midnight city

had a telephone interview with a large outsourcing company that is working with a government client doing a project and i had an interview with a large brokerage that is going through bankruptcy but needs to be wound down in an orderly fashion by the administrators. i got calls back from both of them and both of them offered me jobs, and upon reflection i turned both of them down. 


this afternoon i got email directly by a recruiter for a role at a hedge fund which looks like exactly what i want to do. i didnt apply for the job but she must have been searching people who have worked at hedge funds in linkedin, and my profile came up. they are paying good money and it looks like a long term contract. also i have a second interview at the asset management company i went to see last week and that was also good money and a long contract. 


the job with the outsourcer was ok, but they wanted an answer today and i told them that i had these other 2 things going on, and if they could wait a week or two i might be able to do it if i got turned down, but seeing as they needed to know today and i told them no. the brokerage role looked like a nightmare. an office of 800 people has been reduced to 300 in the space of 2 months. there are offices in chicago and new york and japan and the infrastructure is spread across the globe. i would have been the senior guy in london and was told that i would be getting a few days hand over from the current senior guy, before he jumps ship and starts a new job, and that after that i would be on my own. i would be responsible for AD, messaging, DR, archiving, security, support, and pretty much anything else. 


it sounded like a nightmare. relevant parts of the infrastructure would then need to be brought back to london before they were switched off in other parts of the world. a few weeks ago the connectivity to new york was switched off with out notice. the primary DNS servers for some zones used by applications in london was in new york, and so lots of stuff stopped working. i dont need that kind of hassle. i dont want to sit in an office trying to reverse engineer the network and applications trying to find out why shit was not working. i would not have any prior knowledge of what it looked like orginally. i told them i would pass but if at the end of january they were still in trouble, and i was available, i would be happy to try and help out. part of me wanted to do it because it would have been a challenge, but the sensible part of me knows how big a hassle it could be and i dont really want that kind of hassle. 


hopefully the hedge fund comes back to me. thats my no#1 choice and would be the perfect job. if not i would take the asset management place i am seeing tomorrow. if i get neither i may feel a little silly for turning down these 2 jobs, but hey, thats life. 


today i have mostly been listening to m83 - midnight city. they are playing in so cal when i am there but its sold out. am not a big fan but this is a good tune.