Sunday, June 17, 2007

Father's Day, and Worry

Ahh, Father's Day. Coffee and the newspaper were brought to me, in bed, at 8:30 (I was allowed to sleep in, which was greatly appreciated after arriving home from my friend's birthday party at 1:00, after a bit of a sake-fest...). Breakfast tacos were procured not long afterward. Then we attended an early showing of Shrek the Third, which was far more enjoyable than I expected given the mediocre-at-best reviews. The a nice bubble tea (green tea and passion fruit juice with boba -- yum!), lunch at Texadelphia, and grocery shopping. Now, Christine is preparing chicken parm for my father in law and I, which will round out the day nicely. A really nice afternoon, all in all.

If only I weren't so preoccupied with work bullshit. Or, rather, soon-to-be-out-of-work bullshit. The interesting new job I thought I had an almost certain lock on came up a bust -- I was the #1 candidate, until the very last interviewee came in, and he turned out to be a 100% skill match with previous experience doing exactly the job they were looking to fill. And the second headcount that I thought was available turned out to be for another division or group, so while I thought I was interviewing for one of two possible positions, I was only interviewing for the one.

Grr.

So, this past week has been a bit of a rough one as a result. I went from thinking I had a lock on a fantastic job to having no leads whatsoever. I've got some nibbles going now, but nothing certain as far as interviews go. This is all very unsettling.

I've never been much good at job hunting. Pretty much every job I've gotten I got by being directly asked to join a group or company. This is the first time in my professional career where I've actually had to go out and try to sell myself and my skills. And getting the "thanks but no thanks," even when it was such a close match between me and the guy who got it, really does a job on my sense of confidence and worth. So yeah, I'm a bit of a wreck.

Still, no reason to panic just yet. I have two more weeks of work, so two more paychecks. Plus a nice pile of cash for severance, and nearly 50 hours of unused vacation time as well. We're not looking at moving into a cardboard box under an overpass anytime in the near future or anything. And I know I'll find something, sooner or later. This is going to be okay.

I just want it to be okay now.

Mood: Unsettled
Now Playing: Paula Cole, "Courage"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy belated Dads' Day, sweetie. Don't worry, the job will happen. You're too talented to languish for long.

Dane said...

I feel ya, Gregg. I'm going through the same "almost but not quite" job hunt thing. Don't let it affect your mojo.

Your mojo is unrelated to whatever other clowns manage to walk in off the street to steal your job. :)

Walt said...

I'm wishing you all the luck in the job department. I know you'll land on your feet, and hopefully this will happen before panic starts settling in.

I am loving the new Paula Cole cd. Loving it. I wasn't sure what to expect, but she certainly delivered. Did you know I used to be very good friends with her best friend? Didn't get me a chance to meet her, but I did hear the entire Harbinger album over a year before it was actually released. That's my claim to fame. Woo woo!