Once today is over, work is off the agenda for three months, so it’s with mixed feelings that I take a call from Cameron in Tek Systems’ Baltimore office.
He needs an IBM Assembler consultant and I’m the only one in their entire database with that skill. He’s so excited it’s almost cruel to disappoint him.
I tell him about the walkabout but he says the contract would take four weeks to arrange, so that could be my time off. It's all telecommuting with no on site requirement except for a one-week training course for which they’ll cover all transportation, accommodation and meal costs. The rate’s too low, but he says they can be flexible – “for the right person.”
I’ve been wanting to get back with Tek Systems for a while, so I email him my latest resume and suddenly he's like a kitten chasing a ball of wool.
My experience is more than a 100% match, he says. It would be too geeky to point out the mathematical impossibility of this, so I let it go. He’s certain that he’ll have a positive answer by the end of the day and they’ll want to speak to me tomorrow.
Talking it through over lunch, I realize that it’s too late to think about a new job, whatever Cameron says. Pissing off an agent is always a bad thing, so he has to believe it’s his decision. The problem is how to do that?
Ping!
My phone has a 202 area code, so he thinks I live in Washington DC, not Seattle. He’s not offering an air ticket from the west coast – he thinks it would be a half-hour AMTRAK ride. That's also why he said nothing about how the three-hour time difference - because he doesn't know there would be one.
He calls back sooner than expected. His manager noticed that my three most recent contracts were in Seattle and wants to confirm that I’ll be coming ‘home’. Being right starts a glow of smugness like a candle in my tummy.
“No,” I tell him, “Not for a while. Heading south to San Diego.” Then I mention how much I look forward to working in sun-drenched public parks, or from my car, using the cellphone as a wi-fi hotspot.
Most bars have free internet so I could do a whole lot of work during the evening to leave the afternoon free for the beach and I could start early in the morning from Starbucks to make up time and overcome any communication problems caused by the 3-hour time difference with Baltimore.
He’s a lot less enthusiastic now, but I've only just got started. There’s a definite pause when I ask whether Seattle airport cab fares are included with the transportation offer. He needs to talk to his manager, he says, and he’ll get back to me.
But he never does…
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