End of a journey

    OK, my long flirtation with a new job is over, and, unfortunately, I didn't get it.  I'm just going to type really fast about it, very little editing.

    So now I can talk about the long process.

    I left my previous job, which was completely wrong for me, and took a contract development position with a well-known American company not far from Boston.  This was exactly what I had been looking for at the time, as I am planning to leave Boston as soon as my lease is up.  I'll have to write a rant about Boston soon... awful city.  It was a chance to just get a paycheck for a few months, contribute to a group's success, and write code every day... perfect way to pass a few months while I contemplate my next move.  Europe?  Seattle?  Portland?  Back to Providence?  All options on the table.

    Anyway, in the time between leaving my old job, and starting the contract position, I got an e-mail from someone at Microsoft, asking if I would be interested in a high-level architecture position.  The details of the job aren't all that important, but let it suffice to say that I viewed it as the culmination of everything I've done in my career.  I thought it was a dream job, and I moved as quickly as I could to get through the interviewing process, for two reasons.  First of all, I was excited.  Second of all, I already had this commitment for the contract position, and, if I were going to be moving to Seattle (as the job was in Redmond) I didn't want to start and then two weeks later say, "sorry... gotta go."  It wouldn't have been right.

    So, I flew out to Seattle and interviewed in Redmond a few weeks ago.  All day, six interviews in total.  That was Monday before Thanksgiving.  On Wednesday of that week, I got a call saying, "we like you, but we just want to schedule a couple more interviews."  That came, I assume, from the fact that I did screw up answering a couple of the technical questions on Monday.  I think I did well overall, but there were enough questions that they wanted to make sure.

    This, unfortunately, left me in the position of having to go into my contract dev position Monday after Thanksgiving (which was supposed to be my first day) and decide what to do about all of this.  I opted to tell them the truth about the process, that I wasn't looking, but Microsoft found me, and I had to check it out, and see what they said.  As I hoped, they were incredibly kind and decided with me that waiting to start would make the most sense, pending the outcome of the process I was in the middle of.

    So, back to Microsoft.  I was told that Monday that I had to wait an entire week to have two phone interviews, and that they just weren't available to do them sooner.  That kind of pissed me off, because I was now sitting unpaid, and it forced me to have to tell my nice people here in Massachusetts that they were going to have to wait even longer than I first thought.  But, welcome to the land of "you don't have a choice."

    The week went by.  I studied quite a bit about architecture and development.  Learned a lot, too.  Monday came.  No one showed up on the phone.  Turns out the appointment had been screwed up, somehow.  It makes me wonder if, really, we could have done this the week before.  So... I get to do one Tuesday evening, and the next one Wednesday evening.

    I'm fairly certain that I nailed the Tuesday interview.  It flowed, it felt good.  The Wednesday evening interview was much tougher, and didn't go as well.  To be honest, I thought the interview was needlessly difficult, and the fact that I couldn't snap off answers off the top of my head to his questions didn't really have anything to do with my competence for the job, but, you know, that's life.

    I got the call this afternoon, Thursday, from the recruiter, that they had decided not to offer me the position.  They like you a lot, but in this job, they're just not sure you have enough experience in the exact thing that they're doing, and they don't feel that they can afford to train, even for a little while.  But, hey, it was a really close call, and all of the feedback says that you would be awesome at Microsoft, and I'd love to find you a different position here at HQ, and if you feel you have to complete the contract position, I'm sure we can do something starting in May or June for you.

    So, bad news: you didn't get this particular job.  Good news: you impressed a lot of people, and the feedback is that you're definitely wanted here.

    So, again, it's decision time.  Do I tell my contract position that I'll start for them, and postpone going to Seattle?  Do I gamble and tell the contract position that I'll go with Microsoft, and then hope to find a position quickly there, including going through another interviewing process?  I mean, I have savings, but I'm already using it being unpaid for a while, and I'd rather not keep burning through it needlessly.  And what if I didn't get a position quickly?

    The cynic would point out that it's just a contract programming position, and if I found a job at Microsoft soon enough, I could still just leave there after four weeks or whatever.  But I just think that's the wrong thing to do.  They've already been unbelievably kind to wait for me... at this point, my decision is either to complete the contract, or end it before it starts.  Karma: it's not just a good idea, it's the law.

    Believe me, I want to work for Microsoft, and I always have.  And I really like Seattle, and I'd love to live there (and I'd love to get out of Boston, as soon as possible).

    As much as I'm a gambling man, a quick conversation with my brother, who is one of the most practical people you'll ever meet, convinced me that the right thing to do was to stay here, do the contract position, and check into Microsoft again as I get into Spring 2008.  And so I will.

    At the end of this process, where am I?  Well, I've collected two weeks less salary than I otherwise would have, so that's a minus.  I'm still free to choose wherever in the world I want to go at the end of the contract and lease here, including Seattle, so that's the same.  I'm a known quantity amongst a few people in Redmond, and so looking for a job there in a few months should be a bit easier, and is still an exciting option (although at the moment I'm a bit down) so that's a plus.  To do all of this, I had to risk losing the contract position, and was fortunate that I didn't.  Basically, I traded two weeks salary and the risk of losing the contract, for the opportunity to interview at Microsoft and land a dream job.

    Worth it?  Well, I play a lot of poker, and, you know, the implied odds of this bet were really good, so, yes, I'd say it was the right play.  Implied odds, for the layperson, are the odds you're getting against calling a bet that, if you hit your hand, you'll get paid off handsomely.  In my case, the upside if I hit was huge, and the risk was manageable.  The cards didn't fall my way, but I don't think I did anything wrong, and I tried to do it all with as much honesty to everyone involved as I could.

    At this point, I just have to trust that the Universe doesn't want me in that job right now.  And everything happens for a reason.  And I don't know the reason, but this time I'm supposed to stay here in Boston some more.

    And I have so many friends here... I'm so incredibly blessed by them all.  They're the only thing that has made living here tolerable.  And leaving them is not something I did or would ever look forward to, so the good news is that I have six or so more months to see them as frequently as possible.

    So, that's the high-level version of the last few weeks of my life.  And it sucks right now.  But I just have to shrug it off, be grateful for my friends and my work, and figure out my next move in a few months.