Okay, the job hunt goes on and on... Now how do I describe this? On one hand, I feel kind of pampered and spoiled that I can stay home and look for a job, not necessarily snagging the first thing out of desperation. I haven't had to resort to working at McDonald's or whatever. I apply for 5 jobs a week unless something looks REALLY tempting, then I'll go ahead and apply for that too. (Five is the number of job contacts I need to make in order to qualify for unemployment.) Once I make my five contacts, I pretty much don't worry about applying again until the next week.
On the other hand, It's now been nearly 9 months since I lost my job and I have had only two real nibbles job-wise. The first nibble was a phone interview followed by an in-person interview that I thought went pretty well. Unfortunately I got a "thanks but no thanks" letter about a week later. The second nibble was this last week, an email requesting a phone interview, which led to some computer testing, which in turn led to an in-person interview (today.) The interview went pretty well, I think, and if I do NOT get the job I am pretty sure it will be because I have some travel plans coming up for the remainder of the year (Carebear's baby, and the family vacation in November) that will make me a less-desirable candidate than whomever else they are considering. Other than that I think my skills are what they're looking for.
So now I'm trying to figure out exactly how I feel about this. I kind of want the job for a couple of reasons. First of all, the pay is okay. It's not spectacular. It's about what I was getting at United. The problem with that is, airlines pay notoriously low because they can get away with that due to their benefits (mostly travel benefits.) So here I'm going to be getting about the same thing, but for a company that isn't going to offer something spectacular like free flight. (Yes, I still have that from United, but even so.) But at least it's decent pay, not LESS than I was making before. There are so many jobs out there offering in the $10 to $12 range for what seems like a whole shopping list of requirements. Getting a job that pays about the same is almost a relief. The second reason I kind of want the job is because I'm starting to feel like Gary is really, REALLY the only one who thinks my skill set is amazing. If it were all he thought it was, wouldn't I have a job by NOW? It's hard not to doubt your worth when no one has beat a path to your door and you've been available for 9 months. The jobs I've applied for I have been very qualified for, and yet very little interest has been shown.
Okay, so why do I NOT want the job? I was hoping for a part time job and this is definitely full time. Also, it's further away than I wanted it to be, but it's not horribly far so that's workable I suppose. Also, it offers only 2 weeks vacation and I was up to 4 weeks vacation with United. It'll be hard to slide back to the beginning again, especially with my travel benefits. Most of my traveling hinges on being pretty flexible since it's standby travel. I've been pretty spoiled for the last 9 months, being able to look at a flight and not having to worry about not being back in Denver to get to work. If a flight has looked full, I've been able to say, "Eh, I'll wait till the next day." That will come to a screeching halt. And I haven't traveled nearly as much as I would like to. I planned to do it, I just didn't get around to it.
If I do get the job, I will miss being at home, keeping things clean and keeping all the laundry caught up all the time. It's actually been nice to be on top of things again. I think Gary will miss that too.
Well, no sense counting my chicks before they're hatched. But I think if I am offered the job I will counter with an additional week of vacation. I don't even care about whether or not it's a paid week, I just want to be able to have the time off if I need it. We'll see.
