job hunting (again)

Tuesday I interviewed with Moog Aircraft in Salt Lake City for 2 hours. It was a good interview. They asked me questions off my resume, but nothing too technical. After that I drove 3.5 hours with Mrs. Sixline to Pocatello for an all day interview with AMI Semiconductor. That was one nasty interview, my friends. There were 5 different interviews with 5 different engineers on very technical bases. I can't even remember them all. Some op amp questions, some derivations of transfer functions, tons of clock signals and violation problems (setup, hold, etc...), state machines describing behavior, using Laplace transforms to analyze circuits, transistor configurations, CMOS configurations, etc...

All this was getting us down. The interview in Pocatello took longer than anticipated, so they put us up in a hotel for an extra night. The following morning we drove around looking at housing with a realtor. It was all right; Pocatello isn't as ugly a town as I originally thought. But it didn't feel right... I know it might have been just a foreign feeling in a new town, but I wasn't excited by AMI's work, nor by the prospect of becoming a Pocatello resident. Nothing against the town, but it wasn't my taste.

Same with Salt Lake. Just not feeling it.

The worst part was, the house we want to buy in our home town needed some choices. It's being built, and not quite finished. We've chosen paint color, carpet style and color, and tile. We've been conservative with our choices, knowing that there's a good chance we won't get the house. The reason why this stinks is because we're emotionally (and partly monetarily) invested in the home and if ATK (local company) doesn't call me back for a second interview, then we don't get the home we've been customizing. So as we were at the house waiting for the builder to show up so that we could choose countertop options, we were in rather a melancholy mood. We were really sad that ATK exhibited so much initial interest that's been noticeably lacking since the first interview contact.

Happily, that night I got an email from the guy who has been interviewing me saying that they want to bring me out the first thing after the new year. Awesome. Awesome awesome awesome. I really want to go build rockets. He asked if I've been interviewing elsewhere, likely aware of the mass amount of time that has elapsed since our last contact, to which I replied yes. Then he asked if I've entertained any offers, and I said that I would soon receive two. I fully expect them to come, but to be frank, I have no guarantee that they will. That information is on a 'need to know' basis... I told him that unless ATK's offer comes in well below what the other two would be, I'd take ATK's offer. That part is 100% honest. He reassured me that their offers are competitive. We'll see.

So, ray of sunshine. :)