Well, I've made it through my first face-to-face interview in Washington State with what seems to be a great company, Consona CRM I felt things went pretty well, but I've felt that about interviews in the past and left without a job offer. So, now it's a waiting game. The hiring manager said that she'd give me a call either tonight or sometime tomorrow to let me know if we're to continue the process based on todays interviews. I'm hopeful... the job sounds really neat, LOTS of travel -- 4 out of 5 days of the week I'll likely be in a new place somewhere in, or maybe even out of the US, developing customized solutions for companies that purchase, or have purchased Consona's CRM software package.
This morning was quite the experience! The interviews were scheduled to start at 10am, so I left Olympia at 7 this morning (early, or so I thought :)) Turns out that rush-hour is well more than an hour out here.... it's pretty much all day long! It was bumper to bumper from the I405/I5 interchange all the way to just north of Bellevue.
Check out the back of this van... How true (though I did tailgate a bit to get the shot :)
Why I'm showing you all pics of bumper-to-bumper is beyond me... I guess misery loves company eh?
So here's a funny bit of TMI (too much info)... I had myself my usual cuppa joe to start the morning off before I left.. ya, you all know what's coming next... I totally couldn't hold it, or at least, nearly lost it -- there was absolutely NOWHERE convenient to pull over in all that traffic. Had I left the interstate to find somewhere to go I would most certainly have been late for the interviews... I have NEVER been that close to losing it in my life!!!
Anyway, I pulled off the road as soon as the traffic lightened up and .. SWEET RELIEF! haha...
Ok, so that was probably the most entertaining part of my day yesterday, well, aside from the story about AFTER the interview (ya, there'll be a post about that). The rest of it was totally about the preparation on Wednesday night! Turns out that I really didn't have anything in the way of a wardrobe prepared for this gig. I dipped into the closet and started to get an outfit together when Phil walks into the room and starts making comments about my pleats!! "Pleats are soooo nineties..." Anyway, long story short, my outfit wasn't up to snuff, and it was almost 8:30 at this point, so I Phil and I were off and running to the nearest store... haha, the Fred Meyer. For those of you back east who've never heard of the place, basically this is Wal Mart on a bit bigger scale, and (at least from what I hear) better, err.... less hostile business practises. If any store could really be a one-stop-shop, this is it. They have EVERYTHING there.... yes, dress slacks, shoes, ties, belts... haha... and of course groceries, hardware, electronics.. really, you name it!
Ok, so wardrobe set we went back to the house and stayed up a bit later than I would have liked, but Kat had a really long day and was having some issues winding down that quickly. So we were up a bit, watched some Battlestar (yes, I got a few others hooked on the Battlestar) and hit the hay sometime around 12 or 1.
The hotel they put me up in for the night was very nice... I just happened to overhear the rate while checking in $199/night!!
So, yes, all the amenities, king size bed...
Little seating area w/ a coffee table and couch... the obligatory tv set (this one with a DVR) and a little desk and chair.
Marble counter-tops in the bathroom...
and shower...
and i realize while looking over these photos that I've let you all down and didn't get any shots of the hotel exterior, or what may become my new office building (across the parking lot from the hotel).... so, apologies... I may be back there and will post up some pics then.
So I wrote everything above last night shortly after the interview process had completed. It's a bit after 9am the next day (Friday) now and I'm hanging out in the hotel lobby/dining area waiting to meet up with one of my potential co-workers.... long story here... so...
here goes!
It's just after one of the longest days of my life (well, in the most recent past... like I've mentioned before, my life is totally cake right now :) and I'm sitting in the hotel, trying to wind down from over 4 hours of interviews, writing the last blog entry, making a few calls, thinking about what to do with the rest of the day. It's about 2pm at this point, lots of day left..... time to explore the town! So I hopped in the truck and headed out to... hehe, nowhere, anywhere... just drove about. Kirkland is a great little town. Heh, don't get me wrong when I say little, this is a suburb of Seattle, as is Redmond, and each is a kind of nexus of technology. Everyone around in the hotel is talking on the bluetooth about some new tech that they're in the process of implementing.... quite ethereal.
