Post Lunch and Outcome of Raise Chat

Now I know you all have been anxiously checking On the Hunt multiple times a day to hear how the “I want a FT job” convo went. Sorry to wear out your bookmarks and google readers by keeping you in the dark. (yeah right.)

Well, bottom line, it went well, but not perfectly according to how I wanted it. I'm noticing a trend with my job hunting—I seem to over-expect and over-shoot. I'm still trying to sort out if this is just this particular jobsite, a general employment trend with me, or the way I roll in life. (I'm seriously hoping it's just this worksite).

Yeah, so that lunch my boss invited me to. Pretty much as soon as we sat down, she started asking me about my dissertation timeline, when I defend, etc. Before I even realized it, she had turned the conversation towards “what are your plans for the future.” My boss is good. She's really good. (When she does this kind of conversation leading I always re-remember that she almost become an anthropologist).

I told her that I was ready to be done with the dissertation so I could really focus on finding a fulltime job with benefits. I kept it all in generalities, and used terms like “real person job” and “adult job” and “time to catch up with my peers” (I figured it didn't hurt to position this as part of my larger transition from student to adult). She then told me that she was really happy with the work I had done so far. She was really impressed with my grant writing—it showed that I “got” the organization and the organization's mission. She made some manager-y type comment about how I fit well with office culture (aka, my coworkers like me). And that Job wanted me around to do more projects, especially a new outreach and research-oriented direction that Job is developing.

Okay, awesome right? I told her how glad I was to hear that they liked my work, I said that I've really enjoyed learning about policy stuff in the past 4 months, I told her that I too was really interested in being a permanent member of the team, so I glad that it was mutual. All good so far.

Then she said, well, actually they can't offer me FT for another 6 months or so. Essentially I'll go FT once Co-worker leaves for grad school. Screeeech, this was an definite unexpected wrinkle. (Also kinda a bizarre one, considering co-worker hasn't even sent in applications yet, much let received notifications...) Boss explained that since Job is foundation funded they have to be careful with money, and though they expect a few large grants to come in, it's not assured.

I understand the reasoning. I do. But it still felt kinda salty, especially framing it as a “Co-worker is holding up your FT position.”

So I asked what they were thinking of for the meanwhile. She said that she thought the 25-30 hours a week that I've been working lately should be adequate for now. I said I wasn't so sure that I could get through all my current and future responsibilities, but that I'd try. After affirming how happy I was about the prospect of something more permanent, and that 25-30 hours was a good start, I told her that I still would have to look for another job. I know employment advice says not to divulge your personal reasons for wanting a raise, but I did as a way to essentially say, I'll have to walk if this is unsustainable for me. I explained that I needed a FT job or this current offer and another nonprofit job to supplement my income and to qualify me for student loan adjustments. Most importantly, this other job was going to have to cover my health insurance costs starting January when I would no longer have my current insurance. This comment sparked a (completely illegal) convo about me getting coverage through school or Honey. (Former is a non-option and later extremely unappetizing, work-wise and paperwork wise.) After the insurance go-around Boss suggested in a unstraightforward way that they could offer me health insurance. And she thought that 30 hours/wk was doable.

So overall a good conversation—we're moving in the right direction and it was affirming to know that what I'm doing is good.

But, yeah, not quite what I thought it was going to be. Two days after lunch I wrote a follow up email thanking Boss for lunch, reiterating my interest, outlining my skills. The letter also said, “I appreciate your willingness to offer me health benefits and to increase my weekly work hours to 30 hours. We briefly discussed finalizing my transition from contractor to employee by January 1, 2011. I look forward to that prospect; is the timeline you are anticipating?” My letter also said “Given current economic uncertainties, I understand Job's reluctance to move me to a salaried 40+ hours/week, but I hope we can revisit this sooner than the suggested 6 months. A full time position will fully integrate me into Workplace and allow me to complete more projects, more quickly. Perhaps we can reopen this discussion in February 2011?”

Since receiving the email in the morning, Boss said twice in the same day how she was looking forward to reading my email and definitely wanted to talk about. She seemed really positive about everything overall (I took this as a good sign, as I often find her inscrutable). We ran out of time to discuss the email that day, and then I was out of work for two days for a conference, so this coming Monday we'll hopefully move the convo along further.

Oh the drama. I hope this is entertaining for On the Hunt readers, because I'm not so sure it is in line with the original mission of this blog—to write about job hunting. Then again, perhaps job hunting is just dramatic?

In other news, I found out that I am now officially a PMF nominee, which essentially means that I correctly filled out my application. Now I have from Monday the 22^nd to December 5^th (14 days) to do the online assessment...