For the second time in a year, I'm on the job market! Not totally surprising, but for someone who spent over 10 years in my previous company (albeit, not in the same job!) it's a bit of an experience!
In my previous job hunt (about a year ago), the experience was a huge change from last time around (over 10 years ago in a different country).
Some of the things I encountered were:
Of the unsuccessful processes, two stand out.
The first was an exciting role - I started with an interview with the CEO on a bank holiday, then in person for an interview in the offices. It was all very exciting - a great sounding role with an exciting company. Then I had a final interview on Skype with my prospective line manager - and that's where it all went wrong. Simply put, it felt like I was interviewing for a completely different job; and a quite narrowly defined one at that! From that basis, I was under-prepared. I stumbled and was inarticulate, struggled to answer the narrowly defined questions with analogous experience - even though it was there. It went badly: naturally, I didn't get the job. At the time I was upset but, on reflection, it was probably a good thing. Either the job was narrowly defined and anyone would have struggled to fill it without that specific experience or the role was inconsistently understood across the business and would struggle to succeed.
The second was another interesting role. They didn't have an office as such - so the first interview was in a reasonably funky coffee shop (my suggestion) - I was interviewed sitting on a bag of coffee beans: the second interview was in a cafe/bar in a London train station. Both went very well - and I was, again, excited about the role. I went for a beer afterwards with the recruiter, which is always a good sign. Then it went a little quiet - making me nervous. Eventually (a couple of weeks later), I got a call from the "hiring manager". They'd found someone else, with more directly relevant experience. Another disappointment. But another near miss. The two people who interviewed me have moved on. The guy who got the role over me (a little judicious LinkedIning found him) has moved on. They now have one person 'working' in the UK. And there's not even a glimmer of schadenfreude here. Honest.
So, now I'm back into it. Back into looking for a job.
Two applications done today!
In my previous job hunt (about a year ago), the experience was a huge change from last time around (over 10 years ago in a different country).
Some of the things I encountered were:
- The 'game' of modern job hunting - and the need to pass the right filters and it is a number's game
- Some excellent advice from a few recruiters
- Some very poor recruiters - with poor communication
- Some employers who don't know what they want
- You get a long way by doing the basics - write a CV (and cover letter) for the job
- The experience of my job, particularly with writing proposals, was hugely valuable
Of the unsuccessful processes, two stand out.
The first was an exciting role - I started with an interview with the CEO on a bank holiday, then in person for an interview in the offices. It was all very exciting - a great sounding role with an exciting company. Then I had a final interview on Skype with my prospective line manager - and that's where it all went wrong. Simply put, it felt like I was interviewing for a completely different job; and a quite narrowly defined one at that! From that basis, I was under-prepared. I stumbled and was inarticulate, struggled to answer the narrowly defined questions with analogous experience - even though it was there. It went badly: naturally, I didn't get the job. At the time I was upset but, on reflection, it was probably a good thing. Either the job was narrowly defined and anyone would have struggled to fill it without that specific experience or the role was inconsistently understood across the business and would struggle to succeed.
The second was another interesting role. They didn't have an office as such - so the first interview was in a reasonably funky coffee shop (my suggestion) - I was interviewed sitting on a bag of coffee beans: the second interview was in a cafe/bar in a London train station. Both went very well - and I was, again, excited about the role. I went for a beer afterwards with the recruiter, which is always a good sign. Then it went a little quiet - making me nervous. Eventually (a couple of weeks later), I got a call from the "hiring manager". They'd found someone else, with more directly relevant experience. Another disappointment. But another near miss. The two people who interviewed me have moved on. The guy who got the role over me (a little judicious LinkedIning found him) has moved on. They now have one person 'working' in the UK. And there's not even a glimmer of schadenfreude here. Honest.
So, now I'm back into it. Back into looking for a job.
Two applications done today!
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