So Christmas happens as per usual, then I have to get ready for a yet another whirlwind in January. I have one week until New Years, during which time I have to decide what to do about these two job offers. Then on New Years Eve I'm set to head down to Connecticut to spend the evening with Parvati, followed by a drive into New York City on New Years Day, then an interview on Long Island on January 2nd. After that it's back to Boston for two days, Maine for two days, Boston for about 24 hours, then Ghana for two weeks. Total time set to spend in Massachusetts: maybe 72 hours?
December 31st, 2012:
I pack up mom's car for a four day adventure and head down to Connecticut. On the way I dropped Brian in Rhode Island to spend a few days with Michael. I get to Parvati's house that evening having neither accepted nor rejected either outstanding job offer. But at this point I've decided as much as I'm rejecting the second job offer and pushing back the decision for the first. After crafting a politely worded rejection email (and it feels really good to be the one rejecting!) it's time to celebrate. It's New Years Eve, Parv's graduation celebration, and I have a really good job offer on the line.
For the rest of the evening it's hanging out with Parv's other friends and family, eating good food, counting down to the New Year. There was a bit of relief at having cleared up some of the job search, but still there's a lot of stress coming in the next few days.
January 1st, 2013:
Happy New Year!
After spending New Year's Eve with Parv, it is time to make my way to NYC. I load up the car along with two of Parv's friends from home and we drive off to the city. On the way I hand my phone off to figure out what exactly my plans are for my time in the city. Normally I would stay with Sarah again, but she is unavailable (understandably as it is New Year's Day). So I arrange to stay with Feng (who is an absolute life save and the sweetest person ever). She lives right in the heart of the city so it is easy to navigate to and from.
I park right around the corner from her where there is free holiday parking. After saying goodbye to my two travel companions Feng and I have a chill night in. We have dinner with her mom and just relax. The next day is, after all, a big day. It is set to be my last job interview. Possibly ever.
January 2nd, 2013:
I get up early to get ready for the interview. It's at the Long Island location at 1pm so I figure if I give myself more than enough time to get out there (say four hours for a one hour drive) then if I run into any trouble along the way I will be all set.
Well, that was the best decision I made that day.
I get out to where I parked my car (and by my car I mean my mom's car) and it was no where in sight. At first I thought maybe I just remember wrong about where I parked it so I looked around a little more.
NOPE.
It had apparently been towed.
YIKES.
So now I'm freaking out in the middle of Manhattan in my suit with only a few hours until my interview. Great.
I call Feng—who, I should note again, is NOT a morning person—and she walks me through how to get to Long Island. She sends me down to Penn Station in a taxi so I get there as soon as possible. From there I purchase a ticket for the Long Island Rail Road. I have a while to wait until my train so I grab some breakfast then I have the daunting task of calling mom to tell her what's going on.
Mom was remarkably calm throughout this whole ordeal, granted there is nothing she could have done from Boston anyways.
The rest of the morning goes as smoothly as could be expected. I made it to my interview on time and went through the process just fine. I was strangely bubbly for it. This interview was a big deal. I was using it to decide what I really want to do for my first job out of college. My main focus was finding out where my interviewers were in their career tracks and how they had gotten there.
Then it was all a waiting game again. This time, however, I had to make a decision in my mind about what I was going to do under the different possible situations I would soon be in. At this point I'm waiting to hear a rejection or offer from CA and a deadline to accept or reject my Braver offer. Meanwhile, it is just under a week until I leave for Ghana
I figure there are 10 ways this could turn out:
December 31st, 2012:
I pack up mom's car for a four day adventure and head down to Connecticut. On the way I dropped Brian in Rhode Island to spend a few days with Michael. I get to Parvati's house that evening having neither accepted nor rejected either outstanding job offer. But at this point I've decided as much as I'm rejecting the second job offer and pushing back the decision for the first. After crafting a politely worded rejection email (and it feels really good to be the one rejecting!) it's time to celebrate. It's New Years Eve, Parv's graduation celebration, and I have a really good job offer on the line.
For the rest of the evening it's hanging out with Parv's other friends and family, eating good food, counting down to the New Year. There was a bit of relief at having cleared up some of the job search, but still there's a lot of stress coming in the next few days.
January 1st, 2013:
Happy New Year!
