Pen-Elayne on the Web

Relearning Curve, Part 3

Robin likes to say, "Everything happens for a reason." For the most part I subscribe to that theory, but it's a little tough to remember when job-hunting with as narrow a window of opportunity as I've been given with which to search (basically, only those days when my boss is out of the office, preferably on vacation, and sometime before the company moves out of NYC and I won't be able to get into Manhattan very easily). But I also acknowledge I'm not the most patient person in the world, and I do begin to get discouraged after a few months and four agencies with no follow-up calls to set up interviews and three interviews with no call-backs and the clock ticking until the company move and the general economic situation in the country and the weather... well, you get the idea.

I didn't want to come into work today in this dangerous cold, but before going on vacation my boss FedEx'ed me a package that needed to be attended to ASAP so here I am, layered and organized and it's all taken care of when my husband phones saying I got a call to set up an interview. I called back immediately, and the friendliest voice in the world answered the phone. Singing! Oh my God, I thought, we're in Elayne Territory now! This is such a Good Sign! And they need to fill the slot and they want to find just the right person and could I possibly even come in today? I said as long as they didn't mind jeans, even though I suspected from what I know of the company that they wouldn't, and she said sure, come on by! So that became my lunch hour.

I'm not going to jinx anything by talking about the position or the company. Suffice it to say that, if I were given a computer and keyboard and asked to envisage my ideal exec assistant job, inclusive of everything from the type of boss to the salary and benefits to the work atmosphere to the location, this is the job I'd write up. It's possibly the first time in my entire career where I didn't feel like I was a round peg trying to flex myself to fit into a square hole (even at Lehigh, which I adored and where I worked for 14 years, the salary could have been a bit better). The HR and I had simpatico from the beginning, she's a beautiful round woman so right away the usual "I wonder if they'll be judging my weight" trepidation was put aside, and she used to read comics so we wound up discussing just about everything under the sun. And she said she'd look up my weblog, so if she's found me I just want to thank her again for a wonderful interview experience, and that I look forward to seeing her again next week. This is the sort of thing that makes an upcoming vacation-at-home a very pleasant thing indeed. The only down-side is that I fear I shall be somewhat heartbroken if I don't get the position, so I'll be keeping all appropriate digits crossed.

[Part 1 of Relearning Curve is here; Part 2 is here.]