The Interview

I’ll jump ahead and let you know how my job interview went on Thursday. It was at a law firm and it only took me 40 minutes to get there during non-rush hour traffic AND with me getting mildly lost once in Charlotte. However, I still arrived early and met with the woman from HR for a few minutes. She wasn’t sure if the two attorneys would be available to meet with me, but fortunately they were.

HR had given me a head’s up that the guys had good senses of humor, so I didn’t hold back and joked around with them as if I already worked with them. It was a nice interview and the job sounded great as well as the general firm environment. Fortunately, I had an “in” because a good friend of mine from college is a partner at the firm. He called me that afternoon to let me know that they were very impressed with me.

Yesterday I had a meeting with a recruiter in Charlotte that did NOT impress me. She called me a Yankee and swore I’d never find the minimum salary request that I wanted. I told her, “I will find it, and I’m content to wait for it.” That’s when she called me a Yankee. Whatever.

So about 3:30 p.m. yesterday the recruiter calls and says a position opened up for a job as a Help Desk person, and offered my salary request. The job would entail answering phone calls all day to help secretaries with computer software issues. Totally up my alley since I love computers. At the very same time I was speaking with her my cellphone rang with another call – from the law firm. Now, they had told me that I’d hear from them next week whether or not I’d be offered the position, so I was shocked to receive a call so quickly, and presumed the worst – that the candidate they had come in on Friday was preferable over me.

I called Law Firm HR back and we traded voicemails. She called back a few minutes later and OFFERED ME THE JOB!! AT MY SALARY REQUEST! I was thrilled. I called my parents to run it by them, and spoke with Denis about the pros/cons and we both decided that I would be stupid to turn down the position, given the fact that one of the lawyers batted around the phrase “could be a paralegal within a year.” So I called back close to 5 p.m. and accepted the position – I start next TUESDAY. Can you believe it? My first interview out of the gate and I got a job offer. That’s awesome.

So on Monday Denis and I will visit a few daycare facilities and see if we can get the kids signed up as soon as possible. Then we’ll be able to get Denis into his SC real estate school to get his NC/SC license and begin doing business. AND once he has that license we can begin looking for a house! YIPPEEE!!!!

I called the recruiter yesterday and left a voicemail for her that I’m not interested in the position she called about, and I also called Mr. Russell and told him I was starting a new job on Tuesday and that might put a crimp on my ability to do any real “work-hours” stuff for him. I told him to call me on Monday and we’d talk about it.