Contemplative Order of the Drunken Masters

After the horrible debockle of this weekend I’ve come to a greater appreciation for how happy I was at my old job and so I have re-quit.   I’ll be moving back to Karen’s Team.  Karen’s okay with it, Walt is okay with it, Kelly is okay with it, Erin is okay with it and I’ll be happy again so I’ll be okay with it.  I won’t even miss the money. Every time I start to miss the money I’ll remember the stress I no longer have and the ability to relax that I’ve regained and everything will be okay.

The moral of this story is that just because people think the bigger job with the more money and increased responsibilities is what you ought to do doesn’t mean they are right. Just because they are trapped in a cycle of pointless careerism and are striving to do more doesn’t mean I should also. Happiness and personal well being is more important to me than following the societal pressures to do stuff that causes me stress and makes me contemplate killing myself.

Yeah I thought about it in a sort of hap-hazard way. The stress is that bad.  Don’t worry.  I’m okay now.  I’m taking care of the problem and will be alright.

Now I will hopefully have enough energy after work to get in better shape.  Maybe start dating again. Daydream. Write. Make Art.

Who Knows. The World is my oyster and I’m starting to get hungry again.

My Boss talked me down off the ledge.  He’s going to let me change my job around so I don’t go crazy … er. More insane. On the upside I’m not a quiter and I’ll keep getting the awesome money and I get to rework my job so I feel better. I’m taking the weekend off and jetting to Indy for GenCon.

Hail Eris

Well I sorta quit today.

I called up my old boss and asked if she had a job opening. She did and told me to talk to my current boss and see if it was cool if I changed jobs. I talked to my current boss and told him I’m fried and that my old boss had a job opening. He told me that he’ll need to work out some sort of deal with the old boss for support coverage but that he knew I’d been struggling to keep it together. He told me he hated to see me go and thanked me for my work. It is pretty much a sure thing that I’ll get a job with my old boss.

The pay loss is gonna be pretty bad. I also feel kinda crappy about not being able to cope but I think I was being asked to work to hard; not only for the pay but just personally.

However I’ll only be doing 1 job for the money instead of 5. If you look at it by percentage then this is awesome. Mostly the reason I’m doing this is that I won’t have the stress or the demand. 40 hours, 8 to 5 and not a bit more. The money is great for the job and the work is very easy. I’m depressed but i’ll get over that and the first month of good sleep and I’ll be great.

Hail Eris

I am once again burnt out on work.  I just don’t have the impetus to get anything but the most trivial of chores done. Right now all I want to do is react to problems instead of working on any projects. ::sigh::

Once I get this major project done I can take a vacation. … so that I can leave this mess and have it still be here and worse when I get back.  It’s like I live in a house with a bunch of other people and they have no responsibility to keep the house clean but I do.  They’ll get angry at me if i don’t do the dishes while they are busy dirtying dishware.

Ug

Okay. The face to face interview is over. They flew me down Thursday night of the 12th and the Interview was at 2pm Friday the 13th (a bad sign?). I rolled around Morrisville and looked at Crosstimbers apartments. 875 sq feet for 700$ a month; not bad. The manager interview went awesome. The technical interview went poorly. They asked me a bunch of questions I didn’t know the answer too. I tried my best but still don’t feel I did well. Hopefully I tech out at 2 and can get the job. Now is the time of the waiting. I hate waiting

Meanwhile Lexmark is still lexmark; kinda crappy with promises of crappier later.

I really hate waiting. It is a never ending waiting and checking for information about something that is very central to your life. It’s like waiting to find out if you have cancer.

If they make me an offer I’m gone.

>???????? so after I thought I wasn’t going to get a job they called me up and told me that they wanted to fly me down there to interview a bunch of people for a bunch of jobs. Don’t get me wrong; I’m happy, but confused. The recruiter is a salesman so he can’t talk plainly which makes getting straight answers out of him very difficult. I’ve said screw it. I’m going to go down there and have fun and interview and talk to people and do my thing. My hope is that I’m going to impress someone and get a job. For preference 1st shift but I can cope with 3rd and if I absolutely have to maybe 2nd. I want 55k a year and basic bennies. I’d like relocation but I think i can make due without it.

HooRay? Good Times?

Why am I filled trepidation? This should be a time for joyous celebration. With Bitches! We’ll see how it turns out.

Hail Eris!

Well my pessimism was well founded.  I teched out at a 2 instead of a 3 which means that I can’t have the tech 3 job.  However there is a tech 2 job open for third shift that I think would be fine.  Down side is that they aren’t interested in flying me down there to interview for that position which means that if they want to interview me for that position I’ll have to fly down there on my own dime, but that isn’t a guarantee that I’ll get the job. This is depressing but not unexpected. I still want outta here and now is the time.  I’m having the recruiter talk to the manager to see if we can do a phone screening before I spend a bunch of money to get down there and have them tell me no.  If the manager bites then I’ll pay to fly down there and crash on John’s couch.

If this fails I’m going back to support here  one way or the other.

Suck.

I had the tech screening.  I feel I did okay but not great.  The guy (Paul Nelson) said I did good and said that my NetApp experience was a “BIG plus” but I am, as always, full of doubt.  The recruiter sent me an email at 1:30 Friday but I didn’t get it until 4:30 and by then he was gone for the day or not answering.

That meant that I waited all weekend not knowing my fate and it fills me with a sense of anxiety and self doubt. Horrible.  Plus I hate waiting for important things; I’m not good at it.

I called the guy this morning but didn’t get a response from him until I emailed him at 10:45.  He is going to call me this afternoon. so maybe I’ll know in 3 or 4 hours.

God I hope so.

I have two tech screens most likely meaning that I have two managers fighting over me. I have a screen tonight at 8pm and another at 8am.

THIS IS FREAKIN AWESOME!

My only concern is “teching out” at a high enough level for the job. I have to tech out at the highest level they have cause the jobs they are offering are all 3rd level support. Lets hope I’m awesome enough. I have to guess that they think I can do the job because they want to interview me for it.

I guess the only thing that modulates my enthusiasm is that I doubt my knowledge. I always feel like I don’t know enough.

That having been typed I’m still totally pumped and am going to do my best because I sure as heck don’t want to get stuck holding the bag at Lexmark

There are three steps. There’s a phone pre-screen w/ the tech recruiter. Then a phone screen w/ someone from the team. Then, they fly you down for a Tech interview, and a management interview

I am past step one with flying colors. To quote the guy “I think you’d be a good fit.”

Next step is the tech screen with someone from the team. I’ve been studying their documentation.

I hope this pans out quick.

This place gets about 70k resumes a year. They interview about 1000 people a year. They hire about 200 a year.  Since they are interviewing me I’ve gone from 350:1 to 5:1.

That is fscking awesome. I am now 70 times more likely to get hired now.