SINCE THE LAST POST:
Things have been moving on the job front — or at least spinning. I had three separate conversations yesterday about work, all in the same evening window, all with different vibes.
LinkedIn called earlier in the day and told me about a role that’s actually good. Real work, my kind of work. But it’s three months because that’s when their fiscal year ends, and the hiring manager doesn’t want to bring someone on for three months — so he’s angling to make it permanent. Problem is they want me in Mountain View Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday every week. I’m in San Diego. So it’s a good job with a bad string attached, and I don’t know yet if I can make that work or if I even want to.
Then I had another interview with an international managed services provider — managing a team handling all IT aspects for a big client in San Diego. Permanent position, but the pay is very, very low. I’m hoping to get an offer and see how we can negotiate. Maybe the rest of the compensation package makes up for it.
WHAT I’M SITTING WITH RIGHT NOW:
I did an AI interview last night for a TPM integration role at a company called Outdefine. I called it stupid before I even started — and it kind of was. I’ve been doing this for twenty years. I know how to answer interview questions. And there I was at eight at night talking to an AI named Debbie about my experience with n8n at CDW. I answered fine. But the call froze three times before I finally gave up.
Yet they want a follow-up, which means there’s a real person somewhere in this chain who is willing to overlook my bad AI interview. The whole thing made me feel something I haven’t quite named yet. Not defeated. More like — this is the process now and I just have to play it straight.
ONE CONCRETE UPDATE:
I also spent some time in the middle of the night, before any of this, just talking to myself about the n8n setup. I’ve built a second server — automation.cnsplanet.com — dedicated machine, nothing running on it yet, just a replica of the old one that’s sitting on my web server.
The question I keep coming back to is whether it’s worth moving everything over. I probably should. The web server has no business running live automations. But I haven’t done the migration yet, and I’m not 100% sure what I’ll run alongside n8n on that dedicated droplet — maybe an OpenClaw server, maybe something else. I’ll figure it out when I actually sit down to do it.
WHAT I DON’T HAVE FIGURED OUT YET:
The money gap between what I’m worth and what these contracts are offering is real. One of the roles yesterday — I won’t say which — pays so little I compared it to a barista job, except at least Starbucks gives you insurance. It’s a contract, so you get nothing. I’m not going to take something like that just to say I’m employed. But I also need to be working.
So somewhere in there is a number and a situation I can actually say yes to, and I haven’t found it yet. LinkedIn might be it if we can figure out the commute piece. Or the follow-up from the AI interview leads somewhere real. Or it’s something I haven’t come across yet.
The road doesn’t really tell you which way to go until you’re already on it.