So my job saga is going into overdrive. I had lunch with a woman I haven't seen in years today. Her company does medical software consulting and I took a webinar with her company back in December. We made plans to call each other for lunch, but we both never got around to it.

Seven months later, the woman shows up in her life because we're doing an rfi for a medical consulting software firm and we decided to send one out to her company. So I called my friend and told her that we never did go out to lunch and get caught up like we said we would.

So at lunch I'm telling her how unhappy I am at my job and she says her company might have an opening and could I send her my resume on Monday. And I'm like, OH MY GOD! I would love to work with this woman. We met in growth and development seminars together years ago and became good friends. She was the person who encouraged me to change fields and go into healthcare because she felt that it might lead me into something. And you know what she was right. Taking that healthcare startup job in Silicon Valley North was one of the best moves in my life, and I learned so many unbelievable things about jobs, life, and myself.

And now this woman told me today that the job isn't even posted yet, but she thinks I'd be perfect for it. I've never gotten a job this way, through someone I know. I've always gotten a job on the strength of my resume and my interviewing skills with people I've never met before who didn't know me from a bum on the street.

I don't even know if I want to go back into a startup, because the company is a startup. I mean, do I have the energy for that now, what with my writing, but if it means the chance to work with my friend, I think I need to follow up on it. Even it doesn't pan out, I could use the interviewing practice and the excuse to get my resume roadtested.

The job would be in downtown San Francisco, a block away from where I work now and I would be doing more analytical work which I really, reallly like and excel at. I would only take it if the job was a good fit and the pay was comparable or better. But I'm thinking any job would be great for me now because I am so not feeling very appreciated at my current job. I'll have to pray about what to do with this opportunity that has suddenly fallen into my lap. I really, really love my boss but if I don't fit in and I don't feel appreciated, even having the best boss in the world is never going to be enough.

I had a brief conversation with the girl who is leaving on Friday. She said the same thing about our department that the last guy who left said. The place is disorganized and your prospects for promotion are iffy at best. She told me that the job market in the San Francisco Bay area is pretty hot right now and you have to look after your own best interests, because no matter how good your boss or your company is, they aren’t looking after your interests just their own.

I told her where I wanted to interview and she interviewed with the company as well and said it was really close to public transportation.

I keep getting the feeling if I don’t jump now, I’ll lose out on this hot job market. My company did not make money this year, and their disorganization is starting to translate into revenue. They are not the best company to do business with, and their customer service is horrible. They’ve always had that reputation, but now in this very competitive healthcare market it is seriously affecting their ability to bring business in the door. Unless the company does a serious culture change, I think they will continue to lose market share and will probably be a buy-out target in the next two years. And who the heck wants to be with a company that isn’t making any money?

This company has already started to put in some mild serious cost cutting measures, and I have a feeling the cost cutting is just going to get worse and worse.

My intuition is telling me to wait till August 1 to send my resume out there. Why I have to wait till August 1, I don’t know, but I’ll wait. But I’m going to start working on my resume and doing some serious intuitive work about my next job.

It’s not like my job hasn’t been great because it was there when I needed a place to go, but it’s like a relationship that you get into because you’re not doing well. Eventually you start feeling better about yourself and the transition relationship starts to not fit. That’s what happening to me now with this job. It was great transition job, but it’s not a place where I would want to stay for the next five years.

I had a Bridget Jones movie # 2 moment this morning with M-Square from Laguna Beach. M-Square is my new nickname for this guy because he took classes at MIT and is Mr. Scientist and his initial are MM. So M-Square is kind of like that famous Einstein equation ‘E = MC2’. Cute huh? I want to just write M2, but M-Square sounds and looks better I think.

Anyway, there was a scene in the second Bridget Jones movie where she and Mark Darcy have just spent the night together and they’re leaving her apartment at the same time. Bridget text messages Mark that she already missed him on her phone right as she was walking out of her apartment, and then Mark comes by and says he missed her too. This scene is so darn cute and romantic.

So M-Square called me this morning between 6:30 and 7 am, and thank god I was up and about and making coffee. M-Square called me to apologize because he was supposed to call me last night and didn’t. He said his boss called him last night about something and they ended up having a long conversation. Then M-Square said to me “You deserve more of my attention.” Wasn’t that just so sweet and it so made me melt inside. He was on his way to work and was waiting for his bus to come.

So on the way to work I called him on my train like an hour later and thanked him for saying that thing about attention and how sweet that was, and I felt so Bridget doing that. I mean, I just talked to the guy an hour ago and now I’m calling him telling him thank you. I really wanted to say just like Bridget Jones, “I miss you already”, but we’re both not ready for that. It was so fun to have a “Bridget Jones movie # 2 moment”.

Is this another sign? A guy I recently have had contact with in meetings just resigned. He is the IT person for our division. He was one of the few people I've met at this company who had any kind of vision which really impressed me. It must have impressed other people as well because he is going on to become the Chief Information Officer at a very well known California healthcare foundation. Talk about a huge promotion with lots of cash! Lucky guy!