Yeah it sucks.

I haven't looked at this thread and I mark it as read all the time because I don't even want to think about it. That's how much it sucks.

Two IT jobs at my place, Taylor Guitars - we are very average paying but have good benefits and the people & work is great. Location is San Diego, not remote, but some work from home available.

General IT Technician - IT Technician
https://careers-taylorguitars.icims.com ... nician/job

Systems Developer (SQL/Business Systems/C# Windows application development))
https://careers-taylorguitars.icims.com ... eloper/job

tl;dr -- 3 (or maybe 4) possibilities, 0 actual offers. Lots of interview prep.

When it rains it pours.

That's me getting ahead of myself. I don't have multiple offers in hand. What I do have are multiple expressions of interest.

(In fact, as I was writing this, an engineer from "Company D" just called me. That was a mixed bag, I'd have to say. She wanted someone with more circuit and PCB experience, and I had to give her the news that I didn't fully meet her wish list. Still: I was good enough to merit a phone call, which is something.)

• "Company A". Back in September of 2023, I was approached by the CEO of a small company to join them as a test engineer. I made the foolish calculation that the company I was with had, if nothing else, job security going for it. I talked the CEO, read the white paper he sent, thanked him but politely declined.

So after I got terminated from that company (there is a long story there that I'll tell later on, maybe) I sent the CEO a request to connect on LinkedIn. And because I was approached by a recruiter for a job at "Company Z", which later fell through, I didn't follow up.

Then, after "Company Z" rejected me, I spent a couple weeks spiraling down. I'm at the tail end of that now. If I had bounced back right away, I would've talked to the "Company A" CEO right away. Instead I did it last week. And now I am going in next Friday to give a job talk. The CEO told me, on the phone, that he thinks I could contribute. But I am careful not to get my hopes up too much.

• "Company B". This job would entail a 16% pay cut from what I had before. But someone in HR wants to talk to me on Monday.

• "Company C". This is a 24-month contract job, with a 10% pay cut from my last job. But with a big name company, and one which would be a feather in my cap. Or on my resume.

All that, and I haven't had time to get into Python, like I'd hoped to. Then again, as far as problems go, these are good ones to have.

Man, kinda going insane here.

So I applied for a role where two of my former managers (both are now ICs at this place and had nothing but great things to say) are on the team. One gave me a referral, the other was part of my interview panel. Applied 5/1, talked to a recruiter on 5/10, and then the hiring manager shortly after that on 5/14. Then got asked to do an Excel assessment, and shortly after had a day of virtual interviews scheduled on either end of Memorial Day weekend (got broken up as one person was on vacation). Then I get to the final VP interview round that didn't get scheduled for a week, and that interview was now over a week ago. From everything I've been able to figure out, it's likely they only had a couple people go to that round, but when I've contacted the recruiter at the beginning of this week, they said they hadn't heard that the hiring committee had made a decision yet.

So now it's nearly two months since I submitted the application and while I'm sure the delay of hearing something is due to some combination of people being on vacation or some other approval needed, or they've offered it to someone else who they're negotiating with. Really, even worse than not getting the job at this point to would be for them to come back and ask me to do another round of interviews for another team, so this just gets dragged out even further.

Here's the tl;dr: Company C has made an offer for a 2-year contract position. The head of Company A wants to bring me on board, but at this point, hasn't gotten authorization with the parent company to make an offer.

So now it's down to Company A and Company C. And Company C just made an offer. For those of you who weren't hanging on my every word before:

• Company A: small (30-odd employees) subsidiary of a Japanese company. Doing some very cool stuff; very smart guys.

• Company C: large (tens of thousands of employees) company. The name and the stint would be a big deal for my resume.

The timeline is tricky, because of the overlap, but here goes:

• Company A contacted me back in September of 2023, and the CEO really liked my resume and wanted me to join. Ultimately I politely turned him and them down, because (I mistakenly thought) my job at the time was a safe thing.

I get terminated (there's a long story there, but I'll skip over it) in mid-April. I put a few weeks' effort into another job, which I get rejected from, and on June 11th, I message the CEO and tell him that I'm now unemployed and, although the position I had applied for had been filled, I was interested in talking to him and getting his advice to see what sorts of skills I could be working on to be (with no promises of a job to come) the sort of engineer Company A would hire in the mid-term.

