Andrew - In Demand

If I had to describe the past week, the one word that keeps popping into my head is 'surreal'.

I finished my CV on Wednesday night, then started emailing it to a few ads I'd seen online before going to sleep. I didn't start the serious job hunt until the next morning. I found a good dozen or so positions that I thought I'd be good for and sent off for them - some of them as far away as Glasgow, Hull and Surrey. It only took a few hours until my hard work (ha!) began to bear fruit.

Later that afternoon I received a phone call from one of the companies I'd emailed the night before asking me in for an interview the next day - assuring me I didn't need to dress like a monkey for it.

The next day saw more responses, including a request to perform a small test as a preliminary to an interview - but I'll get to that later. First I had an interview to perform. To be honest, I wasn't expecting it to go too well so I decided I'd just chalk it down as practice. As it turns out, I had nothing to worry about: the guys were really great, it looked like a great position and I walked out with a great feeling about how it went.

Rather than head back home, I decided to take a trip into the Apple store in the city - they have free Internet and comfy chairs, plus it helps motivate me to get things done. While I was there I figured it'd be a good time to work on the test I was asked to do. It was pretty simple, I was given a jpeg screenshot of a website and had to convert it to a standards-compliant XHTML/CSS design. This sort of thing is my bread and butter: it was done in around 90 minutes and was emailed back to them just before I left for home.

Saturday morning left me no chance for sleeping in as I'd arranged to meet Kylie at the Natural History Museum at 10am. For once, I was actually early - while Kylie ended up being late. Despite this, we had a nice time wandering around the amazing building (I didn't take my camera, I wish I had though) inspecting the dinosaur exhibits, among other things. After a few hours our attentions began to dwindle, so we left to grab some lunch - despite only having seen a small fraction of the exhibits.

Sunday afternoon was spent basking in the sun at the pub with Lee and Margaret, before catching a movie - this time, 28 Weeks Later. I am a massive fan of the original, but I thought this one stunk. Everything that was bold and edgy about the first movie was just completely missing, instead, they kept trying to repeat the scares of the original - to lesser effect; I thought the method of bringing the virus back was really cheap and there were just too many coincidences throughout to make it believable. I was literally on the edge of my seat during the original, but this one just bored me and I couldn't wait for it to end. Not impressed. You've been reading Andrew - At the Movies.

With one successful interview under my belt, I thought I'd have a quiet day on Monday. I also needed to do some washing, so I headed up to the laundromat and while I was there my phone rang - another company, this time they wanted a phone interview to decide whether they wanted a face-to-face meeting. I must've said the right things because, in between watching my undies and shirts thumping around the drier, I was asked if I could come and meet the team on Friday. Another score!

The success stories don't end there, though: later that afternoon I was asked if I was available for an interview on Tuesday morning! Stupid question, really. This one was for a financial newspaper, so I decided to dress up a little more than I'd liked. As it turns out, it was a bit of a waste - I knew it wasn't going well almost immediately when I was presented with a written test asking me some rather pointless questions about PHP which I doubt anyone with a handy Internet connection would bother committing to memory. I did my best, but after the following interview I quickly realised I wasn't the person they were looking for and simply chalked this one up to experience.

No sooner was I out the door when another call arrived: apparently, the test I did on Friday was extremely well received and they wanted to meet me. Already dressed up and nothing to do for the rest of the day, I suggested later that afternoon. The recruiter assured me he'd call within the hour to let me know what time.

Not 20 minutes later my phone rang. Naturally, I was expecting it to be a time for the interview. Oh no, it's never that easy. It was the company I'd interviewed for on Friday - they were ringing to offer me the position.

That's six days from starting to look for work and being offered a position. At this point I'm feeling pretty good about myself. But don't worry, this story keeps going.

Another 20 minutes later and the call I was expecting arrives: the interview is at 4pm. Not sure how to break my great news, I tell the guy bluntly - but assure him I would still like to meet these guys as the company genuinely intrigued me and it sounded like a fantastic position. Besides, I'd like to see if they can offer me a better deal (I may end up a business man yet).

Time passes and the interview goes... to be honest I had trouble reading this one; that gut feeling I had after the last two was failing me this time. Of course, by this point I knew that I had a guaranteed job, so I was feeling pretty damn pleased with myself either way.

After the interview I rang the recruiter and told them my thoughts on how it went, but also how my gut was siding with the first offer at this point. As expected, he went into hard sell mode and asked me to give it some thought while he can get some feedback from the other side. Not long later he rang back to give me some startling news: they loved me and I was now their first choice for the role. Elated as I was, that old familiar tummy knot visited me again with a vengeance - now I had one hell of a tough choice ahead of me.

For the rest of the night I tried to weigh up the pros and cons of each position: they were both great opportunities and I would be lucky to work for either company. Unable to choose, I went to bed early and tried not to worry about it. Besides, Lee had invited me to watch the first State of Origin game in the morning and it sounded like the perfect distraction.

Yes, you read that right: I watched the State of Origin. My opinions on organised sport have not changed one iota, but I thought it'd be fun - I even wore a blue shirt to get in the spirit of things (especially being surrounded by Queenslanders!). Not that I actually cared, but Queensland won. No, what I cared about more was my employment future and just as the game ended, my recruiter rang again.

Having had some time to think about both jobs, I was still siding on the original offer for one simple reason: they were the only ones who had given me a formal offer, the other was only a promise for a second interview. Understanding my hesitation, I was assured that because I'd impressed them so much, they may not actually want a second interview and may, in fact, just offer me the position - at which point he gave them a call to confirm this. Moments later, he rang to offer me the news: a formal offer had been made for me to join their company. Ideally, they wanted to know by the end of business today.

Now came the tough decision - I needed some time to think it through, so I assured him I'd let him know before the day was over. For the next couple of hours I walked the streets of London, had some lunch, and generally racked my brains over my future course. It wasn't until I recalled one of the questions I was asked during the interview yesterday that I was able to make up my mind.

As you may know, I've had a lot of self-confidence problems over the last few years. I'm fully aware just how big a problem it's become as it played a large factor in my breakup last year and, subsequently, pushed me into this trip overseas in an effort to overcome it.

I'm good at what I can do, but I can be better. I know my flaws, but I'm starting to recognise my strengths. In the last two days, I've had two amazing job offers - both of which I would be extremely happy to be doing. In the end, though, what I realised is that I want to be great at what I do and the second company is going to give me the opportunities, the contacts and the training to make that goal a reality. It's also given me one hell of a confidence boost, something I desperately needed at this point.