**This is a long story, so for those with short attention spans, I'll put a TLDR summary near the end****
Unbelievable!!!
It is amazing how things work out in life. Back in July, I got the rejection letter from what would've been my "realistic dream job" after two long interviews and an excruciating background check. Not to mention the fact that the gig would've paid me an awesome salary of $50k (
I make roughly $34k at my current job). I hit a rock bottom mentally and spiritually and I felt as though that I would be stuck doing desktop support for the rest of my life. Thankfully, my GF helped me get back on my feet and continue applying to jobs. I found a particular IT Support Technician position that seemed like a solid match for my skillset with the potential to be something more. So I applied and was swiftly called in to do a face to face interview.
From my point of view, the interview went terrible. I arrived 5 minutes late (
I've never been late to an interview in my whole life. Damn you Detroit traffic!!), I accidentally said a profane word (
again, NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE. I instead of "USB stick", I said USB ****. Thank heavens they didn't hear me......or did they?), and the technical questions seemed endless and increasingly difficult with no end in sight. The questions were your typical "this broke or is not working and how would you troubleshoot it" type of questions were there was allegedly no right or wrong answer....and I couldn't tell whether or not they were please with my answers.
I drove home feeling even more doubtful about my abilities and skills than before. I assumed that I bombed that interview and convinced myself to simply chalk it up to experience and keep it moving. However, I received an email last Tuesday stating that the folks who interviewed were very impressed with my interview and enthusiasm and would like to bring me in for a 2nd interview asap. My initial reaction was: "
WHAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTT?!?!?!?!?! BUT HOW?!?!". Confused and excited, I scheduled the interview for the next day at 8am. Now this interview went perfect. Before the interview even began, they told me that I was already their #1 candidate and that they are excited about bring me in!
This new position will be an even better opportunity for me than other job that I applied for and didn't get. This new job is located in downtown Detroit, will make me have a shorter commute (
25min instead of 35min), pays more (
starting salary of 45k..WITH OVERTIME PAY), and has a high potential for growth. They were even happy to hear that I'm studying for my CCENT/CCNA and are actually rooting for me to get both by January! Everything is awesome! My start date is 9/2/14!
Now the tough part: Giving my two weeks notice. I've been with my company for 2.5 years and this is the longest that I've ever been with any company (
by chance, not by choice....I'm not a job hopper) and I am very nervous about submitting my notice to my boss tomorrow. This is actually the absolute worst time for me to leave the company. My department is currently searching for a 5th person to add to our painstakingly understaffed department of 4, we have a new plant that will go in production next month, and our end users population has been increasing at a crazy rate. Me leaving will be a huge blow to the IT department. And that makes me think that they might send me an epic counter offer.
TLDR: I was turned down for an awesome job. Got depressed. Snapped out of it and applied to another job and got it. I have to turn in my two weeks notice tomorrow , but I'm too nervous to do it because it's at the worst possible time for the department. Should I take the counter offer IF they give me one?
