NPD Chronicles: A Light at the End of the Tunnel (Pt. 1)
I'm not sure if this will be my last NPD:Chronicles post, I mean, there's still plenty of old work stories to share, but as I mentioned in my last post, I'm free. I'm no longer working in that unhealthy environment, and so I'm not yet sure how much I'm going to want to revisit it, if that makes any sense. But I will at least tell the story of my escape, as that's a good accomplishment of mine.
It all started July 29th. My phone rings, I don't recognize the number, I let it go to voicemail. I listen to the message, it's from a job I applied to July 7th, shortly after my return from Mexico. She wants to schedule an interview. I immediately call her back and leave a message. Then I hear nothing from her all day. Or the next day. Towards the end of the day of the 30th, I call back, leave another message and then an hour later, call back again. (I'm persistent, I know). Finally, she answers, says she wants to ask me a few questions, and so I answer, hoping I'm saying the right thing. After, she tells me she wants to schedule an interview for the following Monday, August 4th. I tell her I'm available and schedule it. She says she will email me the info. So Friday, I get an email from her, telling me it's going to be a group interview, with 4 people, aside from her, and that I would have to take a Word and Excel test. I spent all weekend freaking out for a variety of reasons. One, I've never done a group interview before. I hate public speaking, especially when I'm the subject and that freaked me out. Also, Word I'm okay with, but I was nervous about my Excel test, especially since at my then current job, I had no need for anything more advanced than entering data, addition formula, and sorting. My husband suggested watching Youtube tutorials for training, which did help.
Monday rolls around, I call in sick to work, and get ready for my interview. I get lost, my stupid phone has really bad reception and the GPS died on me somewhere in the middle of some road I had never been on before. So I call my husband, freaking out, but he wasn't any help, call my sister, she was also no help. Somehow, I find the place, it's huge and undergoing construction. In the end that helped me out, as I got there like 2 or 3 minutes after my meeting time and I blamed it on the construction. She even apologized for it, even thought it was still my responsibility to leave enough time to deal with unexpected issues such as construction. So I walked in already thinking I was making a bad impression. She gave me little time to freak out though as she got me started on the testing. It was intense. I didn't do as bad as I thought I would, but I also didn't do great, either.
After the testing, she asked me a few questions, then took me upstairs to the group interview. I walk in and the nerves vanish. It was eerie. I mean, I knew I could do the job, there was never any doubt in my mind, the only doubt I had was about my ability to convey that confidence to them, without making a bad impression. So I relaxed and was honest, I talked myself up without having to lie and made it clear I could do it. I thought it went well compared to other interviews. Usually I let me nerves and desperation to find a new job get in the way, but this time wasn't like that. After an hour, the interview was over and I was heading home, feeling pretty good about myself.
The next day, Tuesday, the HR lady calls me back, says they want to schedule a second interview for the following Monday, August 11th. Hell yes!!!! I was so excited. That meant I felt good after the first interview because I did good. I readily accepted and scheduled it. I was going to meet with my potential boss and HER boss. Nerve-wracking. I read up on both of them online and got even more nervous. They seemed like a big deal. This interview was at a different location and luckily, I planned for my GPS failing me and managed to find it with plenty of time to spare. I met with them, he was super nice and friendly and made it clear when he loves my responses. She was more reserved, which I understood, she's going to be my supervisor, so she didn't want to come off as super eager. He was, though. He even said at one point: "I thought your other response was good, but this one's even better!". So needless to say, I also walked out of that interview feeling good about it. This was Monday, on Thursday, my phone rang. It was the HR lady. She told me that I was the final candidate, but before they could make the official offer, they needed to speak to my direct supervisor, it was their policy. I freaked out. Told her he didn't know I was looking, that I was unsure how he would take it and therefore unsure of what he would say to her. She made it clear that they were going to offer me the job once they spoke with him, and understood that sometimes relationships are strained, so they would take what he said "with a grain of salt", which to me defeats the purpose of speaking to him in the first place, but I understood policy is policy. So I asked her for some time so I could tell him first. She told me to tell him that day, then call her Friday morning to let her know it was okay to speak to them.
So now I had to talk to my crazy boss. I also had to play nice, since he still had to talk to him. I went into his office, told him I got this great opportunity, one that would let me add my spouse to my insurance and earn a little bit more money, and that I wanted to take it. He looked surprised, but said he understood and then asked me if I was going to give him 3 weeks notice. I mean, what was I supposed to say? He still had to talk to him. I said I would, knowing full well that I wouldn't. He agreed to speak with them.
The following morning, I gave him a copy of the job description, so he would have more information and he read it excitedly and said that it sounded like a great opportunity. Then he went over to my other co-worker J, and told her that this is the stuff he wished I would've done there. He's so fake. I called the HR lady, gave her the all-clear, and she called him shortly after. He was on the phone with her forever, it felt like. I heard a lot of laughing, which concerned me, and that was that. Once he hung up, he told me that he made it clear to them that he wanted 3 weeks. Ugh. About an hour later, she called me, and officially offered me the job. She also mentioned that my boss kept going on about the 3 weeks, and I asked her if they could respect that, if not, I would speak to him. She laughed and said it was fine and made my official start date Sept. 8th.
