Aaaaannnd, I have a new job.

I took the first offer, maybe I could have negotiated for more, but I got what I was hoping for, which is a little more than I’d make teaching right now, which is A-OKAY. Plus, it’s an hourly position, so I can get overtime, and even more importantly, I definitely got the vibe that it was really family friendly which is a huge perk that I was looking for.

I’m also ridiculously excited to have my own damn space. I’ve NEVER had that. EVER. Lab assistant, I’m in the lab, floating around, you know? Teacher, I had my desk, but there is NO privacy in teaching, and you have to be On even when you’re not. Americorps, I had the cubby under the stairs, but shared it with a jerk. We were rarely there at the same time, but still, it wasn’t MINE. Now? I have a very office-like cube. When you enter the office, the admin assistant is right there to greet you, and her desk is L shaped with an L against the wall. THrough a door on the right is the boss’ office. To the left, when you enter the main office, is a bug cube with high sides, that is also L shaped, but freestanding, not flush to a wall. The 2 sides of the cube, plus the windows looking outside (windows!!!! Lab had none) make up three walls, and the back wall of the office is about 3 feet from the end of the cube, making a ‘doorway.’ There’s a weird little cutout window, but I’m planning on packing some fabric and tacks or something, to put up a curtain for pumping.

I totally need a red stapler, now, too.

Job! Thankfuckinggod.

HR Interview went BEYOND swimmingly, the HR person freaking LOVED me, and thinks I’m just the best, ever, basically. No salary yet– well, there was a range that was on my low side, and she talk talk talked, and hadn’t even really looked at my resume until today (because, as I figured, everyone else wants me, this is just the HR person making sure) and she kept being impressed by that, so when it came time for questions, I said "Well, regarding the compensation: If I were to teach with my education and experience, I’d be making 35, so I really need to make at least that." WTF! I’ve never been like that before. (The previous range was 25-32, which, no way for 25.) By that time, though, HR was like "oh, oh, of course, this is a new position, and it’s a hybrid, so I’m thinking at least mid-30s if we want to have you in that job, if not more…" I mean, she looooooooved me. I even managed to drop in, somehow, that I had another interview at 11 today, which made her go all "oh, I’m sure, you’re a hot ticket and we want to snap you up." I mean, I could’ve been interviewing at Taco Bell for all she knew, but I’m glad I mentioned it.  The CAO is at a satellite site today, so she wants to talk to him, but I’m definitely the top pick, she wasn’t even sure if there was a second pick, they definitely want me, they’d like someone in there by Friday, even. So, basically, now it’s just a matter of numbers.

I went to my other interview (I really had one!) at the school department, for tutoring, and that chick knows I’m waiting on Husson, so we just chatted politics, she gave me some time sheets, and said "call me once you know what’s going on with Husson, and I’ll find work for you." So, there’s that, for backup.

Now I’m just going to be on tenterhooks, waiiiiting for the number. But, I’m about 50 paces from a Starbucks in there, and I don’t even have to GO OUTSIDE for that. MMMmmm. Also, my workspace would be a cube, yes, but a pretty private one in the main office, totally doable for pumping. Maybe a little embarrassing at first, but fuck it, its been a little embarrassing at every new place I’ve had to pump, and it’s only for less than 4 months. And? There are WINDOWS. I had no windows in the lab. I’ll be excited for that.

This jacket, in black, these pants, also in black, this shirt in the french blue (I guess they call it batik blue) and this cami in ruby red.  It certainly gives me some options, and I love love loved the button-up shirt, because I haven’t had one of those fit in a million years, and it fit really, really well. Usually if they fit in the boobs, the sleeves are way too long, or they fit because they are a circus tent with a collar and have no definition, but that shirt is shaped, and fits justright. I totally want more, but I’ll have to wait for a paycheck for that, since we are seriously running on E right now. I want our tax info to hurry the fuck up so that I can finish our taxes (new baby and my income of less than 8k = return city!) and get that, and if I get called to sub this week, I will. Of course, if it’s not Tuesday or Wednesday, since I have interview and student teaching thing on those days.

