Further Explanation

So I told you guys I'd update you today after my interview. It didn't go particularly well. I did fine on the PHP and HTML/CSS/JS portions of the 3 person interview but the SQL didn't go so well. Oh well. If I get it, great. If I don't, no skin off my nose. I went to visit some of my former co-workers after my interview. It was good times. It's nice to see your friends after a long time.

I also said I'd update you guys on the family situation. It's fairly amusing, really. I've been grooming my uncle to become the father he's failed to be so far. Out of a cosmic twist of fate (and some luck) the airline didn't allow my cousin to fly alone. This meant here was no way his mom could keep him if he wasn't there! Now he's spending Christmas here, I'm taking him to my house and we'll spend Christmas with my family.

My uncle is very lax with just about everything, from dealing with his kids to dealing with his wife. As I've told you guys before she's very Type-A so she's very bossy and controlling. After my outburst, my uncle saw the need to curb her attitude and set limits to how she deals with his son, mainly after his oldest son and I sat him down and talked to him. I'm also teaching him to say no to his son. He needs to learn both responsibility and accountability. He has things he's charged with doing around the house and he needs to do them before he can go out with his friends and such. The alternative is staying home until he completes those chores. My uncle has never put his foot down so I'm surprised my cousin is actually dealing with it fairly well. I'm also surprised he accepted me putting my foot down considering I'm not his father and he could easily dismiss me.

Hopefully everything I've tried to instill in my uncle will stick after he comes back from his trip to Colombia (again) only when he comes back he'll be with his wife so we'll see if somehow she can nullify everything I've done. As a people-watcher, I'm fascinated by this situation and the way it plays out. As a human being I'm appalled by the goings-on. As a family member I'm drawn to fix it.

You can't fix the world...

Jobs, Interviews, and Recruiters! Oh My!

I got the job I interviewed for! The recruiter called me this morning. I'm sure he was expecting much more enthusiasm from me but I also got a call from another recruiter saying I landed a phone interview at another company. This job would be permanent, not contract like the first one. If I get this one it'd be great. I'd be letting down the first recruiter but I'm not here to get jobs to make others feel better. I'm out to get paid and get paid well. Job stability would really be a plus and a contract job would mean I'd be looking for a new job as soon as I start, pretty much.

What do you guys think? I'll list the pros of each job are and you tell me what your thoughts are.

Contract:
I already got the job, I just have to accept
It's 30 minutes from home (perm is an hour or so)
I'd be well compensated (roughly $10K more than I make now)
I'd be focussing on new features to an already working system
Telecommuting would be allowed at will

Permanent:
Compensation should be about $2K more than the contract job, minimum (~$12-15K more than I make now)
Permanent means unless I get fired or laid off I've got job stability (contract is 3-6 months)
Larger company (or so it seems) means I'll be working as part of a team (I'd be the sole developer, pretty much, at the contract job)

The Job Search Continues

I posted my resumé online last night.  I got 4-5 phonecalls today.  It was amusing.  I'm entertaining some of the offers, I need to find a new job because I don't know how long the company is going to last.  It's scary when you don't know if you'll have a job and not because you suck at your job, because I'm sure you can feel that one coming, but simply due to lack of funds.  I doubt that at this point they'll single anybody out because there's hardly anybody left so the only logical step from here is to close the company (unless they can get back on their feet and I don't know anything about how long that would take or how close we are).

I think it's time for a new job anyway.  I don't know if any of you have felt this but I've had it happen at my retail jobs; I felt complacent and I knew I could get away with more than I should.  When you know the system, you know the people, you can use situations to your advantage.  I'm not saying use people, but things may no longer be a challenge or you can find a way to shirk something onto somebody else.  I don't like doing that and so to keep myself honest I think it's time to move on.  Don't get me wrong, I pull my own weight and then some, I just think in order for me to grow in experience I need to go someplace that can challenge me with something more than "how fast can you put up 70 promos?"

And so the job search continues...