Monday, January 23, 2012

Third Interview Notes


Thursday morning, I interviewed for the third time with a company I really want to work for.

I applied for the job in mid-November, thinking "this is way out of my league, I'll never hear from them." In early December, I got an email inviting me to do a phone interview on December 12.

When the call came, the woman conducting the interview identified herself as being a bigwig, in charge of the West Coast division I'd be a part of if I am hired. I found it interesting that she was conducting preliminary interviews herself. In my experience, first interviews done by phone are usually conducted by HR staff, to weed out people who are not viable candidates before the bosses get involved. But I liked the fact that the woman who would be my boss was so hands-on in this process. (Note: she lives out of state, and runs the division remotely from where she lives, which involves a lot of email, phone calls, and travel.)

The job sounded absolutely perfect. The phone interview went well, and she referred me to a man in the local office, telling me he'd be in touch to interview me. I sent her a thank you, and she confirmed that Mr. Local Office would be in touch "soon."

Mr. Local Office was in touch the next day, and we made arrangements for me to interview later that week, December 15. I enjoyed speaking with Mr. Local Office, and thought the interview went well—he and I agreed on that point. Mr. Local Office told me he'd report as much to Ms. Bigwig.

I drove home, thrilled and excited. I sent a thank you to both Ms. Bigwig and Mr. Local Office. Ms. Bigwig replied that Mr. Local Office had "great things to say about me," so I felt encouraged. But I also worried, because the holidays were coming, and I knew that some offices didn't do much during holiday time. It might be two or three weeks to hear anything about this job. I hunkered down to wait.

Xmas came and went. New Year's came and went. After three weeks I couldn't stand it anymore. I sort of knew that if three weeks had gone by, I was out of the running for the job in the local office, but I hadn't been rejected yet, so on a string of hope and a dose of wild tossing of caution to the wind, I sent an email to Ms. Bigwig, saying I wasn't sure where she was in the decision-making process, but that I was still very interested in the position. (I never do this. I stand firm on the ground that if people want you, they will contact you.) She replied that they'd filled the local office position, but that they had other openings in other offices. Ugh. I was crushed when my fear was confirmed, but that emotion was slightly offset by the possibility of a job in another office. She added that she was traveling and was going to be in the local office on January 19, and wanted to meet with me in person that day. My hope was truly re-kindled when I heard this, and we made arrangements to meet.

When January 19 came, we had our meeting in a local Starbucks. I enjoyed the meeting and must have made a good impression, because she told me she wanted to send me to another local office, to interview with at least two, and possibly three people. I am really pleased that she went out of her way to meet me on a very tight schedule, and that she is referring me to another office. I told her that I'm really excited about the possibility of working in this other local office. I'm nervous about meeting with so many people, but I'll do my best dog-and-pony show, because this job is just about perfect.

I'm waiting to hear what the next step is.

Fingers crossed.

2 comments:

  1. Oooh, well this sure has traction. I'm totally intrigued to hear what happens next. And my fingers are most definitely crossed!

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  2. ALL of my fingers are crossed for you, lady!

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