Channeling Emily Litella

Those of you who are among my Facebook friends and who follow me on Twitter already have an overview, so feel free to skip...

Opportunity found time to stop by after all.

The story begins Thursday the 13th. I got a call from a company I worked for back in the day. Seems they had a position open for which I'd be perfect. Still had to go through the normal application/hiring process though.

I had a phone interview Friday afternoon, during which they scheduled me for a face-to-face for Tuesday the 18th. The face-to-face was seriously the best interview I'd had in my working career. The supervisor and I got along great, and I aced the mock sales call he had me do (I hadn't sold anything in a year and a half, and I amazed even myself with how quickly everything came back). He's even originally from NYC, so we gave each other crap about baseball for a little bit (he's a die-hard Yankees fan). I left the building feeling on top of the world, very confident in getting a positive phone call later in the week.

Two days later, Thursday the 20th, I had the rug pulled out from under me - the company is extremely committed to hiring from within (which I knew), and while I was the strongest external candidate, they had to go with qualified internal candidates first. They had enough qualified internal candidates to fill the open slots, and I was turned down.

I cannot express what a blow that was. My jaw practically hit the desk when the recruiter told me, and she actually sounded apologetic. There was, however, another job open for which I'd be a good fit, for which she was also the recruiter. She told me she'd be speaking with the hiring supervisor and would call me the following week (Thanksgiving week), most likely to set up an interview.

I wasn't feeling well on Monday the 24th, and stayed home from work. I actually slept until almost 2:00. Not even 5 minutes after I woke up, the phone rang - it was the recruiter. She said she wanted to touch base regarding the other position, then said "there's been an interesting development with the original position." One of the internal candidates to whom they'd offered the position declined, leaving a slot open for me! She gave me the choice of taking this position, or waiting to see about the other.

Now, this is a company I never wanted to leave in the first place. Some of you may remember it as a job I enjoyed, but left after 2.5 years because it was a 110-mile round-trip commute - at $60 a week and rising (not to mention the 550 miles of wear and tear on my car, preventive maintenance, etc), my commuting expenses were becoming prohibitive. We now live 8 miles from the building, so the commute situation is infinitely better. The pay is great, the benefits are awesome, the company is stable (made it into the Fortune 500 this year and steadily growing). Of course I took the sure thing.

And in a fun little bit of serendipity... when I worked there previously, there was an apartment complex facing a highway I traveled during my commute displaying a huge banner that said "If you lived here, you'd be home now." I frequently cursed that banner, knowing that once I passed it I'd still have at least another 45 minutes to go before I got home. The banner is still there. And home? Same exit as that complex. :)