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So I did the almost-unthinkable and actually turned down a job offer yesterday. This was the less good of the two at San Jose State, one where I walked out of the interview going "Iiiiii dunno if I really want that after all". That was the main basis on which I refused the offer, supplemented by the fact that they weren't offering enough money to make up for that - it would only have been a 17% pay cut from De Anza, which could be worse, and it was $745/mo above the minimum entry pay, but still, I didn't feel it was enough to compensate for the drawbacks (not the least of which being that I would probably burn right back out on "customer service" in less than a year). So, yeah. I hope I didn't just shoot myself in the foot. I'm kind of surprised they called me, actually; I didn't think I came off very well in the interview, and they said they desired someone Spanish or Vietnamese bilingual, which I'm not. I guess they didn't find anyone better who had those skills, or maybe I was not their first choice, and someone else had already turned them down.
This turned into kind of a long post, so whack, whack goes the lj-cut!
I have not yet seen a posting on the FHDA site for the temporary position my old boss was telling me about, the one filling in for a person transferring back to the department he originally came from, which is the path that could eventually lead me right back into my old Media Lab job. Of course, that's almost the same problem: a pay cut (of similar percentage) because "re-employment rights" for people who are re-hired within a a year don't include getting your old salary back, and burnout in short order. However, it has some perks that help make those acceptable:
Anyway, all these together mean that I am more willing to take less pay for a job I don't really like that much. And there's always the possibility that I could get back into Technical Services at some point in time (shoo, Tracy! go get married finally and move somewhere with your new husband! and let me move the desk back from that weird diagonal position you put it in that has completely messed up the room's feng shui, not to mention its aesthetics!).
All that said, though, I think I would still take the Sunnyvale Public Library position if they offered it to me. It's just as close as De Anza (a couple tenths closer, actually - I might even start biking to work when weather permits, which is a lot of the year) with no parking permit issues; the top pay is 10% higher than the top pay I was getting at De Anza, plus the city pays my 7% PERS contribution (state public employees retirement thingy) rather than taking it out of my paycheck as is the usual practice, so I get to keep 7% more of said pay; and the job is already mostly a "back end" job - I don't have to wait and hope that I can get out of the situation someday. I am not sure what the schedule is supposed to be (neither the Circ staff nor the Reference librarian seemed to have any idea about this position, which confused me a little - at De Anza we were all aware of each other, and if one of the other staff members had left, I could have easily told you "oh yes, they did this and this, and they generally worked this schedule"), but I get the idea it's a little flexible, and I might be able to swing something like 10-6 (which is the schedule I had in Tech Services). Even if they wanted me there at 9 AM I could probably do it, since it is (unbelievably) even closer (by a few tenths of a mile) than De Anza is. (In fact it's rapidly approaching the distance I would feel ashamed to drive, and I might have to dust off my bicycle.)
In terms of distance, Fremont Union High School District would have been the one to beat at only 1.26 miles, which is an absolutely shameful distance to drive if one is in the physical condition to handle it, and I would probably have wound up walking to work. But when they called to say they had selected another candidate I was glad, because apparently I had no idea what a registrar was supposed to do (the job posting wasn't a lot of help - I thought I would be doing basically data entry of student information), and besides the scary job duties involved in talking to high school students and their parents, they wanted me there at 7:00 or 7:30 AM to match up with the school's schedule. Three words: for. get. it.
Last night I went to do the "screening" type testing for the Sunnyvale position, similar to what FUHSD had me do (arithmetic, English comprehension, spelling, grammar, punctuation), minus a typing speed test. It was administrated by some outside agency (somethingorother Personnel Services) and done with a preprinted test booklet and a Scantron sheet. There was a classroom-full of people, at least 20. A couple sub-groups were quite young-looking and seemed to know each other, as though they had come together out of some library science program or community college job fair or something. In any event, I tell you it was just like taking the SAT all over again (except simpler). (I wonder how I would do on the SAT if I took it now. I took it twice in high school, got 1460 the first time, wanted to improve the score, got 1390 the second time. Bah! These are "old style" scores by the way - I have no idea how they have re-scaled it in the 12-13 years since I took the test.) There was one woman there who had difficulty with the instruction to fill in her Social Security Number in the box marked "ID Number". She kept saying, "But it says ID number! Do you want my ID number?" The proctor says, "Yes, just fill in your SSN there." "Where should I put my SSN? This says ID number." I am not sure if she just didn't understand the language, or if perhaps she did have some other "ID number" in her head (perhaps an "alien registration number" or whatever they call them) that she thought was being asked for, but if she had trouble with this simple instruction, I'm going to guess she didn't do very well on the English comprehension part of the test.
