11/14/2005 - A follow-up...

Ugh, Monday…back to work.

On the 8th I wrote of a new job possibility that I applied for, ahem, then unapplied for.  I assumed there would be a whole lot of questions to answer.  There were actually ZERO.  The recruiter didn’t contact me other than to say she’d let the hiring director know.  The hiring director sent me an email that said “Let’s discuss.” to which I replied “Just let me know when you have some free time.”  I never heard back from her.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone wants to know something about me but rather than ASK ME they ask someone around me, someone close to me.  The hiring director asked my current boss why I didn’t go for the job, like he knows…  Grrrrr.  The hiring director was going to be leaving Th. after work for a week long vacation so I was really hoping she’d make a few minutes for us to talk.  She didn’t.  This is the letter I wrote her trying to clarify.

Hi X,

I had hoped we would get the opportunity to address the withdrawal of my submission for the job before you went on vacation but I didn't ever hear from you about a good time.

Generally, I'd prefer to do this in person, since you're on vacation for a week I thought it would be better to do it sooner, rather than later.

My understanding is that you believe I did not interview for the job because of the workload, that the job is much busier than what I currently do for the same pay rate.  I want to assure you this is not the case, I enjoy being busy and learning new things and am not at all afraid of hard work.  I believe a career path is just as important as pay rate and sometimes a lateral move is indeed the way to gain a better career path.

B's response to you also was not the case.  My withdrawal was also not due to the fact that the position "wasn't the direction I wanted to go".

X, I took your advice and spoke to people about the position and about working for you.  The reason for my withdrawal is that I felt it would be in my best interest, in order to maintain our friendship, not to pursue this opportunity.

If you'd like, I'd be happy to discuss this with you in person when you return.

Thanks,

So that’s where it stands today.  I’m not particularly happy about it and the way it happened, but I am quite satisfied in my decision and that I sent an email rather than not saying anything, because that’s what I would usually do.  Since she’s on vacation I probably won’t hear from her for a while though she’s got limited access to email.  We’ll see…

This weekend was my friend’s birthday.  Friday a group of us went out to dinner at a nice steakhouse then Saturday we spent the day at the movies.  We saw Flightplan which was okay, not great but also not horrible, Pride and Prejudice which was okay.  P&P is one of my least favorite stories but it was well acted and I enjoyed Kiera Knightley’s performance.  Then we saw Elizabethtown, I liked it okay.  It was sweet but felt a lot longer than it was to me.  I think the problem I had with the movie was that it seemed like they were trying to cram a whole lot of story lines into one movie and none of them got fully resolved in my mind.  Fortunately, the birthday girl liked them all and that’s what matters!  It was a good day!

Um, I just found out something that disturbs me. I'm not sure what to say about it but...........Martha Stewart collects taxidermy. C O L L E C T S it. I've just watched the last Apprentice: Martha and her house in the Hamptons has these fish, big ones, taxidermy, hanging on the walls. How does one go into taxidermy collecting? Do you see someone's pet and say, "I simply MUST have that one day! Not now of course, but when it's dead...and stuffed....and shellacqued"? Weird!!! I just don't know....