Wish me luck

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Several months ago, my wife pointed out a newspaper article to me about a local wireless startup doing great guns setting up hotspots around town. A new company might need techs so I found them on the web and sent them a nice cover letter along with my resume.

By the by, I got an e-mail back thanking me for my interest and saying they'd forward my resume to the appropriate department. Time passed...no contact. I've never done wireless so I figure they blew me off.

My cell phone rang a few minutes ago. A guy from the company called. He was going through his old e-mails and came across the one I sent. They're developing some customers around town who need basic set up and maintanence services. It will be slow at first, then developing into full-time and overtime. Duration: forever, they hope. First job needs to be done ASAP...before Saturday. Darn. I can't do that.

BUT...

I'm meeting with the guy tomorrow at 10 a.m. taking my resume and references with me to see what we can work out. I get scared to death whenever I reach this stage. I want it to work out but it also mean I have to put my money where my mouth is...I have to prove I can do the job and earn my keep.

So wish me luck...pray...whatever you believe in. I need all the help I can get. Thanks.

 

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Best of luck Trip. Be sure to let us know how things develop.

 

I've got everything crossed for you at my end, Trip - GO FOR IT

 

Best wishes for tomorrow Trip and remember that if this guy wants you to work for him he will have to sell the company and position to you as well so relax.......

and If that don't work just picture him naked at the interview

 

I wish you well in this endeavour.

 

I wish you well in this endeavour.

 

And thrice, Flex ?

 

I wish you well in this endeavour.

 

Comic genius, Flex !!!

Hey Trip - hope you know we're putting this show on to give you confidence :P

 

Thanks, guys. You're the best.

 

Ok, here's what happened. First, I had a dentist appointment at 7 a.m. which I thought was just a cleaning. Turns out I was scheduled for a very deep cleaning (crummy gums) which required the upper left quadrant of my mouth to be numbed. I couldn't drink a cup of coffee without concentrating very hard in order to keep from drippling. Fortunately, my mouth had enough feeling back by the time I got to the interview at 10 a.m. to not be a problem. I did have a major case of the "sleepies" from the minute I got out of the dentist office until I got to the interview. I don't know if it was just lack of sleep or what, but I couldn't wake up.

Fortunately, enough anxiety took over to see me through. The business is located in a modest little office strip with older homes across the street in a somewhat depressed neighborhood. They're a startup and obviously need to conserve funds. I'd read this before but forgotten that they use "IT-In-A-Box" from Emergecore with their networks. I interviewed with Emergecore way back when and name dropped one of the head guys.

The guy Chris who interviewed me seems like your usual intense sales guy. Very terse speech patterns. He introduced me to Bob and John in the office and took me to their conference room. Everything is small and unfinished in the office. Obviously, when they do sales, they to it at the customer's premise. Chris gave me a mini-lesson is wireless...told me about "backhauls" (wireless backbone, from the sound of it) and delivering wireless broadband from the POP to businesses to residential.

He asked about my wireless experience: "none". They have a customer who has Netware...what's my Novell experience: "none". He said: "Neither do we". Although his speech is terse, his face is very expressive and it's easy to tell when he's worried. Asked if I had sales experience: "none classically", but I did explain about my psychology/social work background.

Basically, they've got wireless people and people who run cables and all that. What they need is someone to go in, interact well and professionally with clients, and configure PCs, servers and such to talk to each other and network. I can do that.

I'd given Chris my range for hourly pay over the phone. I was happy when he offered my something higher than the bottom of my range. He's got two customers and thus two projects that need to be done. Both are in the same building. He wants to "try me out" on those projects. He didn't say so but, depending on my performance, I'll either get other jobs as they roll in or I'll be looking for another IT job again.

I'll keep my postal job since this only involves a day or two and maybe an evening or so at their office for planning. I get paid "instantaneously"...that is, when the job is done, they cut me a check the same day. I'll still be an independant contractor...at least for these projects.

I meet again at their office on Tuesday at 10 a.m. I'll need the day off from the postal service but that shouldn't be a problem. The schedule for next week won't be constructed until tomorrow and I'll just flag my supervisor today.

It's not the job offer I'd hoped for, but the whole shebang took only 16 minutes including the time it took Chris to take out the garbage (that's what he was doing when I arrived).

Since I know zip about wireless, Chris suggested I do some research and talk more about it when I see him next week. Anyone suggest some wireless tutorials on the web I can access?

Also, the job I'm going to be doing involves the 10th floor of a business building downtown. Each of a dozen or more suites will be occupied by a different business, each running a different network. The wiring will all go to a common patch panel in the telco room on that floor. My job will be to configure the PCs, servers and such to make is possible for each PC to communicate within it's own network and to the internet. I can do that. They'll also have a common copier/printer that all of them will want to use without having to go through a router. If it's an IP printer, it will have it's own address. If not, there's some sort of device made by HP that makes it possible for different networks to communicate with a common printer.

Any suggestions, comments, questions and ideas will be entertained (I do a mean soft shoe). Awaiting replies.

 

Excellent news, Trip - well done !!! I'll leave it to the experts to give you the advice, but let me at least slap you on the back for your efforts

 

But Gav...I thought you were an expert!

Thanks, Gav.

Edit: Someone suggested a product for documenting a network that seems really neat and I thought I'd share it (probably the wrong forum, but it follows the topic: http://www.millionskies.com/Authors/NetworkView_Software.html

 

Check my Points, Trip :P :P :P I talk a good game, and love to learn, so maybe ONE day (and one day only .... )

 

Update: I had e-mailed the head guy last week but hadn't heard back from him. I figured this wasn't a good sign. My cell phone went off today and it was him. He was calling to verify that we were still on for tomorrow and to make sure I got his e-mails. His what??? Too late did I realize that when I upgraded the family computer, I configured our e-mail program to be Outlook instead of Outlook express. Because the interface is different, I often now send e-mails out of my wife's account instead of mine.

I searched her account and asked her about it but she didn't recall getting any e-mails from Chris or Zial. Later in the day, she got one (boy this guy sounds a lot different in his e-mails than on the phone).

We've swapped a couple of e-mails since. He asked how my research into WLANs was coming and fortunately I was deep into it as he called. Now he wants to know how much I know about VPNs...I assume in WLANs. I've been reading some Cisco White Papers on WLAN security and one contained a link to WLAN VPNs. I'm not going to become an expert overnight, but I'm making a health start.

And you're not going to believe this...my dentist office called...they've got an opening tomorrow at 7 a.m. and can do some deep cleaning on two of my quadrants (the last time was just one). What is this...a conspiracy? I'm telling my hygienist that I better be able to talk again by 10 a.m. and definitely by 11 when I actually met with the client.

Ok...more luck and prayer requested gang...here we go!

 

Good Luck Trip, go show them what you're made of. Most of all though, enjoy yourself

 

Which isn't much right now. Still too early in the morning here. Tried to read a white paper from Cisco about WLAN security and VPN "in depth"...almost fell asleep (of course it was late. I'll do my best and hope this qualifies as "on the job training".

 

Good luck, Trip! You can do it!