I love training. I feel like I am finally where I need to be, career-wise, at Aetna. Everyone in my "class" (there are 14 of us) is bright, proactive and motivated to do well in order to achieve personal success. We've held brainstorming sessions, given brief presentations and listened to various lectures, and I can honestly say that I haven't felt this productive or positive in months. I have learned an incredible amount of information in two days, and at times it is overwhelming (last night I fell asleep on the couch at 9 p.m.) but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. It's certainly an intensive classroom environment, and we are all expected to play an active role in the dialogue--both by participating when one of the trainers or presenters poses a question or topic, as well as by raising questions ourselves when we are unsure of an acronym or health care term. After completing grad school, I never thought I wanted to be in a classroom setting again, but this is different because my entire career lies ahead of me, and the foundation for my future basically begins with these next eight weeks.

Yesterday when we were moving from our original meeting place in the lobby area to the training classroom, we took an escalator. Halfway up the escalator, I smiled to myself because 1) I was wearing a cute suit from Ann Taylor Loft; 2) I had a hot vanilla coffee in my hand; and 3) because I was at Aetna and I had worked very hard to get there. That pretty much sums up my emotions so far this week. I feel accomplished. Out of the 14 people in my class, 10 were hired as sales consultants and 4 of us were hired as information consultants (I will be an IC). The Sales Manager gave us some interesting stats: they received 239 resumes, of those 239, 49 received a first interview and only 20% of that final number were hired. I know I shouldn't be bragging about those numbers but I honestly just feel proud of myself, and I had to share. I think I am usually fairly modest, but I don't think I've ever worked this hard for a position or wanted it so badly before. I am looking forward to the next 38 work days!!