Welcome to the world of being a process engineer

Whew, what a stressful week! So this was finals week for the new job. Classmates have been saying that it was okay to bomb the walk thru and the written and we'd still keep our jobs because they would let us re-test. Plus, there isn't a thing called being fired. You are just re-educated until you pass. Anyway, I didn't want to fail. I wanted to pass on the first shot so studying was my life from Friday the previous week thru last Tuesday. We had two finals - one walk thru, kinda like a hands-on test and one written. Again, like in all the tests we have to get 80% or better. Wednesday was everyone's walk thru. And two people failed. And they got kicked out of the program. Yes, they got fired. Our class was in total shock. As were the instructors... There is a new training manager - our instructors boss who makes the final decision. Since he's new he wants a higher standard, more difficult tests and rules to follow. Our class size shrank to 16. Our second final was suppose to take place Thursday. I think the instructors were more upset than we were. They postponed the final until Friday. That scared all of us although it gave us more time to study. Thankfully, everyone passed. When we first began they told us there were only 15 slots open. Meaning only 15 people were going to retire this year. So we knew some of us would not make it. Then as we got to know the instructors, they informed us if all 18 of us pass they would have to take all 18 and it's never the class that drops people but usually, once we get assigned to our plant area people quit because they fail to adapt. So going by the instructors, no one ever fails a test and no one ever gets fired in the schooling portion. But then some problems arose. Even the remaining 16 students are not needed. No one wants to retire this year. So where would they put us? They still don't know. Usually after you pass the final, you are informed of which plant you will be working at. We have 2 more weeks of school and then they want us to take a one week vacation. It's crazy! I've never worked anywhere that you get a week vacation after 2 months. Usually it's a week off after a year of employment. It's perfect timing because Bangkok Samurai is suppose to open during that week. I guess we are a special class. People tell us that all the time. Of course, on the 4th day of work our place of duty was at Disneyland (1/2 hour away). Yup, they fed us a buffet breakfast, had to listen to a 4 hour lecture, then they provided a buffet lunch. On top of that the company bought each employee a ticket to play at Disneyland for the rest of the day! Amazing, eh?

So there is all 16 of us. Isn't technology interesting? They took a picture of us and it was transposed to an edible film. This is the transposed copy which was put on our congratulations/ graduation cake.