VIP - Very Important Post!

* Before you think that I am so brilliant, I want to admit that I stole that blog title from someone else

What could be so very important, you ask? Employment! That's right.We will soon be joining the ranks of the averagely employed American (not underemployed, not unemployed). We are ecstatic, joyful, grateful, excited, nervous, and still a little in disbelief. Here's how it all went down.

First of all, when we moved to Las Vegas, Ryan was busier networking than he had ever been in Texas. For some reason (Heavenly Father's plan?), everything he tried in Houston kind of fell flat. In Vegas, he was mostly quite busy with phone conversations, lunches, and meetings of various sorts with lots of attorneys. Often these attorneys gave him additional names of people he could contact and things just started growing. He was quite busy up until the end of the year. In January things slowed as far as networking, but he was having a job interview or two almost every week. It was way, way more success than we had ever had in Texas. Still, we were often worried that nothing would come and that the longer he went without a job, the longer it would be until we sank into the depths of long-term unemployment. It was so frustrating and ridiculous that this was our position since Ryan is so capable and hard-working, but there we were - victims of the Recession :).

Ryan went in for an interview on a Tuesday with Firm #1. It went well, nothing out of the ordinary and we expected to get another rejection just because that is what always happens. Actually, Ryan always expects that he will get offered the job because the interviews usually go quite well, and that just makes the disappointment so much more bitter.

On Thursday, Firm #1 called and offered him the job. Ryan came downstairs and told me and I think the two of us were just shocked with disbelief. We hugged, I cried a little, and then he had to run out to a meeting so we didn't have much time to talk. It was shocking that this ordeal could actually be over. When we talked later, after looking over the firm's offer, it was a little more sobering. They were offering the salary that Ryan had requested, but the billable hour was much higher than he had anticipated. They wanted 2040 hours a year, around 170 a month. Now, if we're lucky, Ryan would be about 80% efficient with the billing and work, so that worked out to about 60 hours of work a week. Then, no holidays or anything were fitted into the hours, so if he wanted to take holidays or vacation time, he would have to fit those billable hours in somewhere. I know that lots of attorneys do this, and some might scoff that we were a little disheartened by it all. Ryan really wants to have a life to live and to be with us as a family, though, and I'm grateful for that. If they were offering a much higher salary, it would have been much more palatable, but for the offered salary it was sobering.

Now, we were nowhere near going to turn this offer down. No way. After three years, we were accepting it and I was excited for the long-term when he would have experience under his belt and could negotiate a better position at that firm or at another one. Still, we were a little depressed, which felt really horrible and ungrateful.

Meanwhile, when he had gone to interview at Firm #1, we had heard from Brandon that another firm might be contacting him. Brandon's friend knew this firm and that they might be looking for someone in the future. Well, we never heard (not surprising to us) and we got the job offer from #1 on Thursday. After the job offer, Brandon texted his friend and said that Ryan had an offer so if this other friend was interested, they needed to act fast. She got Ryan's resume again (after losing a hard copy) and contacted Firm #2.

On Friday, Ryan got a call from #2 asking him to come interview. They knew that he had an offer waiting and asked if he could come immediately into their office. So, away he went - not even dressed up and was gone for quite a while. When he got back, he said that he had really liked the firm. It wasn't in their best interests to hire someone right away, though, so he didn't expect to get the job. They told him they would let him know for sure by Monday (the deadline to accept the other job).

It was a bit of a stressful weekend for Ryan. On the one hand, he wanted to hold out and wait for firm #2. On the other hand, he didn't want to seem ungrateful to #1 and he also just wanted to have things settled. Monday came and we hadn't heard anything. Ryan and Brandon went out in the afternoon and when I sat down at the computer there was an email from #2. Apparently, they had emailed an offer into him on Friday, but for some reason it went to his Spam folder and he never got it. So, they emailed again on Monday (President's Day) asking for his phone number. I sent it, then called Ryan to let him know what was happening. Then, I waited impatiently and made cookies, and couldn't believe that we were actually getting another offer.

I wasn't sure what we were going to do - if it would be a hard decision, or if the second offer would be amazingly better. I thought we'd have to talk a lot about it, etc. etc. Well, I suddenly get a text message from Ryan saying he accepted #2's offer without even talking to me about it! The pay was better, the hours were less (1900 - almost a month less of work!), the health plan and 401k were both better. Plus, he really liked the vibe from #2 and the type of work they did. On paper it was definitely a better offer, but really he just felt in his gut that he would rather be there.

It's a small firm, only about five associates, but it's been around a while and they have a good reputation in town. They mainly do commercial litigation, which is what Ryan is interested in. He has also been drawn to this type of smaller, close-knit type of group. Plus, the commute is about fifteen minutes away! It was amazing when he made that decision. We were both so excited and happy; much better than the anxiety and dread we were feeling from the Firm #1 offer.

It is just such a strange story about how it all played out (at least for me, you readers might be bored to tears). After three years in Texas and nothing, we received two offers in four and a half months in Las Vegas. I also think that it's interesting that #2 would actually call Ryan in and offer him the job so quickly. It seems like if most other firms were tentatively thinking of hiring, but had heard than a potential applicant got another job, that  they would probably just brush it off and not call him in for an interview, much less offer a position. It just seems like everything is finally working out. Maybe we needed to get an offer from #1 to make #2 pick up its feet and get down to business.

Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways. I don't know why everything had to happen the way it did - especially the three years in Texas - but, now we are living in a place that we love, near to family, and there is a good job. There are still going to be some rough months ahead as we jump into the workforce, for sure. I'm not ready to say that I learned so much from Texas, or that it was worth it. I'm still bothered by the years of work (and money and savings) that we missed out on. But, things are looking up for the old Daniels' family.

 Don't expect too much change in any of our habits, though. We're going to hit that student debt and we're going to hit it hard. And then we're going to build up our savings and retirement because, let's face it, we're not getting younger. Then, we'll probably have to work on college accounts for the kids. After that, probably braces for them. Then, dentures for us.

Finally, the last laugh goes to Brandon and Rebecca. They wanted us in Vegas sooo badly and they made it all possible. They annoyed us for years telling us how Brandon would be able to help Ryan get a job here. After all of Ryan's networking that had nothing to do with Brandon, he ends up landing a job that is directly tied back to him. We are so grateful and we love the both of them so much. We spent a very jovial Monday afternoon with them hiking and then eating pizza back at the house. It was a very good day.