Oh, and I also looked at shoes. Kate’s comment pointed me to aerosoles, which have the WORST names ever, seriously, all bad puns like "elbow crease" or "ballcelona," which both sound dirty as hell. I would totally not at all be surprised if there was one called "Scrota-riffic" or "Endangered Feces."  Anyway, I tried them on solely (ha! I kill me) to figure out how they ran for my feet, and am now looking at maybe something like these. I tried on a higher heel, which I could handle as long as it was a stacked heel, and not a golf-tee I was trying to balance on.

So! I now have at least a week’s worth of clothes, should I get the job. That’s cool. And should I get the job, I am so totally ordering more of those button up shirts. They are that good for me.

Thanks for the thoughts on salaries, etc. It’s just so WEIRD to be even there, you know? More good news, too, in that my advisor emailed today to say she hadn’t yet written my reference letter (I’d asked for a generic one for my files) but "I did give you a great recommendation for Private College." Which means that they are calling my references, so, yay.  With the money thing, for the last 5 years, I’ve made … not much. Americorps (small stipend), teaching (contracted wage, about average for the state), GA (stipend), LLBean (may have even lost money on that deal. Great discount!). I have zero perspective on the scene, truly, but am taking Ann’s advice (and Jeanne’s) to shoot for at least what I’d make teaching with a Master’s.  That gives me a good frame of reference.

My mom gave me a giftcard to Lame Giant before she left, and with a coupon I have "$50 off purchse of $150," I’m planning to go on Sunday to look for some work clothes. Teaching, I pretty much lived in khakis and a v-neck long sleeve t-shirt, but I’m feeling like this will require more professional clothes. I’d planned on going today, while Ingrid was at daycare, but windchills of 30 below kept us inside. So, instead, I’m window shopping online. I’m thinking I need at least one pair of black pants, and a couple button downs. Maybe these (jeanne says cuffs) and some of these? I’m looking for classic, and LB veers wildly from classic to trashy, it seems. Maybe a jacket, too? Jeanne also thinks I need shoes other than Danskos, and even FANCY Danskos don’t count, it seems. Dammit.

What are the staples of your professional wardrobe? I’m not anywhere near where i want to be weight/size wise, so i don’t want to spend a ton of money, but I also know that I won’t magically shrink in 2 weeks, so I should dress well despite being a size I don’t like. (I’ve seen What Not to Wear, oh yes. It’s one of the shows I wish I had cable for…) What should I have? I’m fortunate that the office I’m in will be air conditioned (it’s a rarity up here, and on that campus, even) but, I will be pumping so ‘shift dress’ won’t work at all. I have already the pants, blazer and cami I wore to the interview, as well as a basic brown short that goes well with the pants for a less formal look. Any ideas?

I rocked the interview. ROCKED IT. I’m sure of it.

The skinny is that yes, this is half grunt work, half professional work. But after talking with the Chief Academic Officer, I would totally take this job. This school is working to add more graduate/professional programs, pharmacy and law for two, and is on the cusp of a huge growth spurt. The CAO is new (replacing, incidentatlly, my next-door neighbor’s brother, who died last year, after being CAO forever) really forward thinking, and is determined to upgrade the technology at this school. Dude, they don’t even have WIRELESS yet. No joke. He wants laptops, bookless classes, every student to graduate with an electronic portfolio, as he said, holding up my paper resume "this is going to be the old way of finding a job!" [I sent a letter/resume online, as well as my paper copy, and both had links to, you know, MY electronic portfolio . . ] The CAO and I really clicked in our conversation about what isntructional technology means, definitely on the same page with that, and, yeah, definitely clicked.

(Okay, while typing this they called to schedule an interview with the HR director, and she called it ‘the last interview,’ which will be next Tuesday at 9. Did I mention that the posting said they were taking apps til the 26th? you know, tomorrow?)

At the end of meeting all these people, I asked the first (registrar) about compensation, because, hi, it’s important. And her answer was "it depends on the applicant, their education and experience…" which was good enough for me. I was worried about being an admin assistant, with base admin assistant pay, but with IT duties, and clearly, that won’t be the case.  But damn, I hope this HR meeting isn’t "what do you expect to be paid" because I have NO CLUE what I should expect to be paid, and wouldn’t want to overestimate my way out of a job, or undercut myself. And salarywizards, etc, don’t work for me because of what I do and where I live.  I also asked about work/family balance, because it IS mt first job as a mama, and that does matter.  The answer was good for that, too — some schedule flexibility, they understand about kids and daycare and illness. The office I’d be in has two other women, both with kids under 3.  Still not sure where I’d pump, but I’ll figure it out.

