Job Hunt

Job Saga IV: A New Hope

So I ended up being a consultant at OldJob. Twice a month on Saturdays. Not ideal, but hey, extra money is extra money. That went on until May, when my old co-workers had a meeting with my OldBoss and convinced her that they knew what they were doing enough to do it without me. Good for them (I remember how awesome it felt to have OldBoss tell us we were not “trained” enough, despite having the old consultant come in for a year) and good for me.

They still owe me a day’s pay, though. 1 month late and counting (9 days since my last reminder and confirmation). Skippy. My next reminder is going to be an invoice in the mail, instead of an email.
I was also promised a letter of reference that never materialized, but I have a funny feeling that OldBoss doesn’t understand the concept of a generic letter of reference, as opposed to one written specifically for a potential employer, and wants me to just call her up if I’m job hunting in the future to ask for one. :/

Same ol’ same ol’, eh?
So glad to be out of there.

My new job, however, is awesome. I’m even allowed (encouraged!) to tell the interwebs where I work: CanWest DHI. We test milk for dairy farmers (as opposed to testing milk for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency). They use our data to help improve the care of their herds, and thus improve milk quality for consumers. You know those ads on TV? “Great cheese comes from happy cows”? Well it’s true. The better the cows are taken care of, the happier they are, and they produce more milk of better quality than unhappy cows.
I use real-time PCR to test the milk samples for bacteria that indicates mastitis.

That’s right, I’m actually doing real science! I have a job doing what I loved doing in school! Even my boss is awesome and nice and fun to talk to.
Sure, some days are a little bit annoying, but that’s the same as any job. For the vast majority, it’s been super great here. I am so happy with my job.
I’m going to repeat that: my job makes me happy.
The cynical side of me says that some of that is a bit of leftover wide-eyed euphoria from being out from under the boot heel of OldJob, but I don’t care. I’ll take it!
Things are better now than they have been in a long, long time.

Err… Yay For Me?

Sorry for clogging up your Friends Lists with nothing but my Job Saga for days, guys. It just keeps going on and on. o_0

After much agonizing and talking the ear off anyone who would listen, I decided to still turn down my current boss’ offer.

I wanted that money. I wanted it badly. But I’ve grown fond of my sanity, and need to keep it. I’m tired of being hurt and angry and frustrated all the time.

The upshot of Friday was that my boss has accepted that I’m leaving, but she’s offered me a position as a Consultant. I don’t have anything in writing, so I haven’t agreed to anything yet, but basically what this entails is showing up a couple times a month (on the weekend, since my new job is M-F) to help make our flagship media. That way, I can train the new person, and they can still have the same person who has always overseen the production of it (me) continue to oversee the production of it for a few more months.

While I would prefer to make a clean break, I do understand that me leaving kinda puts them on the spot, and this lets me help with the transition and earn get some of the money they apparently want to give me so badly.

My boss asked me to figure out what my time is worth (in $ per day). o_0 WTF? I’ve never done this before, how the heck would I know what’s appropriate?
I Googled “Scientific Consultant fees”, but mostly came across big consulting firms, or full-time consultants who charge $900/day just to show up.

I’m thinking of taking the salary numbers they thrust at me as a counter-offer, and dividing those up into a per-day rate. I figure if they were willing to offer it to me in the first place, they may as well pay it to have me do this. That gives me $230/day on the low end, $307/day on the high end. I was thinking of going for $250/day.
Does that sound like it’s in the realm of “realistic”?

At the moment, I’m assuming they want me for 2 days a month. If they want me for more, like 4 or 5 days, I’ll probably ask for a lot more per day, since they would use up most of my weekend time, and if I’m going to be working 6 or 7 days a week, it’s a pain in my ass and is worth more money to me.

I’d love thoughts and suggestions. I’m still sort of boggled by the past few days.

Ummmm….

How do you leave your job when your boss doesn’t want to let you? And throws more money than you’ve ever seen at you to get you to stay?

