Sometimes it works out, eventually
Got home from my new job (about a 35 minute commute because traffic was backed up on I5 and it spilled out onto the surface streets) and when I got out of my car, my dad was standing there smoking.
“How was your first day?” he asked.
“It was… good. I’ve got a good feeling about that place.” I chuckled. “I mean, I spent most of the day, about 90%, just signing in to things and resetting passwords. But, yeah. I like the people I work with.”
“That’s great, son. I’m glad it worked out for you.” Dad had been confounded by my stories about job hunting in the tech sector in The Year of Our Lord Two-thousand and Twenty-Three, for sure. Stories about being called in for three or four interviews and having the employer choose someone else. Stories about phantom job postings, where it’s clear the company isn’t hiring, just advertising positions for whatever economic gain it gets them. Stories about how me asking good questions in the interview caused the employer such distress about not knowing what they want this position to be, they pulled the listing, selected no one, and went back to the drafting board to start over from first principles.
It’s been a long job hunt, is what I’m saying. But I’ve landed in a good spot, I think.
Dad is basically of the Greatest Generation or slightly after, not quite a Boomer, and when he was job hunting he literally just had to walk in to a place, talk to the owner, and convince them to hire him. Much easier in the trades, I’m sure (he was an electrician) but pretty much standard job hunting behavior across many careers back in the day.
It’s almost never been like that for me. Early on, the only way to find jobs (that I knew about) was seeing a “Now hiring” sign in a window, or finding a job through these listings called “The Classfieds” in what we used to call “newspapers.” Then, at the very least I had to fill out an application, hand it in, and then wait to be called back for an interview when I started out. That call would come in to the phone in the house, which was wired to the wall, and not stuffed into a pocket that went everywhere with me.
Of course it’s not like that now. Jobs are advertised on the internet, same as every other thing, on specialized websites where I can upload a digital resume, which gets scanned and used to fill out applications, which are reviewed by computers and potentially forwarded to screeners and HR folks, or recruiters. That may trigger a phone or video call where they size you up. If that goes well you get forwarded to a hiring manager. If they like you, they’ll have you interview with even more people.
That’s how it works normally. Sometimes, sometimes, there are detours.
In the case of my current job, I did use one of those job posting sites to make the initial contact, and got a video call with the owner of the business. Except for it being digital, it could have been very much like my dad’s experience. That first conversation was casual in tone but covered a lot of ground as far as experience and my temperament went. I must have made a good impression, because there was only one more round of interview, a panel interview with the other owner and two of the techs I’d be working with, and literally three days later I had a solid job offer.
After 250 days of being an unemployee, I am now, once again, an employee. Better days are ahead, friends. I can feel it.