Step 2

In less than 24 hours of el resume being submitted, I had a phone interview request. I was admittedly floored.

I am just not used to companies moving that quickly. Plus, I hadn't fully gotten used to the idea that I was really on the job market. I mean yes, I'm really angry about my current job, but a new job is always scary. Plus, there's all these other implications that I had not fully thought through.

Excited and flattered and wary (are they desperate and that's why they reached out so fast?) I scheduled the interview. I studied like a crazy person everything I could on the company, their tools, their employees, anything that had been written by my interviewer. Linkedin by the way, is an amazing stalking tool. I also emailed several others that work on the academic side of what this company does to see if they had heard anything about them. I got very positive responses about the quality of work they put out.

Interview one was an hour-long phone call. References were requested, and once they have time to contact them, we will schedule an in-office interview.

Here's the thing. It's a huge shift in the kind of work I have been doing. It's also going back into research with publication requirements. Although I do play with and instigate a lot of data collection at my current position and am addicted to publishing...it's kind of scary. It's also a big title, which is also surprisingly scary. I've wanted the big title forever, and now that I might get it...I'm a little nervous. The other thing is, what I love about my job now is the face-to-face part. I don't know if there's going to be a lot of that in this. Oh, and my favorite piece of information from the interview - I'd be high enough in the organization to be a part of the strategy development.

How freaking cool is that!?!

Despite all this, I've been having all these mixed feelings about leaving. I like job in theory. If I could transfer it into a new company with a new boss...it would still be my dream job. The new job, however, would be a significant career move.

Thankfully, my boss continues to behave like an imbecile* so it's making my decision way less hard. I just hope that in my anger and determination of getting out of the current situation that I'm not jumping too fast without scoping out the rest of the field.

I've gathered my references...and here goes step 2.

*Most recently, I made a professional judgement about a project that I am running. Boss has been countering this judgement based on personal preferences in blatant disregard for the professional reasons for my decision. Instead of coming to me to discuss - boss's been meeting with others on my team (who do not have similar backgrounds so have no professional basis for their decision) when I'm not available in an effort to gain support. I have also found out that boss's gone two steps up in our organization (again while I was out of the office and unable to explain my rationale) to gain support for boss's position. These people, while higher in the organization, do not have the background in what the project is about. Thankfully, they sided with me sort of. So boss is maybe, possibly, perhaps, conceding. Not because I am right and/or the expert but because at least when there are complaints about the decision it can be blamed on the higher up.

All I can say is: Man the fuck up and be the expert PhD that you claim to be and take the heat for your decisions that are made based on science whether others like it or not. And stop being the sissy who can't speak to me directly and is trying every other way to get support for their own position. I almost suggested boss should go ask the guy on the corner who sells flowers if he agrees with boss - because it's about as relevant.