Yesterday, thanks to your prayers and good thoughts, I had an interview.
The interview (now to me, not surprisingly), in my old "field" of Quality Assurance. It is a position which would not require us to relocate. It is a position is a position with the standard sort of benefits that I would expect from a company of its size (smaller, relative start up).
As it turns out, a coworker knows many of the people that work there, so I think their reaching out directly accelerated my process - I went from submitting my CV on Thursday to the initial interview yesterday and a follow on activity later today.
The salary is commensurate with what I had identified in the initial application, which made me feel pretty good about estimating my value.
The process - if today goes well - is a series of interviews over the next month or so, culminating in a on-site interview and presentation (I have never done an on-site presentation as part of the job interview process, so that will be new).
They are, apparently, even willing to work with the fact that I will not have availability until the early part of July.
Do I intend to keep my part time Grocery Store Job? Absolutely. One thing this whole thing has reminded me of is the fact that I have become way too complacent about relying on my "job" - to be fair, even if this all goes well, I could still lose my position in a heartbeat. Better to have something, even small to start off with now, to fall back on instead of finding myself back looking for something. The worst case is I have something to support my hobbies.
How do I feel about "going back" to Quality Assurance? A touch ambivalent of course - there is a lot of stress that comes with it that is I do not miss. Still, it sounds like they have an aggressive plan and either there will be success in 1-2 years, or failure in 1-2 years. I can live with that timeline - worst case, I need a job to last 4-6 years at this point.
In a nutshell? Good news, better than I could have hoped for. Prayers and happy thoughts continue to be requested.
Sounds very encouraging. I hope it all works out. I agree that having a 'Side Gig' is a wise choice, especially with an economy which is wobbling.
ReplyDeleteI hope so too - And yes, the side gig thing is something I have intellectually thought was a good idea in the past but never implemented. Time to take that extra step, especially in this economy.
DeleteWell now, this is indeed good news. You and your family have been in the prayer rotation for a bit TB. Please keep us up to date on the inside of the grocery store business..........:)
ReplyDeleteThank you Nylon12! We appreciate it.
DeleteAnd yes, I am looking forward to exciting tales of produce to add to these pages.
A good reputation gets you support from coworker friends.
ReplyDeleteProverbs 22:29 speaks to this
KJV
29 Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.
ESV
29 Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.
NLT
29 Do you see any truly competent workers? They will serve kings rather than working for ordinary people.
https://bustedhalo.com/life-culture/5-proverbs-make-better-employee#:~:text=5%20Proverbs%20to%20Make%20You%20a%20Better%20Employee,...%205%205.%20Give%20it%20your%20all%20
Side gig is awesome, my chicken lady friend has levered her side job in produce to keep her hens well fed.
Your in my prayers. Develop your gardens.
Thanks Michael! Those are versus I have actually committed to my somewhat spotty memory.
DeleteI was doing some math last night, and even a small number of hours makes a difference.
I reminded myself yesterday the garden thing was on my CARVER chart. As it appears that we will be spending more time here, something to get on.
Indeed great news! I must say though I'm a bit surprised by the number of engagements that one must go through in your position. Engineering in my experience, is a lot difference. Generally after the one and only interview, I knew if I had the job and then it was just phone discussions to nail down salary and benefits. Occasionally, I had the job before I arrived for my in person interview (I guess from reading my resume or word of mouth) and it wasn't really an interview but a show and tell and a discussion of what I required for me to accept the job.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ed! This is actually a great deal more than I have had to do for other positions, although multiple rounds of interviews are not uncommon for the industry as a whole. Especially at smaller companies, I think there is a greater sense of wanting to make sure you "fold into" the corporate culture.
DeleteAs the others have said, good news.
ReplyDeleteIn the immortal words of Han Solo to Luke Skywalker, "Great kid! Don't get cocky!" (smile)
Thanks John - And yes, that thought has occurred to me as well...
DeleteExcellent news. The dynamics you mention "there is a lot of stress that comes with it that I do not miss", is that just normal for QA or does the corporate culture dictate most of it? Or is it a personal trait that goes with you?
ReplyDeleteThere were men in my district team that seemed to have zero concern for doing their job well or even showing up at times. I would stress about getting to the work site with enough time to find the issue and resolve it before the customer HAD to have the device working. I strove to hit all the metrics and be the goto. My stress was on me like a tattoo. Or in me like DNA. I took it everywhere.
STxAR - Good question. Likely it is a combination of Quality in general (and the responsibility therein), the corporate culture (and especially one's boss), and the fact I do tend to take on more stress than I need to - like you, apparently.
DeleteThe first and second are largely out of my control, although I have come to learn the phrase "managing expectations" to help me deal with that. The last one is 100% in my control.
Impressive turn in your search. Interesting that former coworkers helped network” you in for the interview.
ReplyDeleteWishing you all the best TB.
Franknbean
FnB - It is, although everything you read says that networking is far superior to the job seeking equivalent of "cold calling".
DeleteThank you for the good wishes.
I'm guessing that the job market has more seekers than offers, so it's a relief to see a possibility come up so quickly.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, my guess - just based on layoffs that I am seeing - is that the market is either flooded with job-seekers or soon will be. Hopefully being early will result in a better outcome.
DeleteI am wishing the best for you!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you PP!
DeleteOne prayer, coming up!
ReplyDeleteAppreciated John, thank you!
Delete