Job Offer

Today I got a job offer. To answer the rest of your questions in order: It's with a company called GoodBarry which a re-brand of a product created by Business Catalyst. It's small, maybe 12-15 people total, with an office here in SF and one in Sydney, Australia. I'll be a mid-level software engineer programming in .NET. There's a pool table in the SF office, which I plan to use the hell out of. The guy I'll report to was key over at Pageflakes.com. I could start as early as Tuesday next week. And yes, I'm excited.

In the short term, I'm excited that I won't have to sell my Wii or kiteboarding gear, both which were up for grabs previously in an attempt to buy more time. Though learning Ruby on Rails would have been exciting, I am excited to be working in a language I'm comfortable with. I'm excited to hopefully learn more about large-scale architecture in applications. Till now I've worked on projects that had minimal server load, or it was taken care of by someone else.

Long term, I'm excited to be working again. I mentioned that my work doesn't define me, but working is part of who I am. I need to be busy, and though I've done a good job of being involved in the APLN and the Microsoft Bay.NET groups, when it comes to consistency, you can't beat a 9-5er. I hope to form a good working relaitonship with the people at GoodBarry quickly so that I can also enjoy that work-place-friendship that I craved in my downtime.

Tonight, I went to IHOP and had a stack of chocolate chip pancakes to celebrate. I breathed a sigh of relief as I poured chocolate syrup on top. I realized that being unemployed has led me to take far fewer financial risks, and I think that's also carried over to non-money-related risks that I normally would take. I feel like I haven't been my normal adventurous self since the end of November. I forsee that version of Will returning shortly after a few paychecks.

About ten days ago I wondered if I was jobless because I needed to learn somethings about myself. It was that thought which opened my mind to reading the thoughts of the Dalai Lama on the subject of work. He reaffirmed what I already knew, that work is largely as good or as bad as I choose it to be.  This job may not have been where I started my job search, but there's no reason it can't be great; I think that was a big part of what I needed to cement in my head.

I also learned that it is helpful to create energy around possible job opportunities. At first my job status was something I only talked to a few people about, most of whom lived outside of San Fran. Eventually enough people knew what I was trying to do and kept asking for status updates that I started posting the news on facebook, which got everyone involved. The life you all breathed into me came across when I interviewed because i wasn't just me that wanted the job, but it was like everyone with me wanted that job. It's easy to be great in an interview when you have a cheering section. There was a woman at my parents' church who had me in her thoughts, someone I never met, I hope that she finds work soon too.

That's my job news. I should get the written offer tomorrow. Thank you for all of your support.