When I first read the greeting, I was slightly confused...3rd Anniversary??  3rd Anniversary of *WHAT*?  Did I miss my wedding anniversary?  *momentary panic attack*  No, that's not for another week, and it will be our *5th* anniversary.  *whew*  Braden's 3rd birthday?  No, that's not for another month or so.  Then of course I realized she had been referring to my 3-year anniversary where I am currently working.  

How women remember these things, especially seemingly inconsequential dates of unrelated people is beyond me.  They must have some gene which allows them to file away all these "memorial" days which us men simply lack.  Tell a date to them once, and it's filed away in the permanent long-term memory, but teach them how to program a VCR, and they forget immediately after doing it.

Granted, I don't think of myself as a slacker in the Date Remembering Department either as I remember all of the important dates - our wedding anniversary (5/31/97), the date I proposed (8/7/96), the date my wife & I first started chatting (12/23/94), the date I last had earwax picked out of my ear (3/25/02)...oops.  I'm sure you didn't want to read *that*.  But in our family, I happen to be the Resident Date Remembering Guy, not my wife, contrary to popular culture.

So exactly three years ago from yesterday, I walked into the Water Resources (WR) Consulting Firm for the very first time and started my very first Real Job (TM) as a Fully Salaried Professional (TM).  Gone were the "carefree" days of college/graduate school life and frolicking during the summer.

Now, I held other less glamorous jobs in the past - Fast Food Expert Burger Flipper, Temp Agency Office Mole Because I Wasn't Smart Enough to Look For Work Myself, College Dorm Food Service Kitchen Slave, Overqualified Factory Worker, but this was the Biggie.  My first full-time paycheck with benefits.  

Slightly naive and ignorant about professional engineering work, I stepped into the world of billable hours, billable work, employee productivity, multipliers, project profitability, performance reviews, and quarterly company status meetings.  All of which were new to me.  

Though slightly overwhelming at first, the transition to a Real Job (TM) was made easier by the fact that I shared an office with Co-Worker Buddy and had an extremely fair-minded boss (although others may disagree).  Both of them answered any one of my 50,000 questions about the cafeteria plan ("now I know I've asked this five times already, but what exactly is the medical expense deduction?"), filling out my time sheet ("what project number do I charge such-and-such to?"), and various company policies ("how often am I allowed to use the restroom?").

Although new to me, most of these job-associated modus operandi were not foreign as I had some familiarity with them in other previous held positions.  The Hardest Thing For Me To Get Used To was keeping track of my work in 15-minute increments (you other engineers know what I'm talking about).  

Since we do work for various clients, we need to keep track of how much time we've spent working for each client.  Now that in itself isn't too bad.  Especially since I was only working on one project at a time at the beginning.  But the difficulty was compounded in that we have to keep track of what exactly we did, as each project is broken down into different tasks.  So we had to keep track of how much time was spent on different tasks.  It really took some getting used to.

However, now you can call me Mr. Expert Time Sheet Logger Man, as I can keep track of multiple projects with multiple tasks with both eyes closed and standing on my head.  Ok...all but the eyes closed part.  Sure it makes it a bit difficult to type upside down, but I've gotten used to it.  

In the three years that I've been there, I've become an expert in using several hydrologic & hydraulic computer models, I'm no longer the Entry Level Bottom Feeder (TM), I've managed to get several decent performance reviews & raises, I'm just shy of starting the next level in engineering expertise, I'm to the point where I can work independently without much supervision, and I've done it all while mostly enjoying the ride.  

The company has somewhat of a unique "method" that I like to call the Window Hierarchy that it uses to "rank" the employees.  Aside from the word processing staff and the CAD techs (who have their own areas of the office), the rest of us are compartmentalized in small offices.  

But here's how the Window Hierarchy works (let's see if you can keep this straight):  Entry-level people start off sharing an windowed office with someone else who has been there for a few years.  But the entry-level people start off in the half of an office without the window.  After a few years, they move over to the windowed half of the office (which is where I am now).  Then you transition to your own windowLESS office.  And then only the most experienced staff have their own windowed offices.  And this is based on experience as well, not just number of years with the company.  So it is possible for a newly hired experienced engineer to get their own office with a window right off the bat.

What makes this interesting is that you can walk through the building, and by simply glancing in each office get a good idea of how "experienced" the occupants are based on my description above.  And I haven't quite decided if it's a step up to go from sharing a windowed office to having your own windowlesss office.  I actually quite enjoy having a window to look out of, even if it is mostly looking out to our parking lot.

So what are some of the things I've learned in the three years that I've been with the WR Consulting Firm?  

1.  I can always count on a semi-monthly email reminding us about cleaning out the refrigerator of old Science Experiments and Leftovers.

2.  If you want the Always Seemingly Irritated Computer Systems Admin Guy (hey, who wouldn't be in his position?) to take care of your computer problems, never EVAR piss him off.

3.  Unless you are a certified Professional Engineer (P.E.) and work directly on actual engineering design/build projects, don't count on being called a "real" engineer.

4.  Indexing project file directories will win you "brownie" points with your supervisors.

5.  Wine/alcohol/booze will always be a popular gift at the annual holiday gift exchange. (As well as folding camp chairs - go figure).

I'm actually looking forward to the next three years and more with the company.  I have no immediate plans to leave, and the work is definitely coming in to keep me busy.  I feel that I've learned plenty so far, yet I still have plenty *more* to learn.  

And finally, most importantly, I'm looking forward to getting my own office, even if it doesn't come with a window.  I just think I may have to have them install a skylight instead.