Anyway, I’m about 99.99% sure that this job is mine to refuse. I don’t even know what the HR interview would entail, since I met with the important people already, and they’ve pushed me through to HR. I just hope to god it’s not "How much do you want to make?"

Hee, I wasn’t on AIM to talk wardrobe with Jeanne lastnight, because I was actually figuring out my wardrobe at the mall.  I had, on hand, these brown herringbone pants, and also this corduroy blazer, in chocolate.  I’d worn the pants with a basic brown shirt to the funeral, but it looked much frumpy-dumpier than I wanted to look at the interview. The manager at Lame Giant helped me out, steering me away from a white shirt (since the pants are cream/brown) and instead to a cream-colored camisole top, a nice belt, and a necklace, and sent me home to try it camisole/short or camisole/blazer. (And, dammit! LB.com is down, or something, because I was going to have links to that, too…) Anyway, the necklace is silver wirey type, withchunky stones in shades of orange, brown, etc. It’s actually called "Shades of coral," but the pic online looks more symmetrical, and longer than it does on me. (Oh, hey! Their site is down, but I still have the link to the necklace, so maybe it will work when this posts.) I wanted to read "professional, not stuffy, and a touch creative" and I think that all that together works…

THen I started freaking out, more. I searched their staff directory for the specific position, and found no one listed. I did find an "Admin assistant/data specialist" and a straight up "instructional technologist," so now I’m feeling a littler nervous. I don’t want an 8/hr job, you know? And I wouldn’t take it if that were the case. On the other hand, it DID require a "bachelor’s degree, minimum" which reads to me "but we’d like more…" and admin assistants don’t usually require a bachelor’s, right?  I just have zero idea of what to expect compensation wise,a nd will absolutely die if they ask ME about it, because I have zero clue what the position should pay, you know? I’m thinking because it’s higher ed, they won’t ask me my salary requirements, but still, that freaks me out.

I did do a dry run of getting there, figuring out the parking, the building, all of that, which is way easier than dealing with UM (which is a good 5x bigger than this place, but still… no surprises, you know?)

So, I spent day 2 of Ingrid’s Transition by dropping off the rest of the paperwork to the school department, coming home and ahem, having a nice lunch hour with Dave, wink wink ("Daycare is AWESOME!"), then actually eating lunch at the radiator cafe, before getting groceries and going to pick up Ingrid. When I got there, Ingrid had JUST fallen asleep, so I decided to let sleeping babies lie, and go home to put away the groceries. (Again, how awesome that this daycare is THAT close?!) When I got home, I thought, "oh, I should just CHECK the caller ID" and there was a weird number, so I checked the messages and heard:

"Hi, this message is for gretchen, this is NAME at Private College, and we received your resume and would like to schedule an interview as soon as possible, and we’re hoping Thursday at 8 am. Please call blah blah blah."

!!!!!!!

I called Dave first, to make sure he could do a daycare dropoff (yes) and then called back with my best "I’m totally professional and capable and didn’t forget to re-hook a bra flap after pumping earlier" voice, where I got directions, and was told that I will meet first with the registrar, then the chief academic officer, and then the head of IT. Whoa. That’s a lot of people!  Especially considering that they are taking resumes until Friday….

Now I’m freaking out about clothes, and wish so much that I had someone like Amy or Kate here to go shopping with me, or to just help me put together an outfit, because I am SO not that person when it comes to fashion. Ugh.

Interview!!!!

Daycare went totally fine. She was there for about 5 hours, had a 30 minute nap (which is her typical nap length) ate some lunch, had 4oz of EBM, and only got a little pissy just before I got there. AND, when I did get there she was with a teacher, and only really CRIED when I took 60 seconds to hear about her day before scooping her up. Once scooped, she was fine. I am glad we have some transition time, though.

