My Mysterious Absence
2007-01-20 09:36 - General
Nearly four months ago, I posted about getting laid off from my job. Just over a month ago, I posted about interviewing for a new one. There's some serious gaps in between and after. I think it's high time to put it down in black and white.
September 28, 2006: I was laid off, zero notice. September 29, 2006: I move into a new apartment. What timing! The new place is totally empty and disconnected. I've got to wait from that Friday that I moved in on until Wednesday to get the cable installed, and then I finally have an internet connection again. Once I'm reconnected, I discover that Root's founder and original CEO wants me to keep working for him. In the back-and-forths on the financial backing of such a prospect, he's assured me the most recent turn really happened, and he can pay for it.
I had already set up an interview, with a coworker from my previous job. Given the opportunity to continue on the project I had for over a year, I chose the devil I knew over the one that I didn't, and stuck with Seth. That lasted until mid November, when I had finally gotten just one check, and fully realized that A) there wasn't another one coming and B) the project has shifted to where I feel even less aligned with it. I decided to find another job.
That took a month. What I never mentioned was that, coincidentally, right around when I started looking for work, work started looking for me too. Google sent me an email on November 16th, only days after the send-out-the-feelers turned into a start-pounding-the-pavement real job search. But, Google is a bit large. It took them two weeks to schedule a phone screen and get back to me about it, and at the time it didn't seem good. They seemed to turn me down, although they did offer the opportunity to pursue a different position, which I accepted. Which also moved slowly. Worse, I was lead into that with the statement that this position was based in California only, not New York where I already live.
With that (slow, not-so-hot, likely requiring a cross country move) all in mind, even though I'd like to work for Google, I ended up accepting the offer I got from Miva Direct. I've been there for about five weeks now. Like any job it has its ups and downs, but on the whole I'm happy to be there. But Google, again at a lazy pace, got back to me. My second round of phone interviews and my technical exercise went well, and they wanted to interview me in person. Long story short: They did.
I just got back from a redeye flight from San Fransisco airport. It was a tiring ordeal: the departure flight left at 8:30 PM eastern, arrived midnight pacific, and I didn't get to the hotel until 2AM. The interview started at 10:30, and went rather smoothly through a quick chat with the HR person, and four different people connected to the position. I think I did well overall, except I know I bombed the only tough tech question I was asked. Then, the only return flight available left at 10:30 PM pacific. That means it left at 1:30 AM eastern, and arrived just before 7:00 AM. Phew, that was tiring.
When I first got in, I was debating if I could at that point simply pull an all-nighter, and end up simply going to bed early tonight. It's still possible, but starting to feel like it could be tough. And that's what's been going on with me!
