I had a week to kill until Farsight said they would send me over the written offer, so I was going to see what SSE had to offer even though, regardless of what SSE said, I was going to choose Farsight. Why even bother with SSE if I had made my mind up? Because all interviews are great experience, and I wanted to stroke my ego by getting offers from both companies.

Up until this point though, I hadn’t actually interviewed for SSE. I had just been buttered up by the recruiter. He was impressed with everything, and he made me feel like I had the job. Maybe he just treats everyone that way though. It’s hard to tell. I eventually set up an interview in a couple weeks.

I ended up taking the test. It was on the phone with two engineers. It wasn’t too hard of a test. There were a couple things I didn’t know about, but I still felt like I got a B to a B+ on it. I got emailed by the recruiter though two days later saying they found a better candidate for the job. But they would keep me in mind for future positions.

That was OK with me. Like I said, I had made my mind up pretty soon after I took the Farsight interview. The cool thing was I got the offer letter an hour after I took SSE’s test. The offer was what I expected: a few weeks of vacation days, a low salary, and some benefits. It was pretty sweet given I had never had a real job before. Pro tip: I asked if I would get any help for the cost of moving, and I got some! So make sure you ask your company if they can help compensate moving costs as it seriously adds up.

After a couple days of going over the details, I signed the offer letter. I was committed to moving to California from Florida to a town I had never heard of before my interview. And my loving girlfriend who had followed me from Illinois was coming with even though she didn’t even get to come see our new town—I recall Bobby actually asking if she needed to come with me when I interviewed, and I told him she didn’t need to.

During our time in Florida, we gained a bunch of furniture, two adorable cats, and everything else you need as a new home owner. And we were ready to bring it all to a new home in California. We’d have to wait around 5 weeks though until we had to move.