Announcement: Rob Got a New Job!

The Short Story

Rob has a new job!  He'll be working for Amnis, a company that sells a scientific data analysis machine.  He'll be a Field Scientist / Analyst for the Midwest region.  It starts November 5th and will pay him more money than he's currently making with all 4 of his jobs combined.  Hurray!

If you'd like the longer story, read on.  It's kind of a neat story.

The Back Story

A few months ago Rob's boss, Edith, who is a lovely woman, told Rob that she didn't have money for him beginning some time mid-2013.  She didn't want to let him go without him having another job, so she asked him to start looking around.  This wasn't unexpected.  When Rob started work with Edith in 2010, he knew that she had guaranteed money for him for 3 years, but not necessarily longer. 

So Rob started looking.  We still wanted to stay in Cincinnati, so the plan was to look around here, then extend the search if something local didn't pan out.  There are three faculty positions opening for local universities that he was looking at, one of them at NKU.  That's still a long shot.  The other two are only for one, possibly two years.  So not ideal.  And the position at Mount St. Joseph (that Rob was the runner-up for 2 years ago) hasn't materialized the way they said it would.

So local seemed unlikely.  Our fall-back plan was for Rob to step up his adjuncting and for me to work full-time as an interpreter starting next fall.  Not the best, but workable.

The Real Story

Seemingly unconnected to anything else job-seeking-related, Rob attended a scientific conference at the end of September.  His co-worker and friend mentioned that it was a good place to network.  Rob kind of ho-hummed the idea.  On Thursday night, when he arrived, we talked on the phone.  The conversation went something like this:

Tamra:  When someone offers you a job tomorrow, you should say yes.
Rob:  Yeah, okay, whatever.
Tamra:  No.  Really.  Someone's going to offer you a job tomorrow, and you should say yes.

Every once in a long while, there are things that I know without knowing how.  It wasn't IF but WHEN.  Thankfully it doesn't happen often, because it makes me sound like a crazy person.

On Friday night Rob called and said, "So, how serious are we about looking into industry?"  He explained that he'd met with some people from a particular company and they were looking for someone to fill a particular spot in that company.  I was like, "Rob, that's your job!"  (Okay, it wasn't a job offer, but it was close, no?  Gotta admit my premonition was spookily accurate.)

Rob basically spent all weekend following them around, asking them questions about what they do and what their schedules are like and what the company is like.  The company reps spent time watching Rob give a presentation and being generally impressed by him.  They told him to send in his resume as soon as possible.  Preferably the minute he got home. 

It Gets Going

On Monday, Oct. 1st, he sent in his resume and cover letter.  Within an hour he got a phone call to set up a phone interview for Tuesday, Oct. 2nd.
On Wednesday, Oct. 3rd, he got another phone call to set up a phone interview in 45 minutes from then.  The guy said, "Normally things don't happen this fast, but you've really caused a stir around here.  How do you know these guys?"
On Thursday, Oct. 4th, he got a phone call setting up an in-person interview at company head quarters in Seattle.

The interview was Thursday the 11th.  It went amazingly well.  The more Rob learned about the company and the people who work there, the happier he was to potentially work for them.  And the more they learned about Rob, the more positive things they had to say about him.  They did everything except formally offer him the job.

At the end of last week, after what seemed like a very long week, Rob got a phone call saying that they were going to offer him the job.  It was nice of them to tell us before the weekend so we could have our lives back.  This week he got the formal offer, negotiated a little, signed the final offer, and things are off and running!

About the Job and The Lord's Plan

We feel extremely grateful for all of this.  Rob and I have been praying for years that a job would be prepared for him.  We both assumed that would mean a job in academia, as a professor.  But it just so happens that all of his skill sets, that he's been working on for years, or even decades, align perfectly with this job.  Check it out:

- Rob has been teaching on the side for 4 years, to eventually impress a university.  He had been told this is what he needed to do.  Pay his dues.  Guess who wasn't impressed with Rob's teaching experience?  A single university.  Guess who WAS impressed?  Amnis. 

- Rob has been using this machine for years during his post-doc work.  He's won awards with this machine and his ability to use it to analyze his data.  People in the lab come to him to help them with it.  And it just so happens that the people who make this machine are looking for an expert who uses this highly specialized equipment?  What are the chances?

- It's a bonus that Rob speaks German.  The company that owns Amnis, called Millipore, or maybe it's Merck that owns Millipore...  Merck owns Millipore owns Amnis.  Either way, one of those two is based in Germany.  They're looking to expand there.  How many American companies think it's a bonus for their employees to speak German?  Honestly, Rob has been so bummed over the years that his German has defiantly not come in handy.

And then there are other things that are just perfect for us:
- You have to be a people person.  Check.
- You have to be okay with travel.  This is a little scarier for Rob than it is for me.  My dad traveled when I was a kid, and he still does, so it seems normal and natural for me.  It'll be a lifestyle change, for sure, but one we can handle and one I think we'll end up really liking.
- Rob gets to work from home when he's not traveling.  SCORE!
- We don't have to move.  We can live anywhere in the Midwest area that's close enough to an airport to make traveling convenient.  As an added bonus, there's an Amnis machine at Children's, and Rob already has a ton of connections there. 

We feel so blessed.  Heavenly Father is good to us.

So when you see Rob next, tell him congrats.  We're both really excited about this change and what it will mean for our family and our lives and our future!