So I drive... and wind up taking a tour of downtown Kirkland. Very eclectic, lots of little shops all over, apartment buildings everywhere, and neighborhood everywhere else. I kept driving and wound up in downtown Redmond.... which is, to put it mildly, suburbia hell! Everywhere you look are very large neighborhoods, full of massive houses. I must have drove for 20 minutes or more before I saw a single shop, store, gas station or otherwise. I was actually a bit worried at this point because I was sooooo totally lost (which I knew would happen, but still...) and I didn't have a map of the area!! Oops. I Finally come across a gas station and pickup a good map, and find my way back to Kirkland.
On the way back to the hotel (after getting my bearings) I get a call from the hiring manager Renee who tells me that the hotel had some kind of an issue with my room and that I didn't check-in. Of course I'm totally lost on this because my room key is in my pocket, but anyway. We have a little chat and she tells me that she'll catch up with me later in the evening about the interviews (ok, good/bad, I had no idea at this point).
I get back to the hotel and the woman who checked me in apologizes, she apparently missed a click somewhere. Anyway, after that I headed back up to the room, totally expecting to settle in for the evening to writing a bit, sending some email and figuring out my plan for today at which point I realize that I'm probably in for a fairly boring evening. I head across the street and pickup a bit to eat and a drink and head back to the hotel and try to get into 'chill mode'. Turn on the tube, get on myspace, read the forums... still bored to tears.
Ok, the lounge downstairs looked nice... they had some glenlivet (sp?). A nightcap should set me up nice.... then I can head back up to the room and sleep like a baby on that huge king-size bed! Let's see... oh yeah, I'm talking with Wes about now about all the happenings in his life, and everyone else back east.. I get downstairs and see a few of the folks that had been walking about the office while I was interviewing... and one of the folks I went to lunch with. Everyone greeted me warmly, I told Wes I'd get back to him, and pulled up a chair.
So i'm sitting there, no idea how the interviews had really gone that day, talking with employees and just having a blast. Neat people, really neat. Oh, I suppose I should segway a bit. The office culture there is very... hmm, tech? Everyone interviewing me was in very 'business' attire. No one was in a suit, or tie for that matter, but it was all very... 'business'. There were folks walking by the window (ok, easily distracted) who were totally in flip-flops and ball-caps, long haired, ear-ringed folk who just didn't quite fit with the whole 'business' environment that I felt like I was in :) I'm not quite sure what to make of this at the time, but it turns out that all of these folk were employees, yes, some of the nice people that I'm now having a casual drink with.
Ok, so it's always interesting and quite fun to get the 'inside' scoop from employees who have been there for a while and I'm totally entertained by just sitting, listening and observing the interactions. The hiring manager, Reneee even wound up coming over for a bit and talking, and at some point in the course of conversation let me know that I'd done well on the interviews today and I should expect another person to contact me from Consona Corporate for a 'culture' interview!!
Nice! Hold back the smile, don't show how too much excitement... AWESOME.
The evening wound down and we lost Renee and Sean and (I know I'm going to get the spelling wrong, but here goes...) Nickala, another tech consultant -- but internal, and Dave, a senior database admin (yes, there's a Dave in every room... test it!) decide that it's dinner time. I'm totally not hungry, not an hour ago having consumed a bit of chain, grocery store sushi (yes, terrible considering the number of great seafood places in town, don't shoot me), but they coerce Casey and I, a really sweet gal from marketing, into headed out to Seattle for dinner and (another) cocktail.
All I can say is, especially considering that I totally expected to spend a boring evening in the hotel, watching tv and surfing the net, WOW... what a great time, good crowd and fun town! I have no idea how I'll do through the rest of the interview process (which has at this point been the longest I've ever been through... I have done a few long interviews, but this TOTALLY takes the cake) but I know that a night on the town, and a few new friends were totally worth the time.
Oh... yes, I realize you are all totally disappointed at the lack of pics in this post... ;( I left my data cable back at Kat and Phil's, So once again I'll have to ask you all to bear with me... I'll update sometime tomorrow with pics.
I suppose I should take some time now to figure out what my itinerary is going to be today :) So, until next time, adieu!
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