Funemployment Coming To An End

WARNING:  Lengthy post.

Last time we were unemployed it was hard.  Really really hard.  And I stressed out to the max.  As in I lost about 20 pounds within a few months.

But this time around we felt a ton of peace.  Which, really, made no sense because we have to be a little more financially responsible now since we have extra bills plus a mortgage now.  But I'm so grateful we felt that peace.  I think that part of it was because as soon as we made it public that Ben was unemployed, our phone was flooded with calls and texts, our inboxes filled with emails, and whenever we were out people would come and give us love and/or leads to possible jobs.  I don't even know how many job leads we were given, and how many temporary jobs we were offered from dear friends.  So if you ever need to know how much you're loved, just get laid off.  Or maybe you should just keep your job.  Yeah... that'd probably be best.

But once it became clear to Ben and me that unemployment wasn't going to last for too long (more about that in a minute) we decided to turn unemployment into "funemployment" and treat it like vacation.  So we took the kids to the dollar theater.  We went out for ice cream and BBQ.  We played at the park.  We walked around the temple grounds.  We had lots of picnics (or "pick-a-licks" according to Lil and Skyler) on our living room floor.  Basically we have had a blast and we're lucky enough that Ella's all for going along for the ride.

So here's where our story starts: Ben's old boss recommended Ben to a recruiter, and he contacted Ben the day we had Ella.  Since we were a little busy, we told him we'd talk to him later.  So he came to the hospital the next day and met up with Ben.  He already had a perfect potential job in mind for Ben that needed to be filled ASAP.  So an interview was scheduled for a few days later.  In the meantime, Ben was contacted by a second recruiter who found his resume online.  She had another job that needed to be filled ASAP.  A phone interview was scheduled.

The best thing we did was make sure that both recruiters knew that we were looking at two different jobs. So they both contacted their own companies and basically told them that they had to offer top dollar to try to sway us.  You can imagine that we didn't mind at all.  ;)

The phone interview came first.  It was on a Friday.  Ben was offered the job on the spot.  Ben told them he wanted to wait to give them an answer until he heard back from the other company.  Fortunately, they were understanding and agreed.  Ben's second interview came on the following Monday.  He was the first of three guys being interviewed for the job.  We weren't sure if he would even get an offer because the other two had MBA's but zero experience and Ben had the opposite.  The final candidate was interviewed on Thursday morning and that afternoon Ben did get the offer. 

So we had two choices.  It was pretty much a dream.  Their offers were completely different but equally incredible.  We were torn.  So we spent a lot of time on our knees, making lists of pros and cons, we even measured the distance it would take to drive to each job.  Both came out even. 

But then we started to have really good feelings about one of the jobs.  When we made our list of pros and cons we noticed that one was the "now" job and one was the "future" job.  We decided to go with the future job that held the best potential. 

What I didn't mention was that before we decided, we contacted both recruiters again to let them know that we had offers from both sides.  The job we eventually chose upped their offer even more.  We were thrilled.  So when Ben called them back up to accept the offer, he said, "If you can guarantee that pay, we will accept."  The recruiter said she'd make sure 100%.  She called back and for some reason beyond our belief, told us that actually, she could offer more.  WHAT?!?!  What kind of dream world are we living in???  Ben immediately accepted the offer and now that the papers are signed, he is officially Cisco's newest contracted employee.  He will be managing military databases and technically, that's all I'm allowed to know.  Haha. 

I can't say how excited we are for this new road.  Ben will have the choice of working from home or going into the office.  He can choose his own hours.  And we're getting a significant pay raise from his last job.  It's more than we could have ever dreamed of.  We know that the Lord has blessed us and we are so grateful. 

Another thing to be grateful for?  We still have 2 weeks left of funemployment.  :)