You will find a job

Pratt2

How do I know? It just happened to me. Four weeks ago I was sitting at home having been (mostly) unemployed for almost a year. I had no interviews, professional contacts run dry, unemployment benefits running out, credit card balance rising, starting to wonder if my increasing alcohol consumption was something I should worry about, convinced I was in the twilight zone of being either over- or under-qualified for every job in existence.

One day I got a callback for a position I randomly applied to through indeed.com. I had been applying to so many jobs every day I had completely forgotten what the position was and had to ask for a copy of the job description. Then, on the day of my interview I realized that my interview had in fact been scheduled for the previous day... In my defense I was in the middle of a one week temp project where I was working 9am-midnight but there's still no excuse. I called and asked if "there is any recovering from this" and surprisingly they gave me a second shot. Now, 2 weeks later and after a second interview I just signed the formal offer letter and will be starting in 2 weeks, and my annual salary is a LOT higher than I was hoping for.

This forum really helped a lot with keeping me motivated and showing me ways to keep moving forward, so I just want to say to everyone who thinks there is no hope...

It WILL happen, even if you do everything possible to screw things up like I did. Just keep at it and one day you will get the random call you thought would never come!

drew726

Persistence always pays off. Congratulations!

Essendon

You perseverance certainly paid off, and paid off well!! Nicely done, now make sure you buckle down and do really well at this new gig. Care to divulge what you'd be doing at this new place?

pakgeek

Congrats, good luck in your new endeavor!

VAHokie56

Pratt2 wrote: »

starting to wonder if my increasing alcohol consumption was something I should worry about

This made me lol.

Pratt2

Essendon wrote: »

You perseverance certainly paid off, and paid off well!! Nicely done, now make sure you buckle down and do really well at this new gig. Care to divulge what you'd be doing at this new place?

It's kind of a hybrid it/legal/business role. My title will be "Analyst" for a company that amongst other things provides legal/business info about current ipos, mergers, asset sales and acquisitions to law firms and law departments as a subscription service. I'll be monitoring a bunch of websites for new deals/corporate filings and pulling out relevant terms, plus doing database and basic html work. Seeing that I haven't started yet I'm not 100% sure about how my duties will shape up.

All of my "schooling" is law related and the company was looking for someone with both legal and technical knowledge. I just lucked out and found a company that was looking for my somewhat unusual combination of skills.

-DeXteR-

Just Watch out for those Omens always along the Way

Dakinggamer87

Congrats on the new job and good luck going forward!!

pert

Am I bad person if the only thing I got out of this thread is that performing well and trying hard are mostly irrelevant and that luck is biggest instrument of change?

erpadmin

Pratt2, congratulations!! I can empathize with your situation, as I too was unemployed for 8 months. I vowed never to go through that again (God willing). I am sure you're going to go in there guns-blazings. Also, I congratulate you on the nice recovery as well. It goes to show us that mistakes do happen, and that it's not the end-all-be-all. Though I would caution that it won't always be like that, but in this case, you were Blessed.

pert wrote: »

Am I bad person if the only thing I got out of this thread is that performing well and trying hard are mostly irrelevant and that luck is biggest instrument of change?

If that were true, I should quit my job and just play the lotto.

I do not believe you should take this thread to mean that....everyone's situation/circumstances are different and in the OP's case, he really was Blessed. Hard work, dedidcation, persistence, and performing well are most certainly relevant and is your biggest instrument of change. Luck helps too...but you can't depend on it solely....otherwise, you're on the wrong forum/career path.

galoryber

I haven't been on this site for long, but the one thing I've noticed is how supportive everyone is. Sometimes it's hard to find IT guys that are willing to step off the pedestal and work together. Everyone here seems to be working for the better of everyone, and for that reason, I won't be a stranger.

ilcram19-2

pratt2 wrote: »

how do i know? It just happened to me. Four weeks ago i was sitting at home having been (mostly) unemployed for almost a year. I had no interviews, professional contacts run dry, unemployment benefits running out, credit card balance rising, starting to wonder if my increasing alcohol consumption was something i should worry about, convinced i was in the twilight zone of being either over- or under-qualified for every job in existence.

One day i got a callback for a position i randomly applied to through indeed.com. I had been applying to so many jobs every day i had completely forgotten what the position was and had to ask for a copy of the job description. Then, on the day of my interview i realized that my interview had in fact been scheduled for the previous day... In my defense i was in the middle of a one week temp project where i was working 9am-midnight but there's still no excuse. I called and asked if "there is any recovering from this" and surprisingly they gave me a second shot. Now, 2 weeks later and after a second interview i just signed the formal offer letter and will be starting in 2 weeks, and my annual salary is a lot higher than i was hoping for.

This forum really helped a lot with keeping me motivated and showing me ways to keep moving forward, so i just want to say to everyone who thinks there is no hope...

It will happen, even if you do everything possible to screw things up like i did. Just keep at it and one day you will get the random call you thought would never come!

awsome!!!!

Pratt2

Thanks guys! I guess my general point is that we all have different experience, we all have different educations and we're all doing a bunch of different stuff to find jobs, and eventually a job that's a nice fit for our particular combination of qualifications (mine is unusual) can easily pop seemingly out of nowhere IF you don't give up, which does sound tempting once you've been unemployed for a while. You can't be pleasantly surprised by something that seems pretty random if you don't put yourself in the position to be pleasantly surprised, if you know what I mean. Luck favors the prepared and all that...

I'm also pretty certain I wouldn't have gotten the job if I had just sat on my bum browsing craigslist all day. I got 2 certifications and did a significant amount of volunteering, all of which were brought up in my interviews.