Ok, so here's the story with the job:

A week ago Friday, I get this call from a recruiter for a job with Kaiser Permanente (yes, the same HMO that I still feel tried to kill my father) in Oakland as a database developer/maintainer. He told me about the job and I told him it sounded interesting. He said I would have to pass a proficiency test in Access (4 hours!) for Kaiser which he said he would try to set up the following week. Either way, he would call me back on Monday to let me know what was going on.

Monday comes and no call. And no call. And no call... Finally, he calls me a little after 5 and says that they are really interested in seeing me based upon seeing my resume. He will set something up and let me know when the test will be.

Ten minutes later, I got a call from another recruiter about a job in Pleasanton for Documentum (a division of EMC) as a data analyst for a drop-dead project. I asked him to send me the job description and he said he'd call me the next day.

(To simplify the next, and really complicated, part of the story, I shall call the recruiter for the job in Pleasanton "Beavis" and I shall call the other recruiter "Butthead" because...well, you'll see).

Tuesday morning, I'm trying to finish cleaning my apartment as the landlord wants to come in and check my outlet in the bathroom to see if the breaker in the outlet had blown and that's why I had no power there and they had no power in their computer room. They've really been putting pressure on to get this fixed, so I'm trying to hurry to get the cleaning done.

The phone rings at a little after nine. It's Beavis asking if I'd read the job description. I told him I had and that it sounded interesting. He told me that the manager at the company wanted to do a phone interview with me that morning. I had been expecting a call from Butthead at 9:30, but I figured they wouldn't overlap, so I said sure.

At 9:30 the phone rings again. It's the manager at Documentum for the phone interview. I was on the phone with her and another fellow for half an hour.

(brb, nature calls)

Beavis had asked me to call him after the interview to let him know how things had gone, was I still interested, etc. But first, I felt I needed to call Butthead since I had been expecting him to call at 9:30. So I called Butthead and left him a voicemail as he was away from his desk.

I called Beavis back and told him everything. Both he and the manager had mentioned that there might be some really tedious stuff in this job, and I mentioned that that concerned me some, but that during the interview, it hadn't sounded as potentially boring as I had thought. I also told him that the manager had told me they were going to talk to one more person before making a decision and that they had asked if I could start the next day if I were offered the job.

I start cleaning again, and the phone rings again. It's Butthead calling me back. He said that he hadn't meant that he was going to call at 9:30, just sometime after that. He said that Kaiser could schedule the test Thursday afternoon if that was okay. I told him that I was now interviewing for another position (common courtesy that isn't anymore, but anyway). He said he would try to get Kaiser to move the test up.

I start cleaning again and once again the phone rings. It's Beavis calling to say that I have the job. He starts making plans as if I've accepted the offer (which I haven't yet). I tell him I want to think about it for a little bit.

About half an hour later, the phone rings again! It's Butthead; he tells me that the best Kaiser can do is move the test up to the next day (Wednesday). I tell him that I have been offered the other job and they want me to start the next day. He asks (asks is actually too tame a word) that I ask this other company if I could start a day later so that I could take this test (obviously not saying that). I tell him I will try and hang up.

At this point, I was really beginning to have my doubts about Butthead. He was sounding very much like a used-car salesman. I considered doing as he requested, but I thought it would be better to just sit for a little while and think things through:

• Beavis' job wasn't database development, there would be no coding.
  
• Butthead's job sounded like, while there might be some development, it was mainly going to be reporting.
  
• Beavis' job probably paid less than Butthead's job (Beavis' job paid $30/hour, Butthead had told me that $35/hour "didn't sound unreasonable").
  
• Beavis' job was a lot closer and an easier commute.
  
• Beavis' job at this point was a definite, Butthead's might or might not happen.
  
• If I now called the manager at Beavis' job and asked to start a day later, it probably wouldn't go down too well.
  
• I have been so anxious and riddled with insomnia for the past six weeks because of the whole job situation (and other stuff, like being the star of "The 37-Year-Old Virgin," and more) that I had to seriously consider the fact that having a job might help to calm me down.
  
• Since the inheritance from my grandmother helped me eliminate $1600+/month in payments, I didn't need anywhere near the salary that I did--not that I wouldn't take more money if it were thrown at me.
  
• The $30/hour rate from Beavis' offer was still a 20% raise from what Satan'sBank was paying me when I "left" there.
  

So I decided to take the sure thing (Beavis' job) instead of passing on that and then possibly not getting Butthead's job and being really screwed.

I waited until the early afternoon to call Butthead back and tell him my decision. Butthead went completely apeshit. "You need to realize that you have the power in this case. You need to tell them that you can't start on Wednesday, but that you need another day. You need to tell me in the next ten minutes your decision so that I can find another candidate if need be." I told him my decision and he said, "You really need to act like you have the power" and slammed the phone down in my ear. (Now you see the nickname.)

Well, Mom and I are headed to get massages, so I'll end here and finish this post later, and include my thoughts on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which I stayed up until 1am to finish.