I've been employed at Kansas State University as an instructor in the College of Engineering's Extension Department. If you are not familiar with the Extension concept, think of it as primarily a county level interface between a state's academic institution(s) and the residents of the state, usually targeted at the production side of the agricultural sector. I do indoor air quality technical assistance for the EPA targeted at both Kansas and the nation at large.

My 'job' recently opened up with the Minnesota Department of Health, when one of their two folks that do for Minnesota what I do for Kansas jumped ship for the state's IT department. On a whim, and because it literally only cost 10 minutes to do so, I put my name in the hat.

Most people would assume I did this for career advancement, and they'd be partially correct. I adore my current position, with the possible exception of now knowing what my salary probably should look like. I have an academic position that comes with an office with a door. A door! Moving up to Minn-e-so-ta would mean moving into cubicle land, which is a servicable definition of Hell as far as I'm concerned.

My wife on the the other hand, while employed as the veterinarian she's trained and licensed as, is not particularly happy with her current lot. So St Paul seemed to me like a possible reasonable move to up her employment choices. I have most of my family in Minnesota, we both have friends in Minneapolis, I have old gaming contacts up there as well. What the heck.

I get the call that I'm on the interview list, and they need a list of professional references. My references are my current employers, and my boss being who he is, figured if nothing else it would be good for me as I've not been through the process since he hired me in 2002. I interviewed a week ago last Tuesday. The supervisor for the position broke all know bureaucratic HR speed records and offered me the position AT the salary I specified I'd need to accept the job that Friday.

Crap. Now we have to make a decision. We'd have to try to buy a house up there while selling the house here. My wife would have to job hunt remotely while we prepped to move. Would my benefits from Minnesota be at least as good as mine are from Kansas? For the record, everything I turned up indicates that Minnesota actually doesn't see its state employees as parasites on the system. Seems like a pretty decent place to hang till retirement.

It was a long weekend, to say the least.

Thankfully, the Law of Unintended Consequences stepped in. The owner of a sole proprietor veterinary clinic in Topeka got wind of the job offer and made my wife a job offer. The offer wasn't completely out of the blue as they'd been discussing the possibility for a while now, but the offer to me convinced the owner to come down off the fence about my wife.

So, everyone but the State of Minnesota, who will now be denied my esteemed services, came out of this relatively happy. I don't have to try to move our household to St Paul in February. My wife will be transferring into a more suitable position in late Winter. My boss is happy he doesn't have to navigate Kansas' hiring rules, which form another servicable definition of Hell. The only Bah part is I couldn't go back to my boss and say "you know, if you could slip me a little something, I'd happily hang around": One, we don't have the budget flexibility to swing it, and two, he knows I'd happily hang around anyway.

So what was the point of writing this out? I'm not sure. But I was blindsided by just how much stress being OFFERED a job could create. I was a wreck this week until I was able to decline yesterday. But it was also a nice bit of ego boost to know that someone besides my current employer felt I'd be a nice addition to his department.