Phone Interview Tomorrow Morning

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I've been so busy lately, I haven't had a chance to follow up. My parents just left after being here more than a week. Actually, we all went to Portland for a long weekend for a family reunion. My son David will be rejoining his U.S. Marine Corp unit today and subsequently will be deployed to Iraq.

I was planning on following up when the dust settled around here.

 

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Ok, here's the deal. The HR guy sent me an email with a bunch of stuff to fill out (apply online, fill out some forms, etc). We have a phone interview for lunch time tomorrow. Next steps. Wish me luck.

 

Best wishes Trip and above all may God's favor be with you.

 

They wouldn't have done that unless you were an excellent shot. Woohooo!

 

This is going to be good.. i can feel it in my water

 

I applied online and filled out their form. It looks a lot like that job would require me to work in Redmond. If it looks like they want to make me an offer, I'm going to have to take a good, hard look at my options and what I really want.

 

Update: I just finished having a long talk with my wife about the idea of relocating if need be. A certain set of circumstances would have to be met, but if they were, assuming an offer were made, I'm more in a position to accept now than I was a few hours ago.

I know...this could all disappear tomorrow, but it's certainly exciting to think about.

 

Wow.. this sounds like an awesome oportunity

 

Good luck tripwaire, really hope it works out for you.

 

Well, since we're on the topic... how about a relocation to Nashville?

 

Cool as that might be, I don't think Microsoft has offices in Nashville...and no one in your neck of the woods has expressed an interest in my skill sets.

Actually, my wife's brother and his family live in Portland and her sister and her husband live on the Columbia river in Washington, across the river from Hood River, Oregon. My daughter goes to school in Tacoma as well, so we'd be more or less close to family.

Also, Seattle has a great Judaica shop and Tacoma has a kosher deli to die for.

EDIT: Again, I'm *trying* not to get too excited about all of this. After all, it's hardly a done deal and could fall apart in just a few hours from now. Yes, it's exciting...but I'm not going to throw caution to the winds.

 

...because they didn't believe you were interested in relocation.

Just sayin'. ;)

 

That's true, Michael. For the most part, I'm not interested in relocation. I do have to admit that it does depend somewhat on where I'd be relocating to and the motivation and compensation involved. I'm not trying to slight anyone or any business when I say this. Relocating is a major undertaking and it means leaving a lot of established relationships.

Don't take this personally, but except for you and Josh, I wouldn't know anyone in the Nashville area. In the Puget Sound area, I'd still be somewhat close to relatives and assuming my son Michael elected to stay in Boise, I'd be no more than a long day's drive away from him (or a short flight).

Also, my parents are in Utah so even though it might be a two day drive to see them, it would still be closer than traveling from Tennessee.

Sorry if my point was a little too sharp.

 

I think you may want to read between the lines a little here Trip...

All the best,

J.

 

This is true. I'd be scared to death to move to Idaho!

 

Well, unfortunately, I'm only in a position to strongly advise the "powers that be", here... I'm in no position to make or imply offers on my own.

 

Hmm, 'strongly advise' eh?

J.

 

It happens when you're one of the senior developers.

 

I’ve been trying to compose myself ever since the interview earlier today. It’s tough because there’s the temptation to jump from A to Z in the process and that’s not warranted yet. Here’s what happened.

The guy from HR was four minutes late in calling me which just about drove me nuts. I was pretty keyed up waiting for the call. Rather than just step outside of the office at my work to take the call, I decided to go home and take it there. I live less than 4 miles away so it’s an easy thing to do over the lunch hour. I grabbed a small bowl of ice cream to keep my strength up, sat at my computer and opened up the job descriptions, my CV (resume) and other documents, and waited.

The HR guy called. The interview was divided into logistics and job/team questions. He asked me basically what it would take for me to relocate. We discussed things back and forth. I’m probably not at liberty to describe the relocation and benefits packages available through Microsoft but believe me, they’re impressive. We settled on the length of time it would take for relocation to occur should they make an offer.

Next came the questions about what I look for in job satisfaction. I became uncharacteristically eloquent (I hope) in terms of my desires and my work philosophy and work ethic. The HR guy asked clarification questions to nail down what I was saying.

Last came my questions. The logistics section of the interview answered almost all of the questions I had in terms of where the job would be and how relocation could occur so I moved past those and asked the one question everyone wants to ask but almost never does; “What’s it like working for Microsoft”? His answer was very close to how I described the sort of place I’d like to work for. I managed to point that fact out to him in case he missed it, but somehow I don’t think he did.

Next steps. He goes back to the team and informs them of the results of the interview. One of three things happens:

They schedule another phone interview.
They schedule a face-to-face interview in Redmond.
Another process occurs (he didn’t spell it out but the third option would be to terminate the process).

I should expect to hear back by Monday or Tuesday but if I haven’t heard by Tuesday, I should call the HR guy.

That’s it. That’s all I’ve got so far (at least as much as I’m willing to publish on a publicly accessible web page). I’m stoked but I’m trying not to be. If this thing goes south (so to speak), I don’t want to feel too disappointed. I’d rather wait for the official “okey-dokey” before sailing to the moon.