Scam Update -- Final Chapter (And Other Stuff)

One of those sleepless nights, and I realized I never did really sew up what happened with all the scam BS that happened a few months ago.  In short, nothing really happened.  My bank A) transferred most of the funds I had lost into my savings account and B) allowed me to cash it all out.  I appreciate the donations that came in (which in hindsite I realize was a pretty tacky thing to ask for, but hey...desperate times call for desperate measures) and have paid most of them back.  Outstanding invoices were paid and I was able to liquefy some other assets so all is well that ends well; this post closes my mini-series on this topic (thank god).

Needless to say I'm living cash only (i.e. no checking/savings) for the time being out of sheer paranoia, and when I do decide to reopen a bank account it will be with a different firm...my former bank has been nothing short of a total PITA throughout the whole ordeal.  PayPal has long since been canceled, as well as eBay (I will never ever ever use either of those again, they made my bank look like a bunch of saints), no less than 20+ passwords have been changed (or accounts canceled)...I did everything short of changing my SSN.  "Officially" speaking, the case is closed...I got some money back, the crooks got away with it...just another statistic to be filed away as caveat emptor.

The transition from home office back to corporate IT world hasn't been as smooth as I'd like...it's taking forever.  Apparently somewhere over the past couple of years outside of corporate IT I became "Sr. Developer" worthy (at least that's what the headhunting firms consider me...personally I despise titles) which entitles me to a better salary, but also limits the job options.  What's crazy is that a few of the firms won't even consider me for mid-level stuff which a month ago was fine, but at this point I just want to get back to work.  Headhunting firms are great, but in the end they want their slice of the pie as well...if they can market someone at a higher payrate, they make more money....business is business, and I get caught in the crossfire.  I'm also wary of taking long term contracts (or anything fulltime) as I've committed to MS should they offer me a position.  What's even crazier is that I've already had the rug pulled out from under me on one position because they read my blog and saw that I was screening with MS, something to the effect of "you should have told us where you were at in the process with other firms" though they didn't come out and say that they garnered that info from my blog (saying so would be illegal), however my log files indicate otherwise!  So the whole blog-as-a-resume thing can work both ways; can help you get noticed by firms, but being too candid can backfire.  Will that stop me from being candid?  Absolutely not, it's probably not a firm I would have wanted to do business with anyway.

This does however bring up an interesting conundrum: During my interview process with Microsoft I am somewhat unmarketable to other firms desiring a long term engagement, unless I willingly take an offer I know I might not be able to complete (Charlotte is small, and burning bridges is not advised as all these guys play golf together or whatnot).  Most firms ask upfront where you're at with other companies, and when they hear "interviewing with MS" they pretty much put you in a holding pattern.  Sad but true.  I also don't make a habit of lying.

So blah blah blah, the answer is simple enough: I'll take a part time gig somewhere to get off my idle ass, which will also leave me enough time to still put plenty of effort into getting reintegrated into IT'dom.  I even thought about taking on some more CS work, but dismissed it...I had my go at it, what's done is done.

It's been an interesting year, and it's one I'll be happy to see roll on into 2007 and fade into oblivion.  I think the worst is behind me...and it was just in time.