On the subject of failing upwards

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein) 10/29/2018 at 12:34 • Filed to: None

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You know how I !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and I implied that I might be spending some more time in it? Well, my job status at the moment isn’t quite resolved, but I guess enough of it is in place where I can blab about it here.

This past spring, I moved from Madison, WI back to the DC area where I grew up. I had 2 offers on the table, one for a corporate recruiting manager position at a company that’s a subsidiary of a large retailer, and one as a recruiting manager at a company that does IT work for the federal government. The retailer’s offer started out better, and was actually better enough that I accepted it, but then the federal IT contractor kept upping their offer until it became the better one.

So I backed out of the retailer and took the federal contractor job. Even though the director lady who interviewed me was cray cray, and I had mixed feelings about the company, and the federal contracting business in general. But the director who interviewed me dangled the carrot of me taking over her director job in a year or two when she wanted to retire, so I figured I’d only have to deal with her for a relatively short time, and it was a good stepping stone.

Oops.

That job turned out to suck, a lot, for various reasons I won’t get into. The company was a mess financially, and that was part of it, but not all of it. Just a very messy operation. Then, they started eliminating people’s jobs, one by one, as they continued to not make money.

A few weeks ago, they eliminated several people’s jobs, including me. After a bit of negotiating, I got myself a halfway decent severance package. I applied for many jobs, as there are many, many recruiting jobs in the DC area, and that’s one of the reasons I came back.

Lots of recruiting jobs suck royally, and I was trying to line up one in which I’d be similarly overpaid as the one from which I was laid off. Thanks to my severance package, I had some time. And since I now have exposure to federal contracting recruiting, that opens up a lot of possibilities.

A buddy of mine also works in the federal contracting game, and I asked him if he could pass my resume around. He connected me with another guy who runs a small recruiting company, but has so much business from federal IT contracting companies that he needs recruiting help from someone like me.

It started out as just working freelance for him, but there’s some stuff where now I can go on retainer for him, and work from home, basically for myself, and as long as I place 2 people a month, I will exceed my income from my previous job. If I place 3 people a month it will be a big big raise. Hypothetically.

I don’t really relish the thought of going back to the staffing agency world, but this is all placing people as direct employees of his clients, and getting a percentage of the salaries, and these are specialized jobs where I have to really find good people. It’s not a constant churn & burn of temps, or trying to hire commoditized jobs at crappy pay, like say a help desk specialist who needs a security clearance, because those jobs you have to call 30 people who have the clearance & required certification to find 1 who will take the shitty pay. So it’s a good gig.

On top of this, I interviewed at a couple of companies. One of them was as an in-house recruiter and/or recruiting manager at a certain financial company whose commercials you’ve probably seen and rhymes with Shmapital Fun.

It was...interesting. Their fancy new HQ building is indeed very fancy and well-stocked with non-dairy coffee creamer. But the people I interviewed with kinda acted like they were in a cult. I dunno. Just weird.

The other place I interviewed was yet another federal government contractor, but this one does industrial engineering and procurement and other stuff for the Navy. So not IT. I’d be a recruiting & HR manager there. It’s actually pretty appealing to me. Smaller company, but stable and growing business, and I’d have more responsibilities than just recruiting.

After my interview, I sent a thank you email to the president of the company who is the person who originally reached out to me, and he responded that he enjoyed the conversation, and asked me to complete their employment application. That’s usually a prelude to an offer, but after returning my application to him, I didn’t hear anything, not even an out-of-office reply.

So that brings me to today. Last week , the guy I’m freelancing for hit me with some more specifics of how the fee structure would work if I took the retainer from him, and that’s the lucrative info I mentioned above. I emailed the president of the Navy contractor again to confirm he received my application, and gently said I have another opportunity and just want to know if I should expect to hear anything further from the Navy contractor about an offer.

I got no reply, and the dude only has his cell # in his email signature, so I didn’t want to blow him up directly. I called the front desk at the place and spoke to the receptionist/office manager/HR coordinator who scheduled my interview. She checked on it for me, and turns out the president has been out of the office. Turn on your OOO auto-reply bro! Anyway, she did talk with another of the senior people there who also interviewed me, and that person said they would have an answer for me by mid next week (i.e. in the next couple days now) .

Now the waiting game commences. If the Navy contractor doesn’t offer me a job, off to the land of hired gun headhunting I go, with what is a pretty sweet fee structure on top of a monthly retainer fee. If the Navy contractor does offer me a job, then I’ll have to decide among them.

