First TDY Post

Well, I would be remiss if I didn’t make a blog post while on TDY (For folks not familiar with military acronyms, TDY stands for temporary duty).  I have spent the last week in beautiful Leesville, LA doing some testing for a project I work on.  I’ve spent most of the time (including all of last weekend!) at Ft. Polk, which has been pretty cool, though a bit tiring.  Can’t post any videos on here, but it was cool nonetheless.  🙂  Here is a picture of me from our last trip down to Ft. Polk.

TDY and My Career

Travel is a core part of my career (I spent approximately 25% of my time on travel).  It has its advantages:

• Able to travel to various places in the U.S. (and potentially overseas if I happen to be on a project that requires OCONUS travel in the future) and see things I would not see otherwise.
• Arguably the best reason why I like going on TDY is going with my IPT members.  As always, you learn more about who you work with outside the work environment, and this provides an opportunity for that.
• Nice change of pace from the office grind, helps to put things into perspective.
• Learn about different manufacturing processes and get a better appreciation for how things are produced.
• Talk to Warfighters who have gone to Iraq/Afghanistan, listen to their stories, and most importantly, identify what problems they are currently facing.

Of course, it does have its disadvantages:

• Going out to eat everyday at a fast food/restaurant for lunch & dinner is not exactly healthy.
• It seems like TDY’s tend to come in spurts.  Multiple TDY’s really set you back on office work when you return, and result in playing catch-up.
• Days are usually longer than the normal workday, and it is very tough to motivate myself sometimes to do homework.
• For long TDY’s, you start to miss being home.
• Since as Government employees we need to take the contract air carrier, this usually results in us having to take connecting flights, which as anyone who travels knows, leaves many ample opportunities for flight delays.

Overall, the positives most definitely outweigh the negatives, and I wouldn’t change anything about it.

School

Classes are going well, and are most definitely keeping me busy.  I got back my midterm for Project Management, got a 26/30 on it.  Overall he said I did a really good job, but didn’t agree with some of my conclusions.  I am not too worried about it, I am doing well in the class overall, will just have to work hard on the final project when it is assigned.

My accounting class so far is relatively easy (roughly a 98% grade in the class so far).  He currently has us looking through two annual reports, one from Tyson Foods, and the other from Smithfield.  It has been tough to focus on it while on TDY, but I am hoping to knock out a lot of the work tonight after finishing this blog post.  🙂

Work

Work is going really well, just hit my 2 year mark and received my promotion.  Now, it is a matter of just continuing to do my work, taking on additional tasks as time allows, and networking until I am ready to compete for a team lead position.  We’ll just have to see what the future holds.

Other

I bought a PlayStation 3 the other week, and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised.  First game I bought was Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.  Graphics were awesome, and the story was actually pretty good for an action game.  Sort of felt like I was in a movie while playing.  I also bought Modern Warfare 2 but haven’t played it yet due to not being home.  From what I heard so far, the game is well done, looking forward to playing when I get back.

Lastly (but most definitely not least :)), for my b-day Jessica got us tickets to go see the musical West Side Story.  I have loved this musical since I was a kid, and I can’t wait to see it.  We are going to see it this Saturday; I’ll be sure to review it for you guys.

I am traveling back to NJ Friday morning (6AM flight!), but at least that means I’ll be back at EWR aroud noontime and will have time to relax before choir at night.  Miss you all in NJ, see you soon!