So I Got a Verbal Offer!

I got a verbal offer!

It freaking happened! Not only did I crush my final interview with my soon-to-be boss today, but the recruiter called me an hour later with the goods: they’re drafting the offer and done interviewing for the role! We nailed down salary, perks, start date, and all those details I’d been snoozing on until today.

The good news? This job checks all the boxes from an employment standpoint. The pay? Decent — could’ve been a smidge higher, but hey, it’s my starting salary, not my forever one. (Yes, I’m being dramatic. No, I’m not sorry.) Truth be told, the pay is solid and better than my last job’s base salary. My real hang-up? The bonuses at my old gig put me a little over this new salary. But here’s the kicker: those bonuses were 100% “fun money” — zero impact on my budget since I live below my means and always treated bonuses as an unexpected surprise. It will work just fine for me and my family.

The real win? I’m genuinely excited about the work and the company culture. As devs, we’ve all got our tech stack sweethearts, frameworks we love/hate, etc. This place? Well I know most of their stack already and love making cool stuff with it. Means two things: (1) I’ll be hyped to clock in Day One, and (2) I can hit the ground running with minimal onboarding (minus Kotlin — more on that below).

The only tech I need to learn is Kotlin. I’ve got a couple commits under my belt from Indeed and always wanted to dive deeper, but never had a strong reason to do so. Now? Challenge accepted. I’ll pick it up in no time! I also have to brush up on my SQL skills as I can’t tell you how many years it’s been since I’ve written a real SQL query.

What do I do about the other employers I’ve been interviewing with?

After the initial excitement died down a bit, I realized I was deep into interviews with other companies. Time to bow out — professionally. No burning bridges!

I actually had another interview scheduled with another interesting company later today so I cancelled that. I reached out to the recruiter to thank them for the opportunity to learn more about the company and consideration for the role. It made sense to cancel that one immediately because I would have felt like I was wasting their time if I kept the interview on the books.

Then I started drafting an email to another company… and paused. What if this offer gets pulled? (Yes, paranoia strikes again.) It’s happened before — a young startup rescinded my offer when their funding fell through at the last minute. It was also a lot earlier in my career where I was kind of in that junior dev stage and I was employed at the time so it wasn’t quite as earth shattering as it would be now. I’m ready to be employed again, dammit! I’m pretty confident that his offer is a done deal at this point, but curse my paranoia!

I’ll wait until I’ve signed the offer to formally exit other interviews. Paranoid? Maybe. Safe? Absolutely. The recruiter said I’d get the written offer by tomorrow morning, so this delay shouldn’t make me seem like I’m dragging my feet in the event that something goes terribly wrong and I decide to keep interviewing. And as my parents always taught me: Never burn bridges.

As happy as I am to accept the offer, there’s some uncertainty

With any major life change comes uncertainty. The days of wondering where my next paycheck would come from? (Thankfully) behind me. Now I’m faced with the uncertainty of starting fresh: What’s my new team’s dynamic like? When will I see the first paycheck? What does a typical day look like?

These questions (and countless others) will linger in my mind for now. But honestly, they feel minor compared to the stress I’ve carried since getting laid off.

Then there’s the strange social aspect of starting fresh. Even switching teams at Indeed triggered this weird anxiety for me. (Yes, really — and I’m usually not socially anxious!) But I know I’m “out there” with my beliefs, habits, and opinions. So for a bit, I’ll play it guarded, quiet. Let myself settle in before opening up. Gotta feel the room out a bit before I let them know that I’m a Linux neckbeard with a privacy focused phone that refuses to use big tech spyware BS.

And hey — am I complaining? Not even close. I’m over the moon to have gainful employment (and a role that actually fits me!) at a company with a product I believe in. These “first-day jitters” are just… the next chapter. Bring it on!

Here’s to a new chapter!

Times like these? Exciting. But also… stressful. Starting a new job is a “big life change,” and this job — well, it’s been my top pick since I started the search.

My wife and parents have already asked me if I’m going to just relax and have some “me time” between now and my tentative start date. Yeah, I certainly will do some of the things I enjoy! I haven’t booted up a video game since before I was laid off so that is about to change! Household projects will get crossed off the list and my little Miata needs a freakin bath as well so there is no shortage of things I can do.

There will definitely be some time spent taking classes on Kotlin and SQL. I’m the guy that wants to make an impact immediately. I want to feel a bit more comfortable in Kotlin and get a SQL refresher since it has been years since I’ve written a real SQL query. From my understanding of the back end vs front end split, there won’t be a huge expectation of hitting the gound running with the back end work right away, but I don’t even want to stumble the first time I am asked to dive into the back end code bases and make a contribution. That’s how I’m wired, I guess.

And hey — am I complaining? Not even close. I love coding and learning new tech (key for software engineers, IMHO). So now? Time to dive in. Let the Kotlin adventures begin! I’m stoked to have found such a perfect fit so quickly and I couldn’t be more excited to start this new chapter!