So--
On Monday I e-mailed Dr. Blair, my potential employer at Kansas State, to let him know the EPA was in the process of making internship offers and I was waiting to hear from them. He responded that he wasn't actually sure if he could automatically hire me if I decided to accept his position; he'd thought he could, but had heard that the human resources policies there might not allow it. The thing is, the job search from which he made me the offer is a couple months old now, and he's already filled one research assistant based on it (I was supposed to automatically fill a second RA position). At least if he had to do another job search, I could apply again, or my application from before could be among those considered, but . . . yeah.
Very much freaking out at the prospect of not being securely employed as I had thought, I e-mailed the EPA intern program coordinator asking if he could tell me in what week they'd have their decision about me. I wasn't so bold as to ask them to expedite their consideration of me. But since this is a government agency, and they have rigid protocols, I didn't think they'd be able to give me *any* special treatment, not even telling me when they'd have a decision.
However, the EPA guy responded quickly asking me to call him, and on the phone he drew up a spreadsheet of applicants on the top list for making offers. I wasn't on that list.
I e-mailed Dr. Blair with this information, and he responded that he had tried to get in touch with human resources, but person there in charge of the issue had left for the day. This was on Wednesday. So I bit my nails all through Thursday and most of yesterday, and finally got an e-mail from Dr. Blair yesterday afternoon. I waited a couple minutes before opening it, my heart pounding.
Turns out, he CAN still hire me! He wants me to come up and visit before formally accepting the position. Thinking yesterday about his e-mail, the fact that I haven't "formally accepted" the position makes me a little nervous, as if it's still not securely mine even if I want it. But he did say, "I just got approval to hire you based on our previous job search." So my nervousness is irrational--it IS mine for the asking! And of course I'm going to ask for it.
Very much freaking out at the prospect of not being securely employed as I had thought, I e-mailed the EPA intern program coordinator asking if he could tell me in what week they'd have their decision about me. I wasn't so bold as to ask them to expedite their consideration of me. But since this is a government agency, and they have rigid protocols, I didn't think they'd be able to give me *any* special treatment, not even telling me when they'd have a decision.
However, the EPA guy responded quickly asking me to call him, and on the phone he drew up a spreadsheet of applicants on the top list for making offers. I wasn't on that list.
I e-mailed Dr. Blair with this information, and he responded that he had tried to get in touch with human resources, but person there in charge of the issue had left for the day. This was on Wednesday. So I bit my nails all through Thursday and most of yesterday, and finally got an e-mail from Dr. Blair yesterday afternoon. I waited a couple minutes before opening it, my heart pounding.
Turns out, he CAN still hire me! He wants me to come up and visit before formally accepting the position. Thinking yesterday about his e-mail, the fact that I haven't "formally accepted" the position makes me a little nervous, as if it's still not securely mine even if I want it. But he did say, "I just got approval to hire you based on our previous job search." So my nervousness is irrational--it IS mine for the asking! And of course I'm going to ask for it.