Tuesday I went over to Apple to sign my tax forms and all. It was great to go “backstage” into the employee-only area and see iPods stacked for purchase (no stock is kept on the showfloor). And the warm welcomes by employees coworkers was really nice too.

According to new Homeland Security standards, there’s a list of government-approved documents I had to bring with me to prove that I am actually me. I brought in my driver’s license and my passport but under close inspection it turns out my passport actually expired almost a year ago. Has it been that long since I went to Scotland? I guess so.

I was told I could not be processed until bringing in one of the other approved forms of identification and the only one I remotely had was a birth certificate, and I can’t remember seeing that in the past three or four moves. When was the last time I used it?

So I come home and tear apart all my filing cabinets and places where I’m hoping it resides. No luck.

In a bit of a panic, I go online and check how long it takes it obtain a replacement passport and it’s at least four weeks. And in order to get a new passport I need the (missing) birth certificate and a social security card. I don’t even remember ever having a social security card. I assume I had one at one point or maybe my Dad has my copy but regardless, I don’t have one. In order to get a replacement social security card, I need a passport and a birth certificate. The terrorists have won.

Luckily I was able to go online and order a birth certificate but it’s going to take 10-15 business days. Yaargh! I was worried this was going to delay my new employee training sessions this weekend but luckily my manager said he might be able to temporarily process me without it but that I’d need to show it eventually.

This whole worrisome story comes to a good ending this morning when I received my official email from Apple welcoming me as an employee. It directs me to an employee-only section of their website that allows me to set up my employee account. It’s a great way to set up all of that information concerning health care, benefits, 401(k), etc.

There are “My First Month” and “Going Forward” tabs but it won’t let me access them; I have yet to actually start my first day. I’m hoping that these information tabs will be unlocked after Saturday & Sunday’s all-day training sessions.

Yesterday’s in-store interview (#3) was a success! I am now a full-time employee of this company. Have you noticed how I’ve never mentioned the company by name? I thought it best to avoid googling caches (although I’m sure there’s about a billion for the A-word) and tying me to them, especially during the hiring process. I haven’t said anything derogatory but you never know who’s monitoring. But it probably doesn’t matter now that I’m hired unless I started bashing them. Which is unlikely.

Apple. There, I said it.

Unfortunately the position I’m hired for isn’t exactly the DreamJob I’ve been hoping and laboring for. It’s not the location I wanted (Georgetown) or the position I wanted (Creative). It is a Specialist position at the busy Pentagon City store, which I think was my fourth store choice because its busy and hectic nature of being set in a mall. But I’m not going to complain about it, it’s still with Apple and I’m happy with it. The P-City store is the highest-grossing on the East Coast, so it will be nice to cut my teeth there. And the store manager said that moving into a Creative position when one opens up is encouraged and transferring to another store is okay too. So I’m going to give this Specialist position a run for its money and move up from there. It won’t be the nice one-bus commute in the city (and above ground, too) that I had hoped for either. But again, I’m not going to really complain about that either. After all, it was DreamJob.

The pay is not that good though and that’s the one thing that is a little unsettling: it’s about half of what I was making at Grafik. While I was going to try and hang on to my part-time job at Evolve it now seems mandatory. I hope I can get the schedules of both jobs to fit each other.

Now, how would you like your discount?

Today in DreamJob news:

At 2:48 pm I get a call from the Pentagon City store. Odd, I’m thinking, since all the attention has been focused towards the opening of the new Georgetown store. I’m surmising that they’re pulling resources to get the new store open and this is their way of informing me.

After listening to the voicemail a few dozen times, and having a stiff rum & lemonade, I call back. It turns out the Georgetown store is full (their words—meaning fully staffed already) but they’re interested in me coming on at the Pentagon City store.

Now, the Pentagon City store is in a mall and it’s kinda tiny and always crowded and, at least one time when I was there, unbearably hot. But maybe it’s that high-volume hectic environment where it’s best to go in there and kick some ass.

Tomorrow’s appointment with the store manager (whom I spoke with on the phone) is at 3:00. I guess I’ll know by 4:00 then!

Well the “end of next week or the beginning of next week” officially ended today. This was the timeframe that my interviewers said I would have to hear back about the Georgetown job.

I sent an email to my contact at corporatino and received this response:

“The Georgetown store leader is making offers this week. As she is doing this herself for the entire store, it’s taking a little longer to get through to all final candidates. Please expect to hear from her by Friday of this week. Thanks for your patience!”

So I’ve got another couple of days of hoping then I guess. Good thing, because I was starting to lose the faith.

At the end of my DreamJob callback interview last week, this certain employer told me I would hear back from them “late next week or early the following week”. Hiring status was to be determined after the dreaded credit check, and then they would let all the potentials knows one way or another.

Today it is officially “late next week”, even more so than yesterday was. And I haven’t heard any word. This is not necessarily a bad thing but I’m a little anxious. Wouldn’t you be? Everytime the phone rings or the email goes bong I’m thinking “here we go, this is it”! But they’re not.

So now I guess it appears I will have to wait thru the weekend to find out any news. Drat!

Rattle and Hum. The Twins™.

On Tuesday I received a phone call from the 408 area code, the mothership. In other words Cupertino. (Deep breath… deep breath…)

Cupertino left a message to schedule my callback interview for the DreamJob. So after breathing into a paper bag for fifteen minutes and listening to the message 30 times, I returned the call. They were wanting to setup a “final interview” and listed some times where they had slots open. It seems some from the headquarters were flying across the country to interview li’l ole me. And probably about 50 other people but that’s beside the point.

I agreed to a 3:00 Thursday appt and upon ending the call realized I had the next 48 hours to freak out. But then I calmed down, thinking this is in the bag. There’s not really anything to research anyway, it’s all been in my head for the last 20 years with this company.

The interview went well, if I can say that from what I understand about this unique interview process. I interviewed with another person in an open discussion forum for about 45 minutes and I think I got some good responses from the Columbia store manager.

The next step is the dreaded requisite background check which I’m hoping they’re not going to dwell too much on consumer credit because if they do then I’m fucked yet again. Try being out of work for 16 months and see how timely you’re paying your bills. But I’m going to send a reply to Kiwon, whom I spoke with (and met) from corporate, to explain and maybe buffer the bad news a bit.

Regardless, they said I would hear a response of accept/decline by the end of next week/early the following week. Keep those fingers crossed!