Taking Chances

I feel great about how the phone interview went today. I am even more excited about the company and the work I would be doing. It's still early in the application process. If I advance to the next stage I will have to take a proctored exam and if I move on from there I will go to an on-site interview. I want this job so very badly.

The only drawback: the interviewer said the application process can be lengthy. I said it sounds like it is worth the wait, which I really believe. At the same time, I've applied for a job waiting tables. It would be a fine job if I end up living at home for an extended period of time. However, the manager made it very clear that he did not want to waste time training someone who was just looking for some work until they found something else. If I didn't have a conscious I would probably wait tables even though I'm hoping to be outta here in a few months. I feel like if I did wait tables my behavior would indicate I don't really believe I'm going to get the technical writing job. However, if I don't get the technical writing job then I've really got nothing going for me income wise. (except me benevolent parents)

As I write this I think I've decided on a course of action. I will take the honest way. I will not accept a job waiting tables, because what I honestly want is for things to work out with this technical writing job. How changed honesty seems. It used to just be a virtue but now it is exciting and risky.

Honesty could have saved a parrot's life in the Book of One Thousand and One Nights. A merchant suspected his wife was cheating on him so he buys a parrot to spy on her. The wife fools the parrot into thinking there is a storm outside so she can carry on as usual with her liaison. When the merchant asks the parrot what he witnessed the parrot says he could not see anything because of all the lighting. The merchant says there have not been storms and in a fit of buyer's remorse fatally throws the parrot to the ground-what a horrible mental picture. A slave girl eventually tells the merchant that his wife tricked the parrot. The merchant than kills the wife and the other man. Three lives destroyed by dishonesty.

Maybe I won't get this technical writing job and I'll end up with nothing, but it seems like being dishonest with employers and myself is the bigger gamble. I'll let you know how my risky honest adventure turns out.