Funny story - tonight I went on Google and typed in "prepping for a job interview" and the article you mentioned was the first one that came up. I had to pause for a second... "Why does this sound familiar?!" Then I remembered this thread.

Thanks to all of you for the responses. Here's where we stand - last night I met up with a friend who already works at this place I'm interviewing at. He gave me the inside info on the job, the company, the whole nine yards. Then he says, "I'm sure you'll have no problem with your phone interview, and then if they offer an in-person interview, you'll know you've pretty much got the job."

And I responded, "But we're not doing a phone interview, only an in-person interview."

He was quite surprised by that, since as far as he could tell everyone has to do a phone interview first. He's related to the guy that owns the company and even he still had to do it. So he thinks I may be pretty much in already as long as I don't completely blow it on Friday.

So I'm trying not to get overconfident... hey, maybe they changed how they do things since he was hired a year ago. But I'd be lying if I said I haven't been on Cloud 9 since I talked to this guy last night.

So right now my thoughts are to work this job for at least a year, maybe two, and use the $$ like I mentioned in my original post. Now I just have to make sure I can keep my anxiety in check the next couple days.