"There can only be ONE..."

So, interview went well in the city and am still here now blogging from this awesome little outdoor park on W27th street, it must have been an old alley that they gussied up and converted into park space.

I don't know, if you follow me on Twitter or are a Facebook buddy of mine you already got the brief feeling, but I've never left an interview feeling sad before. It's the weirdest thing in the world. I left the Principal of the company with quite a weighty decision to make, he admitted to me. And I could tell he wasn't just giving me a BS line or anything, the dude was upset and looked worried. You could just feel that he had a hard decision to make.

How it started was typical for a mid-size firm interview: a rather casual briefing of my work experience as well as an exchange of references and projects we've worked on, but then it got into a weird area. Mid way through, he admitted to me that, "you're perfect for our company, but this will be a hard decision to make, we've had so many candidates, more than we normally have and you all have unique and tremendous talents, I feel honored, actually."

That's when I realized, "wow, I'm in competition with someone right now, I'm going to have to do something unique and cool." So I basically started talking shop with the guy: relaying my experiences with particular projects and doing what I do best, personalizing. That's probably the only compliment I received from my short corporate gig is that apparently I possess a unique talent of communication, something that engineers either don't have or are just bad at all together. So I figure, let's use it.

So as we start swapping stories and I can see his body language changing dramatically. He started to open up more and talk to me like a mentor and a boss. Then he did something that was really kind of awesome and unexpected. He asked me my advice on a connection detail. Not one of those BS interview questions, but like a real question on something the way a client or even an engineer in need would ask me. It was in reference to something they were doing right now and it had to do with directly welding to an existing cast iron column. So I told him what I would do and recommend that he bring a portion to a testing facility and as I was mentioning the name of the firm I stopped myself and remembered, "HEY, this is an interview! I'm not giving away any secrets." So I stopped and we just gabbed a little bit more about it.

As the interview winded down he seemed to not want to let me go and wanted me to stay longer, but I figured an hour and a half had passed and I didn't want to overstay my welcome, so I shook hands with him and recommended he take a look at my job list and online portfolio. He then showed me around the office and I split.

At this point it can go either way, but he did say he would let me know by the end of the week about his decision. It was one of those, "I want to hire all of you and I know I'll never get this opportunity again since the only reason you people are available is because of the economy, but I can only pick one."

Oh yeah, and one last thing...

I will now always bring my Crackberry with me into the bathroom, no questions asked. Why? Because as I was washing my face and was full of soap and water, my Crackberry dings from the other room.

I knew it was The Interview Dude giving me a call back so I rip the face towel off of the holder and try to take the soap off. Then I tried to open the door of my bathroom and because my hands were still soapy, the door knob wouldn't turn! IT WOULDN'T TURN! So I use the face towel to cover the door knob and get some friction as I'm turning it, then I make a dash for my phone. On the last ring, I pick up and finally get to talk to The Interview Dude. Whew...

So a rather eager, PC, professional small talk session ensued with me having soap in my eyes and trying to paw at it with a towel.

*sigh*

So yeah, that's it. Crackberry is coming into all bathrooms with me, be it a public bathroom or maybe even your bathroom, my fair Blog Reader. Muahahahaha! No bathroom is safe from my Crackberrying now! Watch as I cast aside decency and civility as I tap tap on my wee QWERTY board behind the bathroom stall or answer a call as I wash my hands. HA! Suffer!

So, I get an email this morning...

But before that, let's go through why I flipped out and curled into a little ball and started to cry tears of happy.

As you may know, we're in a little bit of a recession/depression/doom right now and my profession along with anything remotely connected to the building of buildings was affected. Because of this, along with banks freezing up creating our own mini Ice Age, my boss had to reduce his work force drastically and I was one of those people let go. This was back in the end of January and as of now it's officially been 3 months for me of no full time employment.

So during this time, not only did I whip my resume into shape, I also (at the advice of an engineering placement firm) made a frickin' job list and a proper damn portfolio. *kicks myself* Of course it took forever and it's something that I should have started a long long (long) time ago, but I was so busy with work over the years that I never really stopped to take a breath and properly represent myself. So, maybe this was a good thing, in a sense, for me to collect myself and prepare for the next step of my career. But anyway, on to the good bits.

Once the resume was whipped into shape, I made it my job to find a job. That fat bastard of my resume got plastered everywhere! EVERYWHERE. Careerbuilder, Monster, anything that remotely looked like "engineering" on Craig's List, Indeed, sologig, Net Temps and finally a headhunters for engineering. I think in all I applied to about 30 different places and got some type of correspondence back from maybe between 5 and 8 places and had one interview. So, let's just say I was a little depressed.

So, despite my fragile emotions and wanting desperately to sleep all day, I made a point to wake up at 9. I wanted to still be among the living, so to speak. And in case I got an email or a call back from someone, I didn't want them to wake me up and catch my "AHHH, sleepy Christine angry" voice.

