Finally, something good has come from working at ██████. And ironically, it may provide me just the ticket I need to get out of that hellhole.
Last week I—and four of my coworkers—spent three intensive days in offsite, company-paid Mac OS X training. Exactly why this was provided is not exactly clear to me since only directors and above have Macs which limits their penetration into the company, but I believe it has to do with the fact that we currently had only three Apple-certified techs on staff and if they're all out for whatever reason and someone with a with an "O" in their title has Mac problems, the whining can be deafening. Or maybe it's simply because the company finally upgraded to Mavericks (just in time for Yosemite!) and they figured we all needed a rounded education.
In any case, it was an enlightening three days. I can't honestly say I learned a lot of things I didn't already know, but what I did learn was very worthwhile, and if nothing else, further confirmed my love for the Apple ecosystem.
██████ is also paying for the first attempt at passing the certification test. I'm a little nervous about testing because—as I've written about before—I do horribly at these technical tests, but luckily we still have Ben's old MacBook and I was able to wipe and and recreate the training environment on it without problems (actually part of the training itself).
Fortunately I can retake the test as many times as necessary to pass—at $250 a pop, but still it would be nice if I could pass it the first time on their dime.
Ben and I are both on vacation next week. Sadly, for a multitude of reasons we aren't heading east to visit Erik again as originally planned, but counting the three days of training, the time away from ██████ comes to a total of 12 glorious days; almost half a month—and even without a road trip, it will not be wasted.
I intend to double-down on getting this training material committed to memory so I can feel comfortable going into the test. When I pass and get that certification, it will definitely look good on my resume, even if I don't end up working for a company that uses Macs.
In addition to me studying, we're also planning on spending a day at Rocky Mountain National Park and another day at the Denver Botanic Gardens to see the Chihuly exhibit. There will also be a few movies thrown in, and just a general exhalation from not having to be at the frat house.