It was exactly a year ago when I received a phone call from Veronique from Critical Mass offering me a position as a web developer there. This was a couple weeks after my interview there. I recall choking on my muffin as I was hastily working on the rest of my final projects. It was quite a shock actually.
But mind you, I didn’t say “HELL YEAH!” right off the bat. I was between a rock and a hard place. Why? Well, it was all those final projects including showcase that coming Wednesday. I was a bit unsure. On one hand I wanted that position, but on the other, I didn’t work my butt off to come all this way in the NMPD program just to bomb my last projects. I really wanted to finish off the program.
It was a tough decision, I had to make up my mind fast because I had a feeling Veronique wasn’t going to stay on the phone all day. They wanted me to start working on Wednesday, the same day as the showcase! I told her my situation being that I was still in school and I had my showcase on Wednesday. There was this short pause before Veronique said she would phone me back. Right there I had this gut feeling I blew my chance. Even with anxiety stirring up, I still had a long list of things to do for the showcase and my final projects.
For ten minutes, I was consulting with a friend whither or not I just slammed the door of opportunities on my own butt. I kept thinking one thing, “She said she would phone back”. So I still had high hopes…sort of. It’s those fun moments in life where you keep doubting yourself but yet you still hold on to that sliver of a thread of hope. Hope that you are wrong with your doubts and could later laugh about.
So there I was traveling on the good ol’ public transit when I get a phone call from Geoff Sowrey, actually, I missed the first one and had to call him back. But he then was able to clear things up for me. They actually didn’t need me to start working on Wednesday, they needed me to at least come in and get the low-down on what I would be doing. That would turn out to be maintenance on the Critical Mass site. And the only person who could give me that information was Geoff.
With that settled, I happily accepted the position and I would go in to sign my contract that Thursday. During the showcase, I was telling myself I had this one in the bank. It was also the first time I met Geoff, who I thought was too cheerful in such a crowded environment with flash animations on LCDs and pumping Garage Band music in the background.
That Thursday couldn’t come any sooner. I couldn’t help but brag a little…just a little, enough that my colleagues would be jealous but happy for me at the same time. It was almost like I won the lottery, but without all the friends and family members hovering around you and your money like crows.
So here I am now, soon to be working on the Mercedes Benz account. Who would’ve thought I’d be in such a position in just a year. Tells you quite a lot that, and I am definitely not about to say “If you put your mind to it, anything is possible” but rather an Einstein Quote,
If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.
Yeesh… a year in and you STILL can’t spell my last name right!
Ha ha ha damn. My bad. I recall google-ing your name this one time after you were telling me you ranked high in the search engines. You didn’t quite show up first with “Sowery”.
That was a very interesting day for me too, I didn’t get a job offer, but I came very close to death on my way to showcase..
