It's been a crazy couple of weeks.
As I said, I got a call from a recruiter about a job in Iowa, for a company I used to work for at the Memphis location. Then, an email about a job at a location right here in town, for a completely different company I used to work for in Memphis. Phone interviews for both jobs ensued. On-site interviews were scheduled, first in Memphis last week, then in Iowa this week.
On Wednesday morning last week, the HR person for the Iowa people called to tell me that I'd be starting that interview with a presentation. Only about 20 minutes, she said. (Only!) What am I presenting on?! Anything you want, she said. My work history? What I can contribute to the company? Whatever, she said. I left at lunchtime that day to drive to the Tampa airport and fly to Memphis so I had to shove that to the back of my mind.
The Memphis former boss - and by "former" I mean fully 20 years ago - picked me up at the airport. We stopped to get coffee and start the discussion. Didn't get to my hotel till after midnight Florida time. Interviewed on-site with the corporate folk all day Thursday, flew back here, got home around 1:00 AM, and had a very full day at work the next day. Was too tired to even think about a presentation until Saturday, and I was scheduled to fly out to Iowa mid-day on Sunday.
I asked F what I should present about. She offered to send me her powerpoint presentation about dinosaurs. Now, as I recall, this was a ppt that she had got up for her evolutionary biology class. The paleontologists, or whoever, had measured the distances between dinosaur footprints, and made some other measurements, and compared these to the footprints made by modern land animals like cheetahs, to draw inferences about the dinosaurs' speed and musculature. I'm sure this would have been a very interesting presentation, probably more interesting than anything I could have come up with, but I felt that it was not extremely relevant to the purpose at hand; so while I was grateful for her support, I had to decline the offer.
I tried to write about my work history but I could not stand the thought of talking about MYSELF, with slides already, for 20 minutes. BORING.
What I ended up with, out of desperation, was a series of slides about things I'd learned from people I'd worked with; about integrity, and courtesy and respect, and mercy, and so forth. When I gave that presentation on Monday morning, I used exactly 20 minutes and it was very well received. The rest of the interviews went just fine.
What didn't go fine was coming back home. The flight out of that airport was canceled due to mechanical failure that, happily, didn't wait till we were airborne to manifest itself. The airline put us canceled folks up in a hotel, so that was OK, but whether it was a virus, or the (free) chocolate martini I had with my dinner, I was sick that night. Had to be at the airport at 6:00 the next morning for my flight, with a comfortable layover in Minneapolis and then a very short one in Memphis (had to run for my gate, b/c it was only 35 minutes to start with and then we were late leaving Minneapolis), retrieved my car in Orlando and got home about 12 hours after I'd set out. That day is kind of a blur. I really couldn't eat anything all day and was so tired when I got home I barely spoke to R before I fell across the bed fully clothed and slept like the dead.
And another long day at work today.
Tomorrow I'll meet the Memphis corporate folks at the lab here.
The Iowa folks have let me know that they plan to make me an offer. The Memphis folks plan to as well. So by the end of the week I expect to have made a decision, to stay here in a new job or uproot me and R and relocate to the land of snow and corn; and judging by what happened at my job while I was gone, this is happening none too soon.
I feel like I have had that Chinese curse.
Actually, I feel like I am being looked out for and I am very grateful.
