesome (we do "show-and-tell" with firearms in the shop supervisor's office), and I have free run of a full machine shop. I work 4-10's Mon-Thurs, and the schedule is flexible - I can trade one of those days for a Friday. I come in a half hour early almost every day and start at 5:30AM, and if I take short lunches, I can be done for the week around 2:30-3:00 on Thursday. The pay isn't amazing, but it isn't bad. Two weeks paid vacation per year, and a Christmas and New Year's bonus, 401k, and more.

However, the last three or four months, business has dropped off sharply. I've had my head down and so busy I almost hadn't noticed. We shut down our main production line about a month ago, and our secondary and tertiary production lines have slowed and are shutting down. There's completed units totally choking the shipping bays, crated and wedged in. There's completed sub assemblies crammed in every corner of the warehouse. Last week, my department actually ran out of things to do, because what we could do, we wouldn't need any more of for months, and there was only a few things that we couldn't do because the inventory control guy hadn't kept us stocked with parts. I've been waiting for a month now for some helicoil brass inserts that we can have overnighted to us, according to my manager, but for some reason they just haven't showed up. Long story short, last Tuesday morning, I talked to my boss and took most of a voluntary week off without pay because there was no work to do. I left early again today between my insides hating the takeout we got for lunch yesterday, and the fact that I had again run out of busy work to do.

I got home, took a nap, and checked my email when I got up. Ziprecruiter had emailed me a notice that a well-known firearms manufacturer not far from me looking to hire for a position I'm qualified for. A few hours later, I've updated my resume and applied. There are a few negatives I can think of, but overall I believe it would be an amazing opportunity, and most importantly - a good fit. It would be, in essence, a merging of the two jobs I got to choose between last fall.

I like my bosses and most of my coworkers, but last week, I had a run-in with one of the drunks at work. He didn't like how I was setting up my area at 5:25 in the morning, red-faced, and tried to start a fight about it and then told me I needed to walk away while I could. Somehow, I don't see clowns like that getting through the hiring process at a place where firearms are built and tested. I could be wrong, but...

If this doesn't pan out, I've got another potential opportunity. I spent the last weekend of June and the first weekend of July working at an in-patient rehab facility, working directly with addicts and alcoholics looking to get cleaned up. It was incredibly rewarding, and I loved the actual doing of the job. The deal-breaker wasn't working 56 hours a week, it was the traffic. It was forty minutes to an hour in the morning, but an hour and forty minutes home through Kirkland, Bellevue and Renton. If you live, or have lived here, you know how bad it gets, and that was on the weekend. Absolutely atrocious drive. Anyway, I resigned after the second weekend, but have been texting back and forth with the program director about possibly working at one of the out-patient locations, one of which is a 20 minute drive for me. The pay isn't awesome, but they offer education reimbursement and I could work towards becoming an SUDP. In fact, she just texted me the name and phone number for a lady to contact about an interview.

So, as the thread title says, here's hoping. I like my job, but it feels like it's time to look at new opportunities.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: P220 Smudge,

You've got several irons in different fires and all sound promising, despite nothing ever being perfect.

You're attitude is positive and that's the most important part.

I'm very proud of you, just reading this

Something good will work out for you.

Prayers for your continued success

Are you locked on your current location?

Meaning: Would you move to be closer to a job you really want? Thereby cutting down commute time

So I'm guesing XXX based on where its located and where you are, the other option being YYYY which based on your info is a LONG drive (which you didn't mention). And XXXX is in T-town (my town) and I get the homeless comment, and Lewis County doesn't have this issue to that extent so that's my reasoning on that. To me, it seems a solid gig as long as this type of thing is tolerated in WA, which will probably be a good long while. Both make a solid product. But, full disclosure, I was in the Rainier Arms camp from before 'cause I love those guys. I have two YYY lowers and am getting an XXX 9mm lower soon.

If you like the treatment work, you could always try and find a place closer to you and work towards ending up there. Thre are often a lot of openings, because the job tends to burn people out. I would NEVER do the traffic in the Seattle/Bellevue metroplex.

Either way, good luck!!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Loswsmith,

quote:

Originally posted by ersatzknarf:
You're attitude is positive and that's the most important part.

I'm very proud of you, just reading this

Something good will work out for you.

Prayers for your continued success

Well, thank you, Frank.

Life has been rough on me, especially the past few years with health stuff, but I'm incredibly blessed and have managed to completely adjust my attitude. Life is starting to come together in many fine ways.

quote:

Originally posted by vinnybass:
Are you locked on your current location?

Meaning: Would you move to be closer to a job you really want? Thereby cutting down commute time

I am. My wife is the bread winner in our situation. She paid attention in school and is reaping the rewards for it. I've tried to persuade her to try to transfer somewhere else in the country for years now, and I just don't see it happening. So here we are, like it or not. We own a home, and it's not a bad area, so I'm going to make do.

quote:

Originally posted by Loswsmith:
If you like the treatment work, you could always try and find a place closer to you and work towards ending up there. Thre are often a lot of openings, because the job tends to burn people out. I would NEVER do the traffic in the Seattle/Bellevue metroplex.

