After 5 months, someone thinks I'm worth something

It's been a long spell of unemployment for me. The longest of my working life, in fact. It's a strange feeling to wake up every day with no purpose in your life. No where you have to be and nothing you really *have* to do that can't wait until you're damned good and ready. House chores get left undone even though that's all you have to do. Every task seems like it's not necessary since there's no time pressure. So you start to make up things to do. You motivate yourself. This is after the obligatory 2 month binge of freedom that saw me traveling to check out the Midwestern poker scene and making numerous trips to AC.

Well, I'm happy to announce that it's all over. I got a call this past Tuesday at 5:20p from a recruiter I've been working with, telling me he's set me up for an interview at AIG (yes, that AIG) at 8:00a the following morning. I don't like to do much at 8:00a, and I had a tech interview the next day at 10:30a for another firm, so I asked him to move it. He said it wasn't possible. It was 8:00a or no interview. I decided I could make it work, so I got up early, put on my Sunday best, and trotted off to the AIG office at 70 Pine Street.

It was a smashing success. So much so, that after interviewing with 4 different people for 1hr and 45m, they sent me directly over to an admin to make arrangements for my background check (a necessary part of any bank or government job). They normally don't do a background check for non-hires, so this was a good sign.

Ali and I immediately celebrated with a long awaited dinner at Delmonico's and a Broadway show. I'll be starting next week, around Tuesday or Wednesday.

The job is a consulting assignment working for the AIG investment group, which is desperately trying to get itself sold. My job will be to automate and streamline the reporting process by which the businesses report their monthly PnL (profit and loss) to the Finance heads. This is important stuff normally but extra important when a takeover is imminent as the numbers need to be super accurate. Fortunately, this is exactly the sort of job I've been doing my whole career and I'm very excited to get started. If things go well with me and the group does get spun off, there very well might be a nice full time gig for me at the new company.

Best part about this gig though: The commute is 150 feet from door to door. Loving it.