G’day mates…hahahaha. Sorry sometimes I just really crack myself up…anywho….so Monday was my first day of work. Okay first of all I work at 16-18 Wentworth Street Parramatta Level 5 for the NSW Government Transport. Where I work there are 3 schemes: PVC, SSTS, and Taxi. Basically they are just different forms of subsidized travel. I work directly in PVC which stands for Personal Vehicle Conveyance. So in NSW (different in different states) student travel to school is subsidized. This means that a parent can pick any school (even outside of NSW) for their student to attend but the government dictates how the student is going to get there. So a lot of parents will try to get a larger subsidy (claim they drive further than they actually do) or even double dip (get paid for bringing the child to school while also getting bus tickets). It is our job to check and make sure that the parent is taking the student to the nearest transport point. A lot of parents will call and say that there child cant ride the bus because they don’t like the bus driver or the bus is unsafe but we simply don’t care because they should bring that up with the their local council.
I started with 5 other people: 2 Indian girls, 1 African American lady, 1 Australian boy, and then 1 Australian lady. Two went to SSTS and then the four of us went to PVC.
I sit with the taxi people for right now because my computer is broken. It is okay that I sit there though as they are nice too. So the first day we just learned about what happens in both schemes. First day was a piece of cake.
Day two was much tougher as let’s be real I don’t know how to think in kilometers or anything about the geography of NSW or about reading bus/train schedules let alone how to match them up. So yeah that was a bit scary, no that was a lot scary. But they were really nice and put me in my own slow learners group where I got to practice with the schedules and learn more about how things work. I felt a lot more confident after that. Today I was assigned 3 service checks which I did and then my new mentor went over them with me and then 2 boarder applications (really easy) and some medical apps.
Plus my new mentor, Azeez, is super eager to help me. Less high fives would be good but he entertains all of my dumb questions so he is good in my book. I have never seen a place more diverse than here. It is really hard to find an actual Australian anywhere. But I seem to be a bit of a novelty being from the states so that is nice and always gives way to lots of conversation. For instance today the guy that sits diagonal to me told me he met Dolly Parton…didn’t see that coming.
It is a pretty cool place to work. And I am of course super thankful for being given the opportunity.
I tried to contain my excitement about my government pass and lanyard because they probably already think I am a little weird. I hope they don’t want those back…that probably wont happen. Everything seems pretty loose starting with morning tea. They actually pay for milk for that purpose but you cant use it on cereal just an fyi (and no I really didn’t try that). There is no time clock and you don’t write anything down either. I go in at 8:30AM and can leave at 4:00 with a half hour lunch. So it isn’t too bad. Also since I am temp they make some flexibility in holiday weeks as well as if I need a day off for me to make up the time. So far I like everyone and they are super nice. Plus this job is teaching me some really good things like how to use public transport which I have never understood. Lots of good life lessons and real skills.
