I watched a few businessmen and women as they swiped these credit-card like access cards, keyed in their floor numbers, and were then provided with a message on the screen telling them which elevator to board. Fancy, eh? Seeing as I didn’t have an access card, however, it posed a bit of a problem. So, I proceeded to semi-stalk this woman, told her my predicament, and asked if she could help. She was really nice, took me to her floor (as she didn’t have access to any other floors) and made some phone calls. She said that I needed to go back down to the lobby, walk next door to the Price Waterhouse Cooper tower, and talk to the security guard on duty, as he had access to both buildings. I did exactly that, told him my predicament, and he kindly took me to the 21st floor to AMP. However, when we got off the elevator, the place looked completely deserted; the security guard kept asking me if I was sure I was supposed to start at 7:15 am since the place didn’t even open until 8:00 am.
I kept telling him that I was positive, and that Tim at OCG had mentioned to me that I would be one of the only people there that early because my job was to involve sorting and scanning all the mail first thing in the morning. Well, come to find out, AMP had three levels within the AMP Centre building. So, it took another 10 minutes or so of walking around the different levels, asking the few people who were even there at that hour if they had any clue who I was. FINALLY, we met two guys who had been expecting me! Phewww, what a relief. From there, my experience at AMP has been nothing less than grand! I have never in my life been so spoiled at a job, and I still can’t believe how lucky I am to have gotten it! My desk was located on the 19th floor right next to these huge windows that overlooked the gorgeous harbour and the bustling city below. It Iiterally felt like a dream to be working in such a massive corporate building right in the middle of New Zealand’s largest city.
I met quite a few new people through work, including my boss Campbell (very chilled out and laid back young Kiwi guy), Sandra from England (h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s), Ivy, Smita, and Winnie from India, local Kiwis Chris, Melissa, and Alisha, plus Sea and Julieta. They are all really great =) Sandra was a temp like me, along with three other girls: Tracy, Fe, and an Irish girl whose name wasn’t worth remembering. It was the Irish girl’s last day working there though, so all the temps including me went to the coffee shop downstairs for a pre-approved, extended break as a kind of goodbye get-together for her. It is so convenient to have a nice little coffee shop literally located at the bottom of our building! For lunch my first day, the same group ate together in the cafeteria on the 20th floor. The cafeteria is nice too, with huge windows overlooking the harbour, really modern tables and chairs, a fancy coffee machine, a couch, and even a few computers along the wall. Not too shabby! Oh, and a completely random, massive wooden cut-out of a high heel used to sit in the corner of the cafeteria as well. Not sure what the purpose of that was, but hey, it added a little something to the décor. =)
AMP is a large insurance/investment company that handles life insurance, personal investments, business insurance, personal insurance, and retirement trusts. During my two-week assignment, I worked for the Kiwisaver department of AMP dealing with people’s work-based retirement savings. Personally, my job involved sorting through, separating, date stamping, and scanning all of the incoming Kiwisaver mail with Sea and/or Chris first thing each morning. Then, the rest of the day purely consisted of data entry—indexing all of the scanned items into their proper categories, processing changes of addresses, updating clients’ contact information, entering new clients into the database, etc. I know such work probably sounds incredibly dull to most of you, but I’m kind of one of those weirdos that doesn’t mind it at all.
Plus, the pay was ridiculously good and AMP is a brisk, 15-minute walk from my flat. So, after leaving home in the morning, it was no time before I was inside the AMP Centre, swiping my access card on the crazy computer device for the elevators. However, let me go on to tell you the other perks of the job: we are provided with free tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and milk at all times. Then, at least twice a week, we are given tons of fresh fruit—bananas, kiwis, grapes, mandarins, pears, peaches, and apples. On top of that, we are regularly rewarded with “morning teas” for doing good work—these usually include little sandwiches, sausage rolls, fruit, cake, cookies, and more. I’m not done yet…I can’t count the number of other times that free food has just been laid out on the counters next to the free coffee stations or on the counters in the cafeteria, without any explanation for its presence.
The real kicker is still to come though: occasionally on Friday afternoons, a DRINK TROLLEY comes around with free alcoholic beverages! That’s right people…no joke. White wine, red wine, beer, spirits, and mixers—all available for the taking. I was completely dumbfounded when I saw the drink trolley for the first time! What can I say…it’s a different world over here, haha =) Since I started work so early, it also meant that I got to leave early every afternoon. So, Chris and I left work at 3:15 pm, stopped by a restaurant/bar around the corner so he could get a drink, then walked to our flats, which are actually right down the road from each other. Now I know I have a neighbor I can borrow a cup of sugar from if ever needed haha. Overall, it was a great first day at my new job and I couldn’t have been happier!
Cheers,
Ash
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