repo_man

Well. The job-hunt odyssey has ended.

I've been looking for a new job for about 3 years. The company I was working for changed my original deal in 2009 and basically cut my pay by around $20,000. I was told when the economy improved so would the money. The economy did, but they reneged. So I continued to look.

I've been in the electrical field for 23 years, mostly in Factory Controls and Automation. Pretty cool stuff, IF THEY HAD OPPORTUNITIES TO AUTOMATE. As manufacturing has declined here in the Northeast so have those opportunities. I've seen 30 or more companies close here in the past 20 years and it's not going to get any better.

So, I broadened my scope from just looking in the electrical field to pretty much anything else. I looked in electronics, computers, fiber-optics technology, LED lighting, all kinds of technical fields. Went on a number of interviews, 2nd interviews, 3rd interviews, final two interviews. So close. but. nothing. for 3 years.

So about 3 months ago I come home drunk from golfing. I start scanning through Monster.com and I see an ad for an account executive for a games company. I click on SEND RESUME. Denied. "Must submit cover letter". SHIT. I'm in no mood for this. I start ranting in this cover letter. Just riffing. I don't remember all I typed, but it was just a rant on how I would be the perfect fit for this job and all this horseshit pop culture I knew. I bragged about winning the first ever Magic the Gathering championship in Buffalo in 1994. Told them I was a fan of Richard Garfield, (game designer and great-great-great grandson of President James Garfield), and vented about dubstep, tumblr and hipsters.

I got a call the very next day from someone in their HR department and they said out of the hundreds of applications they got, my cover letter was the funniest and they had to have me in for an interview. I was shocked for 2 reasons, #1 I didn't remember sending it, and #2 once I remembered that I had indeed sent a resume and cover letter, I had very little memory of what I had written. First interview went great, talked with an HR person who seemed pretty cool, and I got a great vibe from the place. Got called back for a 2nd, and 3rd and 4th aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand 5th. I was beginning to think these people were nuts.

In the meantime, I had gotten a call from an old associate asking if I wanted to come work for a lighting rep locally. I met with the owner one time over lunch and he made me an offer. Since I was waiting on this Games job, I put him off. As long as I could. Over a month. He finally pressed me for an answer and I accepted his offer. It was hefty raise and I was working for manufacturers now, not local distributors, so it would be a nice change. I left the company I had been at for 8 years and I started the lighting job August 27th.

That Friday the Games company calls. They are still interested. The following Wednesday they make me an offer. The offer is unbelievable. Like ridiculous. So good I was literally fist-pumping in the car as she was reading off the salary, bonuses, and list of benefits. I waited the night and accepted the next morning, (didn't want to seem TOO anxious...)

Now I had to go in and let the Lighting guy, (who has been training me for two weeks), that I was leaving. Worst day ever. I sat there all day knowing I was leaving and going to have to burn him. I felt awful doing it and he wasn't very happy about it, but I had no choice.


Boring Lighting Specifying job in a sterile office or Awesome fun game working with fun people in a cool office space traveling around the country making ridiculous money? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?


I start Monday and I cannot fucking wait...