An embarrassment of riches.

I know I said I would not write about the job search anymore, but oh well.

I have three interviews next week with three different employers.

Job #1 is a position I really care about and would love to get. It isn't in accounting, although some accounting background is helpful. It's working for an air quality agency. It would basically be a chance to start fresh and not be hampered by my prior experiences. The interview format is the panel, which I normally don't like, but they use something called a "blind panel," where the interviewers aren't given any of your information. This would probably mean no questions about employment gaps or questions like "How do we know you won't just quit and go back to public accounting?" BTW, I took my CPA off the resume for this position, so it won't come into play at all. My lack of experience would probably not hurt me so much here.

Pay is much better than accounting positions here, and I'd be working regular hours but with every other Friday off. I'm focusing all my energy on this one. The main con would be, when we did get to leave the area I don't know how well this would translate into a job where we moved. There are similar agencies, but not in the city where we want to move.

Job #2---yet another small accounting firm that put an ad in the paper. They at least have a website so I've been able to check them out. Family owned firm with about six or seven accountants. I'm barely within the experience range and probably got the interview because I have the CPA. If I connect well with the interviewers it might work. Cons would probably be lower pay [small firms tend to pay less anyway] and it's public accounting so the hours would probably suck, although smaller firms sometimes are a little more lenient about that. Also, I would really love to not do public accounting anymore, but if I did get this I guess I could get the experience I needed to get a better job later. I could go either way on this one. It's the day before the interview for Job #1, so at the very least it could serve as practice, at least from a psychological standpoint.

Job #3. Yet another county interview, even though I have never gotten an official rejection from the last one. I believe I have interviewed with this particular agency before and been rejected, so no reason to think it would go any differently this time. I believe this place had me answer five questions and got me out the door without giving me an opportunity to ask any of my own. You never know, it could involve different people who have some other way of interviewing, but I doubt it. I don't really care about this one at all. The county is really getting clobbered financially right now, so I don't see how they can afford to hire anyone when they are probably about to lay off a bunch of people. This interview is late next week, well after the other two interviews. I'm tempted to not even do this one at all, but I guess it would be good to put on the unemployment form.

I'm worried about the possibility of getting job #2, starting right away [small firm usually equals fast turnaround time on interviews], and then hearing that I got job #1, and then I would worry about what to do at that point. I've never really gotten within sniffing distance of a job offer in public accounting, though, so it is probably not something I should worry about. I mean, I got my job at the Big Firm, but I found out later that it had to do with stuff that had nothing to do with them actually wanting me as a candidate.

So, token book post...reading A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD and don't think it's amazing, but it's still pretty good. The section told in PowerPoint slides is something I had kind of considered doing for some kind of zine/art project once, but I am beaten to the punch yet again.

I have trouble with books that shift too much between characters and time frame.

Also reading: biography of Ray Bradbury that I enjoy but is very much authorized, although I don't know how much dirt there would actually be about Ray Bradbury anyway.

A book on the Mayflower, called MAYFLOWER.

A book on the Cherokee removal which I grew up knowing a lot about but it's good to actually read about it.

Some others I haven't started yet and need to. Have a few more waiting at the library. I know someday, maybe someday soon, I will start working and will miss all this reading time, although lately I've had to do more stuff around the house than I once did.