Shortly after I last wrote, Jason and I decided to expand our job hunt to include Utah once more. Needless to say, this was a difficult choice for us to make after everything we had invested towards leaving, but we were hitting dead ends right and left. Jason had had several interviews, several of which seemed promising, but all came to naught. We began to realize that the chances of getting the salary we wanted were slim. The strain of not having our own place in months was also taking its toll. So we knew that we had to do something different.
Almost immediately, he began getting followups with companies in Utah. First, he was contacted by a company (Mozenda) in Orem. They did a phone interview that seemed to go well and set up a time the following week (about 4 days after the initial phone call) for Jason to come in for an in-person interview. We knew that the base salary would be sufficient and they were willing to reimburse his travel for the interview. Jason wasn't 100% sure it was a great fit for him, but we figured it was certainly worth pursuing. Only travelling was not meant to be that weekend, so we arranged to have the interview postponed until the following week--just a few days before Thanksgiving.
In the meantime, we agreed to keep an open mind and continue browsing for jobs. Now, usually I did a preliminary weeding out process of all of the possible jobs out there and then gave Jason a list of ones I thought he might be qualified for. My search typically consisted of searching through listings on three websites: LDS Jobs, Indeed, and Craigslist. One day, after searching for hours and coming up with nearly 30 job possibilities, I had the idea to include the KSL Classifieds in my search. I looked and only found one possible fit, so I was disappointed.
During the interluding week and a half, he was contacted by two other Utah companies: NovaRad and LANSchool. NovaRad was passive aggressive in their recruitment. They were vague on times that they would contact Jason and were slow to respond when Jason contacted them. We also had limited information about the job itself, the company, and benefits. But LANSchool was different.
Within a day of submitting an application, they emailed and called him, excited to speak with him more. They had one informal phone visit and a more formal phone interview. They gave him details about the job description, the company, and the benefits to working for them. That same day, we had an official job offer that we felt pretty good about.
However, we had already made the necessary plans to make a quick trip to Utah, so we opted to follow through with Mozenda (and let them pick up the tab for the trip). That interview also went well. They took him to lunch and casually got a feel for how Jason would fit into their company. A few red flags cropped up for our specific situation though (like only being hired on contract for 30-90 days at first, health benefits, and a lower salary than he'd already been offered with LANSchool).
After a lot of praying, we accepted the offer from LANSchool--which happened to be the one job we'd found on KSL. Another blessing is that Jason was actually able to start training remotely yesterday. Then, over the next month we will be making our way back to Utah. While I have mixed emotions about moving (again) I am definitely grateful my husband is once again employed. Besides, I am going home, so it's not exactly a huge adjustment for me.
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| I'm so proud of my interviewee! :) |