Anyway, the first section was timed 10 minutes, to check speed and accuracy on filing alphabetically and numerically, checking to see if pairs of words and numbers were exactly the same, and "coding", that is, selecting the correct codes for supplies, departments, budgets, and quantities from a given table of values as though one were filling in an order form. We were told not to expect to finish all the questions, just do as many as you can in the time allotted. Of course, I finished them all with nearly two minutes to spare and had plenty of time to double-check a few. Then we were given an hour and a half to do the other five sections of the test, which were the aforementioned punctuation, grammar, etc, and a section of questions on customer service and inter-employee relations "best practices". The test time was to be over at 7:35. I was the first to finish and was already home by 6:35. Yee. I assume they are just going to skim off the top five or six scorers for interviews, but I am not sure what the procedure really is. (If it were me I wouldn't want to interview a dozen people.) So I am supposed to check my email next week. *crosses fingers*
This turned into kind of a long post, so whack, whack goes the lj-cut!
I have not yet seen a posting on the FHDA site for the temporary position my old boss was telling me about, the one filling in for a person transferring back to the department he originally came from, which is the path that could eventually lead me right back into my old Media Lab job. Of course, that's almost the same problem: a pay cut (of similar percentage) because "re-employment rights" for people who are re-hired within a a year don't include getting your old salary back, and burnout in short order. However, it has some perks that help make those acceptable:
- The commute can't be beat, both in terms of distance and parking - my house to De Anza is only 20% of the distance from my house to SJSU; given my website-reading and interviewing experiences so far, it seems that the District is very unusual in not charging its own staff to park. SJSU's rates are reasonable, but Stanford's almost gave me a heart attack (not to mention the University of Toronto, hoo boy).
- Besides my salary, the "re-employment rights" would give me a head start there over starting anew at any other given institution. In terms of the time I have worked, it is as though I had never left. So I would get my old seniority back, which affects bumping in layoffs, the amount of hours I get in vacation per year (I'd jump back in at 3 weeks a year instead of 2), and of course, longevity pay, which starts at 8 years of employment (I was at 5 1/2). So in three years I would be back at my old pay step (which surely would have gone up in the meantime through at least one COLA), and be getting a longevity bonus to boot.
- The District has about the plushest holiday schedule there is. We get like three weeks a year just of holidays. Some of these are holidays completely absent from other institutions' calendars (like Cesar Chavez day, which, I assume for scheduling reasons, they give to employees as the Friday before Labor Day, rather than in March where it should belong); others were there, but libraries were still open and some people expected to work (although with appropriate holiday pay). Not the least of these is that the District gives two days for Presidents' Day, which means I can go to Pantheacon without taking any vacation. ;)
- Afternoon-evening schedule I desire. Actually the position I just turned down was the same - 12-9 - although on Tuesday through Saturday. But the SJSU position I liked more is supposed to be 9-6, which, well, getting there for 9 AM could be interesting.
- The health plan - even with the adjustments upwards in co-pays and the like that have happened over the years - is just unbelievable if you take the Kaiser plan. I still have no idea how my (completely elective) tubal ligation was completely covered by this plan, but I am not arguing. I am not sure how getting my seniority back affects my placement in the dental plan, which has increasing coverage - 70% the first year, increasing 10% per year until 100% coverage (up to a certain dollar limit per year, which I never came anywhere near). But even 70% is nothing to sneeze at and I know that in three years, as with my salary, I would be back where I was when I left. All this for no paycheck deduction, I should add - the package I had was completely paid for by the District.
