The Hunt Is On

“I’ve been looking for months and nothing.  No calls back. No emails back. Nothing. I don’t get it.”

What I heard from a former cohort at 9:15am today.

Fuck.

What he was telling me was on the heals of me trying to get in contact with my go-to recruiter and only getting crickets.  Last night, I emailed the guy who originally helped me 7 years ago.  Nada, so far.

Fuck.

I talked to him a bit.  Then I talked to another cohort.  Same story.

I tried to be optimistic with them both.  My resume tells me that October is the hiring / job transfer month.  Summer sucks.  I’m not worrying yet.

Meanwhile, I’m silently wondering if I screwed up by not pursuing things earlier.

15 minutes after I ended my second phone call, I got a call to my phone from an unknown number. I ignored it only given it was coming from a city 40 minutes away. I figured it was a telemarketer until I listened to the voicemail.

“I’m John, I work with Fred and he gave me your resume that you sent yesterday. Call. I have some things you may be interested in.”

As I was listening, an email came in from him telling me the same thing.

Wow.

I called him and he confirm what I had heard. Summer pretty much was a huge hiring freeze.  Everyone put everything on hold.  Nothing was happening. But today – a few days after Labor Day – he was getting hit up for hiring jobs.  He had 3 hire ASAP jobs with a number on the horizon.

Damn.

Tomorrow I get the details about the most urgent one.  We talked for a bit – and I asked him finally why he was eager to get me with this company.

You had one line in your resume that I loved – it stuck with me – it was brilliant. I have to get you placed. I can, with that line, get you placed.

I laughed when he told me what it was. On a whim, I tossed in the line.  After all of these years getting screwed up projects and teams and processes, I finally decided to just own it. I put in a line that pretty much says if something is screwed up, I am the one who can solve it.  Everyone so far has loved that.

When I first entered the workforce 21 years ago, I did the same thing on my resume.  I put in a phrase that was snarky but true, and everyone loved it – they wanted me.  They loved the honesty.  For it to happen again 21 yrs later made me laugh.

G told me to be cautious. Don’t jump into whatever I find.

I told him that I may jump at something OK just so I can build up our safety net again (not that it is that weak) – and if I don’t like it, I’ll just quit.  I want myself in a position where I can just quit.  I don’t feel like I have to stay.

I have my fingers crossed because one of the former cohorts I spoke with today has a good lead on a job that, if he get hired, he has said he will hire me to help him.  “Oh, I have a place for you in any organization I get into – you are a good one to have on the team.”

Nice.  Nice to know I have someone looking out for me – and wanting me to work with him.  Not the first – but the first in a while who has me on his list to hire right away.  Been a while for that.  I honestly admit that I have a hard time networking because, well, I don’t do fake well.  But, in this case, neither does he so it works.

Guess we’ll see what happens.  I will laugh my ass off if I get offers before these other two do.  They have been looking for months, and I’ve been looking for less than a week.  We shall see what happens.

The hunt is on……let’s just hope it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to find what I need.

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