A lot has changed since I last wrote. On the 11th (which was one year from the day that I had my cancer surgery), we were called into a mandatory meeting at work. In that meeting we were basically told that our department was all terminated effective the end of the day, and starting the next day we would be employees of ZenPrint, if we chose to do so. It was a no-brainer really. The choice was to keep getting a paycheck or not. I think they planned it that way to prevent us from all jumping ship. I can’t see how it was a good decision for SendOutCards to sell off their whole development staff, but it seems it was better for us because SendOutCards was a client and we had other clients now. So if SOC went under, we still had jobs.

But there were a few frustrations for me. We had been working with ZenPrint to implement selling photobooks & other print items on the site. Now the people we were working with (who we didin’t feel were particularly experienced or exceptionally talented) were now essentially our bosses. What’s worse, is they immediately said the wanted to re-write all of SOC in PHP – basically build it on top of an open source shopping cart called Magento. I explained that many of us had experience in PHP and there was a reason we switched to Python. None of us understood why they would want to take a bunch of Python developers and tell them they now had to start writing PHP. It just didn’t make sense. Plus, we have been rewriting SOC’s site. It used to be in Perl. I wrote a long email explaining why I thought it was such a bad idea. I still haven’t received a response.

When all this was going down, I called Neutron Interactive to see if they were still hiring. The position there were originally recruiting me for sort of went away. But there was an open position to work with their main development staff, so I applied for it. It took about a week, but I got in for another interview. I was basically told that they have talked to a lot of people with 3 or 4 years worth of experience and they wanted someone with about 10 years of experience.

Yesterday I worked from home because it was Dad’s & Donuts day at School for Gehrig. So I went and spent some time with him at school. It was fun. Also, Rachel went on an overnight trip with her friends to Twin Falls to visit her friend Brooke. At around 5:00 I got a call from Neutron. They made an offer for $80,000. I was excited when they called and made an offer, but I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that it was for $80,000. I was hoping for more. ZenPrint had promised me that I would get a raise to $80,000 in January (if I worked hard). When I started for SOC over two years ago, I asked for 80K and was offered 75K. I was told that “if I worked hard” I could get a raise in a few months. After a few months I was told after I release a project I was working on. That project got completed, but kept getting put on the back-burner. After one year I was told I would get a raise to 80K for my 1 year anniversary. Instead, I was only given 3%. So now it was two years in August and I was never given a raise. I told all this to ZenPrint and that is why they said I could get a raise in January if I worked hard.

So I asked Nuetron if they could go any higher. I said I was hoping for 85-90K. Nicole (the VP of Technology) said she would have to go back to the CEO and ask if that was possible and get back to me Monday. Really though, if you take into account that Nuetron has much better benefits then it is already a better deal. Neutron pays for the full price of employees medical benefits. That probably saves about $500 per month. Plus, the deductible is much lower. SOC & ZP had a $3000 family deductible, Neutron has a $750 family deductible. So that there is probably like getting to keep an extra $6000 or more per year. Also, one of the biggest selling features to me about Nuetron is that they provide free catered lunches every day. For as much as I’ve been eating out lately, that could save me over $1000 per year. One thing that will cost more is the commute. It is a little bit farther away so it would probably cost $1-$2 more per day. But that is only about a $600 difference.

I called Rachel and told her all this. She was disappointed that the offer wasn’t higher as well. She asked me to pray about it. Still I was excited and almost wished I had just said yes so I could call and give my two weeks notice ASAP. But I guess its always good to sleep on it.

This morning I was woken up around 8:15  by a phone call from Ken. It had been a long night. Nolan was up about every two hours. Plus Murphy got up around 5:30. it was a long night. Nani & Pops were inviting us over for breakfast! That was sure nice of them. As I was getting up to get ready, I got a text from Rachel. She asked if I had thought more about Neutron. When I got that text I remembered a dream I had. I was in Africa doing service at a school or something. A little girl was writing a letter to a family in the US that had sent her a little care package or something. After saying thank you, she asked the family if they could charter a private jet and move her family (5 or 6 people) to live in the USA. I thought, how sad. This girl was REALLY grateful. The gift had just left her wanting more. I then asked myself what I could learn from this. I then thought about the offer from Neutron. In reality it was a great offer – especially in this down economy. I don’t think I was grateful enough for the offer. I briefly told this story to Rachel in a text. She thought I was on drugs or something. But it was serious to me. I wanted to call Nicole and apologize for my lack of enthusiasm and accept the offer. I’ll have to wait until Monday morning. Sure, it would always be nice to earn more, but I should really focus on how grateful I am for this offer, because I am grateful.

Either way, I’m looking forward to accepting this new offer on Monday morning and giving my two weeks notice. One other interesting side note… I had an interview set up with Neutron two years ago. I called the day before the interview to cancel it because I told them I didn’t want to commute that far. It’s funny how things have changed. I have to wonder where I would be if I had gone to that interview two years ago and accepted a position there. It’s curious that’s all. I think everything happens for a reason. I’ve have worked with some very skilled developers at SOC and I have learned a TON. I’m grateful for all my experiences there – both good and bad.