Frankly, Mr. Shankly

I had a job interview yesterday morning which in itself was kind of amazing.  I was surprised to see the initial job posting because there's no work and no one hiring in my field and I keep getting responses to resumes saying that they're not expecting to be hiring until spring of 2010 so I was curious to know how it was that this firm had work.  I did some research on the firm and it seems they do mostly bridges and civil type work while I do buildings and while there seems to be a fair amount of bridge work around the building industry is at a standstill.  Turns out they have some building work that they normally contract out and want to try to bring in-house but not enough to justify a full time engineer.  So the position is for an expert in buildings who could handle all aspects of the building work on their own then also start learning the bridge engineering work on an entry level basis.  On the one hand this sounds to good to be true because it would be the ideal way for me to get my foot in the door with bridges without having to go all the way back to an entry level salary.  On the other hand I'm sure the salary will be less than what I was getting previously and that wasn't much to begin with.  Then there's the problem of the 50 minute commute to Denver.  And that's if there's no traffic so probably more like at least an hour or more each way during rush hour.  But it's not like they made me an offer so there's no point putting too much mental energy into worrying about it.  The interview went well, I was there over an hour, but I learned a long time ago not to start mentally moving into an office no matter how good a fit you think the job is or how well the interview went because you never know.  The interviewer told me they may even forget about having a building engineer and just hire a recent grad for the entry level bridge position.  He was the one trying for the former option but it sounded like he still might have some people to convince.

We'll see what happens but more and more I'm coming to the conclusion that my best option may be to open up shop for myself.  I think I can make the most money this way and also work part time if I want and have a flexible schedule.  The thing I've been loving the most about having my days free is being able to take the dogs out in the daylight and heat of the day rather than scrambling around first thing in the morning in the cold and dark while I'm rushed and sleepy and crabby.  I'm having a hard time seeing myself going back to the corporate world (this is a big corporation with offices across the country) and a horrid commute.  But we do what we need to do to keep the lights on and if they made me an offer with a reasonable salary I'd almost certainly accept it.  Would be fun to learn the bridge side of my profession and it seems like a nice office with nice people so we'll see.

Was a bit of a jolt to be interviewed by someone who looked about 10 years younger than me.  Now that made me feel old.  I don't have a problem with working for someone younger than me but it sure had me feeling my years.