When it all comes together

I was heading up to Denver for my interview. I couldn't eat breakfast, I was nervous. My phone interview with some of their managers the other day seemed to go very well. I wasn't sure what they were going to throw at me other than the fact that they had some issues with developers not being able to work from home, and replicating the source code (software under development) to India (why do companies keep screwing themselves over by contracting shops in India. Their telecom sucks which means sending data back and forth is not reliable).

I was told that it was a 6 month+ contract to hire. I was going in for 2 interviews. One was a technical interview with a developer, a manager, and a guy that I guess I would be his manager if hired. The second interview was going to be a management interview with a senior manager. This position isn't technically a management position, but it is a very important one. I will have 1 guy and possibly another under me, but I would not have specific employee management responsibilities (I kind of like it that way).

These 3 guys in the conference room were throwing some of their problems at me. I was able to give them a number of viable solutions we could implement (if I am hired... hehe). It was pretty clear that their processes are fairly immature, and that they were needing a number of improvements in both process and infrastructure (more servers) right away.

They seemed to like me. We joked a lot about how developers can be lazy. I felt pretty comfortable. They didn't have much of a problem with what I was saying. My answers just seemed to spur more questions. I was in with them over an hour. It felt good that I wasn't possibly going into a place that had problems I was not familiar with. Some of the solutions I suggested were new to me, but it just meant I would have to learn even more about the tools that I am already extremely comfortable with.

Once they passed me off to Bob I kind of felt like I had things fairly well covered. Bob asked me some of the same questions, but some were totally different. I think Bob has some plans that the rest of the guys are not aware of. He was pretty easy to talk to, unlike the interview I was on a couple weeks ago.

One thing that came up that threw me was that Bob was refering to this as a permanent position. I was under the impression that it was a contract to hire. I showed him the e-mail from the recruiter. He said the recruiter probably just screwed up. He told me they were trying to get away from hiring contractors. I had already decided that I was ok with a perm position in Denver prior to even starting the interview process. Then he asked me what my salary requirment were.
I was quickly trying to rewind my memory to what I had told the recruiter. I remembered the conversation, but forgot the number. I threw out a number about 10 percent higher than what I was making at Agilent (hey, I deserve a raise). He response was "I think we can work with that without any problems". Which I replied, "Well that was too easy for you, make it {____ +$15K more}". We both laughed, but in truth I was thinking "Damn it! I should have pushed higher". He said that there are scales they need to stay in.

He said there was another guy they were interviewing and that they should have word back to me in 1 or 2 days. I have been dealing with people unable to make decision to hire after weeks and weeks. I was relieved to know I didn't have to wait long to know.

I left feeling really good about this interview. I phoned my recruiter on my way to the interstate and let him know how it went. He asked me "When do I start"? I told him about the other guy they were going to interview. He said he knew about the other guy and that he was from out of state. He said they've been trying to nail down a date for him to fly in for a face to face. It sounded like my wait would be more than just a couple days. He said he would get back to me as soon as he heard anything.

When I got home I got online and over the next hour or so I let the few friends I saw logged in know that it went well. Mel and I were discussing the interview, and some movie stuff. Then Lee, one of my Agilent co-workers came on asking me how it went, and was bitching about some of the crap they are trying to get the people that are still on the project do before their end dates. I had just told her that I was hoping to hear in a day or 2... then the phone rang. They offered me the job!!!

Not only did they offer me what I initially told Bob, but they threw in a $5000 sign on bonus. KA-CHING!!!

I start August 7th