Oh, and it would be a not-insignificant commute. It’s down in the Navy Yard section of DC, which is down by Nationals Park. I can either drive, since they do have on-site parking, or take the Metro, since I live about 3/4 of a mile from a Metro station. This office isn’t particularly close to the Navy Yard metro, but there is a shuttle bus that runs from that and a couple other metro stations to this building. So I’d have options. But it’s way longer than waking up and rolling down to the basement where my home office is.

Yes, this needs a comfier chair and a bigger monitor. Which I’ll talk my wife into letting me do if I end up spending more time here.

I dunno, we’ll see what happens! I guess I don’t really have any bad options here. It will all be fine. Which means your tax dollars will continue to pay for this!

Thanks, MURRICA!

Party-vi > Textured Soy Protein 10/26/2018 at 15:47

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If you’re expected to visit the Navy Yard for work, good luck. They’ve got over 3,000 commuters and less than 300 parking spaces. It’s hell trying to find one, and even worse now that you need a parking pass prior to 10AM.

someassemblyrequired > Textured Soy Protein 10/26/2018 at 15:52

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My wife commutes from Burke to SW DC and all I hear is complaints. We are a 2 minute drive to the VRE too, so yeah. If you don’t need benefits, I’d be the hired gun rather than deal with that commute.

Sam > Textured Soy Protein 10/26/2018 at 16:11

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Failing upwards is my motto right now. Just got kicked out of my house a week ago. Sleeping in your car is good motivation to get your shit together asap. So I started getting my resume around and got a response from a company that install IT equipment in correctional facilities. I have a pprentice-level experience pulling cable, and that is what they want me to do. They are also willing to pay me 43k/year, s alaried, f or the trouble. I’d say that is a pretty well compensated apprenticeship. Now I just gotta survive t he next 4 weeks on nothing, because the job starts in a week and my first two checks are held back. 

lone_liberal > Textured Soy Protein 10/26/2018 at 16:47

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Your comment about help desk is very true. Since I  worked for small/medium sized businesses I was always both help desk and sysadmin but last year I worked a pure help desk gig and it was hell. For this area it paid fairly well and the other people in the IT department were great to work with but dealing with that many dumb people day in and day out while keeping a smile on my face and frustration out of my voice was exhausting. I was extremely happy to go back to my mixed gig full time.

Textured Soy Protein > Party-vi 10/26/2018 at 17:12

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It’s not in the actual Navy Yard. This building is over by 695 and has its own lot.

Party-vi > Textured Soy Protein 10/26/2018 at 17:14

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Noice.

Textured Soy Protein > lone_liberal 10/26/2018 at 17:17

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It’s not just that the jobs are help desk, it’s that they require a secret clearance from the DoD and a Security+ certification. The pay for jobs with security clearances varies wildly based on what the different federal contracting companies bid to win their work. So if you’re trying to fill a job that requires a clearance and is i n the low/mid-range of salary for people with that experience and clearance, a lot of them are wanting more money than the particular contract has the budget for. 

Textured Soy Protein > someassemblyrequired 10/26/2018 at 17:25

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At least this place has its own lot and I could ride the Metro as an alternative, but either way it still wouldn’t be a short commute. There’s a Navy Yard shuttle that stops at this office, and also the L’Enfant Plaza, Navy Yard, and Eastern Market metro stations. I’m in Rockville on the red line so the shortest train ride is 45 mins from Twinbrook by my house to L’Enfant.

As for driving, well, this is what Google Maps is saying about trying to get home from there at 5:23 pm on a Friday...

Textured Soy Protein > Party-vi 10/26/2018 at 17:33

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Well...

someassemblyrequired > Textured Soy Protein 10/26/2018 at 20:56

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I’ll put it this way, we found a great rental house in Vienna/Oakton. Before we signed on the dotted line, we did a test run at rush hour from Vienna metro to her work (JBLM area). So much nope. It was crowded and slow and sucky.

We ended up buying right by VRE as it is more reliable (admittedly a low bar) and not as crowded. It’s still an hour and a half, so she vanpools now (1hr), though when she can get a spot the drive is about 25-30 mins, but she leaves at 530am.

Party-vi > Textured Soy Protein 10/27/2018 at 06:11

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Hell that’s like my commute now, but I’m from Baltimore to DC. What a mess.

Textured Soy Protein > Party-vi 10/27/2018 at 11:35

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When I worked in Tyson’s Corner it was about 35-45 min drive in the morning and then about 50-70 mins in the evening. To go 15 miles.

