complicated road to a probable job offer

blargoe

I've been in the running for a Sr. Systems Admin position with a particular company for about 6 weeks now. I have never seen such effort in making sure the right guy gets hired. Here's the sequence of events that got me to where I find myself today:

Got an email from the recruiter about a direct hire position asking if I was interested, I replied back that I would be interested in talking to him.

Two weeks later he contacts me and gets some basic information from me, he tells me the company had 4 or 5 applicants and wanted 4 more and he already had 3 more and then I was next. So I guess I was his 8th choice

A few days later the company's HR manager decides to take a chance on a phone interview with me. 30 minute people skills/problem solving/customer service kind of interview.

The following week I have an interview with the IT manager, he tells me it's a direct hire position and we talk for about 1 hour about my experience and what I'm looking for in a job, then he takes me for a tour of his faclilty and says he's sure I'd be invited back.

The following week the recruiter asked for references. Later in the week I interview with the IT Director and the Director of Credit for about 1 1/2 hours, to get a feel for how I would fit in with the company and the IT staff. The IT director asks ME if I knew whether the position was "temp to perm" or direct hire (as though he wasn't sure which it was supposed to be), that they usually only do temp to perm. The interviews go very well by the way.

The next week (last week) the recruiter assures me the position is direct hire. I go back for yet another interview with the Application Development director, more touchy feely I need a warm and fuzzy about this guy kind of interview. The next morning the recruiter urgently needs some additional peer references.

This past Saturday the recruiter calls me at home and tells me the company the job is a contract to hire instead of a direct placement, but they were ready to start talking about an offer. I offer up strong reservations about the contract thing, being the only income in my household for the forseeable future with sick children I have to have a stable job with health insurance. He went back to the company and arranged for them to pay all of my COBRA costs while I was under contract with them, which is pretty good actually, but I still showed apprehension about the contract situation.

Finally, this afternoon he calls me back and suddenly (and I thought, suspiciously) the hr person says they are not as reluctant to hire me as they were and are again considering hiring me directly, and they want me to come back for another interview and talk to the VP of Finance and the VP of HR. Another case of trying to give everyone a warm and fuzzy, I was told there was a perception problem with the way they hire IT staff and the contract to hire in addition to the gestapo style interviewing was how they were dealing with it.

Have any of you had an interview process drag out this long and this rigorus? If this didn't seem like a great job (lots of paid training, leading edge technology, growing company with growing IT infrastrucrture, plenty of IT budget, etc.) I would have said "forget it" weeks ago.

blargoe

double post oops

sprkymrk

Wow - that just sounds wild.
I would hate to offer advice one way or the other. You've been on the interviews, and only you know what your current job situation is. If you just needed to unload your thoughts, I understand. The only thing I would say is weigh the risk of leaving your current job against you kid's needs. After it's all said and done, your family MUST come first.
Good luck!!!

TheShadow

perception problem??? what perception problem. Seems that there is a skeleton in the closet. I would say that they have had a major IT disaster and it was the last guys fault. They more than likely spent big bucks having a consulting firm fix it. You are probably following a past paper tiger.

Olajuwon

That must be a serious gig. How do you manage to go to all those interviews with a full-time job? I wish you the best of luck, dude.

garv221

TheShadow wrote:

perception problem??? what perception problem. Seems that there is a skeleton in the closet. I would say that they have had a major IT disaster and it was the last guys fault. They more than likely spent big bucks having a consulting firm fix it. You are probably following a past paper tiger.

I was kind of thinking the same thing. More along the lines that the last guy wasn't a superstar employee, the kind of guy who can bury a dept. The position sounds like it has a nice future, meeting the heads of other depts is always nice, gives you an opportunity to be liked even more and show everyone that you can fit it. Also sounds like it might have a nice paycheck attached to it. Hang in there and show great interest in the position and sell yourself as honest and loyal. You have the experience and certs covered.

blargoe

For 2 of the interviews I took 1/2 days of vacation, for 1 they were willing to meet me after 5. The next interview I'm taking another 1/2 vacation day.

