Garth wrote: Wed May 22, 2024 2:30 pm Word to the wise (or at least to those who are actually employed): Take time to journal. It's a pain in the ass but boy I regret not doing it and now trying to recap 16 years of experience of everything I did is a challenge.

Just jot down a recap of what you did that day or throughout the day that you can review later. More importantly, keep it in a place you can still access it if say you wake up one day and find yourself unexpectedly unemployed.

Great idea! Maybe best relevant to your last job, or even the last 2-3 years if you've been there long enough.

You will find that the more you talk to recruiters and such, some of it will come back and you will eventually hone your messaging. So, with that I would say take every recruiter email or phone call that you can at the very beginning to work out what it is you want to say about yourself, how to explain your experience, and most importantly, figure out what it is you're really looking for in the next job. (Heck, give me a ring and I'll put you through your paces.)

It took me about a month to really say succinctly what my experience is and to figure out what I was looking for. I thought I had a good idea at the beginning, but it feels very naive looking back. It had been almost 8 years since I had to seriously look for a job like this, so I was really rusty and that was also some of the feedback I got from interviews I didn't do well in.

So this morning I gave a ten-slide talk for a job I'm applying to. I was originally scheduled to give that talk last Thursday, the day before I was going to have an afternoon of one-on-one interviews.

I think it went well? Answered most of the questions without struggling, but there was one (involving optical switches versus Mach-Zehnder Interferometers) that gave me a bit of difficulty.

I talked to the recruiter I'm working with on this job afterwards, and he tells me there's a "couple" of other applicants. I don't know if that means two or a half dozen. And I don't know if they went a bit easy on me because I'm not in the running so there was no point in savaging me, or if they're going easy because they think I'm the one they want.

Long weekend, which means it'll be Tuesday at the soonest before I find out whether they want to have me meet the CEO (as, apparently, all the applicants do before they make an offer). Ugh. Wish me look.

Good luck! Was this your first interview?

cakes wrote: Thu May 23, 2024 11:33 am Good luck! Was this your first interview?

The first interview since getting terminated at my most recent job, but the second interview with that company (the previous Friday I had one-on-one interviews with 4 team members, the talk on Wednesday was with those 4 people and 4 others).

I mean, short of the hiring manager saying, "I think we're going to have you talk to the CEO soon as a prelude to making you an offer," it went about as well as I could have hoped. But I don't ever get my hopes up because I've had sure things evaporate in the past.

I have my first interview scheduled in like 10+ years. It's not a job offer but it is a relief knowing that my experience seems to count for something and that it translated to my resume and cover letter adequately.

Garth wrote: Tue May 28, 2024 9:10 am I have my first interview scheduled in like 10+ years. It's not a job offer but it is a relief knowing that my experience seems to count for something and that it translated to my resume and cover letter adequately.

Excellent! Good luck!

I started my new job yesterday. So far, so good!

Anonymous37 wrote: Thu May 23, 2024 2:14 pm

cakes wrote: Thu May 23, 2024 11:33 am Good luck! Was this your first interview?

The first interview since getting terminated at my most recent job, but the second interview with that company (the previous Friday I had one-on-one interviews with 4 team members, the talk on Wednesday was with those 4 people and 4 others).

I mean, short of the hiring manager saying, "I think we're going to have you talk to the CEO soon as a prelude to making you an offer," it went about as well as I could have hoped. But I don't ever get my hopes up because I've had sure things evaporate in the past.

Today has been eventful. I mean, for me on the job front (the other news is a pretty big fucking deal).

I found out that I am not getting that job, the one I interviewed for. I had this weird feeling based on the interviews that I was either the front-runner or completely out of contention, and the reason why was that it was all a lot less grueling than I had been warned it would be. Which I figured meant: 1) they didn't want to brutalize me because they thought I was the one they'd make an offer to, and there was no need to prove I knew my stuff, or 2) I was only there to pad out the list of interviewees so that they could make their number one choice look better in comparison and so they weren't going to bother to really grill me.

Earlier today I Quick Applied for a job on LinkedIn, and I got a call same day from their HR guy. He tells me that he notices that I didn't fit everything they had listed (there's a tester called the 93k used for semiconductor timing validation), but the hiring manager is still interested in talking to me.

The job is apparently in Florida, but they are setting it up as remote (which means I'd be working out of one of the company's offices in California). The hiring manager, and the person who would be the supervisor, is located in Germany.

I guess I'll see how it goes.

Garth wrote: Tue May 28, 2024 9:10 am I have my first interview scheduled in like 10+ years. It's not a job offer but it is a relief knowing that my experience seems to count for something and that it translated to my resume and cover letter adequately.

Interview concluded. I did not embarrass myself, but I still feel feel really shaken up for some reason...like I just experienced some sort of low-level trauma incident. Hopefully future interviews will lessen the impact.

I do not know that my skills are a perfect fit for what they are looking for & no amount of interview prep can fix that. Deeply concerned that this is going to be a long, long slog and that I fucked myself by not getting more specialized.

Garth wrote: Tue Jun 04, 2024 10:32 am Deeply concerned that this is going to be a long, long slog and that I fucked myself by not getting more specialized.

The first part may be true, but I wouldn't beat myself up over the second part. Things are just really fuckin' bad right now. My Linkedin feed is full of people with 15+ experience, all whom did the right things, who were disposed of so companies can report profits. (always on a Friday too. The fuckin' Office Space gag is actually true.)

Jobs where I work, some remote I think:

Data Solutions Architect
https://careers.hprod.onehcm.usg.edu/ps ... L&Action=U


Service Desk Specialist II (this is not remote and is in the middle of nowhere, but if you need some time away from everything but good bbq and fishing, this might be the one for you)
https://careers.hprod.onehcm.usg.edu/ps ... L&Action=U

Solutions Architect/Systems Engineer
https://careers.hprod.onehcm.usg.edu/ps ... L&Action=U

Linux Systems Administrator Senior
https://careers.hprod.onehcm.usg.edu/ps ... L&Action=U

Network Engineer/Developer
https://careers.hprod.onehcm.usg.edu/ps ... L&Action=U