Guys, I've been so cagey with everyone about my Bay Area employment status, and it's led to SO many incredulous questions about exactly why I am making this move and WHAT the heck I will be doing out there to support myself in the 11th-most expensive county in the country (that's right, great life choice!). There is a good reason for this: I was waiting for every T to be crossed and I to be dotted before I made it official here in my most public of arenas! I'm so, so, SO incredibly excited to finally share with you all...
I have been offered, and accepted, a role at Stanford University!!
This has been the lengthiest and most convoluted of processes, as I referred to here (albeit obliquely). A couple weeks ago, I actually found myself trying to choose between Stanford and the freaking San Francisco 49ers, who had also come to the table with an offer. Talk about being spoiled for choice. Ultimately, the Stanford role was a perfect fit. Getting there, however, was a saga.
I was initially offered an interview for one role at Stanford, and had a great screening interview with their recruiting group, a third party. That group then got me in touch with the Stanford crew, and I had, no joke, the most awkward, weirdest, hardest/worst phone interview of my life. I'm not comfortable sharing details here, but needless to say I knew, the second I got off the phone, that I would not be going forward with that position. I felt let down, disappointed, frustrated...a whole gamut of emotion knowing an opportunity to work at a world-renowned institution had just gone down the drain.
Imagine my surprise when the Stanford recruiters submitted me for another posting with the university. Against my better judgment, I completely got my hopes up, and they skyrocketed after I had a great first interview with the university's new assistant controller and head of fund management. Before I knew it, I was flying out to Palo Alto mid-week in early May for a day of intensive interviews with half a dozen people.
At the beginning of the following week, I received a call from the Stanford recruiter while I was at work. She led off with the caveat that "everything was ultimately good news," but my heart plummeted when she told me I would not be receiving an offer for the position I had interviewed for. She launched right away into the good news...that everyone I had interviewed with at Stanford had loved me, and that the university was going down the road of custom-tailoring a position for me.
YOU GUYS. I was genuinely struck dumb...a rare occurrence for me. After mumbling my way incoherently through the rest of the call, I did a spastic total loser happy dance in the conference room I was hiding in, and promptly burst into tears. As the last few weeks have gone by, I've been in near-constant communication with Stanford and their recruiters, talking to others in the group, working on designing the role (because I've been given input on what I want my role to be!), discussing logistics and details, and handling all the official paperwork and red tape.
I am so humbled by and grateful for this opportunity. For one of the foremost academic institutions in the world to think I'm someone special and worth bringing on board is an honor beyond anything I could have fathomed at the beginning of this process. And to have them place so much faith in me to pioneer a new role, the first of its kind at the university...that's an opportunity beyond my wildest dreams. I am SO EXCITED to start this new chapter, and to work my ass off to be worthy of the trust they've placed in me.
Although it will make things interesting on November 25th when Notre Dame rolls into town for football...
(I mean, not really. GO IRISH, duh!)