October 11 was my last day working for Ross Dress for Less, Inc. It was bittersweet but I’m happy that it’s over. They wanted me to stay on but I’m getting married and I’m moving to North Carolina where my husband lives. So that was not possible.
The corporate office of Ross Dress for Less is located at Dublin, CA. At that time, they were the only company who accepted my condition that I can only work until October. Since they really need someone who they don’t need to train much, they hired me even with my time restriction. I initially thought it was a direct hire but since I’m only there for the short term, they had me sign a contract with their temp agency.
Commute: Taking the public transportation to Dublin from South San Francisco was a nightmare. I needed at least 2 hours each way riding the bus and BART. Of the two transport systems, only BART has somewhat of a time schedule that they follow. The bus is a hit or miss and will add more time to your commute. It makes my work day longer but it gives me time to rest as well. However, after a week of commuting, I had enough and decided to rent a car and drive myself to the office. It cut my commute in half but increased my commute cost. I didn’t care because as they say time is gold.
Perks: The campus has an onsite cafeteria and Peet’s Coffee which offer staff members 20% off. They have vending machines and offer free coffee, tea, hot chocolate and water. In my department, they offer free breakfast every Friday and some meals or sandwiches every now and then. Parking is also free but you would need to get a parking pass which you will hang on your rearview mirror. You’re also given an ID which will let you in and out of the building. Pay-wise, the hourly rate is less than what was offered to me at Williams Sonoma.
Work Environment: My official title is lease administrator under the lease administration group under Property Management department (whew!). Compared to Williams Sonoma, a lease administrator in this company really worked on leases. I worked with the Lease Administration Manager to handle the estoppels, subleases, setting up leases in our lease management site, checking opening co-tenancy, ensuring all pre-opening conditions and documents are met, sending out lease termination and renewal notices, etc. In some days, the workload was light while in some days we were quite busy. I was quite happy with this role as it’s a different aspect of being a lease administrator that I didn’t get to experience at Williams Sonoma.
There goes my third job here in the US. I’m thankful for the opportunity and experience even for a short period of time. I’m also thankful for the new things I learned in this job and the advice my mentors shared with me.
Claudine on the Go 
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