To start though, I need to give you the background. Thursday, July 25th, I had an interview at a company. For reference sake, let's call it Company X. So, I'm at Co. X and they keep me there for like 2 hours and I meet with the guy I'd be working directly for as well as the President and another manager guy. They seem to really like me but they kept playing it really cool...all, "well, we're going away for a week so don't expect to hear anything from us, blah blah..." I'm like, alright, whatever. So I get home and I get a call from them (so much for them taking their time!) asking me to send them my references and educational summary via email. I do, and then I wait.
I get a call from them to meet them a second time on this past Thursday, August 1st. So I go in on Friday (2nd) at 2pm. There I proceed to meet with two other people and the one guy again over an hour. They tell me they'll get back with me and such and go from there. Well, I leave there and head over to my friend Rand's work because he was going to lend me the remainder of the money to pay off my car payment since the bank was so demanding of the exact date and amount I had to pay each month (even one day past due date and they were going to take it) which was really fucking hard to do and some months impossible since they were expecting me to pay over $320 a month to catch up on past due amounts and fees and such. In short, I wasn't able to pay it each month and it was a HUGE source of stress to worry about them taking it. (not to mention the fact they've been reporting me delinquent on the loan every single month for a year now) But if I paid Rand off instead of the bank, I'd save $1500 in fees and interest as well as not have to worry about the specific date for payments.
So, I go from my interview to his work. From there I go to the bank to pay off the car. ($1700 was left on it). By the time I get home it's almost 5pm. I check my phone and sure enough, there's a voicemail from the guy at Company X. He asks me to call him back on his cell which I do. Here's the point where I stop being so joyful...when we first met, he asked my salary requirements. I told him. He said that was fine and within their budget. But when I spoke with him, he offered me an insulting hourly salary that's literally thousands of dollars a year less then I've made in like five years. They offered me like $3.00 a hour less then even my last job. Then, they also said it would be at least 120 days until I could qualify for insurance - not the 30 he had previously mentioned. Additionally, the job is to have flexible hours - meaning I'll never know what time I'm leaving for the day and I can expect to have somewhere between 30-40 hours a week, on average. ARG. So it goes from something where they make me jump through hoops, proving my massive skills - they are requiring EXTREMELY high levels of knowledge and are expecting me to actually teach advanced Excel to the Sr. Project Manager - checking out all of my references, making me meet with them for a total of almost four hours, telling me they accept my salary requirements and such and then turn around and make a paltry offer. I accepted it because I can't afford not to but I'm not happy about it. Tomorrow at 8am I go in (with no idea what time I'll get getting off since I'm "technically" a P/T employee) and now I'm miserable about it. It's one of those times where you almost wish they didn't offer because now I feel all the worse for having had to accept it.
The company itself started out very cool seeming too...a "hey, we're a friendly, all know each other kinda, it's all good" environment to a "well you have to be prepared to be reamed out by the president and he will come and yell at you 30 minutes after giving you a project to do demanding to know why it's not done yet" sorta environment. (The latter being ACTUAL THINGS that people said to me during my second meeting - including the president himself. He admited that he will yell at me and ream me out but not to take it personal). Of fuck, what am I getting myself into? This is not what I was expecting after this much aggravation and painful job hunting.
Rand's company is still looking for someone to do Marketing, Graphic Arts/Design work, and Web work and I gave him a copy of my reusme on Friday (though the lady was out of the office that day). I'm really gunning for getting that. He's putting in a good word for me and its something a hell of a lot more up my alley - I mean, graphics and web? Where the hell do I sign up? So, keep your finger crossed for me, 'cause it's not over yet.
Anyway, gotta run. We're going to see "Signs" today and I'm holding us up 'cause I was in the middle of writing this when it was time we were supposed to go. (oops, my bad). Thanks for the comments on the red hair. It's not bad, I kinda like it. :)
More if I get a chance tonight, or, if not, then late tomorrow afternoon after I get home from my first day. Eep.
~ flowers bloom near Memory and Dream
at 8/4/2002 03:14:30 PM ~
~
