Gainful Employment is the New Black

Four-hour-long interview place is matching my old salary. Moreover, they cover health insurance, unlike a certain stingy recent former employer that required me to pay $130 a month for the honor of participating in their crappy HMO.

While on a certain level, I will miss getting to sleep as late as I want, my mid-afternoon workouts at the gym and having the house to myself all day, I am rather relieved to have this whole unemployment nonsense over with. I can now return to a life spent not obsessing over my grocery expenditures and not hording quarters for the Metro.

I negotiated my salary like a true champ and have been pleased to learn that I had this skill, as I had never had to use it before. I also get to look forward to a bomb-ass commute of one Metro stop rather than the 500 million Metro stop one of my previous life as a Government contractor. No more suburban obscurity for this girl, HP is now a member of the urban workforce. Or will be as of April, 21.

In the meantime, I will be spending my rocking DC tax return on a Spring wardrobe and attempting to get my body back on to a normal sleep schedule.

Lessons learned:

It is completely possible to live on 1500 dollars a month, even in DC, although it's not particularly advisable.

A persistent, dedicated job search can result in good employment opportunities.

When an organization or company offers you a shitty salary, ask if they can do better. It never hurts to ask, and almost every org has a few extra bucks lying around in their coffers, all you gotta do is ask and ye shall receive.

Comments

[a.]

Congratulations!
It would be pretty cool if you wouldn't mind getting specific about how you managed to negotiate with them. No amount of detail would be too much for those of us who cower and stammer at the idea of salary negotiations.

[SG]

Congrats! I actually attended a seminar all about negotiating this weekend and also realized that I too am good at it- i just rarely use it! I'm convinced that if everyone learned the proper way to negotiate this world would be a better place.

[Ryane]

Congratulations, HP!! That is awesome.

=-) Looking for a new job myself, hearing that you were not only able to find a job, but one you are excited about that will pay you a decent salary gives me hope!! Congrats, again...

[Michael J. West]

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!'

And you can even meet Michael J. West for lunch on occasion, since you'll be what, six, seven blocks down the street?

[Michael J. West]

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!'

And you can even meet Michael J. West for lunch on occasion, since you'll be what, six, seven blocks down the street?

[Shannon]

Yay! Go HP! Wooooo!

[Shannon]

Yay! Go HP! Wooooo!

[123V]

Yeah! Awesome news!

[tilly]

That's so AWESOME! Congrats!!

I am starting to look for a new job myself and am less than thrilled. Much, MUCH less. But YAY for you!

[Shannon]

This job is a net financial gain - you're saving $130 a month in healthcare, which comes out to $1560 a year. Plus your commute will be about $2 a day cheaper without trekking to the suburbs - about $400...so really, you've gotten a $2K raise over your last position. Cool!

[Arjewtino]

I'm really happy for you, HP, way to kick some ass.

[Bridget]

That's exciting. Do tell: was saying, "That's lower than I was anticipating, can you do better?" All it took? I'm a total novice at salary negotiation. Hence, living with roommates at 30...

[Zandria]

Very sweet that you don't have to stress anymore over the whole compensation thing! Awesome. :)

[owen]

For some reason my RSS reader just got slammed with 7 HP entries this morning! I was wondering what the deal was. So happy to hear the good news! Congratulations!