| Topic Name: |
Lookin for the right job |
| Message Name: |
It's not you! Don't take it personally! |
| Date Posted: |
07/15/2004 |
| In Reply To: |
I have been going to interviews this entire spring and have had absolutely no luck. I am beginning to feel as if graduating college was a mistake. I should have became a career student and done that for life. It is frustrating to think you do well in the interview only to realize you are not the company's number one choice. And then you have to do the same process over and over again. Is it me or is finding a job completely agonizing? And to find one that will actually make me happy and grateful I went to school seems like a momumental task. Any advice to keep me sane and motivated? |
| Message: |
The economy is terrible and employers are very, very, very picky! You have to look at it from their point of view: the economy is down, pressure is high in the face of foreign competition, and costs must be reduced like never before. Also, it's an employers' market out there because of the glut of unemployed and underemployed professionals out there. Therefore, they are going to hold out as long as it takes for the "perfect" candidate to come along.
I graduated college almost 23 years ago with an engineering degree. I have been looking for work now for over 18 months and it has been very exasperating, humiliating, insulting, and frustrating. I've probably had about 25 phone interviews and a 12 face-to-face interviews in that time. Like you, I have had some fantastic interviews where I thought I was a shoe-in for the position, only to find that they extended an offer to someone else or they decided to keep interviewing.
The last company I interviewed with called me in to their offices for three sepparate interviews. After lollygagging around for about a month, the HR lady called to get my references and she scheduled an internet-based psychology test for me to take. I though, oh boy, I'm going to get an offer! After a few weeks of no calls to my references and hearing nothing back from the company, I called to follow up. The HR lady finally called me back, saying: "We decided to reorganize last week. We eliminated a few people and rewrote the job description for the position. Then we filled it from within the company. Thanks, and good luck."
Before that, I interviewed with a company in another state for a high level management position. They were impressed with my telephone interview and they wanted me to fly out for a face-to-face. They actually postponed the interview by almost three weeks to save $500 in airfare!!! When I got there, several of my interviewers were telling me about the shaky financial condition of the company. Needless to say, I was turned down for the position when we started to talk salary requirements.
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