I think I can now safely write about the work thing that I was scared to write about before.
The deal is, my contract ends on June 30th. I’ve known it was coming since I started here, so it’s not a shock. There was a possibility that this group could extend my contract and keep me around until late November (at which point I would’ve been here a year, and then I’d have to take another 100 days off, because those are the crazy laws of the Giant Software Company). Problem is, I didn’t really want to stick around for another six months, because… um, well… I just don’t like some of the people I work with. I don’t really want to get into specifics about that, I think that the less said about it, the better. I don’t want to be mean and snarky, and more importantly, I don’t want to potentially make things awkward for myself later on down the road.
So, I met with my rep (since I work for an agency, I have someone to whom I can complain about such things), and she was going to help me figure out a way to gracefully end my contract on June 30th rather than extend it. But it turns out? July 1st marks the start of a new fiscal year, and apparently our team’s budget has been frozen for the new fiscal year.
Long story short: they wouldn’t be able to extend my contract even if they wanted to! Ha! So I don’t have to have the uncomfortable “gee, you really need to find someone to replace me because I don’t like it here” conversation. They solved the problem for me, which is kind of a huge relief.
Of course, now comes the scary part of realizing that I have six weeks to find myself a new job. Fun! I’m not that stressed about it yet, but I’m sure I will be as July approaches.
This morning, I had an interview, and the hiring manager seemed really interested in me, but I left feeling sort of “meh” about it. It’s a permanent job, which I would like because I’m a little tired of bouncing from job to job every 6 months to a year. But the job itself doesn’t sound all that appealing. It’s a pretty high-stress environment, it requires a lot of hours, and there’s a huge financial aspect to it that’s kind of scary to me. (You want to put me in charge of a budget? HA! Oh how you make me laugh. Have you seen my checkbook? Oh that’s right, I don’t have one. I do all of my banking online. And I don’t write down or print out anything on paper. Fiscally responsible me! Woo!)
I generally believe that if I don’t leave the interview totally fired up about the job, it’s probably a sign that the job isn’t for me.
Ideally, I’d like to find something that’s either part-time, or that at least allows me to telecommute part-time. I know it’s early to plan for it since I’m not even pregnant yet, but I really don’t want to be in an office 40 hours a week after we have kids. Dave pointed out that if I could get a full-time permanent job at the Giant Software Company, it’d be easier to transition into more of a part-time role once I’m there. The company is creating a lot more work-from-home and job-share positions to improve on their “family friendly” image. But those spots usually get grabbed by their current employees the minute that they become available. So I’m looking into it.
Anyway, that’s the latest. Brace yourselves for many boring posts about bad job interviews. The fun never stops around here.