i got a strong bite today!! Yippee **edit**

Today I had 3 interviews.

First interview:  was a 45 minutes drive away from my house and I found out that it actually WASN’T an interview I had to take an aptitude test that lasted an hour AYE YAE YAE. I haven’t done algebraic functions and fractions since school. After i took the test and walked out of the monster of a building (campus) I was told that my scores would be reviewed and that I’d get a callback Next week. Bleh it was a little TOO professional and cold. Felt like I was in a hospital. Or like something out of total recall. All technology no personality.

Second interview just so happened to be set up last night after talking to the manager. I emailed him 3 weeks ago about the position. Went to the place. It’s fairly small and quaint. the manager was a hoot. We really hit it off. He asked some scenario questions in which I kicked bootay. Then he went for the big guns and called in the office IT guru who then asked me a ‘hard’ question which I answered very well the guru guy said I’m a hit in his book and the manager then told me I’d just put him in a tough position. He’d had a guy in mind to hire but something (yah you know who) told him to call me. He’d interviewed 7 people and I was the only person to answer the scenario questions right and the only way he’d choose anyone over this other guy is if the person was absolutely awesome. Well guess who’s absolutely AWESOME lol yep you guessed it me! So he wants me to come back in for a second interview and we discuss compensation and here comes the hard part. The position doesn’t pay well. About 1000.00 yearly less that what I already make. i tell him I’m not trying to go backwards. If i take the max for this position it’ s still 1k under. Then i remember when the guru was brought in he actually asked me about working with him doing IT networking? So hmmm lightbulb. This is a fairly small company that’s growing in this terrible economy nonetheless. It’s permanent. Has benefits a 4% 401K match,  1 week of vaca the 1st year 2 the next on and on…. So I’m weighing my options then i ask. " Well if I come in at the max,  when the time for reviews come will i be able to get a raise?" He stops. Man he doesn;t know he has to take that up with his boss. So I propose this…. how about you allow me to work both with the IT guru as well as this position and bring me in at a higher range and allow me to get raises and that justifies my salary? He’s gonna talk it over with the boss and I talked it over with Big Q and he wants me to take it. The hours are a little later in the day than I’d like but it’s still 1st shift so I’m not complaining and it’s only 20 minutes from my house.

3rd interview: phone interview that actually turns into a rap session with the recruiter. Sweet girl i tell ya lol. God can do that sometimes. Pay is almost twice that of the last job but it’s contract. 90 days contract to permanent hire to be exact.  but the shift is flex and I REFUSE to work flex. i value the time i spend with my babies and my husband I can’t do 2-midnight one day and 6-4 the next sat. I need redundancy lol. So then she tells me another position is opening up paying more doing less and should be open soon. She will pitch my skills to the client. It’s with the same company but she thinks the hours are better. She will check and see and get back to me.

Right now I’m strongly leaning towards interview number 2. we shall see if he can get more compensation but even if not I might take it. i don’t know if yall checked by now but the market is horrible and it’s hard to get permanent work it seems contract is all there is out there. I need benefits. If I never knew it before I surely know it now. And I can see that with this company moving into higher necessity positions seem to be pretty feasible so I figure even if I do come in 1k less I can make it up with raises. hopefully anyway.

*****edited*************

Okay so interviewer #2 got back with me last night. They cannot up the compensation, the comp that I’d come in at is the max for hire in so I would be able to get raises though. And the IT guru is definitely pulling for me to get the position but I couldn’t help him out with IT because he needs someone that can administer linux apps. I don’t have that exp. so that’s out the door. This other position with interviewer #3 is something that I would really really like to do and it pays 15K more than this current position. The industry is so horrible right now and interview #2 seems to be a shoo in but I feel like if I take it I’m just settling. This is a small company so I fear I will be stuck in this position for a while and I really would like doing more hands on internal server work. Interviewer #3 has that position.  I’m really stuck here. I have to go back for a second interview with upper management tomorrow for interview #2 and I don’t know if I even want this position. I don’t want to settle and I don’t want to be stuck but it IS permanent,  and has benefits. Interview #3 is closer to my home as well and they welcome opportunities for growth. So my dilema is do I give up a sure thing to take the risk? I mean I haven’t even interviewed with the manager herself about the position for #3,  it’s just a shot in the dark right now. Then again I don’t want to jump on the first thing that comes to me either. I talked to the recruiter last night on her cell phone after hours and explained my dilema to her so today she’s gonna check with the client and see if she can get more info on the job.  

Check out my playlist! They don’t have alot of Gospel on the site but I got what I could: