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The Job Offer
Published by Eleanor Webb
Copyright 2013 as "The Job Offer of a Lifetime" by Eleanor Webb
Excerpt from Going for the Gold copyright 2013 by Eleanor Webb
Cover photo from istockphoto.com
Discover other works by Eleanor Webb on Facebook and at eleanorwebb.com
This book is dedicated to my husband, David, who has been my best friend since we met years ago. Not only has he always encouraged me to follow my dreams, he has also been a helpmate giving me the time to follow them.
Other Books by Eleanor Webb
Going for the Gold
The Search for the Invisible Lady
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Coming Soon
About the Author
Chapter 1
"Thank you for your interest in Stanford Enterprises, Dr. Conner. Your resume is excellent, and we have been impressed with what we have seen and heard in your first two Skype interviews. If you are still interested in Stanford Enterprises, I would like to, at this time, schedule your next interview with us. As you know, the next phase of the interview process will be for you to meet with us in person here at our headquarters for an interview with Mr. Winfield, Vice President of Engineering, Dr. Rudolph, Vice President of Research and Development, and Ms. Tomlinson, our Human Resources Director. If we decide to call you back for a final interview, you would meet with them again. Mr. Stanford will also be there. Stanford Enterprises will cover the cost of your airfare, of course. Interviews will begin on June tenth. Will you be able to fly in on the morning of the tenth? I can reserve a seat for you on American Airlines Flight 691. Dr. Conner?"
"I'm still here, Ms. Iverson. Let me check my calendar, please. It will be just a moment." Dr. Jane Anne Conner put the call on hold, waited several seconds, and then pressed the "Hold" button once again. "The tenth will be just fine. What time is the flight scheduled to leave Boston?" Anne used her best professional voice when she asked the Stanford Enterprises hiring representative the question. At least, she hoped she came across that way. She was far too excited about making it into this next round of interviews, and her voice tended to rise when she was excited. She looked down at her computer tablet, pulled up the calendar app, and blocked out the full day for the tenth of next month. She already knew the day was free and there was no need to check it. It was nice to finally be able to put something there.
"Flight 691 is scheduled to leave Logan International from the main terminal at 6:40 am Eastern time and will land at Sea-Tac International at 8:35 am Pacific time at Concourse B," Ms. Iverson informed Anne stoically. "We will have a car waiting to meet you at the terminal. Your interview is scheduled at 10:00 in Building One here at our facility. The interview is expected to last until 11:30 and will be followed by a brief tour of our campus. You will have a few hours to have lunch and some time to yourself before the car returns you to the airport again. Your return flight on American flight 1901 will leave at 3:10 and land in Boston at 11:05 pm. I will email the flight information to you, and your ticket to Sea-Tac will be held for you at the American Airlines' counter. The fourth round of interviews will begin on the eighteenth. I’ll contact you again if we decide that we would like you to return for the final interview with Mr. Stanford. Do you have any further questions that I can answer about the next interview, Dr. Conner?"
"No, Ms. Iverson. You’ve been very helpful. Thank you."
"In that case, good luck, Dr. Conner. I wish you well."
"Thank you, Ms. Iverson."
Anne Conner, known professionally as Dr. Jane A. Conner but called Anne by family and friends, pressed the "Talk" button on her phone to disconnect the call and placed the handset receiver down on the kitchen table where she sat while she had talked to the hiring representative. She could feel a laugh bubbling up from her gut, and she let it loose and followed it with a loud cheer. Then she stood up and danced a happy little jig over to the refrigerator where she pulled out a bottle of water from the interior. She took a quick swallow then took a couple of deep breaths to calm her racing heartbeat. Getting the phone call today was an answer to her prayers.
Her latest consulting contract job ended that Friday, just before the Memorial Day weekend, and she didn’t have another one lined up. The adjunct courses she taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology finished up two weeks ago, and no courses in her field of study were being taught over the summer break. Thinking about what she had still left in savings, she estimated that the longest she could go between paychecks was four months. After that, she would need to ask her father for the money, and she was determined to never do that.
The interview on the tenth of next month came at a perfect time, giving her a little over two weeks to prepare. She intended to "wow" the interviewers, to quote her friend, Carla, with her knowledge of marine biochemical and oceanographic research, experience in lab and field studies, and personality. Anne really wanted this job. She wanted something permanent to replace the uncertainty of the consulting jobs and the adjunct work she had been doing since she became unemployed when her old company closed its doors over a year ago. She also wanted the job because it would take her back to Washington State where she would be working for a company that had built a solid reputation in biochemical research over the last thirty years and in her area of specialty in the past ten years. As much as she liked the Boston area, it wasn’t home, and she was ready to go home.
It was Carla who talked to her about coming back to Seattle to interview for the position with Stanford Enterprises. Carla's brother-in-law worked for the company as head of their Information Technology department, and he put in a good recommendation for Anne for the open research scientist position in their Marine Biochemical Research department. It was over four months ago when Anne first submitted her résumé to the hiring manager of the Human Resources department. Just as she had done with so many other companies she sent resumes to over the past year, she gave up hope of a call for an interview when the months went by without a response. But then, out of the blue, she was called two weeks ago for the first Skype interview.
As she thought about Carla, Anne looked at her kitchen clock and noted the time. It was a little after six in Boston, and Carla lived in Seattle. With the time difference, she would not be able to call Carla with the news that she would be coming out for an interview for at least another three hours. She could text her, though. After taking her bottle of water and the salad that she ordered from the deli down the block from the table, An
ne went into the living room of her Cambridge apartment to eat and watch the evening news. She saw her smart phone sitting on the coffee table next to her purse, picked it up, and sent Carla a text message to let her know that she would be calling her later in the evening.
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