I Got the Job

I’ll let Homer do the talking.

And follow it up with a caveat: I now enter that nebulous world where I likely have to wait -- months or more – before anything here is officially official. This is government, after all. Move too fast and you’re going to snap your ankle tripping over some red tape. They say two weeks for the background check. I have my doubts, but whatever.

No idea what I’m talking about? Go here.

Too lazy to go there? I sum up:

Background: I work, of course, at the Radioactive Waste Management Complex. Have done for the past 10 ½ years. But I’ve done so as a subcontractor. Fluor Idaho LLC (the main contractor) is looking for two tech writers to replace retiring writers, so I applied for one of the job. Essentially, it would be (if all went well) a move from company to company, not into a new position.

It did go down like this:

Last Thursday, I got a call late in the day, from the big boss over the technical writers.

Him: So I understand you applied for one of my jobs.

Me: Indeed I did.

Him: Well, consider this phone call your interview. You passed. [Name] from HR will be forwarding you some paperwork to fill out. I’m intrigued by your qualifications.

Email box: [ding] [Voila paperwork].

Lots of questions unanswered as of yet, including what will the pay be like? Hugely inflated from where I’m at now? And insurance? I hear grumblings about it. But is that regular insurance grumbling, or actual justified grumbling? It’s hard to tell.

So far, the most irksome thing is the $4.50 I had to pay for an official transcript from Utah State. That much for the labor and delivery on an electronic PDF. I guess I should be grateful I’m not in the fax machine era. They offer that option. For $20.

All of this comes, of course, after more than a decade working in what was supposed to be a temporary job. The past ten years have been wonderful, and have opened up doors not only to better providing for my family, but also to finding the time to earn a Masters degree, watching my wife earn the same degree, writing the first drafts on three novels (and getting one of them close to being finished) and part-time teaching duties as well. That all makes me a happy man.

Wait until they see the rest of me: