So suddenly I find myself with a job interview on Friday morning. Yes, less than 2 days from now. Um, yikes?

It's all been quite sudden, see. Monday morning a colleague of mine mentioned rather off-handedly that the former position of a recently-promoted colleague had been posted as an open job on our jobs website. And for some reason that intrigued me. The position is manager of our Social Media team, a small group who look for customers talking about us on the Internet via Twitter and Facebook and blogs and such, and reach out to them to provide feedback (or support, if what they're posting is a complaint). It's been a small but fast-growing part of our customer care organization, and it gets lots of visibility because of its novelty and potential impact. It was basically being run by two guys, the one who was just promoted and a supervisor who's been out on medical leave for months (and apparently isn't expected to return). The open position is essentially to replace both of those guys. It would report to both the recently-promoted guy and another director, and I've worked fairly closely with both of them for much of my time with the company. So almost as a lark, I dropped by the director's office to ask about it, and she was pleasantly surprised that I was interested. Enough so that she apparently immediately told the other guy, because I saw him in the hall a little later and he too seemed interested in my interest. :) So not to get too far ahead of myself, but I almost feel like the job is mine for the taking if I decide to take it--assuming I don't botch the interview too badly, of course, but I'm comfortable with these folks so I don't see that as much of a possibility.

And that means it's pros-and-cons time! Potential positives about the move:
-It's a very interesting area of the business to me, and presents quite a bit of potential for visibility and maybe growth.
-The team is apparently quite established and professional, so they aren't problem children who need a lot of attention.
-The people I'd report to are good, and the director I'd be working for I know well--she looks out for her people, which is cool.
-Possible (small) raise in pay, but possibly not--see cons list.
-Good way to expand my knowledge and skill set for other jobs, not that I expect to leave the company anytime soon.

Potential drawbacks:
-As with any change in position, there are lots of unknowns, but none that scare me too badly since I know the people I'd be working for.
-Right now I just have one direct report underneath me, and he's a good guy who I don't have to worry about much. With the new gig I'd have 6 people, and while I can safely assume they're all good employees, it's still 6 vs. 1 and I don't much like playing boss.
-In my current role there's a good amount of travel, both within the state and to our out-of-state locations, which I kinda like. I doubt I'd have much of that in the new gig, aside from trips to Tampa to visit the one team member who works over there. Not too big a deal, I guess.
-While I rather dislike the degree of feedback and interaction I get with my current boss (read: not much), in the new job I'd be working quite closely with not just one but two bosses, so there's potential for micromanagement, which I don't like either. And there is something to be said for having one's boss located in a different ZIP code.
-The position is posted at one pay grade lower than where I am now--I wouldn't take the job if it's LESS money than what I make right now, but I don't think that would happen and I could even get a small bump in pay (and/or they could bump the job up to my current grade level if they really wanted me). What does concern me is that if I were to go down a grade, my future bonuses and raises might be a little less.

So that's kinda where my mind is right now. I guess I'll just go into the interview as strong as I can, lay out my concerns about the pay grade situation, and see if I get an offer. If not (or if the offer is no good) then I just stay where I am. And it's not that I'm unhappy where I am--it's a good job and it's going well enough. I just felt like this was a good opportunity to look into, so I'm gonna. :)

I had a flash (ha! flash!) of inspiration to start my first community here on LJ, with a photography theme. Mainly because I don't like the big photo communities--they're mostly mediocre snapshots, and mainly populated with Russian users, and basically just photo dumps without much insight or interaction. I would like a community more dedicated to technique, tips, and challenges. photo_palette is/was a nice step in that direction, but it seems pretty dead and I'm not even sure if it's being maintained anymore--I submitted a post yesterday or the day before and it hasn't made it out of the moderation queue yet. I took a quick look at the list of communities with photography as an interest, and didn't see any (with recent updates, anyway) along the lines of what I have in mind.

I'm just envisioning a community for all levels of photographer (but definitely people with a keen interest in the art and in improving their skills) where people can post photos they're proud of, but with the expectation that they'll also share a bit about what they did to get that particular image--their thoughts when composing the image, any tips or tricks they used or learned, the gear and settings they chose, the post-processing they did, all of it. And even some non-photo posts just to discuss techniques and gear. And regular challenges or themes, photo association games, that sort of thing.

Creating the community is the easy part, I imagine--getting an active membership and keeping it fun and engaged would be something else. What say you, flist, any of you photographers game to join a community like that and pimp it out too? :) Maybe LJ isn't the place for it, I dunno--obviously there are Flickr Groups and a million other websites and forums dedicated to photography. But I still like LJ, darnit!

Anyway, just a thought.