Jobless bum no longer!

What beautiful words - "We would like to offer you the position."

Be still my beating heart! This all happened so quickly. Monday held little promise when it came to my job prospects. I had paid $200 to take health insurance classes for 4 solid days this weekend for an insurance sales position that I didn't want, no other jobs had shown interest in a while, and no one was calling to schedule an interview. Then I get a call to interview for a position as senior technical writer. But wait, there's a catch! They want to fill the position as soon as possible and can't wait even a few seconds. Can I interview tomorrow? I start to worry - I have an ob/gyn appointment (which are nearly impossible to schedule quickly and always take several hours) and the Ashley Furniture repair technician was FINALLY coming by sometime in the mid-day to early afternoon (which forces me to hang around the house indefinitely). Can we interview on Wednesday? No! Too late! Now I really start to panic - I can't lose this opportunity and I can't over-schedule. So I hesitantly offer that late afternoon might work and they snatch the opening. Even though they'd getting off work, they coordinated a central meeting area at Bennigan's on Popular Ave.

The interview is scheduled, and I show up at the restaurant at 4:00. What they said would take maybe 40 minutes ended up lasting an hour and a half. Always a good sign! They looked over the copies of my resume and responded very encouragingly to all of my answers. ("Sounds exactly what we're looking for" and "That's what we like to hear") When they asked how quickly I could start, I answered "as soon as possible" - to which they responded, "How does Monday sound?" I was surprised that they didn't grill me very much; much of the conversation was centered on what the job entailed, with whom I would work, and the details of gaining security clearances, etc.

The job honestly sounded too good to be true. Cynical person that I am, I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. I would be working with a small team of about 20 people - that's everybody. Within that, I'd work closely with one other person on a given assignment, or billet. I'd work on several billets at a time, as needed. As described in the job posting I linked above, my main responsibilities would be to edit, format, etc. - all the stuff that I love doing already. There is opportunity for advancement, and when Aaron takes another job and we move again, I'll have the perks of working for a huge global company by working my connections and easily (or more easily) finding another job. Ok, that's not the reason I want the job, but it's a unique advantage I've never had before.) They talked about the other employees, how certain things in my resume reminded me of So-and-so, how they work as a very close team, all sorts of wonderful little things. It's a salaried position, and they encourage staff to "work hard, play hard" in that if you put in extra hours on Monday, you can give a little notice and reclaim those hours later in the week. Since it's military based, there are ten paid holidays. And vacation time is not divided into personal and sick time - which I adore - so it accrues more quickly. It will likely involve some travel periodically, especially to main navy bases on the East coast. I see this as an awesome perk.

When the interview started to wind down the team leader said that they had one interview that they had to conduct, but that I should expect to hear from him at 8:00 the next morning. He even went so far as to ask how early he could call because they really wanted to get the ball rolling on this. He went on to explain in detail the next phase of application/documentation. Every once in a while he would throw in an "if you get hired," but the sheer fact that they went into such minute details -that I would need x, y, and z documentations to obtain facility parking permits for my car, for example - made me feel pretty secure that I'd gotten the job. All in all, the interview couldn't have gone better!

8:00 this morning came and went... then 8:10.... then 8:20.... then 8:30..... and with each passing minute, my doubt and worry grew. Had I really misinterpreted yesterday's interview?

And then the phone rang at 8:34 and I nearly flung O-ren, who had been peacefully purring on my lap, against the wall in my frantic rush to answer the phone. After a very little pleasantry, they offered me the job, and I tried, without success, to respond affirmatively with at least a modicum of dignity. I'm relieved and excited to hear that I'll be making the same as I was at GMS.

The spending freeze is OVER!! Woo HOO!