i spoke with the hiring manager from company e2 again last night and gave my verbal acceptance conditional on meeting the team in wellington next week and agreement on a start date. they’re eager to get me signed up but understand my desire to meet the team and get a sense of wellington before committing so no issue there. start date is a bit tougher - and unfortunately i made it more difficult with an earlier different proposal that i start end of july and come back for a week at the end of august. the hiring manager and team leader spent time with my proposal and found a way to make it work - only to have me come back today and say it no longer worked for us. doh.
after talking with movers and working out the detailed schedule of what needs to get done to get both houses packed up we just couldn’t make the end of july plan work. instead we propose to scrap the return trip (saving a ton of travel time and money) and instead focus on getting everything packed up as soon as possible. this gave us 3 potential start dates - 13-AUG, 20-AUG & 27-AUG - ranging from high to low risk. the manager said that there was a huge program with their large telco customer starting up and they were very eager for me to be on board by the end of july so i could participate in the planning and proposal. seems like a great opportunity and my change in plans throws a wrench in things. the hiring manager said he would connect with the team lead and see what was possible. he though the 27th was right out, and the 20th and 13th would both be difficult, but said he would try his best to make it work. he’ll get back with me tomorrow.
taking with the jboss after the call we agreed that we would find a way to make it work whatever date company e2 required - we’re a bit too far down the path at this point to start all over.
we had our first estimate for our move by allied international today. very professional and gave a strong sense that they had experience with nz moves. it won’t be cheap, but it could have been much worse. thanks to w’s global war or terror boogieman customs won’t accept any boxes that have not been professionally packed and inventoried. so that adds a big chunk to the tally. it does save us a lot of time and worries but not only do i hate paying someone for something as simple as putting stuff in a box more emotionally frustrating is not being able to start and feel like we making progress. i was looking forward to start seeing parts of the house empty out as they got packed. this would also make it more obvious what we need to sell or put in storage.
the other challenge is that allied’s estimate was for 9776 lbs / 1348 cubic ft. anything over 6500 lbs / 1000 cubic ft requires a 40′ container. if we can slim down to a 20′ container the cost drops by $3,000.
not obvious yet what to do here. since we don’t know where we will be living we don’t know how much space we will have. no sense in bringing stuff that doesn’t fit only to have to sell it or store it in nz. but we keep hearing loud and clear from recent immigrants that if it is something that you will need in nz it make much more sense to ship it rather than buying new in nz.
expected transit time 40 to 55 days. with packing currently targeted for early august this means that i have to our housing lined up before the jboss and gromit arrive in early october. and that jackie will miss all the fun of the container unload.
even with my dna to want to do things myself this is one area i don’t know how folks do it on their own. a huge stack of confusing forms for multiple countries and dealing with shady container shipping companies. one family reported opening the door to the container at delivery and having water pour out. no thanks.
we got our first offer on the house (framingham) today. after less than 36 hours on the market.
it is a very good offer and i have no regrets that perhaps we priced the house too low. sometimes good is just good.
as the kiwis would say perhaps we just “lucked in”, meaning we were in luck. “lucked out” means that you were out of luck. the exact opposite of what the rest of the world says - but you can’t argue that they didn’t get it right.
after an informal second call on tuesday company e2 came through with a solid offer today. record time (13 days) compared to some of the others still grinding along.
i’m leaning more and more towards this opportunity. the folks i have spoken with have been great, the role is project management (without the significant people management challenges of the other opportunities) focusing on telcom projects, and the job is located in wellington - a city that looks better and better the more we look. that said i’ve never been to wellington and have not been to the e2 offices or met any of the staff face to face. quite a bit of a blind date. i will work with larry to see if we can delay the decision date until my trip scheduled for the end of the month.
both houses went on the market today.
i’ll be sitting next to the phone to receive the offers as they come flooding in.
with 3 potential job opportunities cooking along the jboss and i decided it was time to book a trip to nz. in addition to final interviews i can get a sense of the companies, the offices, the locate and i can begin getting us setup with bank accounts and such. to avoid any potential messiness i’m booking the flights myself and larry will see if any of the company will contribute some to offset the costs.
flying out june 26th, arriving early on the 28th (after crossing the date line) and returning on july 7th.
i heard from larry that company h has decided not to extend an offer. bit surprising since they said almost 2 weeks ago that they had an offer ready to go - but as i have said many times “it is never to late to do the right thing.” so if they were on the edge (although they very recently seemed quite strong in their enthusiasm) i would rather they pull the plug now.
on to the next.
lots of time on the phone this week with potential nz employers.
(here’s jackie giving me the details of my next call)
after several misses i was able to connect with the other company h principal. that went well so i would expect that to go to offer. having one in the bag would be big milestone.
company e said they were almost ready to rebook the ticket for me to come visit them in nz - but wanted me to speak with their new ceo first. that went well so i expect that they will try to schedule something soon. the challenge will be that i don’t think it can be done before my scheduled trips to portland and the-happiest-place-on-earth. that puts the trip out to the end of the month.
company b (based in christchurch) also sprang back to life this week. they had previously expressed some interest but had decided to fill the position from within. they now have a more senior level opportunity that they wanted to speak to me about. the call was a two sessioner with the first hour talking with two execs and the second hour with two senior members of the technical team. feedback was positive. next step is to connect with the uk based general manager.
i also had a interview for a project manager position at company e2 - based in wellington. i’ll admit that i hadn’t kept track of this company for more than 20 years but when i was interviewing at university this was definitely someplace that you did not want to work. i’m glad i took the chance since it seems they have changed quite dramatically and the nz team seemed great. the hiring manager said that he would setup the next round of interviews soon.
got a birthday present from nzis today. a nice package of materials including our full approval letter and our passports with our residence visas attached.
325 days after we decided to make the jump and started working on our expression of interest.
for the first time i feel like i can talk about it as something that will happen vs. something that i want to happen.
very exciting. now back to the gravel pile.
updated timeline:
start: 14-JUL-06, day 1
EOI submitted: 31-JUL-06, day 17
EOI selected: 02-AUG-06, day 19
EOI approved 31-OCT-06, day 109
ITA received: 06-NOV-06, day 115
ITA submitted: 24-JAN-07, day 194
interview: 20-APR-07, day 280
PR granted: 30-APR-07, day 290
passports stamped: 04-JUN-07, day 325
departure:
…you know the place - the one down the street a bit - just head 9000 miles northeast and it’s on the left.
i met the cto of company e in boston today. unfortunately we were scheduled to connect on friday but it was pushed back at the last minute. since we an appointment scheduled with a vermont relator for saturday morning the jboss was took the brunt of the change by driving up herself so i could stay in boston on saturday. the talk with cto went well - just chatting about the challenges of the position and the pros and cons of the hamilton area where the job is located. he indicated that he was eager to get me to nz so i could interview with more of team and get a feel for the area.
jackie reported that the cabin looks great with the exterior, ceilings and upper garage painted. we both know it is just the way it always is but it is hard to see both houses looking so good right before we leave.
Recent Comments