| I recently went through some similar feelings... well, at least about the interviews. For me, it wasn't so much being rejected by places where I really wanted to work as just getting rejected five or six times. It was shocking; I've never had to interview more than twice before the offers started rolling in. as an aside, what is it with the lack of a response? I interviewed at one place... for like 7 hours. It went really well, the guy gave me his email, told me to email him... until the end. "How much do you want?" I named a high number, and then said something like "But that's high. I just got someone that used to work for me a job for $lowernumber" - the guy mumbled something about that being a little high, I said that I'd been interviewing for a while, so I was open to offers. Total silence. I email the guy twice, email the recruiter, etc.. and eventually like two weeks later I email the contract recruiter (who told me ahead of time that my high number was in range) and he tells me that I didn't get the job, because of the downsides I was real up-front about in my phone interview. Man, I can understand not wanting to hire me. Especially not for the high number. But if I spend seven hours on-site interviewing with you, and you ask me to email you... you can respond. And what is it with making me name a number and then not countering? it's a negotiation. I'm trying to get as much as I can, but I really don't know how much that is. Give me some clues. gah. Okay, yeah, rant over. The solution for me was to keep interviewing until I ended up getting a job. The fact of the matter is that social performance matters a lot on interviews, and for me? My social performance is pretty random. Some days I seem to have it; all my mistakes come off as jokes, and I seem charming and confident. Other days? well, sometimes it seems like I'm mildly autistic. My mistakes cause awkward silence. That, and some departments just don't want a personality like mine. I... don't drink kool-aide. I mean, sure, I'll do what I'm told, but, for instance, you aren't going to get me to actually believe that advertising is good for the person that is being advertised to. I recently got a gig that is absolutely perfect for who I am and where I am in my life, and it was the first job that accepted me. Incidentally, it's at google, but it's a contract-to-hire thing, so I've got another year (and a bunch more cash) to let my partner try to get prgmr off the ground again before deciding if I really want to (or if I'm actually able to) become a company man. Meanwhile, from what I gleaned from the interview, I'm going to be able to absolutely nail the role, as long as they don't expect too much google cheerleading from me. From that perspective? The rejections were really for the best; I can't credibly pretend that I want to be a company man because I'm not ready to be a company man, and I think I'll make an awesome contractor (and maybe I'll be ready to be that company man a year from now? ) |