The Cellar - The Quest

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**BUMP**

Because I only have a minute here and I will want to return to this thread for the good advice from all of you. I need it again.

I have another interview tomorrow.

Good Luck. I got a possible lead on something today as well.

Excellent! I wish you the very best luck.

I just got back from the mall. I asked BD for a favor--a ride and would she please be my fashion consultant? $450 later I have a handful of new slacks, shirts, socks and shoes. She picked them, I got to say how they felt. I have promised to wear a tie, but I told her that I'd be the only guy in the building wearing a tie. She countered that I'd be the best looking guy in the building then.... OK, I'll wear a tie. Thanks doll, I loveya!

Very good. The appearance and the extra confidence it should give you could well tip you over the line.

Interview them thoroughly. Make sure they are competent and worthy of your joining.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigV (Post 228522)

A clarification:

wrt the credit cards--I do feel they were used in the situation when they were most needed, and mostly in a responsible way. But my reference to "melting" them was an allusion to the affect on the poor little plastic rectangle from *heavy use*. Industrial freakin use, and it was not an industrial grade tool.

I'm in the position now of having lived on credit for, say, three months. My new income isn't twice my previous level consumption, and I will have to live well below my means to retire the debt. That's the only way, of course, and I know that, and I'm really ready to do it. Looking forward to it. But I can't retire it at the rate I accumulated it, probably not at half the rate. :frown: But. I have a well established habit of paying down debt. It has been steadily diminishing since...dunno, maybe ten years. The unemployment caused the total debt level to increase, and there have been some high dollar expenses that increased the level as well (college for two, a new roof), but the number will go away.

Possibly tmi--as much as a I hate the debt load, I will not sacrifice our savings to accelerate the debt retirement. I have to save for retirement too, and there are no loans for living expenses when you're 80.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigV (Post 318522)

Update:

Two credit cards have just been paid off!!! :celebrat:

Both cards were on auto-pay auto-pilot with the credit union, and so I didn't "really" see the money each month. But now that I don't have to pay them anymore, I could easily "see" the money again, and be happy for it. But.

But I still have a couple of credit cards to go. :sniff: So I'm redirecting some of the cash flow previously used to pay off credit cards A and B to credit card C. C is also on autopilot, but now I'm able to shift it into a higher gear. By the way, I did some back of the envelope math on that card... :rar: The minimum payment meant that the balance forward would be reduced by 0.1% or so. Is that legal? Moral? Usurous? I digress. I am now paying at about 3.9 times the minimum payment. This one will take a couple more years to disappear, as I have no more low hanging fruit to harvest and redirect towards its retirement. Plus I have no guarantees that the balance will only go down. This is the last card to pay off (well, the last one that's an open account. I'm still paying down another closed account :sigh: ).

I mentioned that I'm taking some of that newly available cash flow and putting it toward this last credit card. What of the rest of that cash flow? Well, I have increased (not intitiated, but increased from an already respectable number) the amount I'm contributing to my 401k account. By a lot. I expect the net cash flow to *decrease* measurably. But for the first time in my career, I'm going to be within spitting distance of the Federal maximum dollar contribution limit. It feels scary good. Well, it feels good now, I have only just turned in my form. Check with me again after a couple of paydays...

Dear USA,

Please put BigV in charge of your economy. That is all.

Z

This thread doesn't get much play, does it?

Well, it will get some play today, as I have a phone interview in a couple hours. It is for a Systems Engineer position at a local internet company. I am optimistic about this for a couple reasons. 1--Why not be optimistic. It sure beats the crap out of the alternatives, which are sure losers. 2--My friend, T, sent me a link the other day, "Hey, what about this job description, X, can I submit your resume for it?"... ??? what is this a trick question?? Yes, please, by all means, do so. We noodled around with my resume for an hour (Jeebus after all these months I **still** had a couple grammatical errors? W. T. F. ???). So, we beat it into submission, then he sent it for submission. Yay. The next day, I get an email message from the person, DG, this new hire would report to and he wants to arrange a phone call so we can talk a little bit. Oh, and it sounds like you'd be a good fit for open position Y here (also reporting to DG. I followed the link and the second one, Y, is a higher rank/responsibility/experience than X. I take this as a very good sign. He clearly read my resume, and decided/hoped that I'd be better fit for the "higher" position. By higher I mean instead of two years experience, they advertised six years experience. Instead of delivering tier 2 support, I'd be providing tier 3 support to the junior staff members who would bring me problems they couldn't solve. Leading/training junior staff, stuff like this. I am encouraged.

I've done a little googling about the fellow who sent me the email, DG. Nothing very revealing, though speaking to the person I'd be reporting to means I'm likely talking to the decider. This is as good as it gets. If I convince him that I'm interesting enough to pursue, I'll have the very potent ally. The work looks like the same kind of work I've done for decades, Computer Wrangling. This I can do.

Wish me luck! I'll report back this afternoon.

You have a positive *flair* for understatement, my friend.

I just saw this. Best of luck to you , V.

thank you thank you thank you... interview in ten minutes. I'm very nervous and excited.

AAAuuugh!