After spending New Year's Eve with Parv, it is time to make my way to NYC. I load up the car along with two of Parv's friends from home and we drive off to the city. On the way I hand my phone off to figure out what exactly my plans are for my time in the city. Normally I would stay with Sarah again, but she is unavailable (understandably as it is New Year's Day). So I arrange to stay with Feng (who is an absolute life save and the sweetest person ever). She lives right in the heart of the city so it is easy to navigate to and from.
I park right around the corner from her where there is free holiday parking. After saying goodbye to my two travel companions Feng and I have a chill night in. We have dinner with her mom and just relax. The next day is, after all, a big day. It is set to be my last job interview. Possibly ever.
January 2nd, 2013:
I get up early to get ready for the interview. It's at the Long Island location at 1pm so I figure if I give myself more than enough time to get out there (say four hours for a one hour drive) then if I run into any trouble along the way I will be all set.
Well, that was the best decision I made that day.
I get out to where I parked my car (and by my car I mean my mom's car) and it was no where in sight. At first I thought maybe I just remember wrong about where I parked it so I looked around a little more.
NOPE.
It had apparently been towed.
YIKES.
So now I'm freaking out in the middle of Manhattan in my suit with only a few hours until my interview. Great.
I call Feng—who, I should note again, is NOT a morning person—and she walks me through how to get to Long Island. She sends me down to Penn Station in a taxi so I get there as soon as possible. From there I purchase a ticket for the Long Island Rail Road. I have a while to wait until my train so I grab some breakfast then I have the daunting task of calling mom to tell her what's going on.
Mom was remarkably calm throughout this whole ordeal, granted there is nothing she could have done from Boston anyways.
The rest of the morning goes as smoothly as could be expected. I made it to my interview on time and went through the process just fine. I was strangely bubbly for it. This interview was a big deal. I was using it to decide what I really want to do for my first job out of college. My main focus was finding out where my interviewers were in their career tracks and how they had gotten there.
Then it was all a waiting game again. This time, however, I had to make a decision in my mind about what I was going to do under the different possible situations I would soon be in. At this point I'm waiting to hear a rejection or offer from CA and a deadline to accept or reject my Braver offer. Meanwhile, it is just under a week until I leave for Ghana
I figure there are 10 ways this could turn out:
- I hear back from CA before Braver
- I hear back from CA before I leave for Ghana
- It's a rejection
- I hear back from CA while I am in Ghana
- It's a rejection
- It's an offer
- I hear back from CA when I return from Ghana
- It's a rejection
- It's an offer
- I hear back from Braver before CA
- I hear back from CA before I need to respond to Braver
- It's a rejection
- It's an offer
- I have not heard back from CA
Yeah, I thought through this a lot. It was a big deal. I knew that if I heard back from CA before January 18th it would be a rejection because they needed to get through all of their interviews before extending offers. I would travelling from the 8th-21st though with limited communication.
The easiest thing would be a rejection before I go to Ghana so then I could just accept the Braver offer. But I had a feeling this wouldn't happen so I did my best to buy time. I was still unsure of which path I wanted to take and it had been a while since I had spoken to someone at Braver so I sent an email to the recruiter to put me in touch with another person at the firm. This would give me another perspective and show that I really am still interested.
But back to the timeline.
The interview was on a Wednesday. I got back to the city and reacquired my car. This time I made absolutely certain I parked it somewhere that it wouldn't get towed in the morning then went back to Feng's. Since it was already late I stayed the night again. We got dinner at this ramen restaurant that had a really long line. It was totally worth it, though! Then it was back to her apartment to sleep. My car would have to be moved by 7am so I had to get up early.
January 3rd, 2013:
Up and at 'em! I was heading back to Boston. The drive wasn't too bad; I took I-90 and it was easy. That afternoon I babysat the boys. It was relatively uneventful.
January 4th, 2013:
The least eventful day of the year.
I babysat.
January 5th-7th, 2013:
Travelling again! This time it was of to Maine with Parv's friend—Parv wanted to join as well but couldn't—and little brother Brian. We stayed over two nights. On Sunday I went over to Hilary's house to work on teaching plans for Ghana. Then on Monday it was back down to Massachusetts so I could pack since we left for Ghana on Tuesday.
During this whole time I was trying to decide what I would do if I got the second offer. As we boarded the plane to Ghana I still had no idea. None. Nor had I heard back from either Braver or CA.
Anxious to know the answer? I'll reveal it in Part 4, I promise! Next post to put together is about Ghana, though :)
