And so the story goes

Ok, I was this close to get a very fairy tale ending to my jobhunt but unfortunately .. (happy ending guaranteed though don’t worry)

The thing is – I got a concrete job offer yesterday from a very nice company, with nice people and not too far out of London. So when I heard they wanted to hire me yesterday I was extatic, relieved and incredibly happy. But about half an hour after I got a second offer, from another company. I had a talk with them last week, and wasn’t really counting on that they wanted to hire me as I lacked some skills (C#) they were looking for, so I actually already had written that option off, even though also here – the atmosphere in the company was very much like how I want a company to be : informal – and time for a laugh.

So there I was – suddenly I had 2 job offers in my hands – and 2 very similar jobs at 2 very similar companies.
What to do with that – and which one to pick ? Today I got the specs of the joboffer of company 2, and while salary normally doesn’t interest me that much, ok I want to be able to pay the rent, but the atmosphere at work and the job itself is much more important to me – Company 2 though offered me a salary I couldn’t refuse, and even better they offer one week more holiday a year, which is even more important to me. (only 4 weeks of holiday is fairly standard in the UK – and I had already prepared myself for that – but now I get 5 anyway which is way cool !). Apart from that fantastic offer (my recruiter said they really really wanted to hire me – and who am I to say no then) – one of the favourite books of my soon to be colleague is – yes indeed – The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. I am not saying that was the most important thing – but it did count for sure.

And so I choose company number 2 (and I am going to do webdevelopment there). Now, I had to sign a preliminary contract, and my recruiter asked me if we could meetup to do just that. My recruiter’s office is on Piccadilly Circus, and he proposed to meet in a cafe. And I said – oh – a cafe near to Piccadilly Circus, I know where we are going ! And we actually were standing in front of the door of The Cafe – but – it was closed (hadn’t opened yet) ! Damn ! It would just have been too funky to have signed my first jobcontract in The Cafe, but unfortunately that didn’t work out. I signed it in a cafe very close to there. But as I still have to sign the contract from the company itself (will get it send to me by mail) I will definetely take it with me to The Cafe – sign it there – and post it on Piccadilly Circus.

I’ll start on Monday, will enjoy being a tourist in London the next couple of days, and to celebrate it a bit I am going to buy a (small and cheap) tv.