:(

No job. Like I told my sister, we had a little pity party and then got over it.

Here's what happened. This company fully intended to hire John. BUT, just last week they received a call from an applicant who had been working for their competition. Apparently she hadn't signed a non-compete agreement, and was very interested in this open position. Unfortunately for us, she is just as qualified as John and has much more relevant experience. Ouch. But we understand.

There is an up-side, though. The woman he met with felt really bad about having to turn John down. And she happens to be a relatively big name in their industry. So she took John out to lunch and talked about how she can help him. He came home with quite a few leads on companies who may be hiring in the near future, names of some other people to talk to, and an invitation to an event with industry executives where she will introduce him around. (He also learned that the salary range for his particular niche of marketing is much higher than we'd thought. Yay for specializing!)

We kind of wish this had been a short story instead of a potential epic. But we know that there is a reason he didn't get this job. We're not giving up.

An extra bonus, John has found some contract work through some old friends. So hopefully we'll have at least a trickle of income soon.