Real World Decisions and Mistakes

CNET called me...and I'm glad they did!

I told them that I was in a situation because I would love to work for them, but I already got a job offer here in San Jose and the only way to reconsider is dependent on the salary they offer. By working for CNET I would be forced to move and living costs alone would put me 7,000 in the negative yearly. I asked them directly and discovered that they would only offer 2,000 more than n and k! But they still wanted me and it feels good to get a call back! I told them to keep my resume on file and I will contact them when I have gained more experience! But at the same time, I may fall in love with n and k, even though they've given me a hard time.

n and k wanted 3 letters of rec in less than a week. Even though I emailed them, they wanted them from the source (basic protocol that I didn't know). In addition, they wanted my official transcript. They had already offered me the job and I contacted them to turn in the paperwork. When I arrived, they sat me down and questioned if I really wanted to work there. As it turns out, because I didn't email my interviewers to thank them (once again, basic protocol I didn't know), they wondered if I really was interested. It was my assumption that my frequent correspondence with the HR Director was good enough to show that I was interested. I guess not. They sent me home so that I can "think about it" and e-mail them with my decision. In addition, they told me that they had other strong candidates to interview. In addition to that, they mentioned some of my tasks that may bore me. I felt really stressed, I felt like they would retract their offer and it was THEY who didn't want me on staff and they wanted me to decline... Yeah Right! But they explained that they do not want to waste their resources because they had lost someone in the past to grad school. But really, I'm here to stay for at least 2 years.

That night, I wrote thank you/apology emails to the sales team who interviewed me and replied to the person who sat me down:

After thinking about our discussion today, I have concluded that working for [your company]is what I want to do. I feel as though I can offer a lot of myself to the company and would love to grow and be a part of the small family. I apologize profusely for not demonstrating my interest through basic follow up. This interview process has definitely been a learning experience for me and I can only thank you for being so patient. I am genuinely excited about the tasks in front of me and I absolutely can not wait to start the job.

I would like to continue with the original deadline and start work immediately on the 20th of August.

I look forward to working with you and I hope I can continue to demonstrate my interest in the office for years to come.

Yours,
Christopher

And there you go, I start work on Monday and I want to work. I have made mistakes and have learned from them. I didn't realize the importance of basic business protocol:

Send Official Transcripts
Ask your Letter of Rec writers to send the letter directly
Always thank the interviewer promptly through follow-up

But at the same time, I guess it's fair that I had to fight for the job and I'm lucky that I even got an offer considering my inappropriate behavior. At least I had extra resumes to hand to them (THAT I learned from an interview before!)