Her Own Wings

Graduation and a New Job

She was finishing up her last semester at the junior college she'd been attending she was going to be taking her final exams the next week, and in June she would graduate.
She hadn't told anyone in her family about the graduation ceremony. She didn't want Sir Father to come. In the two years since she moved out of her parents' house, Sir Father had slipped into using drugs in addition to drinking. She didn't want him to show up and embarrass her. Mom had moved out and move on to a new man, and she didn't see her Mom very often, because Mom was either working, or sticking close to her new man. Her new stepfather didn't like to share Harmony's time with anyone, and begrudgingly let Harmony spend time with either of her daughters. When Harmony did spend time with either daughter, she was constantly calling her husband to check on him, and give him status updates.

She hadn't told anyone in her family, because she didn't have the money to buy the graduation gown. She knew Grandmother would have happily bought the gown for her, but she couldn't take any more money from Grandmother. She had already done so many things to help her in the two years she had been living with her. She paid off her credit card debt, bought her new clothes, and shoes. She bought Liz a TV for her garage bedroom. She paid to fix the electric windows on her car, and bought new tires. She had lost track of how much money Grandmother spent on her; she wanted to repay her Grandmother, but every time she tried, she pushed the money back, and told Liz she was pleased to be able to do it for her. She felt so guilty having Grandmother paying for everything, and didn't want her to pay for anything else. She vowed to herself that one day, she would pay Grandmother back for every penny she had spent on her. If Grandmother wouldn't take her money, she would pay her back in service. But, someway, somehow, she planned to pay Grandmother back.

Because she was about to graduate, she needed to start looking for a permanent, full-time job. She had been interviewing for jobs, and just got a second interview at the advertising agency, and she was hoping she got the job. She would be working as an entry-level database engineer. She would start by maintaining the existing database in the agency, and they said her first task would be to review the data in a specific database for formatting consistency. She put on her new dress suit, and drove to the company for the interview.

"Liz, for today's interview, we have a practical problem for you to solve for us. We've printed out a few pages of one of our databases that we know has a lot of formatting errors. We would like you to take whatever time you need to review the data, and then type a proposal report detailing the types of errors you find in the report, what corrections you think need to be made, and approximate the number of man-hours, and the total cost of the project to fix the data in the database. While we've given you a small sample of the data included in this database, it is representative of the type of data, and the type of errors in the database. The last page summarizes the total records in the database, and the number of employees, and an hourly rate, that we could make available to complete and review the errors. We have a conference room reserved for you for the entire day, and will bring in lunch if you are here at lunchtime. We have pens, pencils a notepad, as well as a laptop that is not connected to the Internet or our network, as well as a printer. Please take as much time as you need to be thorough in your report. You are welcome to stay as long as needed, and as late into the night as needed, if it becomes necessary. Do you have any questions?"
"No sir." she responded. "Uh, actually, yes. Will I be able to go to the restroom as needed, and walk around the building, or will I need an escort? Also, may I get a cup of water?"
"Sure, we'll show you the restroom. You can go whenever. I'll show you where my desk is in case you have any questions, and I'll check in on you periodically. When you're finished, print out your report, and give it to me, then you're free to go."

She walked into the conference room. It was a room with a large, gorgeous wood carved table, with plush conference chairs around it. She saw the pile of papers, and the work supplies. She set her purse on a chair, and removed her jacket, and hung it on the back of the chair. Then, she got to work. She read the sample pages, making note of all the obvious errors she noted in the database, and then used a ruler to look at the sample pages line by line. After a couple hours, she felt she had a good understanding of the types of errors found in the database, and sat back to brainstorm a solution.

She realized that there were several approaches to correcting the problems. As she sat down to figure out the hours needed, and the cost per approach, and as she briefly outlined the approaches, she realized that each one had pros and cons, and the pricing was wildly different. she decided that she would give not one proposal, but she would give four proposals. She started up the laptop, and began to type her report. First, she detailed the type of errors she saw, consistently, throughout the data provided. She hypothesized why the errors were occurring. Finally, she stated that there were four different approaches that could be taken to correcting the problems, and each had a set of pros and cons. She then listed the pros and cons to each approach, in a format that would make it very easy for her interviewer to easily discern the differences between each approach. Finally, she tabulated the cost per approach.

She printed out her report, and read through several times, making sure she was clear, concise and accurate. When she felt confident that she had her info correct, she printed the final draft of her proposal, stapled it, and gave it to the interviewer. He asked her to wait in the conference room while he reviewed her report. She started to get nervous, as she had been waiting for over an hour. When she returned from the ladies room, she walked into the conference room to find five men sitting at the table, each with a copy of her report, each scrawled with notes.

"Liz, we want to thank you for your time and dedication to review the data in the sample report we gave you. The data was not sample data, as you were lead to believe, it was actual data take from our database. The database has been fixed, we already hired a consultant to come in and review the database, as you just did, and give us a report on how to fix it. We compared your report, and the report of the consultant. The consultant took a month to review the same dataset you reviewed today. They came back with one solution, one that you also suggested, with a very similar set of pros and cons. They indicated that their approach was the only one that would be viable long-term. We sent your report to them, and they were shocked at the simplicity of your ideas, and agreed, reluctantly, that your approach, all of your approaches, would work, and would provide a viable, long-term solution. We feel that you are an ideal candidate, and we would like to offer you the position. Here's a letter, detailing all the terms of our offer. Please take it with you, review it, and if you decide to accept, sign and return it to us. If you decline, you need to do nothing, the expiration date for the offer is listed on the letter."

She glanced at the letter, and then stood up, because all the executives across the table were standing. They reached across the table and shook hands with her. "Thank you for coming in, Liz, it was a pleasure to meet you."
"Thank you for the opportunity. I enjoyed meeting everyone."

When she got to her car, she read the offer. It was more money than she ever thought she'd earn. Plus, it included medical and dental insurance, vacation. It was a wonderful package. She drove home, to her grandmother's house, as fast as she could. She ran into the house, shouting.

"Grandma, grandma, you here?"

"Yes, I'm here honey. In the kitchen, come in. How did your interview go?"

"Grandma, they made me an offer. It's incredible! Look at this!" She thrust the offer letter in Grandma's hands, and just stood. Grandma read the letter, with a smile on her face.

"Oh, Liz, this is incredible! What a great offer! What are you going to do?"

She smiled, I'm going to take the job, grandma!"

"Well, what about college? You were planning to move to Austin and finish your job, and get a four-year degree. What do you think about that?"

"Well, uhm....I don't know. I think this is a great chance, and I could see this leading to great career opportunity for me. Maybe I don't need to finish?"

"Hmm...well, I don't know, honey. How long do you have before you have to answer?"
"Let's see...they gave me a week."

"Ok, great. A week gives us a lot of time to talk it over and think. Let's wait till your grandpa gets home, and we can all sit and discuss this together, ok?"

"Sounds great, Grandma. So, I see you're cooking dinner. Let me change clothes, and I'll be right back and help you finish cooking."