Yeah, I'm going to call tomorrow about the closer opportunities. Hopefully something pans out.

quote:

Originally posted by Loswsmith:
Either way, good luck!!

Thank you! I don't mean to offend in any way, but if you wouldn't mind, I'd appreciate it if you edit out your guesses. I don't want to call undue attention to the job posting, and if I do land it, I'd prefer not to say where it is that I work.


Just checked my email. The manufacturer wants to do a phone interview Friday afternoon and wants to know if that would work for me.

I'll add in a prayer Ed.

I'm impressed you're qualified for a wide range of work from sales to production to working with addicts.

Good luck with the new job. I hope you land one that is the dream job and where you are secure, paid well, and happy.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:

quote:

Originally posted by ersatzknarf:


[QUOTE]Originally posted by Loswsmith:
If you like the treatment work, you could always try and find a place closer to you and work towards ending up there. Thre are often a lot of openings, because the job tends to burn people out. I would NEVER do the traffic in the Seattle/Bellevue metroplex.

Yeah, I'm going to call tomorrow about the closer opportunities. Hopefully something pans out.

quote:

Originally posted by Loswsmith:
Either way, good luck!!

Thank you! I don't mean to offend in any way, but if you wouldn't mind, I'd appreciate it if you edit out your guesses. I don't want to call undue attention to the job posting, and if I do land it, I'd prefer not to say where it is that I work.

DONE! Not offended and I'm really sorry! I thought I was being clever and instead just being an ass. And really, good luck! T-town has it's glass half full parts. And it will let you practice your alcohol counseling skills on the side as well as you go into that job.

quote:

Originally posted by just1tym:
I'll add in a prayer Ed.

Thanks, Will!

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
I'm impressed you're qualified for a wide range of work from sales to production to working with addicts.

Good luck with the new job. I hope you land one that is the dream job and where you are secure, paid well, and happy.

I don't know what to say to this other than I never thought of it that way, and thank you very much!

quote:

Originally posted by Loswsmith:
Not offended and I'm really sorry!

Thank you! No worries.

quote:

Originally posted by Loswsmith:
I thought I was being clever and instead just being an ass.

Not at all, you were actually pretty incisive.

quote:

Originally posted by Loswsmith:
And really, good luck! T-town has it's glass half full parts. And it will let you practice your alcohol counseling skills on the side as well as you go into that job.

Thank you! Yeah, I worked literally across the street from this place for four years, so I'm very familiar with the area. It'll be interesting visiting some of my old lunch haunts. As long as the local wildlife leaves my truck alone, I think we'll get along just fine. If I land this and decide to go with it, it would be cool to meet up for a range day some time. There's the one just down the street....

Phone interview went really, really well. I will be heading over there next Friday morning for an in-person interview, and not for the job I initially applied for, but something with much more responsibility. I feel a bit dazed.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Phone interview went really, really well. I will be heading over there next Friday morning for an in-person interview, and not for the job I initially applied for, but something with much more responsibility. I feel a bit dazed.

Excellent news! Best of luck!

That's great news!

It seems like the gun buying panic over the past 15 months that drove gun makers and gun shops has finally died off.


My own local FFL/gun shop is basically part time now and open by appointment only. I’ve had three pistols sitting with him for months now on consignment with no movement, I finally told him I’m coming to get them back but would he be interested in just buying them for his shop. He declined.

It’s crazy how cyclical this whole business operates, I’m sure in time people will be lining up to buy whatever they can get their hands on, but right now we are at the opposite end of that.

Thanks, guys! PaSig, I’m sure you meant to be more encouraging than that came out.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Thanks, guys! PaSig, I’m sure you meant to be more encouraging than that came out.

I didn’t mean to rain on your parade and I’m glad you have some new prospects lined up.

Was just making an observation on the gun industry as a whole, sorry if that came across the wrong way.

P220Smudge,
Best of luck with the follow ups now scheduled.

Well. The position I applied for had all the applicants they needed, and the job the HR person wanted me to apply for got filled by promoting from within, unfortunately. However, she asked around the company and advocated for me and I have an interview this morning, not Friday, with the department I wanted to work in. So this is actually a bit more pressure. I'm about to make some breakfast, get my things together, and then slowly cruise to Tacoma so I'm ridiculously early with no stress, and knock on the door ten minutes early. Here we go!

And if I don't get a good feeling off this interview, I'll be following up with the informational interview for the rehab facility to see about getting into the nearby outpatient location. But I'm not walking in there today thinking about that, just good to know I have a backup plan.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I didn’t mean to rain on your parade and I’m glad you have some new prospects lined up.

Was just making an observation on the gun industry as a whole, sorry if that came across the wrong way.

We're good.

quote:

Originally posted by bald1:
P220Smudge,
Best of luck with the follow ups now scheduled.

Thanks, Bald1.

Just checking back in Ed and wishing you the very best today!

Good luck!!

Good luck, Smudge.