I feel like I should have never accepted this job. I never applied to this job; in fact, I had never heard of this company, until a job recruiter called me, boasting that this job "was a perfect fit" for me, even though I had never done any work with ASP before, and my experience with XML and Javascript was minimal. However, I thought that taking the job was better than sitting at home applying to positions on Monster/Dice/Yahoo Hotjobs.

I read this blog post today:
http://www.salberg.org/2007/09/26/twelve-reasons-to-walk-out-of-a-job-interview/

I thought it was spot on about job interviews. I wish I had taken the advice in that interview. I knew it was a bad sign when the manager said "working overtime and on-call" is expected. Fortunately, I haven't had to work on-call yet, but I have had to work from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. at times, with no compensation of course, since I'm salaried. It's probably illegal for me to be working so long without pay but I haven't made a big deal about it because it seems like that kind of thing is expected around here. People talk all the time about how they work weekends, like it's weird to not be working on a weekend, and I often see e-mail trails going on into the wee hours of the morning. It's like people here live to work, which I guess their devotion to the company is admirable, but that's not the kind of "passion" I want to adopt. I just can't stand how bureaucratic and stodgy, things are around here. It also doesn't help that most of the people around here are all in their 40's/50's. I think there's only one person here who's younger than I am. I don't really consider myself to be a social superstar in the workplace, but I had an easier time relating to people at my previous jobs.

But I guess I should just suck it up and try to make the best of things for now, with the economy being so crappy right now. I'm hoping the job market will be smoother post election.