He immediately calls me and tells me, yes, that position had been filled, but he thinks I'm smart and my resume is on point with what they do and he wants to try to figure out a role for me at Company A. He arranges for me to come in and talk to them on Friday, June 21st.

It goes well. He tells me that he will talk to the parent company and see what he can do about getting authorization to bring me on.

• Company C's contractors contact me on June 3rd about a 2-year stint.

The person at the contract company tells me that Company C had an offer fall through, and they are eager to bring someone on board.

I have a first interview, also on Friday, June 21st, but in the afternoon. It goes well.

I have a second interview today (Wednesday, June 26th). This goes really well, because, as it turns out, I worked with one of the two interviewers about 15 years ago, and he and I got on great back then.

Not 2 hours later, the contractor tells me that they made the offer, and they want an answer within 24 hours. I tell the contracting company, who knows about Company A, that I might need 48 hours, until Friday, June 28th, to decide.

So that's where things stand. I have messaged Company A's CEO and let him know what's going on. But I would be amazed if he could get me an offer within a day or two. I can't complain: it's a good offer, from a company that will look great on my resume. And I've only been unemployed for 2 and a half months. But man would I love to work for Company A.

Anonymous37 wrote: Wed Jun 26, 2024 5:02 pm Here's the tl;dr: Company C has made an offer for a 2-year contract position. The head of Company A wants to bring me on board, but at this point, hasn't gotten authorization with the parent company to make an offer.

Sounds like good news!

I wish the best outcome for you in the next few days!

tallchris wrote: Wed Jun 26, 2024 3:57 pm Man, kinda going insane here.

So I applied for a role where two of my former managers (both are now ICs at this place and had nothing but great things to say) are on the team. One gave me a referral, the other was part of my interview panel. Applied 5/1, talked to a recruiter on 5/10, and then the hiring manager shortly after that on 5/14. Then got asked to do an Excel assessment, and shortly after had a day of virtual interviews scheduled on either end of Memorial Day weekend (got broken up as one person was on vacation). Then I get to the final VP interview round that didn't get scheduled for a week, and that interview was now over a week ago. From everything I've been able to figure out, it's likely they only had a couple people go to that round, but when I've contacted the recruiter at the beginning of this week, they said they hadn't heard that the hiring committee had made a decision yet.

So now it's nearly two months since I submitted the application and while I'm sure the delay of hearing something is due to some combination of people being on vacation or some other approval needed, or they've offered it to someone else who they're negotiating with. Really, even worse than not getting the job at this point to would be for them to come back and ask me to do another round of interviews for another team, so this just gets dragged out even further.

Welp, didn't get the job. Recruiter says they went with an internal candidate. Sigh.

tallchris wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2024 11:03 am Welp, didn't get the job. Recruiter says they went with an internal candidate. Sigh.

FUCK. They couldn't have figured that out like a month ago?? I'm sorry. This shit sucks.

Anonymous37 wrote: Wed Jun 26, 2024 5:02 pm Here's the tl;dr: Company C has made an offer for a 2-year contract position. The head of Company A wants to bring me on board, but at this point, hasn't gotten authorization with the parent company to make an offer.

So now it's down to Company A and Company C. And Company C just made an offer. For those of you who weren't hanging on my every word before:

• Company A: small (30-odd employees) subsidiary of a Japanese company. Doing some very cool stuff; very smart guys.

• Company C: large (tens of thousands of employees) company. The name and the stint would be a big deal for my resume.

So I just spoke with the CEO of Company A, and he just couldn't move quickly enough.

He reiterated that he and the rest of the team really liked me and loved my presentation and hopes to be able to create a position for someone with my skills, but the timing was bad. He told me that:

• I have a bird in the hand, and I should take it.
• Company C is offering a contract position and he wouldn't consider the recency of my joining Company C as a contractor as a bar to hiring me at Company A, should things change in the upcoming weeks or months.

So I guess it's the contractor's life for me for a period of time not to exceed 24 months.

tallchris wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2024 11:03 am Welp, didn't get the job. Recruiter says they went with an internal candidate. Sigh.

Aw, man. That's definitely frustrating. Absolute best wishes for the next thing to come through.