Woked Out

John and I were on the balcony last night cooking dinner. The sun was going down over the city and the smells coming from our wok were truly mouth-watering. I turned to go inside and put the rice on the plates in anticipation of the stir-fry and found that the door would not open. We were locked out with our wok. Visions passed through my head of having to call down to the passing strangers on the street for help. Thankfully our bedroom windows were open and we could push a screen in. We ended up crawling through the window a few times because the door is mysteriously stuck - not locked. The stir-fry was great.

I have a job

I accepted an offer. I will be working for HP - more specifically I will be an ITO Svc Delivery Consultant IV in the the Outsourcing Services Global Delivery Department in the Technology Solutions Group Organization. I will actually be working at Weyeraeuser for HP. Basically I will be doing needs analysis for the Weyerhaeuser and then setting up training courses for them and the HP staff. It won't involve a lot of actual training and courseware development, mostly project management. I am scheduled to start around Aug 27th - depending on paperwork.

I went shopping yesterday and today trying to find work clothes since I only own one suit and a lot of casual clothes - I have nothing business casual! I have decided that I HATE shopping. I spent 4 hours yesterday and 2 today and I don't even have one complete outfit yet. Everything in the stores is 60's throwback right now and I hate it. Babydoll shirts and wild patterned everything. I feel like I am in an Austin Powers movie. I saw a girl today in a nylon psychedelic pattern dress in neon orange and green with furry green Ugg flip flops. Not my style.

The Options

Yesterday I had three interviews. Today I have one offer in hand and the promise of two more coming within the week. I feel better now, but have run into a new dilemma - which one do I choose?

Option 1: A training consultant working contract to hire with a group of other training consultants. Contracts from clients are anywhere from 1 week to 9 months or more and it can involve up to 100% travel depending on the assignment. I would be developing and conducting training on whatever the client needs - a great opportunity to learn and grow my skills. Pay rate - $40 per hour, but no benefits and no paid travel time. I really like the people and the way they go about doing things, but I think the travel may be too much and I think Option 3 will be a much higher offer.

Option 2: A functional consultant (full-time) working for my old company (no offer yet). I would work with clients to gather requirements, configure the software to fit their needs, train them on how to use the software, etc. This is good because I already know the software, the company, and a lot of the people, I would be able to work from my home office, or in Redmond with little travel involved. I would grow my skill set in the area of technical consulting more than I have previously. I really like many of the people and the managers in the group.

Option 3: A training coordinator/developer working for a major IT company providing services to a prominent Northwest company (full-time). Basically, the Northwest company has contracted out it's entire IT department to the major IT company. I would be in a higher level position working to assess the client's needs, develop courses, coordinate SMEs to do training, do some training myself, and do a lot of project management. No offer yet on this one, but I meet with the regional boss on Tuesday and he sounds pretty sure that he wants to bring me on board. I would be working in Federal Way when on-site, from home when not needed face to face, traveling a bit through NA and Canada to the Northwest company's facilities to do trainings when needed, but not much. I am not sure how much team support I would get on this one, I need to find out more.

Hmmmm.... anyone have advice? Email me if you want specifics (like company names) I would love to hear your opinions on this!

Interviews

I really hate interviews. After 7 months of wandering aimlessly I have decided to get a job and am doing many interviews - which is better than 2 weeks ago when I was sending resumes off into the void and wondering if anyone ever read them.

We have an apartment in Seattle again, but not much to put in it. We went garage saleing this weekend and got dishes, barstools, a table and chair set for the balcony and a GREAT down matress topper which is currently on top of our inflatable air matress in the bedroom.