The Quest

[fargon]

Good Luck

[BigV]

Thank you!

It's all over now.

After a fifteen minute late start of a thirty minute interview.

He apologized, I accepted, we continued.

He asked me about my current gig and why I wanted this job (his advertised opening). This was an easy question and I segued from the first to the second easily. Then he asked me about my current manager, who figured in my first answer. Another easy question. This led me to believe that he was listening to me, not just reading a script of questions--a good sign I believe. Then a (stock sounding) question about how I handle(d) difficult customers. Another easy question. And a final question about what happens when my technical solutions don't work. Another easy question.

Then, the end of the interview was ... unfortunate. He said "I have three problems--no, one good thing and two problems. First, I've enjoyed talking to you. I'd like to schedule some more time to talk again. Are you available for about ten minutes today? And my battery is literally dying as I'm sitting in the parking lot of my next customer. Which is my appointment now. <pause>".

I said, "I work today until seven, so I don't think we can do it today."

He said "Can you hear me? V, helllo? Can you hear me? Hello, hello???"

aaaaand that's how the interview ended.

So I immediately called his office and left a message with his office manager outlining the circumstances of the end of our call, emphasizing that I did not hang up on him (yikes) and here's my contact info, yes, let us please reconnect sometime soon. Thanks for passing my message on to him.

So. Once again, I'm in the position of waiting for a company to call me. *sigh* I don't know what I'm doing wrong to be in this situation which I find so uncomfortable so frequently.

Anyhow, thanks for the well wishes. I think the interview went as well as it could have been expected to go, despite the unfortunate ending. I think I'll hear from him again, I think we'll eventually meet, and I think he'll offer me the job. Then I'll have a whole new basket of problems to solve, good ones.

[BigV]

And now, he's just called back as I have to leave to work.

...

We agreed to finish the call, but not EXACTLY RIGHT NOW. He did say that I was not in danger of losing the position because I can't talk right now, that I deserve to get to work on time too. Nice touch.

And another nice touch... I told him that I also liked talking with him and that I'm looking forward to being part of a well-functioning team. That I liked what I'd heard from him, that A, the office manager, sounded like a very nice and organized person, a good team. He replied thanks, and that he believed that no customer will ever have an experience with the company that is better than the employee's experience.

*blink* *blink*

Wow. That's a very appealing thing to he from the lips of the owner. That the employee's experience is something that matters... Wow. I've been lots of places where the attitude was completely different--where there was opposition between management and labor, hostility even. This is not that.

As I predicted, we'll be in touch again. And y'all will hear about it here.

c-ya!

[Clodfobble]

Glad to hear it went so well!

[glatt]

sounds good

[Gravdigr]

Here's hoping...

[fargon]

Yeah V.

[BigV]

second interview commencing in five minutes

[BigV]

goddammit.

the first phone interview (he was to call me) started fifteen minutes late.

this phone interview (he is to call me, again) is now eleven minutes late.

...

Not happy about this.

[BigV]

He called.

Twenty-five minutes after the scheduled start time.

*sigh*

so.... all in all, it was a good conversation. If either of us has to be chagrined by being late, twice, I'd **much** rather it be him than me. We talked, and the upshot was that I got invited in for a face to face interview. This interview will not be with the whole company (it's small enough though) but just for a meal this Sunday.

I was pleased to hear a couple things from him. He said he hadn't asked me much in the way of technical questions, and that's a boon to me. Those kind of questions can be very tricky, like a test, and I sweat them. My thoughts on much of that kind of question, like a word problem for tech support geeks, is that I might know it off the top of my head, but I might not. And if what I think I know and try doesn't work out, in the interview, I've gotten it wrong. But in the tech support *real world*, it doesn't work and I simply try the next thing, even if I have to look it up.

He said he'd rather have someone who's a good fit with the team, someone who was interested in learning and documenting what's gone on, rather than someone who knew a lot of stuff but was hard to work with. THAT'S when I felt I had the job.

I'm pleased, kind of excited, and looking forward to the next step, this dinner meeting.

[orthodoc]

Congrats V! Next step is a good thing.

[BigV]

Sunday's meeting turned into a Friday afternoon interview. It was probably an hour long, pretty casual, and included positive sounding notes like "do you have any benefits requiments?" and "presumably, you'd need the accepted two weeks?" and stuff like that.

I asked when he intends to make a decision and he said he wanted to talk to my references, first. I took this as a good sign.

[BigV]

I got the job.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by BigV

I got the job.

This is awesome.

[BigV]

Remember this?

Originally Posted by BigV

I'm scheduled for a 30 minute phone interview this morning.

It's with a privately held networking business, installing and maintaining computers, networks, services, etc. I'm excited and nervous, as usual. I've thought about telling you guys about this ahead of time, or after the fact... there's a thought that telling after lets only congratulations or sympathies follow on, rather than the (unavoidable) setup of telling in advance and then ... and then.... and then!!!

Yeah. I'm overthinking it.

This position is for a technical support specialist. I can do that, I've done it professionally for years, I've done it as an avocation for even longer. I've done it for some of my friends here on the cellar. The actual things they've listed in the rather extensive job description are aaaaalmost (only two of them are meh, not much experience on my part) all things I've got on lockdown. The actual work (I believe) is right in my wheelhouse. They've described the job and I think I can do it. Now, I need to convince them of the complement, that this job they know about, well, I can do that. And I'm confident they are open to being persuaded, since they've read my resume and have invited me to an interview.

What comes next is the personal connection. (I realize this works both ways, I have to decide I like them as a company, too). I have to convince them I'd be a good fit in their workplace.

**deep breath**

Here goes!

Then this:

Originally Posted by BigV

I got the job.

Now this:

I was fired from this job yesterday afternoon with about ten minutes notice.

I got paid for Thursday (which is today) and for tomorrow and he paid me for my 15 hours of accrued PTO. He let me clean out my drawer and copy some personal files from the computer. My login and email access was terminated in the middle of the process. He said, "No animosity with this, I like you. We're going forward with the team without you." A very close repetition of his words. I was too stunned to remember it verbatim. He had shooed the other people out of the office so it was just him and me... what, in case I made a scene? He permitted me to offload some files and get a box for my stuff. I gave him back the key to the door and the 2FA usb key for online access to most every other thing.

He said I'm available in the future... For what I asked, for more talk, y'know. He asked if there was anything I wanted to say. I thought and said I like to think before I speak, so nothing at this time. I asked him if there was anything else he'd like to say and he said no. I shook his hand and said I like you, too. Then I left.

It's been almost 22 hours now and I'm a little less stunned, ... still pretty stunned.

I've setup a little office on a card table here that will be my new workspace. I have a computer and internet access, food, shelter, etc. No income, still have bills. Twil assures me she isn't going to fire me. My kids, all the kids have been sympathetic.

It bugs me that no reason was given. Ha! Worse than that, "I like you" was what he said, then he fired me was what he did. The aphorism "Words speak louder than actions" comes to mind when there's such a dramatic mismatch.

Anyhow. I'm still processing it. I have a list, an actual list of stuff to do. Getting my new office up and running was important to get done early, as it enables several other important better sooner than later steps. Steps like applying for unemployment, applying for jobs, etc. But checking in with my good friends here is also important.

I read through this thread... man. I must be doing something wrong but *fuck* if I know what it is. I wish I did, I'd stop doing it.