I still want to go. I want to say yes and take the money and pay off all my debt (sans mortgage) in a year and a half, but the environment was killing my spirit and making me depressed and angry all the time. I feel like shit for wanting the money, and I feel like shit for turning the place on it’s ear to replace me. I feel like shit for wanting to turn down the money, because yes, I am greedy and I want to be out of debt so badly it hurts.

How do I say so without sounding like a retard for turning down my current boss’ offer, and in a way that she’ll actually listen to? Nothing I said today seemed to make her think I would turn down her offer and leave. Despite saying things like “At this time, I want to move my career in [other job]’s direction”. “I don’t think there’s anything you can change to get me to stay.”, etc. She wouldn’t even let the meeting end until I agreed to at least discuss it with Josh.

I never in my life expected such an… almost violent counter-offer. I’m very bad at that sort of meeting, apparently. 🙁

(I can bring the counter-offer to the attention of my new boss – but she’s away of course, and even then the new position is unionized, so I doubt there’s any wiggle room in the salary or anything because it’s all under contract)

New Job!

I have a new job!

Comparable salary to what I make now, better benefits, a pension plan (cool), a shiny new lab, and a boss who does science. ^_^

Now all I have to do is quit my current job. I’ve never done that before, so I’m really nervous. o_0
Suggestions appreciated. (I’m going for the “don’t burn bridges” approach ^_~ )

HAPPINESS. I HAS IT.

I got a message on my answering machine today.

It was the interviewer (boss) from the job I interviewed for last week.

She wants to meet with me to discuss offering me the job! Exact words (pronouns changed, of course). ^_^

So. Very happy, I am.

I’m trying to wait until the job has actually been offered to me before I get too excited or celebrate, but it’s hard.

SQUEEEEEEE!!!!!

It’s Friday I’m in Love

I just got back from my interview! I feel that it went very well, and I am pleased. ^_^

The job itself sounds fascinating, which is always a plus. The interviewer (my potential boss) seemed super nice and as a bonus, she actually works in the lab and understands the methods and processes. This would be such a huge improvement for me it’s not even funny.

She liked my blue hair, though I did make sure to tell them I’d happily dye it a natural colour to comply with any dress code regulations, though she said I could dye it any colour I liked if I worked there because it’s more fun and she doesn’t have rules about that. ^_^

The awesome part was, when I gave her my reference list and letter of recommendation*, she glanced at the name on the letter and said she knows the lady that wrote it!! Then we had a “small world!” moment and everyone was happy. ^_^

I will also hear back next week if I get it or not. I’m quite impressed that she’ll actually contact the people who don’t get the job, because I think that’s a very nice thing to do (and also a great opportunity to get some interview feedback!).

Please cross your fingers for me!!

* = I give both because I think the letter sounds very good, and also because the awesome boss that wrote that letter for me is no longer on my reference list because the plant closed down in 2004 and I haven’t been able to contact her since then. Not that I haven’t been trying.

Suitless in Guelph

I spent yesterday afternoon searching through Guelph for an appropriate interview suit. Apparently, Guelph doesn’t have any.

We went to a zillion stores, and while one sales clerk in one of the stores was incredibly helpful (especially because he explained how to read European sizes, and then spent a while going through the entire store with us helping us look and giving advice), we only found 2 suits that actually had pants the same size as the jacket. Everything else had all the pants bought without jackets, and of course all the 6s were gone, leaving my options as a nice fitting jacket with either too-large or too-small pants. Since I’m looking for a suit and not just a blazer and pants, I can’t just pick a fitting jacket and wear my only pair of black wool pants or something.

Today I’m going to try the mall in Kitchener and see if I have better luck there. I really hope so. I can pretty much count on needing to get the pants hemmed by about 5 or so inches, so I’d like to find something suitable (see what I did there?) tonight so I have time to get that done as well.

I have a REAL job!

As the title implies, I am once again employed!
Not just any old job this time, and actual career job in my field, with actual chances for advancement within the company!

