Thursday, June 19, 2008

Last Friday I interviewed for a job. It was a chance for them to see if I could solve technical problems without wearing a bathrobe and for me to see if I enjoyed sweating profusely in their office building.

Apparently they liked me (and I found their office to be as good a place to sweat through my shirt as anywhere) because they extended me an offer this week. We then had a few discussions about compensation and start dates and suddenly today I found myself accepting their offer.

*gulp*

So, today, I called my boss, who is a good personal friend, and gave him the news. It was a phone call that I had been dreading for weeks, ever since I first entertained the notion of interviewing with this company. He took it pretty well, and we had an only semi painful conversation about what this meant for our team.

Later in the day I called Ralph, whom I've been working closely with for the last year. During that time we've spent hours each week on the phone batting ideas back and forth and generally doing some of the better software development of my career. The product that we work on has been too complicated for either one of us to handle by ourselves, so we've been working closely as a team. I knew I'd be making his job a lot more difficult and lonely by leaving, so calling Ralph was even more difficult than calling my boss. Ralph is a big boy, so that call went ok too, but I felt pretty bad.

I'll notify the rest of the team tomorrow I guess then my two-week notice officially begins.

Dang. So weird.

Although my corporate logo has changed many times in the few years, I haven't actually quit a job in nearly a dozen years. I've been working at home for that entire time. The idea of walking into a new office, albeit one with a few familiar faces, is kind of intimidating. I know it'll be good for me but New is scary! I'll have to meet new people, learn new things, and wear new pants. Stupid pants.

Anyway, things feel strange in my brain. Stand by.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!!

Anonymous said...

Yay! I get to work with you again.

--Pablo

Anonymous said...

Congrats! Just curious what made you want to leave your old job after a dozen years there.

Lola said...

Good luck! You can work on some really good dick jokes now that you've got the job. Although I suppose they can still fire you.

Mike said...

Thanks, CP!

Pablo, yes, you get to make the same mistake twice.

Anon, it was mostly four things:
1) When the most recent company acquired us, they essentially removed some of our benefits and compensation (like having any equity in the company). That really chapped my hide.
2) When I looked around at the in-house landscape I realized that there were no good growth opportunities for me.
3) It was just a matter of time (probably one or two years) before they moved my job to India
4) I hated the software I worked on.

Lola, rumor has it that they appreciate a good dick job or two. I guess I'll be testing that theory.

Sue said...

Well done Mike! I knew they'd make you an offer.

But yes, it is really strange and hard to start a new job (and, apparently, to wear pants).

Good luck with the big change!

Mike said...

Thanks, Sue!

Avery Gray said...

I have a feeling we'll be dealing with this ourselves in the near future. Congratulations on the new job! I'm sure it will be great.

But, just in case it's not, my offer still stands. I'm in need of a new cabana boy--I mean cabana MAN--and it seems they don't grow on trees. Bizarre.

loveyh said...

Congrats! Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. 'Course, what will we read when your not writing here as a means of procrastination??

Allow me to live vicariously through you--Mr. Enginner has an interview for a promotion on Wednesday, and he's wearing a tie. An honest-to-Christ TIE. I may pass out.

But the promotion would be choice. I'd probably wear pasties and a hula skirt if that was preferred. :)

Mike said...

Avery, your offer is appealing, but unless your husband has some proof of his abilities to provide blow jobs (to a straight man no less) I'm not interested.

Lovey, it was pretty damn rare that I posted something during work hours, but at least now I'll have an office full of people to mock here in the blog. Humans are so mockable.