In the last segment of this series, I wrote about my promising interview. (You can read my entire job search journey here, just start from the bottom and work your way up.)
The interview had gone well. I was just waiting to get past the holidays so that the company would responded. Then days turned into weeks. Although the staffing company said that the company was still making a decision, I had my doubts. Either they had chosen other candidates and the staffing company wasn’t being open with me, or a recent (fairly large) change at the company had affected the need for this role. At the time I’m writing this, two months have passed with no news.
A second staffing company contacted me after seeing my profile on Facebook. They thought they had a position that I might be a good fit for. They arranged a technical screen phone call with one of their business analysts. After the technical screen, the opted not to submit me for the opening, since some of my weaker areas (specifically, knowledge of Agile project methodologies) were skills that would be important in the role. So this was yet another dead-end.
The first staffing company contacted me again. They had a position that seemed interesting, except that I was missing a key skill they were looking for – experience with a specific customer relationship manager software. I pointed out this gap to the recruiter to avoid unrealistic expectations, and was assured that this wasn’t a problem. I thought the interview went fairly well, but they opted for candidates who had experience with the software. I can’t say that I blame them.
At this point, I started to go into panic mode. I was less than two months away from the date I’d lose my job. That seemed like a short duration, since it had already been four months.
I went into desperation mode. I expanded my search area from 35 miles to 70 miles. I applied for any role that was even remotely a good fit. I searched online for any companies that hired remote worker. In the span of one twenty-four hour period, I applied to fifteen jobs. I still wasn’t any closer to finding a job, but at least I felt like I was doing something.
February 5 was probably the low point*. I had been a bit depressed over the weekend and vented a bit to some very understanding friends. I had tried to keep from getting too stressed out, but I was starting to crack.
Hours after I vented, I got a call from the second staffing company. They had a position they wanted me to interview for. I discussed it with the recruiter, and it sounded like a good fit. A phone interview was set up for Friday. It was going to be a long week, waiting for the interview.
In the next few days, I watched hours of training videos, read hundreds of pages, and skimmed several hundred more pages. I was trying to round out my knowledge, as well as reinforce things I already knew. I spent countless hours preparing. I was exhausted by Thursday night.
On the day of the interview, we were hit with a snow storm. The interview was still on, but my wife and kids (10 and 8 years old) would be home. I crossed my fingers that the kids wouldn’t try to kill each other during the interview. My stress level escalated…
… we’ll pick up here in the next installment, which is now published here
* Editor’s Thought: It was a low point for me too, but that was for sports-related reasons, not job ones
Best wishes to you in your job search. As more companies push more work offshore it is harder to find certain jobs in IT, particularly if you fit certain demographics. And the new rules of being screened by buzzwords and then my HR that know little about IT.