Pretty Big Update

Friday was a day of big ups and downs.

First, we had lab drama over sudden cutting of our already limited monthly budget. That was definitely depressing - I saw what few experiments I could still get done go flying out the window.

Then, our boss appeared about 2 hours later and said we had X amount of money, he'd found some in the budget. It's not a lot, but it was still better and so I was happy again.

I left the lab and headed home a bit early and swung by the mail box. In the mail was a rejection letter from the community college saying "Thanks for all the time and effort you put in to applying. We're no longer considering you for this job." Ugh. And this was the job that I thought I was perfect for. I was sad again. But I did try to make the best of it - I figured that now I could get back in touch with my contact there and start talking about part-time work again.

Not even 30 minutes later my cell phone rang. It was a professor from the local liberal arts university that I had applied to around the same time I sent in my application for the community college. I never had a strong feeling that I fit the job description as much as they might like, but I tried anyway. I had made it past HR into the first round of interviews. I went into shock - I've been doing this for 2 months now with either nothing or a rejection waiting for me. I tried very hard not to let the relief of a desperate person creep into my voice as I thanked this particular person for allowing me the chance to be considered further. We set up my phone interview for 9:30 on Monday and that was that**.

I am one of a "manageable number" of people who were granted the phone interview and from this pool the search committee will select the final 4 candidates to present to the dean of the program when he returns from vacation a week from today. In other words, I'll know by Friday if I've made it to the final round. I'm beyond excited and beyond terrified at the same time. This is so encouraging - even if I don't get this particular position, this has made me realize that while some search committees or HR departments will not see me as ideal, others will. On the other hand, this is the closest I've been to the career I really want and it will certainly hurt more to lose it now than it would have should I have never made it past HR.

As you can see from the timing of this post, I've already had my interview. I will not go into detail in this post. Nor will I go into detail until I know whether or not I'm in the final round. I'm a bit superstitious about giving too many details too soon. Suffice it to say that the interview happened, I survived and I feel as good about it as possible considering that I now have to sit here and somehow make it through this week all the while waiting to hear if I'm still under consideration. Sitting around waiting is not high on my list of skills, but for this, the wait is worth it.