So, Friday the 18th of December was officially the first day of my Christmas holidays from work. It’s been well over 2 months since I posted a full update, so this entry will probably be quite long. A large portion of it will be spent talking about my jobhunting adventures of the past 8 weeks. In late October, my manager told me that it’s unlikely my secondment will be made permanent, meaning that I will be at risk of redundancy if I don’t find a new job by the 30th of April 2010. So that’s why I’ve decided to start looking for new jobs, both internally and externally.
Over the last 2 months, I have experienced such a wide range of emotions – I don’t think I’ve felt this way in ages. My emotions have included excitement, enthusiasm, happiness, optimism, confidence, nervousness, panic, disappointment, anger, feeling fed up, pessimism, feeling hopeless and sadness – and often I have experienced several of these feelings in the space of just one day!
I attended my first interview (of this jobhunting session) in mid-November. One of my contacts recommended that I speak to a particular IT recruitment consultant, so I got in touch with him and he met me one lunchtime to talk about what sort of job I am looking for. This recruitment consultant seemed fairly confident about my job prospects, and he called me later that week to tell me he had set up an interview at a local company, doing Reporting and Application Support work. He also said that this job was still only “in the pipeline” and it hadn’t been formally advertised yet, so I was thus far the only candidate. He also said that the client company were very happy with my CV and that they were very eager to see me as soon as possible.
So I went along to the interview, which was fairly informal, and I thought it went well and the 2 interviewers seemed friendly. These 2 interviewers were talking to me as if I had already got the job in the bag, so I felt very optimistic and excited about it. One of the interviewers even smiled and said “See you soon” at the end of the interview.
Sadly, it all turned out to be too good to be true. Later the following week, I received a voicemail from the recruitment consultant saying that the company weren’t going to offer me a job after all. So I called him back, as requested, to ask for feedback on my performance in the interview. The feedback from the 2 interviewers was that I was very strong technically and that they thought I would be able to do the job, but they felt I was very nervous in the interview and that I wouldn’t be able to cope with their “cut and thrust” environment. I was very shocked about them saying I was very nervous, as I felt fairly relaxed in that particular interview – in fact I think I felt more relaxed in that interview than I’ve ever been in any job interview! I explained this to the recruitment consultant, and he said he couldn’t explain it any further. He said that he would get back to the client company and ask for more detailed feedback, but I’ve never heard from either him or the company since then. I felt very upset that the company had raised my hopes so high and I also thought that saying I was “too nervous” was a strange reason for not offering me a job – isn’t everyone nervous in an interview? It makes me wonder – maybe they were never intending to hire anyone in the first place, and they just invited me in on a speculative basis.
This was a big knock to my confidence though, as I was worried that other interviewers would think the same thing about me. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. The interview feedback from other companies was much more positive, even if they weren’t offering me a job.
I attended an interview at another company (a local insurance broker) the following week for a Systems Developer role. This had been advertised through a different recruitment agency. At the interview, I could tell that I really liked the company and that they had a strong emphasis on personal development and training. They even showed me the computer system that I would be working on. However, a couple of days later I had a voicemail and email message from the recruitment consultant saying that although the client company felt my technical skills were very strong and I interviewed well, I hadn’t been selected for the job as the client were looking for someone with more general insurance experience.
That wasn’t the end of it though; here’s the exciting part: A couple of weeks later, I saw the Systems Developer job re-advertised on the same website where I had originally applied for it. During the interview, the IT director had given me his business card and he said I could contact him with any queries that I may have. I decided that I still really wanted the job, as it sounded like my dream job. So, I decided to write an email to the IT director asking whether the job was still available. I also included a summary of the information that I provided in the interview, to refresh his memory of me. Here’s the daring part: I finished my email with a request to be re-considered for the role. Following that, I was nervously checking my emails waiting for a reply. Later that evening I received a reply from the IT director thanking me for the information in my email and he said he would speak to the team manager the following day to see where they are in the hiring process. A few days later, I received another email containing more detailed feedback – it turned out that the team manager was concerned that I was more interested in web development than system development. However, they were both happy to meet me again for an informal chat.
So I took this as a positive sign and I arranged a time for a second interview, which took place on Thursday last week. It was much more relaxed than the first interview, as they were mainly asking me questions to clarify the things that I had said in the first interview. In order to give myself an extra chance of being offered the job, I decided to put together a portfolio folder of all my best work over the last year or so, and I took that along to the second interview. The folder contained feedback from my co-workers and internal customers, certificates I had achieved, along with examples of process flowcharts and systems documentation that I had put together. The 2 interviewers seemed pleased that I had made the effort to do this. They said that they still had some other applicants to interview this week but that they should be able to make a decision just before Christmas, once they have finished the interview process.
A couple of weeks ago I attended an interview at a local media company for a Web Developer role. In the morning before the interview, I felt quite calm (which is unusual for me when I have an interview due later in the day), but when I actually arrived on the premises, the nerves just hit me. To make matters worse, the interview room was extremely hot and it was also a large formal dining room. Even though the interviewers opened the window, I still felt very hot and I could feel myself burning up. Then when I was asked the first question, my mind went blank and it took me a while to think of a suitable answer. My voice was quivering with nerves, but I persevered until the end of the interview. I’m not normally that nervous at an interview. Upon leaving the interview, I didn’t think I had made a good impression. I was really surprised when, a week later, I received a call from the company inviting me back for a second interview. This is due to take place on Wednesday this week, and I’ll be expected to talk about my plans for the company’s website.
Apart from the 3 companies mentioned above, I have attended interviews at 4 other organisations. I wasn’t offered a job in any of those cases because they said they have offered the job to another candidate who met the specification more closely or who had more experience in those fields. However, they all gave me positive feedback saying that they thought my interview went well. In some of the cases, I get a feeling that I came a close second. As we’re still in recession here in the UK, there is still a severe shortage of jobs (although it’s not quite as bad as it was 6 or 12 months ago) and the unemployment rate is the highest for well over a decade, which means employers can afford to be more choosy when it comes to recruitment. Therefore I have come up against some really strong people during my last 2 months of jobhunting.
I have found the last 8 weeks very stressful, especially because I have had to try and find a new job while still carrying on with my old one. When you count the time spent on my existing job, commuting/travelling to and from work and to interviews, filling in application forms and writing covering letters, drafting and editing my CV, following up people who have contacted me, preparing for interviews and actually attending them, I have probably been working 70-80 hours a week! Up until Friday last week (ie when my Christmas holidays began) I have had very little time to enjoy myself and at times I was worried that I would crack under all the pressure. Fortunately, I made it through, and I think this has made me realise I am stronger than I think I am. Even if I don’t get any job offers at all, I feel that I have learnt a lot about myself over the last 2 months, and I should be able to cope better with any interviews that I attend next year. Having said that, I really am hoping I will get my dream Systems Developer job. If that’s the case, then that will be a really good Christmas present for me.
I learnt early on that it’s important to keep my emotions under control; that it’s not healthy to get too excited about any particular job, as even if the interview goes well that doesn’t necessarily mean there will be a job offer. With my first interview that I mentioned in the third paragraph above, I felt so optimistic that I would be offered a job by that company that I started to feel excited and relieved, even before I had heard the outcome. So then when I did hear the outcome, I had a big mood swing. Fortunately, this hasn’t happened in any of my subsequent interviews, as I then realised that however many “green lights” you experience in an interview, no assumptions can be made about the outcome.
It’s now midnight and I’ve covered just about everything I wanted to say about my jobhunting, but I hope to post more entries later this week about other things that have been going on in my life.
