"Seven miles above the earth"

Today was one of the better days of my life. A day that I had been quite nervous about until it arrived. Fair Rogers and I traveled to Chicago yesterday as you well know. We arrived in due time and after driving way past our hotel and taking a slight tour of the town we found our hotel - two rooms mind you.

Yesterday we walked around and enjoyed the city, eating at the Italian Village - Rogers looking very beautiful in her city finest including her city shoes.

Anyway, this post is about today:

I awoke at 9:00 a.m. to prepare for my 11:00 a.m. visit to the Consulting company. I met my contact there and we chatted for a bit. Maybe after 30 min. or so we headed out to lunch. My contact was very friendly and easy going - he smiles a lot. He was my Mom's Cousin's Frat Brother. Lunch was spectacular as I met a Communications Consultant who does a lot of the same things that I do in my work at the School of Business, so that was very cool to see that I could naturally fit into one side of the business. She had me meet her boss and she showed me some of her work - both good signs of "we are interested in you."

So then I actually had an interview with a recruiter who had been looking around at Big Ten schools. I thought the interview went okay - from my point of view I felt like I made the weakest impression with the person that actually interviewed me, which I didn't think was good. Anyway, the way it ended was "We have a couple of offers out to some other students in Wisconsin, but depending on whether or not they accept you may be able to get into the pipeline...Communications does not have any openings right now, but both of our areas are growing and we could have needs come up anytime."

So I left with this impression, "Okay, I think I can actually land a job here, but there may not be openings for awhile, so I'll continue my job search and hopefully something will open up here."

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing with Rogers - we road the Elevated Train up to the Lincoln Park area where I led us back and forth down one street as we tried to decide where to go before heading back to the Loop. Ate at a superb Mexican restaurant and had a good time - even made it out of town without too much mishap. Too much.

So I check my messages and I get the following, "Hi Andrew, this is [my contact] and sometimes things happen quickly. Good news on two fronts. I spoke with [the guy who interviewed me] and he liked you and thought you were a strong candidate, but all of the things still apply that I mentioned. The good news is we exchanged voicemails with [...] who is the head of our Indianapolis office and he has an opening right now for an analyst and hasn't started the search yet. We've forwarded your resume to him and you should expect a call. I would encourage you to meet with him."

The ride home with Rogers was filled with good conversation. Very good conversation.

In summary, a day that began as a semi-ambiguous meeting with a company in Chicago that could be very interesting to work for, ended with a very tangible possibility in Indianapolis - both of which happen to be the two places I am seeking employment.