Monday, June 12, 2006

Worth the wait

For those of you who haven't been keeping up, I've been energetically searching for a new job. About a month ago I went on an interview with a research-oriented institution. Two weeks ago, I got a call saying that they would be making me an offer in the next few days. And, finally, on Friday afternoon, I got THE call. I should be receiving my official paperwork by Wednesday. I'll have a boatload of forms to fill out, since there is a preliminary background check that has to occur before I can start. Plus, this place has real benefits that you can sign up for prior to your first day on the job. I hope to be able to start the new job on 7/10. I won't turn in my notice at my current employer until I'm sure all the background checks have come back clean, since a coworker was offered a job at the same place and had it fall through when it turned out that there was a glitch in his background check.

I spent the better part of the weekend in caloric celebration, unfortunately. I have been weight plateaued for about a month now. I am sure this weekend's poor behavior did nothing good to end that situation. I hope to spring back into full-blown weigth-reducing behavior in the next day or two.

Another reason I am not in a hurry to start the new job is that I am drowing in my school commitments. I have one more test and a (huge/ugly/arduous) researched position paper to write in the next couple of weeks.

Plus, I want to spend some time doing some professional development reading so I won't feel like a complete out-of-touch idiot when I start the new job. My current employer has not provided ANY support in keeping up my (or any other employee's) technical skill set. From a business standpoint, this is a pretty stupid maneuver, considering that our core business is technology services. And, the core of a service business is people. How can you compete in the market place selling technology services if your technologists don't have current skills? Hrm... Maybe that's one of the reasons why the company is having a hard time in the market place?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Big congrats out there to the newest DODster. I know you wanted this job so good for you. (Hip hip hoorah...) etc. Feel free to put us down as refs. We've dealt with answering questions from the MIBs before.

The big question is, will they let you start (and start paying you) before the final clearance is in? Those buggers can take a long time in the best of cases and nowadays I hear there is a backlog.

Kitten Herder said...

I'll be getting an interim clearance in the next few weeks. It can take many months to get a full one, but they are fine with me starting with an interim.

RaineS said...

CONGRATS!!! email me with details please...