the smack factor

I always cringe when I hear people say “well, thats not a bad problem to have” nyuck nyuck nyuck when you say you have too much going on, too many places to be, too many whatevers. Because really, the point is, and you’ve just repeated it back to me, there is a “problem” involved. And that “problem” is usually a stressor. I’m not a sunny side of the egg person, as I’m sure you’ve discovered. I never have been, never will be. That’s not to say I’m not a happy chipper nutty person. I am a loud laugher, I used to be fun loving until I realized how much fun costs these days, and I’m usually the group comedian – keeping everyone tickled at work, at dinner, at church, anywhere. But I still know that every cloud is evaporated water, there is no silver lining, and rarely has anyone seen the beauty in death by tornado. Ya heard?

With that, I’ve got a problem. And it’s not a bad problem to have. Here ’tis:

• I almost didn’t follow up again with a company I interviewed with a little over a week ago. Factor pushed me last night and I grunted. He pushed me again this morning and I huffed. And then I sent an email. And guess what? I got a smiley face, a “I haven’t forgotten you”, and an invite back into the office to meet the chairdude. You bet I’m excited. This place would be suuuuuch a good opportunity for me. So many great things happening, contacts to make, experiences to glean, and some travel to really sweet locations for conferences the company pulls together for _____ industry types. Nothing bad about this job at all. So that’s Thursday’s proposition
• Other thing is… a very web 2.0y, new media “leveraging, blog savvy, all kinds of super smart developer nurturing and enabling company has scheduled an interview with me on Friday. This is also a second interview. I am VERY excited about this one, too because there is a lot of room to grow, the compensation is incredible (like, oh, health coverage is $0.00 out of pocket for singletons like myself)(I’m sure there’s a catch, like I said, poop lining to every cloud), and it sounds professional, but also very chill with a mixing in of entrepreneueueueuerial spirit. AND the opportunity to learn something new in the exact skill set I want to get more learnitude in. So that’s Friday. I also have a promise from the person I spoke with FIRST at that company of a follow up call on monday. So, interview #2 on Friday, follow up on Monday. Thank you sweet lord of interviews!

So what’s the problem, right? The problem is, I get ahead of myself and assume there is a choice to be made. I have this fear that Thursday I’m going to have a great conversation with the chairdude and they’ll say (use your chairman of the board voice) “well, I think we’re all on the same page here and I’d like offer you the job right now!” and I’ll be like “well, shit turds, I still want to see whats up with the other company too”. I DO want to see both. Again, both sound awesome, and there are actually even LESS cons than the first run I had of two companies one cup. Course, with the first run, both pooped on me.

Can you believe whats about to happen next? I’m about to ask advice. I actually want advice, possibly an anecdote from a similar situation you’ve had. What do I do on Thursday if it really does go really well and they either offer me something that moment or even later in the day? (that’s obvi the super best case scenario) I really do not want to pass up on the Friday’s interview, but i don’t want to shut my ass in the door by saying something stupid to Thursday. What would you say? And then, what if they indicate major favorability but make no offer by end of day Thursday. Do I concoct a harebrained scheme of a long weekend out of town? Back on Tuesday?

so many questions!