As you may know, I got laid off last December. I've had a mostly-steady supply of contract work since then, but I was indeed applying for permanent positions when they came up (mostly on craigslist). In July, I was interviewed and offered a contract-to-hire position at a Seattle internet advertising software shop (they basically sell software to manage large affiliate networks). My latest contract was drying up (down to ~10 hours a week) so I took it. The contract basically stated that I would work for a month at a contract rate, and if both parties were happy they'd offer me a full-time job at a rate negotiated before the contract started.

They were really happy with my work and the feedback I got was that they were definitely going to offer me the job. End of last week, I got a call from the owner of one of the companies I had contracted for (jan/feb/mar) and he offered me a full-time position at 10k more per year than my contact-to-hire, and I could work two days per week from home (which rocks because the jobs are in Seattle and it takes me ~2 hours to get there each day).

So it was an easy choice at first, more money, equal benefits, no more PHP, and I could work from home 2 days per week. I talked to the hiring manager at the contract-to-hire company and basically told him about the offer and indicated that I was inclined to take it. He went back to the owners of the ad company and came back with a counter-offer -- basically meeting the rate & work from home time of the new offer.

This is where it became a more difficult decision. I figure the ad company is more stable and has more money. But their software is ... not compelling. The other company is an internet security company which is pretty cool (and I wouldn't have to look at PHP anymore). I decided to take the new offer and told the hiring manager yesterday. He decided to wait until after I'd left for the day to tell the owners, apparently because they have short tempers.

I show up this morning, apparently the owner wanted me out right away, but my direct manager fought to have me finish out the week. AWKWARD. I worked half the day today but told him this was extremely uncomfortable, knowing the owners didn't want me there, so he was convinced finally and we terminated the contract early.

So anyway, now I have a week & a half off before I have to start my new job. I ordered some new paintball gear over the weekend and it should be here Friday. Rad.

Congrats, though

Sounds a bit awkward, yeah, but otherwise, good news! Congrats.

And because of this, I didn't get to meet Brian today!!



(I was wondering why you were headed home so early)

Awesome, congratulations!

Speaking of your past job, sounds like you made a good decision, if they'd get that upset and angry over something like that.

Congratulations.

Sounds like a good move. Congrats!

Post what you got for PB gear!

You're in Seattle?

Good stuff Bri! Good luck with the new job

Congratulations! ****'em. The days of settling down with one company for life are over, for most of us, unless of course you don't care about money. I worked for a small family owned business a few years ago & there was an incident with one of their mobile servers & it was damaged while in my possession (cosmetic). I explained what happened to my boss & I offered to pay to replace said cosmetic part. He said not to worry about it, because I had pretty much fixed it & the crack was barely noticeable. Well, that was about a month before I put in my 2 weeks notice. I wasn't able to put in my entire 2 weeks because the other job that I was going to ended up requiring my services earlier. My ex-boss kept sending me these threatening emails telling me that he was going to get his lawyer involved if I didn't give him money to fix the server & if I didn't come back in to sign some exit interview documents. I basically just started to ignore him. I still get the occasional email from him about this **** & that was over 3 years ago now.

I'm sick and tired of business owners who treat you like their personal property. Whenever you demand a raise, or otherwise indicate your are unsatisfied with the current terms, they take it personally and get all hurt and touchy that you're not 100% dedicated to them, like they breast fed you or something and you're supposed to be grateful for them paying your rent. But when it comes to firing, though, they expect you to understand "it's purely business" and that "times are tough".

**** them, you should have felt more amused than awkward.

Hrm, I ordered an 09 Proto Matrix Rail, a set of Dye playing gear, an aluminum tank, and a viewloader vlocity electronic loader.

I wish I had the money to get back into paintball .... I don't have any hobbies anymore..

Ew on the Matrix. But my opinion is based from 10 years ago Matrix. So a lot might have been changed, but they were shoddy guns with a horrible trigger back in the day.

Dye is good quality stuff. A little pricey though.
Have fun! If you ever feel like a road trip, you HAVE to go play D-Day. It was one of the funnest times of my life.

Proto is owned and made by Dye. I've never shot one, but they get consistently awesome reviews. Hopefully it doesn't suck. *shrug*

Yea, like I said, 10 years ago.
Though still congrats on all the new gear. I seriously miss my PB days. I remember waking up early and getting to the field early in the cold and dew setting up for the day for big tournaments. I was always a "watch out for that guy" type of person. Anyone serious with the game wore jerseys and PB pants and popular guns. I wore an Hawaiian shirt and khakis, and was one of the only people in the state using AGD products.

anyone on the other end of my Hawaiian Tshirted, khaki panted, E-Maged butt was in trouble though.

BACK TO TOPIC.

Awkward.

reminds me of a summer job I had once. I was on holiday with some friends, and a couple of us decided to stay where we were for the rest of the summer, so got part time jobs in a local take away. After we'd been there for about a month, my birthday was coming up and another of our friends was coming down to stay with us. I told my boss that I wanted to leave the job so I could enjoy the rest of our holiday, but they said that they were really busy and asked me to stay on. So, I went in to work on my birthday, and told them that I wanted to leave at the end of the day. Their response was "well you may as well go now, and we won't give you your present". So petty and childish!

I was once in a job with some pyramid scheme ****, that was involved with telmex.

I told them right out on day 1, you're a scam, I'm not going to make any money with you. They got all offensive and touchy, haha. And I never went back. And after reading about them on the internet, these guys really were a scam.

I have one ex boss who thinks its my duty to free-of-cost update his website and fix it whenever he feels like it, and when I refuse he gets pissed off. Luckily I enjoy pissing him off.

Glad to see you're maintaining your image, Gold.

I went to an interview at the end of July with the Institutional Review Board at New York University. I was really excited because it was the first interview I've got since being out of college. It wasn't the world's greatest position, but it was in New York, would have given me valuable experience towards better jobs/grad school and I could take classes for free. It was the first interview I'd ever been in that I thought went really well. They told me it would be a slow process, and not to expect to hear anything back soon, but it's been about a month and I haven't heard a thing.

Inb4 you complain about being fired.

Call them. I've was involved in the recruitment process at my last job, and there were candidates that we invited back for second interviews purely on the basis that they chased us and showed enthusiasm.