I had my interview yesterday. It was quite possibly the longest interview I’ve ever had.

I arrived around 10 am and learned that I wouldn’t be meeting with the General Manager until 12:30 at lunch. In the meantime, I would meet with my potential Supervisor/Manager until then. After about one hour, you find yourself reaching for stuff to talk about. After two hours, your brain is floating. In the middle of the third hour, you wish you would have stayed home.

Up to that point, I still didn’t know if I had the job or not. And then I went to lunch for my second meeting of the day. We ate at a new chain restaurant called Claim Jumper. It was nice. I had Chicken Pot Pie and Fruit. I answered some softball questions, and I joined in the conversation between my potential Supervisor/Manager and the General Manager.

Then we returned to the office and I had a one on one interview with the General Manager for about 45 minutes to an hour. My brain was mush at this point. I couldn’t even see straight. But I seem to recall the GM saying something like, “I think this could work out for us.” On the outside I was calm and cool. On the inside I was jumping for joy. 😉

Then I had to meet with my new Supervisor/Manager to finalize the details (READ: How much I would get paid). It could go a couple of different ways. They could offer to cover my mileage. I didn’t think that would happen because it could potentially be very expensive. The other option was that they could give me a raise that would cover my expected costs should I commute to Chicago three days per week. This is the option they took. It was uncanny how their math matched mine.

At any rate, I’m employed. I keep my vacation and benefits. I’m happy, even though it’s one hell of a commute. I have something working right now for a place to stay near Chicago two to three nights per week. If the price is right it’ll be cheaper and easier than driving back and forth each day.

Now I have to call off interviews I had scheduled for today and later this week.

–sam

8 Comments

  • I once had an interview that lasted five hours, with the same people the whole time, and no breaks. Three hours in, they made me get up and perform a story, and they finished up the interview by driving me half an hour away to view the other library branch. And then they DIDN’T tell me whether I had the job until a week later (I did get it). It was torture.

    Oh, and they never once offered me a glass of water.

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    1. From my house to the office was about 2:15. It’s not so bad going up, but coming back at night was a killer.

      And then I had to imagine it with snow and ice. Not pretty. 🙁

      Small price to pay for a good job. If I’m lucky I’ll only be driving up on Tuesday mornings and returning on Thursday nights.

      –sam

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      1. Yeah, that’s pretty tough, though the stay over bit is probably a good idea. A friend of mine did something similar for a year or two during med school, worked reasonably well.

        I think I’d go crazy if I did a commute of 2 hours each way…

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  • Congratulations! What a load off 🙂 Glad you made it up there safe and things are moving along so well –

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