Barring a major screw up with background checks et al, I'll be starting on the 19th...of July that is! Good thing I'm on unemployment. It'd be rough trying to hold out a month and a half if I had no income, for sure.
I'm a little nervous about the background check. These companies outsource that task nowadays to some idiots who have made mistakes and nitpicked over unverified past employers like Grants in NOLA. This has cost me at least two opportunities with big companies in the past. This time, I think they'll only scan for the last three jobs I indicated on the consent form and they're all quite verifiable so I should be good.
What ever happened to the days when a prospective employer could just make the final decision right on the spot without all these incredibly invasive background, credit and criminal checks? I guess companies have gotten burned too often. Or, because of the economy, they are able to just get away with it. With jobs so scarce, who would dare defy them?
The job seems like a good fit, hopefully, and it's for an excellent company. Pay is better than both Chase and Embarq, closer to Symantec's salary. But like my start at Symantec a few years ago, I'll be going through a temp agency first until, and if, they decide to bring me on as a full-fledged employee. I'm not worried about that. Except for the fact that even though my managers at Symantec loved me, it took 9 months to bring me on, and all during that time I had only dental and vision coverage since the temp agency health insurance cost too much for comfort. With all my health issues now though, I'll probably pay whatever premiums they have since I need the insurance bad.
The other thing is the commute. It's near UCF (University of Central Florida) which is on the east side of Greater Orlando. As the crow flies, it's about 20 miles from Lake Mary, but I'm not riding on the back of no bird, I'm driving.
So that leaves 2 viable routes:
Either the debatably faster and more direct route via SR 417 a multi-lane highway with far less congestion than the similarly-laned I4 running through the downtown area 10 miles to the west. Not a bad route. Each way, even during "rush hours" would take about 30 minutes or so. But it would cost me a pretty penny in tolls. Yup, like so many highways around the Orlando area, it's a freakin' toll road. And not cheap, either. The daily round trip would cost about $5, just in toll costs. That shit adds up fast.
The other route would be to take 17-92 and 436 (Semoran). A bit more in miles since it's a less direct route and even though they're considered "major" roads, they're rife with tons of commercial and residential properties with the accompanying side streets, stop lights and traffic. Gobs and gobs of traffic. Semoran Boulevard is one of the most congested arteries of traffic during rush hours and it's still pretty heavy throughout the day and night. I took it as an alternative coming home from the interview...45 minutes. And that was around 10:30am, probably the lightest traffic time there is other than late night, very early morning.
And, the round trip depreciated Nugget's stock of gasoline by 1/8. That's about $4. In one day. I hate paying a lot for transportation.
So, if the prospects seem good after I start and I feel secure about it, I'll probably move closer to work in either August or September.
Of course that's all contingent on how this, my 6th job since I started this blog, goes.
Wish me luck. History shows...I need it!