Y2 D316

I need a french girl. I have decided that. I like me some french women. Ok, maybe it's just french films but either way...

I watched Amelie last night. It's one of those movies I have always wanted to watch but for one reason or another never got around to it. What a sweet, wonderful, beautiful movie. I loved every minute of it. While watching it I realized I not only like french women, but I do like a lot of french films - La Femme Nikita, Wasabi, The Illusionist, Amelie, MicMacs, etc. Granted Jean Reno is in two of those and I like him too, but the point is, I enjoy french cinema.

Let's talk about that meeting I had yesterday. It was in fact an interview with a new company. I am not sure if I liked them or not. I have a strong feeling they liked me more than I liked them. Whole day - got up, waited around for current client to actually do something which never happened. Got dressed in a nice conservative suit and then went to the train station. The new company is located such that I could take the train every day and not have to worry about driving or parking. It is roughly one mile from the train station which would give me a nice morning walk as well. My appointment was at 1, but the train left at either 11 or 12 and then hit the city at 11:40 or 12:40. I didn't know how long it would take me to walk so I opted for the 11 train. Hit their office at 12:10. When one of the people commented on me being early I told them I took the train and it was either be 50 minutes early or ten minutes late. We started around 12:40 and went until 3:30. This was about a 1/2 hour longer than I was scheduled which always tells me it's going in a positive direction. Met with three people total, one of whom did the whole technical testing of my skills much to my annoyance, one of whom discussed things technical but in a higher more appropriate manner, and the third wanted to talk about projects and general stuff. I answered all their questions without issue, BUT they couldn't answer any of mine which is why I walked out of there not too excited.

The three people I met with would be my colleagues and I asked them things like:
- Is the company cash flow positive?
- What's the three year forecast?
- What's the expansion rate?
- How solid is the pipeline?
- What are paths of career growth?

And similar types of things. Basically I was met with blank stares. One of the interviewers said 'Wow, those are all great questions. I have never had a candidate ask me these things. If you find out the answers let ME know'. Um... These people have been at the company between 2 - 4 YEARS. They should have been able to give me even vague answers if not straight up. What I heard was 'you know upper management doesn't really share those things' or 'well I have been in this role since I started'. Ok, that doesn't work for me. I am not going to work somewhere and do the same thing for 4 years. Hell it's one of the reasons I am not happy now. I need to know there is room for growth both personally and financially. When I expressed my concerns to the recruiter who got me the interview, he said it was because I met with people too low. Fine. Let me meet with managers people who should REALLY be my peers. Let me drill their asses on these things. We shall see if it goes anywhere.

Left at roughly 3:35, got to the train station at just before 4, caught a 4:09 train, and was back home at 4:33. Not bad. I DO like the commute, where it's located, etc. They aren't really offering more money, but it would be better for my mental health and social life. That is almost worth it. I need to see if there's a next round and how it goes. In the meantime I just keep plodding along.

Made some scrambled eggs for dinner, talked all this over with J66 to make sure I wasn't being unrealistic (she agreed my questions were valid), watched Amelie and went to bed. Speaking of that, I rearranged my bedroom last night. I got a wild hair up my ass. I was working on too small of a desk in the other room and swapped out the one in my room. That of course made me rearrange everything. So it goes.