Birthday Interview

The interview went well, I think, and I want the job. Small residential developer, some commercial projects, growing fast, very casual (jeans and sandals every day, oh yeah baby!), a market I know well, friendly, passionate about their work, and lots of women in management. I liked everybody, and especially the women in management bit. At my former employer which shall remain nameless, it was very much the WASP Boys' Club above a certain level, and of course a paralegal had a snowball's chance of getting even to that certain level where female management was kept.

I definitely could do this job, and because it is a fast-growing company I think I could somewhat write my own ticket after getting in the door and entrenched in the organization. I love the idea of working for an organization without a formal "legal department" and preconceived notions of how things MUST BE or ELSE. And of course there is the curse of "once a paralegal, always a paralegal" - I'm tired of wearing the Scarlet P. If you're good, you won't move out of the role. I have no problem with being in the role to begin with, it's fun and I'm good at it, but I want to be in it in an organization that is growing and still figuring out what it really needs. And I like the idea that their concept of the "paralegal role" - which is not really a traditional real estate paralegal job description - is considered part of the management team, doing deals and creating projects.

And I realized, listening to the broker talk talk talk about the company and how much she loves it, that I MISS that business - it's fun work. I miss the insanity, the silly problems, and the fun of birthing new communities. So I have my fingers crossed that I will get an offer, and an offer I can live with. The HR guy (same guy I had the good phone interview with) said he'd be calling me tomorrow. So we'll see if they come back with an offer, and if they do, if it's one I can live with, then I want the job.

Yet, it will be hard to leave what I'm doing, because, bitching about the company aside (and all my bitches are valid and believe me, I am holding back mightily) I like the cases, I like the people I deal with most, and I love the Boss. He knows I'm looking, he understands why, he's sick about it, but he would never stand in my way. In a perfect world, I'd rather find a place where we can do what we are doing without being strangled on a daily basis by the truly insane level of corporate idiocy (and this is someone who has worked in and for national law firms and international corporations for almost all of her working life talking here - this is the most fucked up EVER) but this is not a perfect world, that is not on the horizon and I'm not getting any younger.

So, we'll see....