The BorD files, episode 10:

Now with more symbolic links.

If the constant reader enjoyed the previous story, there would have been a phrase in there along the lines of rejecting IBM and working for Intel. That is no longer true. You see, I turned my back on the freaky bunny suits, and went with the likes of Big Blue. Why? Let us discover this together.

Intel had it all locked up. It was the sensible choice. No relocation, I knew the area, I knew the job, it was safe and easy. I would be level 1 support for the fabrication area. When the guys in the plant had a problem, I would be their goto guy. I would be your all around unix, NT, VMS fixit man. The only trouble is, I have already been the fixit man. I have been the level 1 operations / after hours help desk support guy for years. I am tired of being the first level support fixit man.

I will give this to the guys at IBM recruiting. When they set their sights on you, they are relentless. I had a concern about housing costs. My recruiter had a guy who was familiar with the housing market in the area call me and talk to me. I had a concern about what the job would entail. My recruiter had the boss and the bosses boss call me up and discuss it in more detail. I mentioned the state I was from, they were sure to have a guy from my state send me email to answer more of my questions. In a not so subtle way, they make it known that they are interested in you. My wife and I were concerned that we would not like the houses in the area. My recruiter arranged to have me flown back up to Boulder, meet the team I would be working with, and look around at houses.

So what turned it around for me? What makes me feel like I should go to Colorado?

A miracle.

I do not know what your definition of a miracle is. Sometimes I ask myself if this was REALLY a miracle, or if it was a mere coincidence. You sit back, listen, and be your own judge.

I called up my recruiter, and told him he needed to fly us all up (me, my wife, and baby makes three) to the Boulder Colorado area again so that we could look around some more. He did not bat an eye.

(Let me sidetrack here for a moment. It is nice to be dealing with a large company that is willing to do things like this for people that aren't quite sure yet. The fact that these were fairly last minute seats, (expensive!) and that they arranged for a rental car and a hotel on the off chance that some kid would take a job that other kids would give their left arm for were all nice plusses in my book.)

I told him I needed to travel on May 1 and 2, as this was going to be the week of my finals, and I needed to get back into town for them. He made the arrangements, and then, to my horror, I realized I had made a mistake. I actually had one last class on May 2, could he reschedule? Yes indeedy. He set us up to go out on Sunday, and return on Monday. Nice service with a smile.

Let me backtrack some more. We decided to sell our house. Whether we were staying or going, the neighborhood wasn't getting any better, and it was time to move on. (The reader is welcome to have a taste of what I mean.)

We called our realtor, put our house on the market, and got an offer two days later. Sadly, it was a bit low, so we refused it. THE VERY NEXT DAY, we got an offer for our full asking price. Not bad. (Is it a miracle to get your house sold within four days of putting it on the market? I do not know.)

So, with a closing date of May 23, we knew how much we would be getting from the sale of our home. We headed for Colorado again. This time, it was a mere one hour flight. Piece of cake. 14 month old children do not love being good for an hour, but it went fine. We arrive at the Denver airport, take the trains and shuttles across the terminals to find our bags waiting for us, get our car, and go in search of the unknown.

We had been to Colorado in March, when there were nice white fields of snow on the ground. This time, at the end of April and the beginning of May, it was all green pastures, with cows, horses, farms, and lots of open spaces.

We had lunch, we went to our appointment with our realtor, and we realized what a hopeless cause this trip was. There is nothing decent that can be had for less than $200,000. I am not a rich man. This new job will not make me a rich man. I am actually a SITCOM (Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage). We were getting discouraged by some of the properties we were shown.

Now for the miracle. While looking through printouts of listings, we stumbled across one with no picture. 2500 square feet. $175,000. Yes, I know, that is a great deal of money. But trust me, in that market, it is a steal. The lack of a picture led us to believe that it was going to be ugly, dirty, a waste of time. We had just enough time to look at one more house, and we drove over to see it.

It was gorgeous. 2 car garage, 2 bedrooms and a bath upstairs, unfinished basement with a bedroom and bath downstairs with a TON of space. Our jaws hit the floor. It was a feeding frenzy at the open house, the listing real estate agent closed up the open house early as she had plenty of interested buyers.

We raced over to the realtor's office and threw together an offer. I was sure that our offer would be too low, and that someone else would beat us to this house, we would be stuck in an apartment and cursed to look at houses for the whole summer.

Instead, our offer was accepted. This house that we stumbled across, that had four legitimate offers the first day it was listed, this house that we wanted and had everything in it that we were looking for, this house was to be ours. In actuality, there were higher offers. They accepted ours because of our 14 month old son. The next door neighbor, their good friend, has an 18 month old. This neighbor asked them to be on the lookout for a young family. That would be us.

So why do I think that this is miraculous? There is more to the story. Our offer was accepted, and I had to come up with $2000. This is no problem in 3 weeks after our house sells, but in the meantime, I did not have it laying around. The solution? Call the bank for a credit card cash advance, and write a check on that. It worked fine. Then, we needed a letter from our mortgage company. Again, not a problem. Everything that was needed was provided in those crazy hectic hours before the offer was accepted.

This realtor is working with 2 other couples. They have been looking for a home for months. It literally took us 3 hours. Is this dumb luck? Is it fate? Is it a miracle? You decide.

I still haven't answered the question, why do I think it is a miracle? Our house sold in 4 days. We found a house in less than a day. In actuality, we were not even supposed to have been there that Sunday, we weren't originally scheduled to get into town until the following Monday. All of the little details are being sorted out as we prepare for this move.

We will be strangers in a strange land. This will be the first time in 20 years that I have lived anywhere near snow. It will be strange and exciting. I owe it all to persistent recruiters at Big Blue.

Oh, and the job will be much more interesting too.

No more first level support / help desk. I will be working with internal IBM networks, e-business web site networks, being trained on Cisco equipment, administering RS/6000 AIX boxes, while I go back to school and work on my Master's degree. Life is sweet. So kids, stay in school. Those four years at school actually will pay off, and sometimes, nice guys DO win.