If I took this job in the Navy Yard, I could get there by metro, but that wouldn’t really save me any time, only the aggravation of driving in traffic. The Twinbrook metro station is 3/4 mile from my house and I can even take a bus there if I want. Then it’s a 45-50 min train ride to one of the 3 stations where the Navy Yard shuttle picks up (L’Enfant, Navy Yard, Eastern Market) and a 10-15 min shuttle ride.

What it comes down to is basically deciding between being a (potentially) well-compensated hired gun headhunter working from home, or dealing with a slog of a commute for an opportunity that, if they offer me enough money, would be more stability and better for my resume.

I gotta say, the ability to run errands, cook, get to the gym at a non-crazy hour, and not put up with office politics BS is rather appealing. But it’s also a little scary to be all on my own, with a business partner and that’s it. 

jimz > Textured Soy Protein 10/29/2018 at 12:44

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if you work for Crapital Run, do you get to meet Samuel Motherf***ing Jackson?

The Dummy Gummy > Textured Soy Protein 10/29/2018 at 12:46

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Congrats on the new opportunities. This is probably a stupid question, but I’ve never used a recruiter to their fullest. Do recruiters get a bonus for getting someone signed or do they get a piece of their salary? If they get a piece of the salary how long does it last? 1 yr, life of employment ?

The Dummy Gummy > Textured Soy Protein 10/29/2018 at 12:47

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My 60 mile commute takes less time... good god..

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Textured Soy Protein 10/29/2018 at 13:11

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Waiting game sucks I did that when I got the job I’m at now (been 6 years, but still). Pay was going to be better at the other job and probably harder work to match it and a longer commute. But they wanted 3 rounds of in person interviews which they had to fly someone to me to do (they were starting a new satellite office). Giving it was a new office (which could have been EASILY cut in the future) I went with the offer on the table.

6 years later the one who was ready to commit to me first was absolutely the right choice.

BigBlock440 > The Dummy Gummy 10/29/2018 at 14:15

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They get a percentage of the salary, 10% (not sure if it varies) , one lump sum, company pays (I guess unless you wanted to hire your own for some reason).

AM3R, lost another burner > Textured Soy Protein 10/29/2018 at 14:28

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My father and uncle are both down in the navy yard. I just applied to a few positions at companies down there myself. The commute isn't great coming from NoVa. 

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > Textured Soy Protein 10/29/2018 at 14:48

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You mean my tax dollars are going to the Halal Guys again?!

Speaking of which, I should donate a few of my post-tax dollars to Halal Guys again.  I’ve only been once and liked it.

haveacarortwoorthree2 > Sam 10/29/2018 at 15:18

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I know no one ever wants to start a new job by complaining, but you might want to check with someone (paging immoral minority) about the holding the checks thing — I personally don’t know of any law that would allow an employer to hold a month of pay at the commencement of the job .

Textured Soy Protein > The Dummy Gummy 10/29/2018 at 17:29

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It depends. There are several ways it could work.

If it’s a contract/temp job where the worker is paid hourly, the staffing company charges X per hour to the company that hires the worker, pays the worker Y per hour , the company keeps X-Y, and the recruiter gets paid some percentage of X-Y on an ongoing basis while the worker is on assignment.

If it’s a direct employee job it’s usually a percentage of the 1st year’s salary. Sometimes in a lump sum after a certain period of time, or sometimes in multiple chunks spread out over a longer period of time.

Retainers are where the client pays the recruiter a flat fee per month to engage their services and then each time they hire someone from the recruiter, they pay some other fee. Either a fixed amount or some percentage of the salary. 

Textured Soy Protein > jimz 10/29/2018 at 17:33

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Maybe if you work on his commercial shoots?

Textured Soy Protein > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 10/29/2018 at 17:36

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Both my car note and my post-gym falafel sessions are paid for, indirectly, by the federal government .

The Dummy Gummy > Textured Soy Protein 10/29/2018 at 17:41

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Ah ok., that m akes sense. I’ve heard of difference scenarios, but couldn’t figure out how longer assignments got a cut. If they’re hiring as a contractor though, I could totally see how.

I’ve never had any success with recruiters. Each job has always been me applying and moving forward. I wish I could say I’ve had success... but none so far. 

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > Textured Soy Protein 10/29/2018 at 17:52

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If you must make it about cars , then also the wheels and the exhaust and the deactivated turn signals.

Textured Soy Protein > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 10/31/2018 at 16:20

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T echnically I bought the mods before I started in the federal contracting game, so those were paid for by good old fashioned capitalism.