As of this morning I’m officially employed!

OK, back up a bit there, Ridge:

Two months ago I was contacted by a recruiter for a company in downtown Houston who were looking for front-end web developers. He’d seen my resume on Monster and wanted to get me into their offices for a test and interview. The job sounded perfect, so I said I’d love to.

A day or so later he got back to me. He said he’d shown my resume to the relevant department and they were worried I was too well-qualified for the position. So I replied saying I was interested in establishing a long-term association with the organization. I also said I believe a strong company needs a strong staff, and experienced professionals are always at a premium. And I finished up with the fact that I believe a growing, energetic company can never have too much talent.

It worked, and that – coupled with the recruiter’s firm belief in my credentials – got my foot in the door. I was scheduled for a test of my abilities later that same week.

The test consisted of taking a mockup of a web page (basically a graphic) and turning it into a fully-functioning design. So I did what I always do and made sure it was CSS-based (no tables for layout) and XHTML-compliant. Once I was done it looked great, functioned as per the parameters of the test, and all-in-all I thought I’d done pretty well, thank-you-very-much!

Then nothing…I got a call from the recruiter to say the job was no longer available, and no-one would be progressing forward for interviews. Dark times, indeed.

There was silence from them for two months. Two months during which time I was preparing myself for working tech support again – a job I was trying desperately to avoid – and working my ass off trying to get some freelance design contracts.

Then last week the phone rang. It was my friendly recruiter letting me know the job had re-opened and would I like to come in for interview? I jumped at the chance and made my appointment. The day of the interview came, and all through I was convinced I hadn’t got it. Let’s put it this way, I would not like to be playing cards with these guys! The poker-faces were amazing!

I left the interview feeling pretty much dejected. I was certain I hadn’t got the job. I was told I’d find out for certain this week.

Sure enough, this morning at 10:30am I got a call from the recruiter to say I’d got the job!! I start on Friday, initially under contract, but if all goes well leading to permanent employment. The pay is more than reasonable, and the benefits look pretty good too.

Tomorrow I have a meeting with HR to go through some new hire paperwork, and then on Friday I start fulltime employment in the US for the first time!

Sarah has already informed me that I need to go shopping for suitable work clothes. Fortunately, the dress code seems pretty relaxed and I won’t have to wear a tie (hallejujah!), but I still need clothes that are respectable-looking at least.

I’m on top of the world today, nothing can bring me down!