Chicago Bound 1: The Interview
The move to Chicago has been an adjustment, to be sure (and also why @$$hole! hasn’t updated in two weeks), but it’s also been a good time so far. “How did this come about?” you’re asking. Well, I’ll tell you….
The Interview:
I applied to 7-10 places per day on multiple websites and through multiple headhunters, and was getting at least phone interviews every 2-3 weeks. One such call came on a Friday for this agency called HSR, which does business to business advertising and they were looking to expand their media team in Chicago. After a pleasant phone interview, they told me that they would call me back for next steps in a few days. Come Monday, I received another phone call from them asking if I could be in Chicago on Wednesday of that week. Booking my Megabus ticket, I quickly packed a few bags and filled up Waffle’s food and water dish and made for the Windy City.
On my way to my friend’s house to stay the night I was getting off the Purple Line in Evanston and noticed that the intersection was blocked off. Upon walking further, I noticed that there was an ambulance that had gotten into a head-on collision with two SUVs, and another car was up on the sidewalk. Needing to kill some time, I went into the local pet store on the corner where one of the shop workers informed me about what happened. Apparently, someone overpowered the driver of the ambulance and stole the vehicle with the intention to sell the medical supplies and drugs within it. They got several miles before smashing into cars at this intersection, where the cops arrested the thief.
However, during the drive from wherever they stole the ambulance, they had hit several cars and one of the owners of those cars decided to follow the stolen ambulance. The thief had been handcuffed in the middle of the street while cops were blocking off the intersection, and the car owner came into the intersection and started trying to assault the thief!
The next day I went into the office for the interview and told them about the event (a good ice breaker), and they responded with, “Wow, that’s crazy. Did you hear about the jumper?” Apparently someone had jumped out of a nearby building that morning and landed on someone’s car. Just another day in Chicago….
The interview went well and they said that they would be in touch with me shortly about next steps. I hopped back on a bus and went back to Michigan. The next day, I received an offer and had to make a decision by Monday (so I had the weekend to think it over). Now, at the time I was also in communicaiton with another agency in Houston, TX, which wanted to fly me down to meet the team that next week; I wasn’t going to be able to do both. After much careful consideration and budget planning, I decided to take the offer and went to Chicago for a meeting and to start apartment hunting. I had 2 days to find a place and sign a lease before going back to Michigan to start packing.
(to be continued….)
