SQL Server Agent - get my own job_id

Question

I'm running a SQL Server 2008 64 bit Developer Edition with Service Pack 1 installed. I have a SQL Server Agent Job. Within this job I want to get the job_id of my own job.
On MSDN (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175575(v=SQL.100).aspx) you can find a description of using tokens in job steps. Wow, great, that's what I'm looking for!! Just use (JOBID).
Since SQL Server 2005 SP1 you have to use macro like $(ESCAPE_NONE(JOBID)). No problem.
But if you try the example:

DECLARE @name NVARCHAR(128)
select @name =  name from msdb.dbo.sysjobs where job_id = $(ESCAPE_SQUOTE(JOBID))
PRINT @name

you get:
Incorrect syntax near 'ESCAPE_SQUOTE'. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 102)
Ok, now from the scratch:

PRINT N'$(ESCAPE_SQUOTE(JOBID))'  

results in 0xE33FE637C10B3C49A6E958BB3EF06959 but the job_id is 37E63FE3-0BC1-493C-A6E9-58BB3EF06959
The "N'" I think makes an implicit conversion to NVARCHAR of the (JOBID)...
Ok, I think I have to care about the datatype of (JOBID). In the book "SQL Server 2008 Administration" on page 168/169 there's also an example of using (JOBID):

declare @jobid binary(16)
SELECT @jobid =Convert(Uniqueidentifier,$(ESCAPE_NONE(JOBID)))

results in:
Incorrect syntax near '('. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 102)
I'm totally confused now. Could please someone help me with a good advice or solution. Every kind of help is appreciated.

Best regards Helmut

Answer 1

We had trouble with this recently and did not go the route you found in MSDN. Instead, we recovered the jobid from dbo.sysjobs by name directly (the opposite of your example) and then used that within the job to check execution status (exiting out of long running while loop if job state had changed).

declare @jobid uniqueidentifier
SELECT @jobid = job_id from msdb.dbo.sysjobs where name = '[blah]'