Tied for #1: Apple
They would like to make me an offer, but have additional hoops to jump through, in that some VP has decided to review all the open reqs and they all have to be signed again. That probably means a delay of about a week. They are growing a lot, mid to high level sysadmins, get your resume to me or ciannait.

Plus: Closer to home (25 min), nice location (restaurants), big name company, team is growing fast.

Minus: Sounds like “build out storage” will be the bulk of the work. (This could be good or bad). Big name means stable, but also means they might be set in their ways and subject to bureaucracy (like the VP deciding to put reqs on hold). Team is growing but company is stable, not necessarily getting on “on the ground floor”.

Also tied for #1: CreateSpace
Req was not really approved until yesterday (verbally) or today/tomorrow in writing. They want to make me an offer soon, but I have to do one more interview called a “bar raiser” to see if I’m really an above-average dude.

Plus: Likely to be lots of different, diverse projects to work on. Sort of getting in on the ground floor. Stability of a big co (Amazon) without the control/bureaucracy as much. Working with Darren.

Minus: Bit farther commute (45 min) though reverse commute direction (Scotts Valley). Risk of being expected to work long hours sometimes. Location is somewhat remote and lacks restaurants.

#3: Linden Labs
Cool, laid back atmosphere. Job is advertised as Mountain View but I went to San Francisco for my interview. After interview, haven’t heard back, though I heard from elsewhere that they typically take a long time to do anything. Any sysadmins close to SF, or MV, and want to work for Linden, get me your resume and I’ll pass it along.

Plus: Commute to Mountain View (30 min), with possibility of light rail. Laid back co. Interesting product (Second Life).

Minus: Game company, likely to be low on the paying-me scale.

#4: Proofpoint
I pretty much turned down their offer. It would have been spam-related (good) but tech support (enh, not so good). This was sort of my “emergency escape plan” but the timing didn’t work out. Their offer was lower than my sfly starting rate (in 03/2007) and about 15% below my current rate. Anyone with both tech support and mid- to high-level Unix Sysadmin fu, with an interest in anti-spam, get me your resume and I’ll pass it along.

#5: Kodak
Made me an offer but it’s low, and the commute is in Emeryville, worse than sfly. Any sysadmins who live close to Emeryville, get me your resume and I’ll pass it on.

#6: Danger
Have not contacted me back for two months. I suspect they either have MS integration issues, or lost their recruiter. I’m not pushing hard on this one, but if anyone else is interested, get me your resume and I’ll pass it along.

#7: Yahoo
So far have interviewed me for two different jobs and then failed to contact me back at all. Epic fail. I will keep watching their new jobs listing but I’m not holding out much hope that they will get it together.