I applied at a temp agency working with ACS the Sunday after I arrived (September 6th).  I was told there would be an interview, but the hiring process turned out to be a giant assembly line of getting basic information, drug testing, and filling out a simple application.  I guess when you’re hiring 900 people on short notice you don’t have much time to get personal!

After running the non-interview gauntlet, I was told to show up on Tuesday morning (September 8th) at 8 to undergo training.  That’s when the real fun started…

I arrived at the ACS building on Tuesday and joined about 20 other folks for our training, which was a 2 hour video showing us how to process applications for dealer reinbursments for CARS (AKA Cash for Clunkers).    It involved looking through documents submitted by dealers containing VINs, IDs of buyers, insurance information, and other related things.  Afterwards, we were told to go get some lunch and return, after which they might have some work for us to do.

Before getting actual work to do, a few things had to happen:

1.  Each worker is sent a number used to log-in to the online system.  This number is also used to access our individual Outlook accounts.

2.  The federal government sends each worker a username and password to access the online database of applications to process via an email to our Outlook accounts.

These two steps come into the story a bit later.

After returning from lunch I joined the other newly-trained temp workers in the training room.  We sat there for over 30 minutes before anything happened.  The lady that trained us then entered.  We sat some more.  About 45 minutes after coming back from lunch, we were told to enter the main room (a large area containing between 300-400 computers) and try to log-in to the system.  Nobody could log in.  We sat in front of our computers for about two and a half hours, doing nothing.  Because of the way our computers were set up, we couldn’t go online, play any sort of game, or do anything entertaining.  Around 4 o’clock we were released to go home.

We dutifully arrived at 8 the next morning, and were rewarded with no work for the entire day – we were able to log in to our computers, but our individual codes used to access our Outlook accounts didn’t work.  Fortunately, I brought some Chinese to study (the gospel of John) and my iPod.  I studied Chinese and listened to some lectures from 8 until 4 before being sent home.  Pretty incredible.  All this while being paid $13.54 an hour.

On Thursday we made some progress, at least in theory. As far as I can remember, I believe we were able to log in to our computers and even go to our email accounts, but we never received any sort of communication from the federal government concerning our log in names and passwords.  Another day of studying and listening to lectures.

Friday rolled around and we were finally able to use the system.  I was able to get a decent amount of work finished, once I went through the process a few times.  Alas, no more getting paid for doing what I want!  At least, not yet…

Monday, the first day of the week.  I arrived at work and was able to be productive until around 2:30 in the afternoon.  At that time We were informed that the process used to assign work had changed, and we needed to wait for work to be assigned to us individually by the managers (before this we were able to pull items directly off the database queue ourselves).  I waited for the rest of the day, periodically checking my work assignment, and studying and listening to lectures.  By the time I left at 4:30, nothing had been sent my way.

On Tuesday I awoke as usual, ate and prepared for another exciting day at work.  I noticed a new voicemail message on my phone.   It was a message from the temp agency – the project had been completed and we didn’t need to return to work.  So much for lasting 3 to 5 weeks!

So, I worked about 37.5 hours, although about half that time was sitting, doing nothing. And I was paid $13.54 an hour, all coming from taxpayers’ dollars, I’m assuming.  If you paid taxes last year, please accept my heartfelt thanks for $325.14, although I am embarrassed to say that your money wasn’t used in exactly the most efficient way.  But really, what were you expecting?

As of now I have been thrust back into job-hunting.  Nothing yet.

We downloaded several podcasts (such as Hardcore History and Car Talk) to keep us entertained (and awake) during our little adventure.  Actually, the trip went very well.  We arrived at our destinations around 7-9 pm each night without any unexpected difficulties (other than missing an exit in Nebraska that cost us 20 minutes) and we were able to spend some time strengthening the father-son bond.

Moving to Kentucky felt like a bigger transition for me than going to China – in China I had teammates already selected for me, an apartment to call my own, and a job that I was walking into, but here I only have a handful of people I know, no job, and I’m living in the house of another family.  Moving here to pursue a relationship also made me feel like I was stepping away from my parents in a manner unlike what happened when I left for China – kind of like I was fulfilling the first part of  Genesis 2:24 – “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother…”

I was able to find a job the second day I was there, but that’s for another post…

Here are some pictures from our 2300 mile journey.  Click on them to view larger images.  I apologize for the blandness of the photos.  We didn’t have much time for sightseeing!