I really just skimmed the surface of what's going on. I came to find out during the 2nd interview that my position isn't a newly created one, they are trying to get rid of the current Sr. Admin due to some laziness/work ethic/attitude issues and want to bring someone on to replace him. But they would have to work together for a couple months or so, until the new guy is broken in. Of course, I was concerned about coming in and getting the current guy all threatened feeling and him getting back on track, eliminating the need for the new guy (me). I was later assured that under no circumstances would they be keeping the other guy, he is on his way out. I wonder what the whole story is there....

I am currently employed full time in a systems admin role where I am on a team of people responsible for server operations and domain administration primarily. My job has been very stagnant lately, some days there is not enough work for the 4 of us to do, and I am privy of discussions of outsourcing the operations. My company is a merger of companies and I am the last person remaining from my previous company working in the support area other than 1 helpdesk person. All of the stuff I was responsible for with the former company has been phased out, and my peers are so deeply entrenched in their primary areas of responsibility that I sort of feel like the odd man out these days. Because of this I have gone from a primary "go-to" guy, to the guy that people look for if they can't find anyone else. I find myself volunteering for weekend duty just to have something high profile that I am responsible for. It shouldn't be this way you know?

sprkymrk

Wow, the plot thickens. You definately need to get out of your current job, so that should make the decision a little easier. The new employer needs to be made aware (by you - in writing) of the very real possibility that the current admin may try to sabotage operations, leave a back door, leave a mess for you, etc. Ask if they have a plan to deal with any of these circumstances and ask how likely it is that this current admin knows he is on borrowed time.

blargoe

Regarding my current job, nothing directly has come down the wire or explicitly has been said to indicate that I or anyone else is out the door, it's a mix of implicitity and, on my part, paranoia I'm sure.

Regarding the new job prospect, after talking to the IT manager (who looks to one of the most hands-on technical IT managers I've ever seen) and the director, they have already started planning for the possibility of which you speak. From what I understand he has been talked to about his problem and has not shown anything indicating a desire to make things better. So he might have a clue about his fate or will once they start bringing other people on the team (they're planning on hiring an additional Sr. Admin in a few months). I was told they were so swamped with work and running a skeleton crew and were in their view 4 people short, so maybe the guy being replaced won't be a suspicious. Who knows.

What attracted me to the job once I had the first interview is their investment in their employees and their investment in IT and IT employees. The very first thing that would happen when I'm hired is to sit through about 6 classes learning about the in's and out's of their business, and then I would get sent off to learn their storage system (I have no SAN experience). The feeling I got was that as long as the minimum skill set was met, they were looking for the right PERSON for the TEAM first, someone trainable, willing to work, and willing to continually learn. Staying on top of the latest trends in IT seems very important to them.

Danman32

SAN is certainly a good thing to learn and know. Sounds like that job may be promising. It also sounds like they were trying to cover themselves from getting burned again with an out if the new hire is a bum. Since you are not a bum, I don't think there's a problem.

blargoe

I did end up getting the offer and they give me a direct hire. I'll get bumped in pay from a little over $48K to $62K and will immediately be sent to formal training on Exchange 2003 with SAN training soon after.

It will be very challenging for the first year or so... they are getting rid of or have already gotten rid of all of their "systems administrator" people because the infrastructure grew so fast and they haven't been able to keep up (or they have been to lazy to keep up). The the new Jr. level starts next week, I start the following week, and they plan to hire another person in a few months. So having the sys admin team consisting of 3 new hires will be a challenge.

So I'm a little excited, a little scared, and a little sad to leave my current company, but as far as I can tell this will be a good move for me.

Sie

I think major congratulations are in order!!!

Well done!

Hope I get something like that one day!

Again Well Done, from reading through your posts im sure you'll do great.

Knock em dead!

sharptech

Congrats and good luck!

Danman32

Most excellent! $48K-62K? I hope I can land something like that.

Olajuwon

Great, dude. Good luck.

rcoop

Congrats! And it sounds like it is definitely a change for the better. The bump in salary is also quite nice. Best of luck!