Finally, 2 years and 1 month after receiving my last regular paycheck, I have a fulltime job to go to again this coming Monday.
• In fact, I should get two paychecks, as I received one written offer one day and another one the next day.
• To be fair, I may even be due three paychecks, as a recruiter thinks I had a good chance of getting an interesting position at an established company.
But first the numbers! (As they say on KQED).
• Since May 31, 2008, I submitted my resume 573 times to 445 companies, and received 82 negative answers
• That’s a 14% return rate – not bad if I was in marketing, but really sad for a jobseeker!
Let’s go back in time:
• Early May 2008, as we were losing all our customers to a more profitable service provider, the startup I was working for closed.
• The same day, I had to lay off my Quality Assurance team, and then lay myself off.
• I decided to take some time off, and for the first time in my life, I did not look for a job right away.
• I waited until the end of August to post my resume and answer job openings.
• Big mistake, as the economy crashed soon after.
• So I decided I could wait until January 2009 – the economy should have recovered by that time - second big mistake!
• The months passed, and I restarted to look for a job and stopped again a few times.
• One year of unemployment was not a reason to celebrate.
• However, the prospect of reaching two years of unemployment made me rethink my long-term strategy. Do I want to retire now, or do I want to work a few more years?
• I am still not sure about the answer to that question, but I decided to find a job quickly or be forever wiped out of the work force.
What did I do during my time between jobs?
• I helped start two for-profit companies
• I did a lot of work for free, for non-profit organizations
• I went to lots of training sessions and conventions (usually 4 to 6 days a week)
• I learned to program FPGA’s
• I learned to program Android phones
• I became a certified Scrum Master
• I won lots of prizes, including:
Now, some information about my new job:
• I will be working less than 3 miles from home, as an IT Management consultant, in their Project Management Office.
• The first contact I had with the new company was back in March of 2009.
• They introduced me to a customer, where I had four scheduled interviews.
• And finally, at the end of last week, during a conference, I received an urgent request for a phone interview.
To finish, I would like to thank:
• The two Success Teams I decided to join. However, I must apologize because I never found the time to attend any of the meetings.
• The Meeting Team who accepted me as a videographer.
• Thanks also to Jenn from Nova, and the opportunity to enroll into the ITIL online course.
• And of course, a big thank you to Rosy, Bob, and Connie for making this organization such a great place for jobseekers to rejuvenate and find their way to a new job.
It was a long journey, but it was worth it. I am sure it will happen again (looking for a job) before it is time for me to retire, and I will certainly and happily be a ProMatcher again.
If I could do it, you certainly can do it too. I wish you all good luck in your search for your next opportunity.
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