Anyway, all these together mean that I am more willing to take less pay for a job I don't really like that much. And there's always the possibility that I could get back into Technical Services at some point in time (shoo, Tracy! go get married finally and move somewhere with your new husband! and let me move the desk back from that weird diagonal position you put it in that has completely messed up the room's feng shui, not to mention its aesthetics!).
All that said, though, I think I would still take the Sunnyvale Public Library position if they offered it to me. It's just as close as De Anza (a couple tenths closer, actually - I might even start biking to work when weather permits, which is a lot of the year) with no parking permit issues; the top pay is 10% higher than the top pay I was getting at De Anza, plus the city pays my 7% PERS contribution (state public employees retirement thingy) rather than taking it out of my paycheck as is the usual practice, so I get to keep 7% more of said pay; and the job is already mostly a "back end" job - I don't have to wait and hope that I can get out of the situation someday. I am not sure what the schedule is supposed to be (neither the Circ staff nor the Reference librarian seemed to have any idea about this position, which confused me a little - at De Anza we were all aware of each other, and if one of the other staff members had left, I could have easily told you "oh yes, they did this and this, and they generally worked this schedule"), but I get the idea it's a little flexible, and I might be able to swing something like 10-6 (which is the schedule I had in Tech Services). Even if they wanted me there at 9 AM I could probably do it, since it is (unbelievably) even closer (by a few tenths of a mile) than De Anza is. (In fact it's rapidly approaching the distance I would feel ashamed to drive, and I might have to dust off my bicycle.)
In terms of distance, Fremont Union High School District would have been the one to beat at only 1.26 miles, which is an absolutely shameful distance to drive if one is in the physical condition to handle it, and I would probably have wound up walking to work. But when they called to say they had selected another candidate I was glad, because apparently I had no idea what a registrar was supposed to do (the job posting wasn't a lot of help - I thought I would be doing basically data entry of student information), and besides the scary job duties involved in talking to high school students and their parents, they wanted me there at 7:00 or 7:30 AM to match up with the school's schedule. Three words: for. get. it.
Last night I went to do the "screening" type testing for the Sunnyvale position, similar to what FUHSD had me do (arithmetic, English comprehension, spelling, grammar, punctuation), minus a typing speed test. It was administrated by some outside agency (somethingorother Personnel Services) and done with a preprinted test booklet and a Scantron sheet. There was a classroom-full of people, at least 20. A couple sub-groups were quite young-looking and seemed to know each other, as though they had come together out of some library science program or community college job fair or something. In any event, I tell you it was just like taking the SAT all over again (except simpler). (I wonder how I would do on the SAT if I took it now. I took it twice in high school, got 1460 the first time, wanted to improve the score, got 1390 the second time. Bah! These are "old style" scores by the way - I have no idea how they have re-scaled it in the 12-13 years since I took the test.) There was one woman there who had difficulty with the instruction to fill in her Social Security Number in the box marked "ID Number". She kept saying, "But it says ID number! Do you want my ID number?" The proctor says, "Yes, just fill in your SSN there." "Where should I put my SSN? This says ID number." I am not sure if she just didn't understand the language, or if perhaps she did have some other "ID number" in her head (perhaps an "alien registration number" or whatever they call them) that she thought was being asked for, but if she had trouble with this simple instruction, I'm going to guess she didn't do very well on the English comprehension part of the test.
Anyway, the first section was timed 10 minutes, to check speed and accuracy on filing alphabetically and numerically, checking to see if pairs of words and numbers were exactly the same, and "coding", that is, selecting the correct codes for supplies, departments, budgets, and quantities from a given table of values as though one were filling in an order form. We were told not to expect to finish all the questions, just do as many as you can in the time allotted. Of course, I finished them all with nearly two minutes to spare and had plenty of time to double-check a few. Then we were given an hour and a half to do the other five sections of the test, which were the aforementioned punctuation, grammar, etc, and a section of questions on customer service and inter-employee relations "best practices". The test time was to be over at 7:35. I was the first to finish and was already home by 6:35. Yee. I assume they are just going to skim off the top five or six scorers for interviews, but I am not sure what the procedure really is. (If it were me I wouldn't want to interview a dozen people.) So I am supposed to check my email next week. *crosses fingers*