This post is so freaking long, I write novels on these things, I swear. So I'll split it up. This is Pt. 1, and then I'll write about actually telling him and the fun stuff that happened after that in Pt. 2
It all started July 29th. My phone rings, I don't recognize the number, I let it go to voicemail. I listen to the message, it's from a job I applied to July 7th, shortly after my return from Mexico. She wants to schedule an interview. I immediately call her back and leave a message. Then I hear nothing from her all day. Or the next day. Towards the end of the day of the 30th, I call back, leave another message and then an hour later, call back again. (I'm persistent, I know). Finally, she answers, says she wants to ask me a few questions, and so I answer, hoping I'm saying the right thing. After, she tells me she wants to schedule an interview for the following Monday, August 4th. I tell her I'm available and schedule it. She says she will email me the info. So Friday, I get an email from her, telling me it's going to be a group interview, with 4 people, aside from her, and that I would have to take a Word and Excel test. I spent all weekend freaking out for a variety of reasons. One, I've never done a group interview before. I hate public speaking, especially when I'm the subject and that freaked me out. Also, Word I'm okay with, but I was nervous about my Excel test, especially since at my then current job, I had no need for anything more advanced than entering data, addition formula, and sorting. My husband suggested watching Youtube tutorials for training, which did help.
Monday rolls around, I call in sick to work, and get ready for my interview. I get lost, my stupid phone has really bad reception and the GPS died on me somewhere in the middle of some road I had never been on before. So I call my husband, freaking out, but he wasn't any help, call my sister, she was also no help. Somehow, I find the place, it's huge and undergoing construction. In the end that helped me out, as I got there like 2 or 3 minutes after my meeting time and I blamed it on the construction. She even apologized for it, even thought it was still my responsibility to leave enough time to deal with unexpected issues such as construction. So I walked in already thinking I was making a bad impression. She gave me little time to freak out though as she got me started on the testing. It was intense. I didn't do as bad as I thought I would, but I also didn't do great, either.
After the testing, she asked me a few questions, then took me upstairs to the group interview. I walk in and the nerves vanish. It was eerie. I mean, I knew I could do the job, there was never any doubt in my mind, the only doubt I had was about my ability to convey that confidence to them, without making a bad impression. So I relaxed and was honest, I talked myself up without having to lie and made it clear I could do it. I thought it went well compared to other interviews. Usually I let me nerves and desperation to find a new job get in the way, but this time wasn't like that. After an hour, the interview was over and I was heading home, feeling pretty good about myself.
The next day, Tuesday, the HR lady calls me back, says they want to schedule a second interview for the following Monday, August 11th. Hell yes!!!! I was so excited. That meant I felt good after the first interview because I did good. I readily accepted and scheduled it. I was going to meet with my potential boss and HER boss. Nerve-wracking. I read up on both of them online and got even more nervous. They seemed like a big deal. This interview was at a different location and luckily, I planned for my GPS failing me and managed to find it with plenty of time to spare. I met with them, he was super nice and friendly and made it clear when he loves my responses. She was more reserved, which I understood, she's going to be my supervisor, so she didn't want to come off as super eager. He was, though. He even said at one point: "I thought your other response was good, but this one's even better!". So needless to say, I also walked out of that interview feeling good about it. This was Monday, on Thursday, my phone rang. It was the HR lady. She told me that I was the final candidate, but before they could make the official offer, they needed to speak to my direct supervisor, it was their policy. I freaked out. Told her he didn't know I was looking, that I was unsure how he would take it and therefore unsure of what he would say to her. She made it clear that they were going to offer me the job once they spoke with him, and understood that sometimes relationships are strained, so they would take what he said "with a grain of salt", which to me defeats the purpose of speaking to him in the first place, but I understood policy is policy. So I asked her for some time so I could tell him first. She told me to tell him that day, then call her Friday morning to let her know it was okay to speak to them.
So now I had to talk to my crazy boss. I also had to play nice, since he still had to talk to him. I went into his office, told him I got this great opportunity, one that would let me add my spouse to my insurance and earn a little bit more money, and that I wanted to take it. He looked surprised, but said he understood and then asked me if I was going to give him 3 weeks notice. I mean, what was I supposed to say? He still had to talk to him. I said I would, knowing full well that I wouldn't. He agreed to speak with them.
The following morning, I gave him a copy of the job description, so he would have more information and he read it excitedly and said that it sounded like a great opportunity. Then he went over to my other co-worker J, and told her that this is the stuff he wished I would've done there. He's so fake. I called the HR lady, gave her the all-clear, and she called him shortly after. He was on the phone with her forever, it felt like. I heard a lot of laughing, which concerned me, and that was that. Once he hung up, he told me that he made it clear to them that he wanted 3 weeks. Ugh. About an hour later, she called me, and officially offered me the job. She also mentioned that my boss kept going on about the 3 weeks, and I asked her if they could respect that, if not, I would speak to him. She laughed and said it was fine and made my official start date Sept. 8th.
This post is so freaking long, I write novels on these things, I swear. So I'll split it up. This is Pt. 1, and then I'll write about actually telling him and the fun stuff that happened after that in Pt. 2
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