This morning, I wanted to tap my alarm and sleep an extra half hour, but I figured I'd check my Crackberry just in case. Thankfully I did because on it was a little email back from a firm I had applied to a few weeks ago wanting to see me for an interview!! So I check through my emails and try to find out through what mode of job seekering did I contact them with, sure enough it was dumb ol' Craig's List. *sigh*

I went through Craig's List again a few weeks ago in a desperate last stab at finding a job on my own. Later on I got picked up by a placement agency and essentially gave up trying to find anything on my own. So this was one of those last firms I had applied too. This is a place in Chelsea of Manhattan, and in a nice turn of luck it's right near where my penthouse is going up. This is a project I did with my now former employer, but still get some questions and calls from people if there are any problems or issues, so I made sure to point that out in my email to this potential firm. Turns out it worked and separated me out of the mass of resumes that they were wading through (the Principal emailed me and admitted to being smacked with MANY resumes, so you know he was being nice and really wanted to say "dudette, you're lucky we even found you in this dumpster full of paper.")

YAY!!

So yes, my interview is set for Monday at 2PM and I will be sweating and preparing all weekend up until that very 5 minutes before. Wish me luck!

And also, thanks to all my friends that have either helped me out emotionally, financially or whatever. You guys have been great and are true friends. :-)

Feeling Better and Getting Around

Of course I'm starting to feel better, this a day after I set up a doctor's appointment for Monday. But since this is a potential new primary physician, I will dutifully go and tell him what my symptoms were and go from there.

My day at home yesterday worked out well though. I napped, listened to the radio and got some personal computer stuff out of the way. Later on last night I began to play around with LiveJournal again. I originally got a profile so that I can join in on the fun and commenting since I have friends that are sworn LJer's. Now I know why they stay there, it's because of the communities. (They are probably reading this and saying a collective "dUH!!1")

A while ago I had joined up on an engineers community that allowed us to post at will a long as we kept it on the topic of engineering. So, at around midnight, I test the waters and see who else has been laid off because of the economy. And much to the statement "misery loves company" I got a decent response over the course of the last 12 hours. People relaying their lay off stories and more importantly, what they are doing to pass the time. Another benefit was that we're all experiencing a lack of interviews when in years past, we would all have offers up the wazoo (technical term). Former blue chip's are now experiencing multiple months of unemployment with no interviews on the horizon and we're all floundering around a bit.

It's funny because I'm probably being a big baby, "waaaahh, it's been 2 months, waaaah," but you have to understand, this is a new feeling for me as well as for others in my profession. We're used to being scooped up within weeks of changing jobs and pretty much naming our salaries. So in a way this is a good example of bringing our expectations back down to earth, with the economy shrinking and construction money not being at the ready. But it's still scary and it was nice to hear from other engineers in similar prediciments. It's nice to band together and share our recession stories.

I remember my grandmother would recant stories back from the Great Depression; how they used to reuse everything and anything (hence why she was a bit of a pack rat), food never went to waste and you found friends where you could since any connection could mean work for a few weeks, "hey, my friend downtown has a sidewalk that needs pouring..." (for me it's more of a phone call for a house that needs framing, but very similar). Now I understand, you have to band together during tough times. It keeps your outlook positive and it helps you out if you need a few bucks to not overdraft or if you have extra eggs for someone to whip up dinner for their family.

It's nice to have a sense of community again. :-)

Sick

Meh...*sniff*

It feels like I have oatmeal where my post nasal drip area is (I keep calling it the base of my sinuses, I could be wrong, but that area) and my lymph nodes are slightly swollen. I'm also tired, not exceptionally tired, but tired enough sometimes that I need a nap or at least a sit in front of the TV.

Another alarming facet, I think I have Pink Eye. AHHH!!! *hides under her robe* Even saying it makes me feel like I live in a condemned apartment building with pizza boxes piled up and years worth of dust and grime caked around. *shudder* But I have to face the facts: weeping eyes, redish "whites" and tenderness when I touch the eyelids. I'm banking on allergies just because I think it's slightly embarrassing to have Pink Eye as an adult, but I have to come to terms that it may be Pink Eye. Years of guilting me into a clean freak by my Mom makes me realize that it's probably not from me, but from travels around and encountering various sick/creepy people.

So I made an appointment with a new doctor for Monday, I had been putting off seeking a new primary care provider ever since I moved into my apartment 4 years ago, so I felt it was time to not only take care of things but branch out into The Havens. Since I grew up in Bridgeport, I have a slight rivalry with New Haven physicians. I know they have Yale-New Haven, but I'm very partial to my St. Vincent's and Bridgeport Hospital peeps. However, with the latest buy out of Bridgeport Hospital by Yale, the rivalry is over. And now I will be able to walk to my doctor instead of driving half an hour.

This just in from the NIN front...

Breaking news today from frontman Trent Reznor:

"More information about this important event will get posted here when we get it. A very exciting time to be a NIN fan!"

I know I will be glued to my screen until the next update emerges!