January 24th, 2010Empire Life Computer Print Operator, my new employer and title.
So Empire Life hired me on as a Computer Print Operator and so far, there is a lot of learning to do but the job is going well. I am currently working 7.5 hour days, Monday to Friday, but at the end of my three month training, I will be working 12.5 hour days or nights. it’s shift work, so it’s something I have to start getting used to again, but I think I can deal with it. Empire Life seems to be a great place to work. Tones of friendly people, and so many great things I can learn while I am there. The great thing about working at Empire Life is they really like training their staff. So I can apply for courses related to the insurance field, or anything else that might help their company out, and they will pay for the course and give me a bonus after I finish the course. This place is wonderful.
So what does a Computer Print Operator do you ask? Well, I am responsible for looking after the 5 huge printers we have, that combined, print over 8 million pages a year. I am also responsible for looking after the mainframe and the servers. Among the many things I do on the server, the one that takes up most of my time is running COBOL and JCL jobs for the other departments working at Empire Life. it’s neat being able to have so much power and yet at the same time it worries me because I don’t want to mess up and do the wrong thing and cause a huge problem for Empire Life. I have some pictuers of my work place over on my flicker account. (Empire Life has kindly asked me to remove my pictures from my flickr account. Sorry everyone)
I’m sure I will be making more posts about this place as time goes on. I also want to start posting more on this site as I feel like I am letting my cousin David down by not putting this site to good use. Since he is paying for the server and I think still is paying for the domain name, I feel like I need to keep this updated to show him I am getting value out of this site. Thank you very much David!
March 15th, 2010 at 9:01 am
Hey Mark,
I was looking around for information on Empire Life as a potential employer and I found your site. Just wondering how is it going after working there for 3 months?
I was hoping you won’t mind sharing some insider information with me. Hopefully I will hear from you 
Cheers!
March 15th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
I enjoy it. I am working in a department that is kind of the underbelly of the company so I don’t see a lot of the goings on regarding the day in and day out of the company, but I can say it is an amazing place to work for. Because the operations department works 24/7, I have been working nights as of recently and I have not seen what has been going on through the day.
What type of position are you looking into when applying for Empire Life? I might be able to get some more information for you on that particular position if you let me know. Good luck other wise, Empire Life is a wonderful place to work.
March 16th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Aww, thanks so much Mark,
I just submitted my application yesterday to their post-secondary graduate development program, haven’t heard anything back yet, haha. So my first question would be: how long does it usually take for people to hear back from them when they submit your application?
I would like to learn anything about the place so that is why I putted my name down for this two year development program, the only thing I really am not interested in doing is talking on the phone to customers for the rest of my life, haha. I am sure you will understand if you have worked for StarTek-type of companies.
Similar to what you mentioned in your posts, after spending four years in school, I really don’t want to come to the job market and work for any places that pay less than 15 dollars/hour. Which bring me to my second question: how well do they pay the people in this graduate development program?
and my third question: would you say that most people who are doing different job from you (i.e., finance , accounting, policy making, HR) are happy with the way things are?
March 20th, 2010 at 6:31 am
I’m not sure I can tell you much about the day to day operation of everything that job would entail you to. I do know that most people here love it here and they love what they do. I’m not sure how well they pay people because there are several different pay grades, but I imagine that a post-grad internship would not pay to much because it is mostly used for work experience rather then it being a good monetary income.
I hope I have answered things to the best of my ability. Working only three days a week, for the most part, makes it hard for me to give you more information. Plus working nights for the last month means I have not seen many empire employees in a while. Good luck though and let me know if end up getting the job.
March 23rd, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Yeah I will for sure Mark! Thanks so much for all the helpful info! If I do get the job, I will let you know right away
Cheers!
May 29th, 2010 at 4:54 am
Hi Mark, I just applied for a Computer Print Operator position in Kingston, ON with Empire Life. I don’t have formal training, but do have two years work experience as a Systems Operator / Print Operator.
I am nervous about having an interview (if they call me). I am wondering what kinds of questions they ask, and what the pay rate is. I have heard it’s an awesome place to work, and I’m really hoping I can get in there. Any info / tips you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Lisa
May 29th, 2010 at 4:59 am
Also, I was wondering if you have formal training in IT / Systems Operations, etc. Please let me know.
July 4th, 2010 at 10:22 am
Hi Lisa,
Yes, I have lots of formal IT/System Operations training. Computers are very much a passion for me so I have devoted my life to using and learning them.
Good luck though, hope things turn out for you.
July 8th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Hi,
I was wondering if you could describe the application process. How was the interview? How soon you heard from them. Were there additional tests you had to complete? Level of difficulty etc. Thanks!
July 13th, 2010 at 5:11 am
I heard back from them rather quickly, about three weeks. I applied for the help desk position and there were some additional tests I had to do but ended up being the second choice and that is how I ended up in the operations department.
The level of difficulty all depends on your background, someone with computer knowledge will do better and have an easier time picking things up then someone with out any.