Living on a Prayer

And so my big dream a couple of days ago sorta came true and sorta didn't. Sorta did because I found out something about the job (no decision yet) but sorta not because I had to bug two people at the office for information, even lying about something, in order to get it what little information I did get. Actually, considering the person who appeared in my dream is still being a pud and hasn't responded to me, I guess the answer is sorta not more than sorta did.

Despite this, I have to say that for the most part, I've been treated rather well this unemployment go around. Other than the lame-ass HR person who made me think I got the job and this place, most of the people with whom I met with sent me emails giving me updates and were really polite about everything.

That doesn't mean I haven't had a few weird interviews, although nothing as bad as some of the one's I've been on. There was that one weird job, the one that could have involved travel to China, in which the job description was so vague that the recruiter and I spent a long time trying to figure out just what to put on my resume and to say. Turns out there was a reason for the vagueness because the person whom I met with admitted at the end of the interview that she didn't know what she was looking for exactly but just wanted to meet with people to see if a light bulb went off in her head while talking to them and realize what she wanted. When I told all of this to the recruiter, I could hear her eyes roll over the phone (I've actually gained a lot more respect for recruiters these days because I have a serious feeling that half of their jobs is dealing with employers who don't know what they're looking for but know they need somebody or employers who reject candidates for being exactly what they said they wanted because they decided they didn't really want that).

Then there was another job I interviewed for, a two to three month gig. The job was kinda low paying and beneath my skill set but whatever-- it was a job and it was doing some weird, nichey thing that I had plenty of experience in doing. Which became evident when they asked me a bunch of questions about how to do it and not only did I tell them exactly what to do but threw in some technical talk just to show them I really knew my shit. I met with two people and the second person with whom I met asked me what my process is doing this thing and when I talked about what and how I did things, he kept on saying "wow, that's exactly how we do it!" or "you use the exact same process that we do!" Turns out, however, I didn't because when I called the recruiter a few hours after the interview to check in (after driving home from Oakland in a nasty, nasty rain storm and driving over the Bay Bridge in pouring rain is NOT fun) the recruiter told me that they turned me down because they didn't think I knew how to do things and could "communicate the process." Or something like that-- the recruiter said he didn't really know what they meant as it was all kind of vague (see comments above about recruiters having to deal with flaky HR types).

The only thing I could think that happened on that interview, other than the fact they sucked, is that halfway through the interview I had a complete and total energy crash. The interview was on a Friday morning and it was my second interview of the week and fourth in two weeks. I also spent a lot of time at the Unemployment Office getting job help that week and had found out over the week that I had lost out on three jobs. In other words, I was pretty burned the fuck out. I also had to drive into the East Bay in crappy weather and apparently didn't drink nearly enough coffee. So I totally and completely crashed. I thought I hid it well but I also know that I wasn't as effusive and energetic as the interview went on. And sadly, in an interview, you have to perfect enough in the interview that the obvious appearance that you need a nap doesn't go over well.

Or, they could have just sucked.