The Search is Over

Last Tuesday, I had an on-site interview with SlickEdit and I spent much of the weekend prior to that preparing in some way. Of course, some of this preparation involved reading camera reviews and going out to eat, but if you've read much of this blog at all, that shouldn't be suprising to you.

SlickEdit really is a wonderful and very small company. They have a great product, which I used the entire five years that I was at IBM. I was certainly very impressed with them during my two phone interviews and I continued to be impressed in person. They were incredibly sharp, sensible and professional. One of the cool things about the interview was they had rapid fire technical questions, but I never felt once as if I were being interrogated. It was fun.

Then, on Wednesday, they made me an offer. Of course, I was thrilled! After barely over a month of unemployment, I finally had an offer! Then I found out that I had to make to make a life changing decision in a little over 24 hours. Unless you have been in a similar situation, you cannot imagine how stressful that was. It also put things in perspective. As much as I liked SlickEdit, I was then absolutely certain that I wanted to work for the Duke Center for Instructional Tecnology, where I interviewed at the beginning of August. Unfortunately, I was not expecting to hear of their decision until almost two weeks later. That evening, the Duke hiring manager called me back and said that he could let me know by Thursday whether or not I would receive an offer. I wouldn't know, however, how much would be offered. I wouldn't actually know whether or not I would be able to pay my bills. Minor detail.


Thursday, I had another on-site interview. Given the turmoil, I didn't feel nearly as prepared as I was for other interviews, but that was ok. SAS is simply gorgeous. They have a bunch of very modern buildings which are spread out and surrounded by trees. Their R&D building is more incredible than I ever imagined. It has a giant atrium with more than two story tall palm trees in it. It was full of all kinds of tropical plants. I have never seen anything like it. All the elevators have glass backs so you get a view as you are going up. I found a picture of the atrium on the web, but it doesn't do it justice. Between interviews, we had lunch in the atrium. Since we stayed there, I didn't get to see the infamous piano player, but that was perfectly ok. The food is highly subsidized and very good. I had pre-packaged chicken salad, fresh fruit and a jello cup. The chicken salad was excellent and the fruit was perfect. This normally costs a mere $2.25. Note that I did not photograph my meal during my interview.

Early Thursday evening, I was in the process asking for an extension on the SlickEdit decision when my call-waiting beeped. I then had an a definite and specific offer from Duke, which I accepted. I was so unbelievably happy.


I took this picture with my Treo 650 immediately following the on-site interivew for the position I accepted.