score!

The long and short of this entry is that by the end of this week, I will be employed again.

After a week of moving in, organizing, cleaning up and getting settled, I started pursuing my leads. I started by contacting my phone interview from July to let her know I had finally arrived and was ready to pursue Company A. She pulled me in for an interview Thursday, which went very well, and set up a second interview with their VP of Operations to take place today.

Friday, I got a call from the company (B) that laid me off two weeks ago. They want me back. In New York. I set up a meeting for this morning, taking place prior to my second interview.

So this morning, I woke up brightish and earlyish (for me) and as I'm getting ready to head downtown, my phone chirps with a new email. My second interview has been canceled. I was a little crestfallen, until I read the second paragraph:

"I want to go ahead and extend you an offer to bring you on board. Let's meet Wednesday and hammer it out."

I already knew the ballpark salary figures I was looking at for Company A, so I decided to go into the interview with Company B and use that as leverage. I saw where I'd be for Company B, met the staff I'd be working with... I asked about the more HR oriented things I would require to come back on board, and each one was agreed to. The working conditions were perfect. An offer was made.

The offer... was not good. In fact, kind of lousy. Liveable, sure. Workable. And a lot of freedom and flexibility. But kind of a slap, considering the skillset I bring to the table, the consistent and reliable performance I've turned in for the last four years. I need a better acknowledgment before I jump right back into that mess. I asked for a day to mull it over.

I called Company A, explained I had another offer on the table and asked to meet that day instead of Wednesday to get the details of the offer. She obliged and told me to come up right then.

Company A's compensation plan worries me a little. The base is barely better than unemployment. The difference, however, is made up through a variety of commissions and bonuses, and when all added together, with all cylinders firing, it totals considerably better than Company B's offer.

Back to Company B. I told them the one sticking point on this is the compensation package -- it was not sufficient considering my abilities and the increased cost of living between Atlanta and New York. I added $2K to my desired rate to give them room to negotiate back to it. They're crunching numbers now to see if they can make it happen, and will be back to me with a counter offer tonight or tomorrow morning. If they can meet me, I'll come back to Company B. If not, I land squarely at Company A.

Either way, WIN.

It was a little bit of a crapshoot, but moving back is turning out to be one of the best decisions I've made in a long, long time.

---

EDIT/UPDATE:

Company B could not meet my salary request. Company A has a new employee!

home, sweet home

Man, did I miss this city!

I haven't even gone out or done very much yet. I've been trying to get settled in, and finally, it appears to be happening. My room, when I first got here, was unfinished. The loft was shaky and unsupported, no furniture, no drywall, nothing. So first, a run to Home Depot to get supplies to rebuild the loft bed. Noah did most of the work, this seems to be one of his many fortes... I'm more technical and handy, but he can build. It's quite impressive, actually -- he built all the walls and a lot of the structural stuff in this apartment, and did a bang up job of it. After getting the loft built, we turned to the steps, and then finally, to Ikea. I dropped a pretty sizable coin on a couple of furniture pieces and the like, but it's very much worth it. I'm finally home, and each little addition tells me more. In fact, my computer is now back up and running. Clothes are finding a new home and... egads, I have my first load of dirty laundry to do tomorrow.

But that will all have to wait for a moment, because tomorrow: My first interview.

Stay tuned.

closure

Hm, it's been a while.

Closure. It's the only thing I could think to title this and I think it's apt and multi-layered, as all thoughtful, literate blogs should be. Also, I'm an egomaniac.

Honestly, though, things are ending all around me. My employment is the obvious one -- no bids to buy the club, so pending court approval tomorrow morning, we are closed for business later this week. Finally. We lasted far longer than anyone anticipated, and arguably we should have been gone three months ago. Jokes on them. I've been getting paid to essentially sit on my hands.

And I moved out of my apartment. The cats shipped up A-OK. I worried though, a great deal. Scooter had a seizure just as I was putting him in the crate. But I couldn't turn around and make other plans, so I just held my breath for eight hours until I got the all-OK call from N. They are adjusting well. I got everything out a day early. The room looks startlingly sparse. A lot of decor projects I never got to do. But it's no longer home.

Temporarily, I've taken up residence at my brother's house. On my second night in, I cooked dinner and discovered bits of teflon scraping off the very well used pots and pans, so a few days later I tricked my brother into dropping me off to do some shopping on his way to work. When he returned, a new twelve piece cookware set awaited to be broken in. It's odd being back here -- I lived here for about 8 months when I first moved to Atlanta, and now I'm back on my way out. I will have only lived in two places in this city in my four years here. I don't think I've ever known such consistency before.

The house is isolating, though. Convenient to everything but close to nothing... for someone without a car it makes things a challenge. And inevitably, the most direct path home has the steepest hills to climb. So when I'm here, I'm HERE until I MUST be somewhere else.

So with work winding down this week, my mind turns to my inevitable exit. I've been monitoring the prices on airline tickets and initially I was concerned that a short turn around means higher prices. But then, I realized that were I to wait the ten day deadline to get the better price... well, that's ten days of doing nothing -- and living expenses would cost the same as the extra amount for the ticket. I plan to hit the ground running at my next destination. No time to sit and wait for a better deal. I have to go out and find it.

So the long and short of it all is that things will be changing very quickly for me in the next week or so. I sort of hope it all comes down on Wednesday... such that I can file my unemployment and fly out by Sunday, making a new start on the new week. I've never been so lucky, though -- this mess has been nothing but unpredictable. So, I wait. And we'll see. But finally, I'm closing this chapter, four years after it began. And for the next one, I have a pretty good idea where I'm going with the story. I don't have to wing it.