Whoa! (Part 2)

We have a friend named Tad who works at World Vision (the big Christian relief organization) as a recruiter. Last September, he talked to me about a job in their information technology department as a helpdesk person--essentially, the person who gets a call if a computer is not working. There were two positions open, and I was #3. (Kind of like a bronze medal, only not as cool.)

So I've been working at Group Health Cooperative for a year. It's a good job, in so many ways. Really, so far it's the best job I've ever had. I like the work that I do (mostly) and I like the people I work with. I had kind of settled into my routine, gone back to school, all this sort of thing.

Well, last week Tad called. "Hey," he said, "Remember Eric Ness, the guy you met at the interview last year? He asked me the other day 'Whatever happened to Jesse?' I told him that you were working at Group Health still, as far as I knew. He told me, 'Well, we have a position opening up and I'd like to have him come in for an interview.' So he asked me if I could get ahold of you."

That interview was almost a year ago! How did he remember me? Well, I went in for the interview on Friday. It just so happened one of the ladies who was conducting the interview is married to a doctor that I worked with at the Puyallup clinic. The interview went well, but I didn't feel like I had hit a home run or anything. Actually, when I went to work after,
I felt a little silly. "What, did you think they would just hand you the job on a silver platter?" I thought. I kind of figured that it would go the same as last time, except maybe this time I would be #2. (As a euphemism, this is considerably worse than #1. By the way, when you say you have to go #1, how does everyone know what you mean? It's like we all know, but no one ever said anything, no memo went out, etc. But I digress.)

Anyway, that afternoon Eric called. "Okay," he said, "here's the deal. We need someone to start on July 17th. How much notice would you have to give your current job?"

"I have to give 2 weeks notice," I said.

"Okay," he said, "we were going to have everyone come back in for a second interview. But not even counting my evaluation, since I already talked to you before, you scored higher than any of the other candidates. So we're prepared to offer you the position if you can give notice, but I absolutely have to know by the end of the day."

So I talked to Amy, who said "Why not?!", put in my notice at Group Health, and accepted the position at World Vision. I felt almost an equal mixture of excitement and sadness, because I will be leaving people that I really enjoy working with. They were all pretty surprised, since I hadn't even been looking (this whole process took 1 week), but they were all excited for me and sad I would be leaving. It's nice to be enjoyed.

So, God went and changed our plans again. We had a well thought-out, clear, precise plan for moving, school, and work. Apparently it wasn't the right plan. :) He's taking good care of us.