What a nice change!

As you all know, I went on my second interview last week with unnamed company. I was told I'd hear this week regarding a possible third interview, if I passed. I took that with a grain of salt, since we've established that human resources can - for the lack of a better word - suck.

I just got a phonecall from the HR manager at said company "updating me on the interview process." She said I'll know if I'm moving on within the next day or two.

Regardless of the outcome, it's just refreshing to work with someone who's responsive!

Round two complete!

Thanks to all of you who reached out to wish me luck and then to see how my interview went! It went as best as I think it could've gone... ended up meeting with four people. Needless to say, I'm all talked out. I'll let you know if I made it to round three :-)

Interview day!

I decided to take the day off from work in order to solve the scheduling problem I had told you all about last week. The interview is from 12:30 to 2 and I'm meeting with three people - one of whom is via video conference in California! NUTS!

Will let you know how it goes later tonight. Luck please!

How does one sneak out of work?

So that phone interview I had this past Monday apparently went well, because I got called for a second interview! This time, the recruiter wants me to come into the office and meet with a few different people. She asked me for my availability and instructed me to "be flexible," as the interviews will take a total of 1 1/2 hours.

I told her I'm available any night after 4:30pm, thereby giving myself a way out of work (doctor's appointment) and a way to spend as much time at the interviews as I had to (who goes back to work after an appointment at 4:30?). The recruiter emailed me back and said the only time she can accommodate me is at 12:30pm on Tuesday.

Uh, how am I supposed to peace out of work for 3 hours? Let's not forget the half hour commute there AND back from the location. So we're looking at, minimum, two and a half hours out of the office in the middle of the day.

Any ideas?

One interview down...

...and it went really well! Though I tend to hate phone interviews (who likes talking to a wall?), I think my personality came through. The woman I spoke with said she's going to send my resume to the hiring manager with a recommendation to move on in the interview process. Yay!

Side note: have any of you ever tried interviewing for another job while actually at your current job? Since the interview was at 8:30 this morning and most of my office doesn't get in until 9, I thought I could get away with doing the interview here. I sat myself down in one of our large conference rooms, closed the door, and realized my voice echoed. I freaked out, crawled underneath the conference table, and conducted my interview there. My back hurts from hunching over. But the worst part occurred when someone walked into the conference room and saw me crouching underneath the table. Talk about embarrassing. Thankfully it was 9 and the interview was five minutes from over.

What a way to end the day!

I just got ANOTHER interview! I've applied to so many jobs lately that it's impossible to remember them all. Apparently I applied for a marketing analyst position at a financial services company I've vaguely heard of. But hey, it's an interview, right?!

Things usually come in 3s. Does this mean I'm going to get another interview this week? One can only hope!

I got an interview!

Be that, a phone interview, but still! I don't want to mention the company just yet, but I'm pretty excited. I had interview with said company after graduating from college and made it pretty far in the recruiting process, but ultimately didn't get the job.

Can't get too excited, though... last time I interviewed, I went through eight rounds! This is just the first preliminary round, hence me not saying where yet. But if I get any farther, you all will be the first to know!

"We're going with someone internal."

5 interviews. 2 months. No job. This illustrates what just happened to a friend of mine. She was interviewing for a Coordinator-level position at a company while the Director of the department quit/was fired/let go. While the company conducted interviews in hopes of replacing the Director, they still brought my friend in for multiple rounds of interviews.

Then she got the dreaded email about the "internal candidate," who, all of a sudden, "has raised her hand for the Coordinator position."

Just like that? All of a sudden? My friend's been interviewing for this position for months now! She's met with HR, every person on the team... and now you're going to tell her that, after all of her efforts, she's been trumped by someone internally?

Frustrating much?

Do people not say thank you anymore?

A friend of mine is in the process of interviewing for a job. After two interviews, and the completion of a project, my friend decided to make a gift and hand-deliver it to the office. She even had the gift wrapped at a premier paper store in the city.

It's been days and her gift has yet to be acknowledged. Even the project that she submitted (upon assignment) went unrecognized. Has "thank you" been eliminated from the vocabulary these days? Is it really SO HARD for someone to shoot an email with those two small words?

I just can't understand it. I'd like to think that, if the situation were reversed, I would have said thank you. Even if my friend doesn't get the job, even if she's not in their top three, her efforts - both on the project, and with the gift - should have been acknowledged. Don't you agree?

Eggs on an interview?

My friend Kendall was just telling me about an interview she went on yesterday. It went something like this...

Kendall: That lady was eating hard boiled eggs with her hands while interviewing me
Me: Seriously?
Kendall: Yeah, I was getting so grossed out, like almost asked to open the door for ventilation

Really? REALLY?

Human Resources = un-resourceful.

I realize that "unresourceful" has yet to find a place in the dictionary, but no other word seems to do this post justice. I have come to find over the years that these so-called "gatekeepers" are, more often than not, incredibly unhelpful.

Take scenario one: I had just graduated from college and was interviewing for a job at Citigroup. Four interviews deep, I was told I'd hear by "early next week." Early next week came and went, as did the next week, and the next. I followed up two times with both HR and the people that I interviewed with, and still, silence.

To this day, I never heard back from Citi.

Imagine my disbelief. And yet, this sort of thing has since become an unfortunate pattern in my life.

Take scenario 150: Back in January, I interviewed for a job at NBC. My dream job. I don't usually get nervous for interviews, but this one was different. I was a ball of nerves, and it showed. Needless to say, I knew it didn't go so well, and I was expecting to hear that I would not be moving on in the interview process.

And yet, weeks went by without hearing anything. I followed up with the woman I interviewed with three times. And as I sit here, three months later, I'm still unknowing about what happened to the job. I never heard back from the woman.

I can't for the life of me wrap my head around these situations. Though it may take me a day or two, I will always respond to an email or voice message. Who are you to deem yourself so important that you feel entitled to ignore me? Are you just THAT busy that you can't find two minutes to email me back with a simple, "Yes" or "No"?

It begs the inevitable question... really? REALLY?