I am so excited to announce Jared has officially accepted a job offer! Beginning on the 7/20, Jared will be working as a Student Mentor in the Business College for Western Governors University, which is the same university I have been working for for the last 2 years. Jared has been applying to WGU for the past 4 years or so. It can be really hard to get an interview with them-they have really high standards. He has interviewed a few times in the past, but never got an official bite. This time, he really put his all into his interviews, and his expertise in the area of post-secondary education and working with college students really showed-he was such an obvious pick! Here's the basic timeline:
June 9th-Jared had his first screening interview. It was clear he has passed that, as they sent him a follow up email with some documents to review, specific to the position, and with a basic timeline of when to expect another call.
June 12th-Jared got a follow up email asking for a second interview from the same guy he did the first interview with. He scheduled that interview for the following Thursday. Thursday morning came around, and I intercepted an email from the guy apologizing, that he had double booked Jared and didn't need to interview him again-apparently, it was the same screening interview. Jared was a little deflated, until I intercepted another email maybe half an hour later from the department manager of the business college asking Jared for a second interview, done via webcam/phone. That certainly brought his spirits up, and upon chatting with some colleagues who transitioned to WGU, this was a really good sign. Typically, the second interview is done with a lower level manager, and the third, final interview is done with the department manager--apparently, Jared skipped the second interview entirely-again, a good sign.
June 23rd-Jared interview with Brent, the department manager. He said it was the hardest interview he has ever done. Brent was nice, but very clearly wanted to know Jared's exact answers to the questions without beating around the bush at all. Jared said he was tough, to the point, and no nonsense. Thankfully, Jared is extremely good at interviews, and handled it like a pro--I know, I eavesdropped the entire time at the door. ;) Brent said Jared would know either way in two weeks. Jared felt really good about everything, and all we could do was pray and wait.
July 6th-Jared got an email from Brent, asking to schedule a time the next day to talk. We were immediately excited. If it was a no, we didn't think Brent would ask to schedule a phone conference. We were trying not to build it up too much, but we felt certain he was going to get a job offer.
July7th-Sure enough, Jared got on the phone with Brent and was extended the official job offer! YES! I was again eavesdropping at the door, and was beside myself with joy for Jared-he did such a good job working for this position, and truly must have been the best candidate.
Jared will head to SLC on 7/19 for a week's worth of training. I'm not looking forward to that, but it is a must. He will come home with his new laptop and all the equipment he will need. His position is entirely internet-based, which means he will be working full time from home. This is the main reason he has been trying for this job for years-he has wanted to work from home for a long time for many reasons. He is on salary of course, basically the same as what he was making at Walden, but with the added perks of annual bonuses, annual raises (my first was 12%, much better than the 1-3% he was accustomed to at Walden), and less expensive insurance. The insurance is not as good as what we had at Walden, and I am going to miss that a ton. We have no anticipated surgeries for James though, so this makes it a good time to transition. This new insurance has an 80/20 format with deductibles and co-pays, whereas our old insurance was 100% covered with only copays. The thing is though, the new insurance is much less expensive in terms of premiums.....upon doing the math, if we max out our out-of-pocket expenses with the new plan, it will still be less than our old plan. So end of the day, it is just a matter of adjusting how we view insurance, and we should be better off-plus, it is still BCBS, so I know all of our providers are already covered-woohoo!
So no more driving to work for Jared! No more fighting traffic, filling up on gas twice a week, sitting in an office away from home all day, losing time with kids, etc. I am sure it will be a transition for our family once he gets back from SLC, but I am truly excited for it. Working from home for the past 9 years has taught me a lot about what it takes, and I think that puts us in a good spot to make this transition really smooth. It will be tricky until school starts in terms of keeping the house quiet, but we can make it work.
All in all-SUPER proud of Jared, and I am so excited for him to finally work for an institution that he can be proud of and really invest in....he has never felt like that about any job before, and I think this may be it. Go Night Owls!
