which job would you choose

[ER_Hopeful]

can you give us an update??

Sure.

I wanted to try out #1 first since #2's offer would not be effective until they had completed certain tasks. So I went to sign all I9/w4 with #1 last thur morning, by the time I walked out of their office, i got voicemail from #2 that everything went thru and offer would now be effective and ask for a start date. (this is where I screwed up. I should have told them I need to reconsider but instead I agree to start in 2 weeks. chickened out again)

My conscience had been eating alive throughout the weekend, by Sun morning, I couldn't bear it anymore so I emailed #2 stating that my status with them may change and they'll get update from me by Mon evening.

Went to work at #1 monday, all is well. yes, it's another mega corp, it's certainly no family atmosphere but hey it's $30k difference and people there don't really work crazy like I had imaged. It's really fast paced. [I just got my machine/development environment all set up today(Wed.) and they expect to give me my first(minor) bug fix tomorrow, as a way to get my feet wet.] Thoughout Monday, I had my cell phone turned off in anticipation that #2 would be calling me.

walked out of the office at 6 PM Monday, checked voice mail and yes #2 left msg questioning my status. Called #2 and gave my sincere apologies. I've never felt so bad about my conduct as a professional. #2 hiring manager was very disappointed and upset, I could tell. We had very good rapport. I felt like a runaway groom. He had a lot faith in me. all I could utter out was I'm sorry... I felt we could have been really good friends if we worked together but I wanted the extra $$$.

so it's been an emotional rollercoaster for me the past few days.

I'm here to stay with #1 for good. If I have good performance, I could be converted to full time in 1 or 2 month's time. It's no walk in the park but not mission impossible either.

Thanks for keeping track of my little story everyone. I really look forward to the day when I don't have to answer to anyone anymore.

 

[Isadora]

There is a saying in Hungarian that roughly translates to: If I keep my mouth shut, my head won't hurt.

I bet, by now you too are wondering what possessed you to be so quick in having to convey the facts. If you really felt that great about the fellow at #2, having a cup of coffee with him as a friend, would have gone a long way to have him understand that it was not personal but cash has a loud voice in this day and age.

In any case, you can not go back and change anything so tuck the lesson under your belt and more on without giving any more of your energy away to something behind you. Good luck.

 

[Webzter]

Why would they start you out as a contractor if this is a permanent position?

Contract to hire, especially in technology, can be a fairly common thing. Hiring is expensive and takes a long time. Hiring wrong is even more expensive (build a case to fire, even if you're in an at-will state, start process all over again)

Most companies (at least that I've worked for/with/talked to/etc) generally won't post as contract to hire (they'll just get a contractor instead) if they don't truly intend to convert it to a perm position... of course, intend to and actual don't always pan out and one should judge their risk/reward accordingly.

I also know contracts who have taken C2H positions with no thought of actually switching perm; it was just the easiest path to billable hours.

YMMV and all that.

I am hopeful for the OP with the decision he made. Having worked at a megacorp on a big dotcom project where I didn't see less than 110 hour weeks, I'm nervous for him.. but that was at the start of the project and not after things were already running.