I will be an Epic employee in one month

Faithful readers, I found a new job! I'm going to be a software developer at Epic in Madison, WI. There are so many great things about this prospect that I could write a lot of words. Instead, I'll do a bulleted list.

-I get to be a software developer, something I've always wanted to do but was afraid that I lacked the training for. But I got to prove that I had the skill during the programming test that I took. Yay me!
-The company culture, if I didn't make it clear in my last post, is super chill and unstifling.
-I'll be making ~2.77 times what I did at my last job with a starting salary of $72,000.
-I'm going to have real-people insurance that covers many things including getting a physical, which is something I've been wanting to do for about a year and a half that my old insurance didn't cover.
-I'll be living in Madison which I think is more my style than Chicago: somewhat dense, but not so much crime and much more bike friendly.
-I may get to live in a co-op.

So there you go. My unemployment ends April 6th. I'll spend the time between now and then feverishly packing up my apartment, finishing up my part-time jobs, and saying bye to people. My wife will still be in Chicago and I'll be visiting every weekend, so it's not out of the question that I'll see my Chicago people again after I move.

That's the catch, though: my wife will still be in Chicago. That's a pretty big downside. At least Madison is close to Chicago and it will be temporary. We've spent time apart before (when she started grad school in Chicago while I was finishing my Bachelor's degree) so we know what it's like and that we are capable of it. We've talked it over and we are ready. So now I'm trying to focus on all the positive.

I'm afraid to believe that this is happening. To have found such a sweet job after so much uncertainty seems very unlikely, even though it did happen. At least, I think it happened. I won't believe it until I get my first paycheck.

So I can't know how much more I'll be posting here. Probably not much. Since I'll be leaving so many awesome people behind, I may start some sort of blog so people can keep track of my life. But I don't know about that. Check back in April; if I do start that sort of blog, I'll post here about it.

My big interview

I think it went really well.

The company I interviewed with is kind of like a cult. They have a *huge* amount of land in a suburb of Wisconsin where they have a campus of interconnected, geothermally-heated buildings. There are currently six work buildings, and they are all decorated very uniquely (the buildings have different architectural and decorational themes). The conference rooms are amazing. Maybe you think it's weird to get excited about a conference room. I think you just have to see them to know what I mean. They are huge and comfortable and pretty.

Anyway, the company has a really lax atmosphere. No dress code, no one gets hired in as a manager, and so on. Every employee gets his own office. They have a cafeteria with really cheap ($3) lunches. Oh, and they've experienced ~30% annual growth over the past 10 years with no sign of slowing down, especially with the passing of the stimulus package (which affects them a lot). I definitely like the company's foundations.

I also like the work I'd be doing. The position I originally applied for was in Implementation Services, where I'd know a lot about the software and I'd travel to installation sites to customize the software for the client and make sure everything goes smoothly. They always have their prospective employees take a test to make sure they will be able to understand the necessary coding. I did so well on the test that they moved me from implementation services to software development! That's exciting because I wasn't crazy about all the traveling, I've always wanted to try software development, and software developers make more money (minimum of $65k!) and have the lowest turnover rate at the company.

So, I like the company, I think I'll like the work, they like me enough to put me in a $600 hotel room for the night, and they are financially poised to hire me. The only drawback is that they are in Madison while my wife has to stay in Chicago to finish her Ph. D. The two cities are only about 3 hours apart, and my wife only has a little longer than a year before she's done, so it's workable and temporary.

Big week

Hi readers! This week is sort of a big deal in my household. My wife has a committee meeting Thursday, the same day that I have my final interview with a company in Madison, WI. After that big day, we are going to start packing and looking for a new apartment, since our lease ends 4/30/09 and we've been planning for a long time to move closer to my wife's work.

Moving will be tricky, since I'll have to move to Madison if I get the job in Madison (of course), so we'll have to pack our stuff separately and decide who gets what. It's like a divorce except we are staying married. We definitely aren't looking forward to the time apart, but Madison is only 2.5 hours from Chicago, so it could be much worse.

I'm not really doing justice to the immensity of the changes that may be coming up for me, but honestly they are on my mind so much that I don't really feel like rehashing them here. Later probably, but not now.

I'll let you know how the interview goes.

Incidentally, the guy who sent the email I discussed last time is reconsidering me after I wrote him back and we exchanged a few emails.