Work stuff

So, just to expand on my post the other day.

On Tuesday I had three interviews over in Bristol, and my boss was kind enough to give me the day off at relatively short notice to go to them (he did say that he would give any assistance to help me find new employment).

The first I was quite hopeful for anyway as I had had a good conversation with the director on the telephone before we arranged an interview. He lives just down the road from where I grew up, which was a talking point, as was the fact that I was starting a family - he's just had his second child and is a big family man so completely appreciated why we wanted to be closer to family.

The second was at the University of Bristol within their JobShop service. As well as offering students help with finding work, I would also be required to talk to local business leaders in order to convince them to advertise through them, so not entirely different to my current role.

The final interview was at a small IT security firm. The job advert asked for someone with some sales experience, when I spoke to the owner on the phone it turned out that I would be the first one and the guy would want me to slowly build up a sales team.

I went to the first positive about it but wanting to get a better feel for what the role would entail. It didn't disappoint, it will be a very varied role in a very small company, doing anything from marketing, selling, operations, fulfilment, working on new business ideas, writing up news stories etc.

I enjoyed the interview and think I really stumped them when I asked if there were any gaps in my CV or anything they felt I was lacking for the role (always a good question to ask in an interview! Remember, it's better to try and respond to it than them finishing the interview and pondering on your weaknesses)

During the interview he asked what I was doing after and said he wanted to take me to lunch, which I was more than happy to accept. We walked there after the interview and talked a bit more casually, sat down and chatted more. He really is passionate about two things: enjoying his work and his family. I think we talked more about family than work.

Part way through he said something along the lines of "I'm not going to beat about the bush with you and sit here with a poker face and say I will consider things and get back to you in a few days - I will be offering you the job and would love you to join the team. I have interviewed a couple of people and have a few more in, but if you take the job I will be quite happy to cancel them. When I first read your covering letter and CV I was impressed, I spoke to you on the phone and was impressed and I was hoping that when I interviewed you you would still impress me".

We carried on talking about stuff and I said to him that I would let him know at the end of the day. He said he didn't want to pressurise me and I could have a few days to think it over, but I insisted that I had no other jobs in the pipeline that I really wanted to be interviewed for so would know my mind by the end of the day. He said to call after 8pm as 6-8 during the week is his time playing with the kids. We shook hands and I went off to get ready for my next interview.

Then I decided that I didn't really want to go for it anyway. There were several reasons. Firstly, it was in an area of Bristol that I would need to catch the bus for. That might sound silly, but I'm not paying finance on my car just to catch a bus everyday. Secondly, they had annoyed me somewhat by calling me to invite me to interview, but failing to mention that they would want me to prepare for an exam and a presentation, the instructions for which were pretty vague and I had to e-mail for clarification for (which also took them a few days to respond to).

I called them and just said that I had been offered a position and would be taking it, so I didn't want to waste their time.

I now had a few hours to kill so headed to the Mall where I knew a friend was and spent some time with her before attending my last interview. That one went well - the owner even e-mailed me after to say so. But there were a couple of things that confused me about it. Firstly, he said that until now they had grown organically but now he needed a dedicated salesperson as he didn't have the time to do all the sales. He believed in his product and wanted to take it to "the next level". But then he was saying that he wouldn't want me targeting really large companies as they wouldn't be able to handle the contract, and that he didn't want to grow the company beyond 10 people as it would be too difficult to manage. He even had to ask me how my current bonus was calculated and structured, and admitted that he hadn't given it much thought for this position yet. Tempting!

Basically, I questioned his motivation. My current boss is very motivated and has a clear dream of what he wants the company to be and where he wants it to be in the future. I was surprised that it was lacking in him.

So in the end it was a pretty easy decision. And for my new role I can move back home - literally. I haven't lived in the town where I grew up for six years, but can commute into work from there in about the same time it would take if I lived in Bristol (due to the traffic). We will be right with family but only 40 minutes from friends, and can easily visit. If Lu wants to see anyone during the week, I can easily get her a lift in and she can catch the bus from there.

Our alternatives are to live in North Bristol, where I know most people, and have a journey of the same length before and after work, albeit not moving so quickly, or live in South Bristol where Lucie would have to take two or three buses to see friends and two or three buses to see family - which seemed not to make much sense.

Now on to house hunting again!