The most exciting day of my life, thus far.

Wow! I'm on a high right now! This is great! Let me brief you.

I update my resume on monster.com and got some hits. One of these hits was about 2 minutes away from my current job. For my salary expectations I told them I would accept no more than twice what I was making now, but would prefer closer to three times what I'm making now. (I used numbers, though, rather than how many times more).

Well, he told me to work up an application using the Mojavi framework in PHP5 and see if I could do it. Well, I wrote it, and emailed it to him sunday. He was gone monday in Moab, and he just called me.

Well, this is what he said: "I looked at the Mojavi stuff you wrote and I would like to know if there is a time that we can sit down and discuss offering you a position here."

DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THAT ROCKS?!?!?!?!?!

So I'm way excited. I'm tight on cash for the next two weeks because of tuition and bills (although my insurance just went down $30/month), but I'll be good in two weeks at my next pay-check from here. And who knows what I'll be making two weeks from now. I'm going to talk to them at 3:30. I'll update you all then.

-= Later the next month =-

Ok, so I'm editting this entry to let you know how everything went.

Well, I got the job. I went in for the interview and he offered me a sustancial amount more than I was making. He asked me when I could start and I told him I'd have to give my two weeks at my other job. The following dialog is the general idea of what went on.

Him: "That's too long. I can't wait two weeks. What can we do to make you start here tomorrow". Me: "I'd feel bad just leaving them hanging. I made a commitment to them, and I'm in the middle of a project. I can't just walk out on them." Him: "Let's see, you're making $11 per hours... hmm... I'll give you $1000 to start tomorrow. That's more then they'll be paying you in those two weeks. You'd be an idiot to pass it up." At this point I hope my jaw didn't drop. "I'll have to talk to my boss. Give me your number and I'll give you a call when I figure it out."

So I went back to my old job and told my supervisor about my new possition. He told me to take it, no questions asked, so I called Garrett (my new boss) and told him we were on for tomorrow. I then waited for my boss at profitmax to get back (Ron). When he did, I went over to talk to him. Here is an approximate of our dialog.

Me: "Hi. Well, I'll just lay it out. I got offered a job making X amount per year, plus a $1000 bonus if I start tomorrow. I've accepted the offer and am planning on starting tomorrow. I'm giving you an opportunity to match them before I leave, though." Ron: "So your honor is bought for $1000? You gave us a two year commitment. This isn't holding to that." Me: "I gave you that commitment if you met my salary requirements. I am still, after 6 months, $1.50 per hour below what I asked for, and you have refused to move me up." Ron: "So you're saying that giving you $12.50/hr would be enough to keep you here?" Me: "Not with an offer for X amount on the table. You'll have to at least match it to keep me." Ron: "Well, we can't afford that. Why didn't you come talk to me about feeling under paid?" Me: "Ron, I have. You refuse to give me more than $0.50 every three months and you keep putting off performance reviews. It's ridiculous." Ron: "I would've moved you up to $12.50 if I knew you were looking for another job." Me: "I wasn't looking, Ron, they called me, so I figured why not." Ron: "I see... well isn't X amount a little above market around here?" Me: "Maybe in the '60s, Ron. That's low market value for someone with a degree. I don't have a degree, but I have equivalent experience."

I was fairly blunt. I had wanted to lay into Ron about his policies and being stuck in the past for a long time, and I finally had the chance. Hopefully I didn't burn my bridges, because I really like those guys. We then proceeded into a conversation about what I thought might need to change in the company in the future to keep employees from leaving. It was mostly him asking questions and my answering.

So I work here now. I used the starting bonus to pay off my credit card and my tuition, so that was $700 right off the top of it. I have since bought a new car, which I will write about in a new entry, and learned a lot about programming I wouldn't have learned at profitmax.

Life is good, and I am loving it.