An interview!

Hey,
I had a phone interview yesterday. It was an initial, "weeding out" conversation, but I enjoyed it. If nothing else, it gave me some practice. It's at a place that I would love to work at and my qualifications fit it very well. Time will tell . . .

This economy is rough, but people do want to help

I've been networking for several months and it has obviously not helped me land a job yet. Nor has it actually helped me secure many interviews. However, I keep reading that it is the only way to go and I had a couple of interesting situations pop up last week...

1. A while back, I had an internal company recruiter contact me after reviewing my LinkedIn Profile. The position was a good fit and something that I would both enjoy and be good at immediately. However, after a short delay, the position was put on hold. But I've checked in with this HR person every couple of weeks. And during the last call, he let me know that it was unlikely that there would be any movement on the role for an extended period. :(
Then he suggested that I contact another company, local to that geography, and gave me some contact details. Wow. That is somebody with vision. He knows that establishing a relationship with me will bear fruit in the future even if a different company ends up hiring me right now. Anyway, I contacted the person to whom I was referred and started a dialog. Not sure if it will result in a job offer or even a formal interview, but the company is growing and there is definitely some possible positions for which I am a fit.

2. I contacted an external recruiter about a position for which she was conducting a search. That position turned out to not be a good fit. (So, far this is all part of the normal job search process). But this recruiter then referred me to a hiring manager that she knew was looking for somebody like me but that was not able to pay a recruiting fee. That does not always happen when the recruiter has no chance for a fee. So, I called the hiring manager (different companies involved than those above) and we had an informal networking conversation. It was a great dialog. Then we had a formal interview. Then a second round interview. And next the HR person called me to set up travel arrangements for me to fly in for a face-to-face interview session. However, before the travel arrangements could be finalized, the company completely changed the job description and now I was not only no longer one of the top 2 candidates, but really not a match at all for the revised position. :(
Ouch.
However, a couple weeks later I got an email forwarded from the hiring manager that was from somebody else he knew asking if the hiring manager knew anybody that would be a good fit for the position description attached. It is indeed a good match for me and is even a better role than the position with the original company would have been. Again, Not sure if it will result in a job offer or even a formal interview, but it was nice of that hiring manager to go out of his way to make me aware of an open position that was not even with his company.

3. I will also echo Sheri's comments on the Net2Work gathering. I missed the first half of the first meeting (schedule conflict) but was blown away by the presentation that I did catch. And the function as a whole exceeded my expectations. Highly recommended.

It's been a long time

Seems like it's been a long time since I wrote here. Time has just been sweeping me by. I've relaxed my job search a bit. Am not as frantic as I was initially. I have still been taking advantage of some of the great programs offered at Iowa Workforce. Went to a resume writing workshop yesterday. Have also started going to a great program called Net2Work which is being held at the Botanical Center. There was a great inspiration talk 2 weeks ago by Drew McLellan, the Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group here in Des Moines. He talked about how to market ourselves and offered good tips about social media networking.

I am still keeping my daily "to do" list which keeps me on track and where I keep track of the jobs I've applied to and the rejection emails I've gotten. No luck so far with interviews. It's difficult when you're competing with several hundred people. But, because of my lay-off, I've got to do a lot of things I couldn't have done if I were working. Have gone to art galleries, had a garage sale during the week and have gotten to know people at Iowa Workforce! Life is good!!