Chatting Up The Boss

Remember the job interview I had?

Well, I found out last week – as I was running out the door to collect Grace and catch our flight to Chicago – that I didn’t get the job. (And yeah, I know I haven’t written about my memories of the playoff game. It was painful and I am still working on it.)

Anyway, I was standing in the front lobby of my building, with people swarming around, and the Program Director stops me. He said he wanted to personally tell me that they selected someone else, but that he really wants to meet with me sometime soon to talk about my future.

That’s a good thing, right? To have someone that high-up even care about my future?

Well, I could hear the minutes ticking away in my head, and started inching my way towards the door. Sure Paul, I will absolutely email you the moment I return from Chicago!

Then I was left with my thoughts:
“Does he want to talk to me because I have good ideas?”
“Does he want to talk to me because he sees me as an inside source of information about what is really going on in the department?”
“Does he want to talk to me because I threw coworkers under the bus in an attempt to stress my management skills?”

Well, that meeting was yesterday. I had all of one hour worth of notice, and had eaten a greasy chili dog and onion rings for lunch. Great.

I think it actually went pretty well in the end. And it was a little bit of 1 & 2, no inkling of 3. Which is a good thing.

He said that during the interview I gave him a unique insight into how the program is operated, and with my responses, ideas on things that may need to be adjusted. That he got the feeling that I’m not 100% happy in my current position

(duh, I was on an interview, right?)

and that it was his goal to make sure I got the experiences I needed to improve my skill set and find the perfect position for me. He also said that we hire LOTS of smart people and LOTS of people who can get jobs done, but that it is a rare occasion to find folks that are the combination of the two……

And his impression of me is that I’M PART OF THAT RARE COMBO!

Really? Really??!?
(It was so hard not to giggle with delight!)

So I asked what kind of training and skill sets he thought I needed to acquire, blah blah blah.

Really? Really??!? You think I’m smart!?!
(He He He He!)

So that was the meeting. A good one, no?

But damn, now that means more work on my part.