I’m going to be working for a new branch of a small lab media company. It’s still quite small, but growing.

They make growth media, mainly for IVF. That’s in vitro fertilization, if you are unsure. The irony is not lost on me.

But I get to work in a brand new, well-equipped lab, in the city I want to live in! *squee*

It’s technically an entry level position, since I am still just a fresh graduate, but it starts at [something very nice].
To that I say: Awesome!
However, they want to train me up the way they like, and want me to head the lab once I’m trained and have some experience under my belt. Woo hoo!

I went through 2 interviews (including spending time on a Saturday watching and learning what the actual process entailed) and was potentially going to have to site through a third. They got burned pretty bad by the last person they hired – she didn’t want to do some parts of her job, like cleaning the lab (It’s a clean room, it’s not like we can hire Molly Maid to come clean it for us!) or proper filing. On top of that, she quit via phone call, while the boss was overseas at a conference, stating that the job clashed with her morality (why the hell would you apply to a job that makes media for IVF, if you believe IVF is playing God and therefore wrong?).

So they wanted to be darn sure I didn’t suck, and would actually do my job.

They also kept stressing that they were looking for someone to stay with the company for years. Me, me! I want some o’ that modern day equivalent to job security, please!

*squeeing happy dance*

The recap:
-Job in my field
-Full time, permanent (not contract work)
-Pays well (has benefits, but I don’t know the details yet)
-Is in the city where I want to live
-Is near places where Josh can find a job
-Potential for growth and promotion

Sounds good to me! ^_^

So watch out, Guelph! Here we come (again)!
(Speaking of which, we’ll be in Guelph probably Friday and Saturday looking for a place to live. If you know of housing listings somewhere besides UoG and the newspaper, please let us know!)

Random Update

I’ve lost over 10 pounds since I quit my job! (That reminds me, I forgot to post about that. Well, I quit my job after being there a month because it sucked. I got two paycheques out of it to pay bills, and now I’m spending time on my business and on looking for a real job).
Anyway.
That’s not a lot overall, but it’s a lot when the only lifestyle change you make is a massive reduction in stress level. School was stressful. The stupid job was stressful. Now they are gone! Yay!
I’m also able to grow my nails now. I usually tear them up when I get stressed or nervous, so they’re always short and stumpy and in poor shape.
Since I got rid of the things in my life that causes all-encompasing, never ending stress, they’ve grown very nicely, and I can deal with the normal amounts of life stress that people get, because there’s not a huge one in the background. Yet. That could change, the longer I go without finding a job.

In job hunt news: still no news.
I got a “congratulations, you’re on the short list for an interview!” email from a company in Mississauga, but that was back on June 19th so I’ve pretty much written that one off since it’s been so long since then and they said they’d contact me “soon” if I was selected for an interview. Damnit, that one sounded really good, too.

I applied for a lab technician job at McMaster University today.
I also applied through 2 “Microbiology Analyst” jobs, a Lab Tech, and a QA Food Tech job on Workopolis.
Busy day. My cover leters are all starting to sound the same.

Me = Employed

Yup, I’m employed.
Don’t get all excited, it’s not a “real” job yet. ^_~

For legal purposes (aka “because I shall undoubtedly bitch about it”) the company shall remain nameless. However, here’s three big hints:
1. Inbound call center
2. Tech support
3. Josh works there
If you don’t know where Josh works, points 1 and 2 are really all you need to know. ^_^

Not exactly a job I can see myself enjoying, but this way I can make $10/hour while I continue my hunt for a real job. Making money to pay off student debt is always good.

For the next 3 weeks I’ll be in traning, with nice wonky hours. 4pm to 12:30am. That’s right, 4 in the afternoon until after midnight.
Good thing I have a car, because the London busses don’t run after like 11 (or 12 or something, regardless they stop before I’m done my shift) and unlike Josh there’s no way I’d feel comfortable walking down Oxford by myself after midnight.

On the plus side, that leaves most of the “business hours” time of the day free, if I need to go anywhere for an interview. ^_^