Category Archives: the ongoing saga of my job

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Interview Results

Long Story Short: I now have a potentially steady stream of part-time web development contract work. I do not yet have a new full-time job.

The Rest Of The Story: It appears that I passed the “task” with flying colors, and went above what the other two or three potential coders had accomplished. Yay for being anal about cross-browser compatibility. I also apparently finished the task faster than the others. According to the seemingly-older (read: my age) partner who totally took charge of the interview, I will get paid for my ten hours of work. How much? That remains to be seen.

I had an entire page of questions ready to ask them, but was stopped short when I realized that this would be a contract job, part-time, max of 20 hours a week, working from home. All my questions about benefits, family leave, PTO, company stability, all went out the window once this became a nice side gig. Granted, it *is* a nice side gig… but I still have to do some follow-ups regarding other possible full-time positions.

(When I do secure a new full-time job, I may request that they withhold extra taxes, too, since my new contract gig won’t be withholding for me.)

If I were a college student and landed this gig, it would be the best thing EVAR. Experience and money doing what I want, and just in my free time! Hell, I probably could have done it during my time working in the computer lab, and no one would have been the wiser. Alas, now I have to pay bills and mortgage and whatnot, and I have not such luxuries with my time and livelihood.

So… more time to maybe hang out at Sky and get my August 10th incentive pay and maybe my September 21st severance. The stress is just a little lessened now, but not entirely gone. I’m not entirely sure how this contract gig will pan out in the long run. I’m hoping for the best, and am still genuinely excited to be a part of this growing and evolving company, but I can’t guarantee that they can give me what I need to pay the bills.

the ongoing saga of my job 1 Comment

A Thought About The Internet Today

Never before have I been able to prepare for an interview by studying my potential employer’s MySpace page. I’m going to be interviewed by people who were graduating high school two years AFTER I graduated college. Yes, these guys were learning to drive while I was getting my bachelor’s degree. And they’re hearty beerpong enthusiasts.

o.O

I’d never even HEARD of beerpong before I started looking at this company. No, I’m not much of a partier; thanks for pointing that out. My cubemate James explained it all to me, though, so I don’t need a primer on beerpong.

Beerpong aside, I’m keeping an open mind about this company. They do good work. They’re living the dream. Effin’ A. If I can join in, get in at the ground floor, be part of something big (and help them with their typography)… I’m all for it. If they’re cool, I’m cool. I’m still young and hip, right…?

Right?

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Putting Out Feelers

While my portfolio is still not quite finished, I have put up a passable temporary placeholder, and have now sent out three resumes. One was to a friend’s former employer (they say it’s not what you know, but WHO you know), one was a classified ad brought to my attention by a co-worker, and one was an ad I found on my own in the local paper (well, on their website, anyway).

I still have a really hard time “selling” myself as being THE employee a given employer should hire. I’ve been playing up my quick learning and adaptation skills, and my versatility — need a designer with programming background, or a quick-learning programmer with design skills?

But, still. I’m no rockstar, no matter what my husband says. I can’t let on to potential employers, though.

I’ll find something better than banking. I’m sure of it. It may not be the ideal job, but it’ll be invaluable experience, and it’ll use the part of my brain that makes me happy and fulfilled. I got to do that for six months, while James and I were actively developing our database, and I’d never been happier about going to work.

Of course, I’m *hoping* for the ideal job. That would be pretty keen.

…

Dammit, I *am* a rockstar! Look at all this shit I can do, and without even a CS degree. Really! That database James and I made is pretty posh for Access, considering how much of it we Googled along the way. I can do this. I can hang with the rockstars. I rule!

Toy store!!!

house, japan trip 2007, the ongoing saga of my job, weight loss

Life Is Good.

Furniture was delivered Saturday afternoon. Only major downside was that the old couch didn’t fit through the basement door, so the entire point of buying a new couch (so we could put the old one in the basement) was nullified. On the upside: we have a giant, nine-foot pillow-back sofa on which to lounge; a new, smaller dining room table with non-80’s chairs and a bench; and after our return from Nihon, we will have a new massagey recliner.

In other news, Aaron has determined the status of his passport. Due to our change in departure date, it hasn’t yet been processed, even though he applied for it back in February. It has now been expedited, and should be on its way by week’s end. Which is still calling it close, and may mean that we’ll need to obtain our Ghibli Museum vouchers after we arrive in Nihon instead of in advance.

Weight has stabilized at 198 pounds. I’m OK with that for now. Slow and steady weight loss means it’s more likely to stay off. I won’t make my goal of 190 by Japan, but so be it. I still intend to eat heartily while we’re on vacation.

I am SO almost done with my freelance project. I’m hitting some snags with programming the content management system, and I’m going to just have to set some strictures on what it can and can’t do. I can’t make it account for every possible instance of weirdness. Hopefully, the client will be accepting of that. Honestly, though, I’m really just glad to have it done. I don’t know if I’ll get the remainder of my pay by the time we leave for Japan, which is unfortunate… but, again, I’m OK with that. Between Aaron and myself, we have enough money saved up to have a sufficiently good time.

Yes, indeed… life is good.

the ongoing saga of my job

Spring Fever

Here I sit, manning the reception desk at work, watching the gorgeous weather outside, wishing I could be out there. I’m all caught up on the work I needed to get done by week’s end, and now I’m just helping out the rest of the department and stalling until it’s time to go home… without being too obvious about it. Not that there’s much of anyone to bust me for slacking; this place is dead today. Anyone with any sense must have decided to play hookey and go golfing.

Of course, now that I have some time to blog, I can’t really think of anything I’d wanted to say. Figures.