Of course, man, having 5 hours during a weekday without a baby to wrangle=PRODUCTIVITY! I went from the daycare to Staples, made copies of all the crap I had to make copies of. Then to the vet, for a sharps exchange, and to campus by way of a Dunkin Donuts drive through.  I went to Student Records to get copies of my transcripts, and they have this kiosk thing attached, but outside of, the main records office where you deal with stuff like transcripts. I asked the girl there for 4 copies, and she started printing, and a voice from the big office hollered out for her to stop. The paper had been put in wrong, so we waited a second, and the voice said "okay!" and she kept printing. The voice then came out with my copies — and since she’d dealt with the paper weirdness, she saw my name, and realized she had a little something for me on her desk that was to be mailed this week….. and that would be degree. !!! I did a stupid little dance, and checked it for typos and THAT put me in a good mood. From there, I went to City Hall to get applications for subbing and tutoring, and then I went home to fill those out. Tutoring requires a copy of my teaching certificate, which needs to be renewed, and updated with my graduate degree, but because my two years of teaching was technically 1.5 I’m still provisional blah blah blah, send us your transcripts and $100 and we’ll get that out to you. (Also? It’d be really, really cool if the DOE staff didnt use phrases like "You wasn’t" in every other sentence. Ahem.) Went back to City Hall with the sub application, explained the cert issue as it pertained to the tutoring app, and she said to fill out the tutoring one anyway, and bring in the cert whenever. Since I have all the necessary pieces for certification in the application, it’s clear that I am certfifiable.  After that, I picked up Ingrid at daycare and came home, and that was that, ta-daaaa.

But, there’s a story about getting my transcripts.  I’ve written about her before, but my whole academic career I’ve been followed by this chick named… we’ll call her Jan. As an undergrad, Jan and I had all the same classes in our last year of the education degree, and in every class, I’d say something, offer something to the class, and she would immediately follow it with something tangentially related, but said in this haughty "I am smarter than you" way. It was really, really weird. Other classmates noticed it, and were always like "what’s Jan’s deal with you, anyway?" I have no idea. She delayed her student teaching, but had Marilyn the semester after I student taught, and I did one of my tech-presentations-for-Marilyn’s-students that I’ve done for a few years now. I showed my senior project, a portaportal page for new teachers in Maine, and all the students were excited about it. (Dude, I showed them where to find out current negotiated salary scales for schools in Maine. That’s cool.) She kept interjecting througout the presentation, and Marilyn — way laid back — finally tried to shut her up by saying something. ANyway, I’m showing the portaportal features, and Jan is all "I HAVE ONE TOO!" and gives us her guest name, and …. it’s emtpy except for a TFA link. No shit. Afterwards, Marilyn was all "What is the deal with Jan?" It was noticeable. FOr years. This Jan shit.

Last year, I was put on all these committees, and guess who got a spot on those committees, now a grad student in Higher Ed (or Ed Leadership. Or something. She’s probably changed again.)JAN. After 5 years of it, it’s funny.

Now, the university also has this on campus display, this "Faces of UMaine" thing, where all over campus are these giant 16×20 headshots of a graduate, with a quote about how going to UM made them give the best head, ever, or whatever, and they are ALL. OVER.

I walk into the building where Student Records is today, to get my transcripts that reflect my degree, and then my actual degree, and whose face is on one of those displays.

Mother. Fucking. Jan.

Of course, her tagline said "Graduate Student," and ha! I’m a damn graduate, JAN. I told Dave (one time we went to the movies and this girl in front of us spent the whole time talking and being annoying, and when the lights came up? JAN) who laughed, and I emailed Marilyn, who will certainly get a kick out of it.

Oh, but! The other thing is that I’d emailed Marilyn to give her a heads up that I’m handing out her name to anyone who will take it as a reference, and I mentioned the places I’d applied (temping, school dept jobs, private college) and she emailed be right away to ask about the private college job, and I wrote back with the description (as I’d posted here a few days ago) and then she emailed ME back to say "I just sent a letter to the education
head at Private College.   Hope she reads her mail.  I worked for her last year.
Any little thing helps!!!"  (She is a consultant for them… let’s hope they liked her ideas.)

So, yay! Something Will Happen. I will get a job, eventually. And it will be good.

ETA: Jan! You can guess which one she is.