Interviews

They were, sadly, not nearly as comedic or loose as this one. Source

This last week was an odd mix of important stuff surrounded by directionlessness. More specifically, interviews with nothing I really had to do outside of them.

I managed to feel better enough by Tuesday I was prepped to do the interviews I had scheduled. I decided to just let the interviews be my one big thing on any given day and tried to make myself rest. I think it worked well enough, though being cooped up inside all day and unproductive wasn’t great for my mental health. Thankfully as of yesterday I’m officially in the clear and no longer have pneumonia!

I’m going to try and talk a little about the interviews, but I’ll have to keep things pretty general. Not because I got to learn awesome trade secrets, but because it’s super easy to find this site when searching online for me and I don’t want to piss anyone off right now. I mean, I’m sure I’m basically unhireable based on something else I’ve said in the past on here, and I hate the idea of an employer looking at a potential employee’s personal out-of-work stuff and making hiring decisions based on that. Alas, for the moment that’s how the game is played, and right now I should probably play my hand a little more carefully than I usually do.

The first one was the standard-issue recruiter screen at a company based in Bellevue. I wasn’t as enthusiastic about the company before the interview, but the way the recruiter talked about it I warmed up to it quite a bit. It seems like it’d be a lot like my old job, but at a company that’s run better and pays better. I also realized while looking at the job requirements and talking to the recruiter that I’m suuuuper qualified in terms of a skill match. Fingers crossed I move onto the next interview for that one! I should be getting whatever feedback they have soon.

The second interview was a much more informal phone screen with someone at a friend’s company to talk about the role my friend referred me for. That one was odd only because it felt a lot like the sort of interview you might have with a contractor. I’m not used to being asked “so do you have any questions about the job?” quite so much. I fumbled a bit, but I think it went okay and the interviewer told me to follow-up with any questions I might have. Looking back over the role I thought of a bunch of stuff, got excited, and sent a pile of questions in a note that also expressed my enthusiasm. It seems to have worked. I both received answers and was scheduled for an interview with the hiring manager.

The third (!) interview was with that same company, with the hiring manager. This is where things got slightly weird. The first half or so was pretty standard interview questions, talking about my background and all that. It felt a little intense, but given I was talking to a high-up person in the company that probably shouldn’t be surprising. Plus I was nervous, which I’m sure heightened my perception of things like that, too.

The second half was the odd part. Essentially, I’ll be evaluating whether the role they have open is actually realistic for one person to do, and by extension if that fill that role now or they stick with the vendor until they’re comfortable hiring two people. I’ll be interviewing other people, figuring out the workload (since I’ve actually done this sort of job before and no one at the company has), and then building and sharing my opinion.

I’ve never been asked to determine if a job I’m interviewing for should exist! I’m going to do my best to remove the bias I have as the person who would really like to get a job and give a realistic evaluation. We’ll see how it goes. If I end up telling them they need more than one person and they decide not to hire for the role because of it, I’m half-tempted to send them an invoice for consulting services 😛

There was supposed to be a fourth interview, a recruiter phone screen with a different company than the other interviews. However, despite getting most of the way through scheduling it, recruiting at that company dropped the ball and didn’t finalize a time or even call me at one of the two times I offered. I realize it’s likely an honest mistake, but I’m not super-impressed. We’ll see if anything happens this upcoming week.

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Outside of interviews it’s been pretty directionless, as I said. I’m juggling enough recruiting processes right now it feels weird to go look for more jobs to apply to, but interviews are a real “hurry up and wait for the next one” situation that I can’t put too much time/work into outside of the event itself. Plus, I was sick, even if I was feeling much better most of the week. It feels like I got nothing done, but that was probably for the best. I’m hoping the upcoming week will be better. I’ll be waiting on interviews/feedback again, but I’m going to do my best to try and find stuff to fill the rest of my day in a more satisfying way. Like finally writing up the habits/progress blog post for January and February. >.>;;;

That’s it for this week. May your upcoming weeks be wonderful, at least as much as possible in this messed up world <3

P.S. I removed a big section where I talked more about the third interview and the task they’ve asked me to do, specifically some initial thoughts that’d go into the role evaluation they’d like me to do. I feel gross having done so instead of just sharing my thoughts, but I don’t really trust any company/person I haven’t already worked with to take possible criticism well, and I really do need a job.