Tuesday, May 02, 2023

Hammerfall 2.0: An Interview

 Yesterday, thanks to your prayers and good thoughts, I had an interview.

The interview (now to me, not surprisingly), in my old "field" of Quality Assurance.  It is a position which would not require us to relocate.  It is a position is a position with the standard sort of benefits that I would expect from a company of its size (smaller, relative start up). 

As it turns out, a coworker knows many of the people that work there, so I think their reaching out directly accelerated my process - I went from submitting my CV on Thursday to the initial interview yesterday and a follow on activity later today.

The salary is commensurate with what I had identified in the initial application, which made me feel pretty good about estimating my value.

The process - if today goes well - is a series of interviews over the next month or so, culminating in a on-site interview and presentation (I have never done an on-site presentation as part of the job interview process, so that will be new).  

They are, apparently, even willing to work with the fact that I will not have availability until the early part of July.

Do I intend to keep my part time Grocery Store Job?  Absolutely.  One thing this whole thing has reminded me of is the fact that I have become way too complacent about relying on my "job" - to be fair, even if this all goes well, I could still lose my position in a heartbeat.  Better to have something, even small to start off with now, to fall back on instead of finding myself back looking for something.  The worst case is I have something to support my hobbies.

How do I feel about "going back" to Quality Assurance?  A touch ambivalent of course - there is a lot of stress that comes with it that is I do not miss.  Still, it sounds like they have an aggressive plan and either there will be success in 1-2 years, or failure in 1-2 years.  I can live with that timeline - worst case, I need a job to last 4-6 years at this point.

In a nutshell?  Good news, better than I could have hoped for.  Prayers and happy thoughts continue to be requested.

20 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:50 AM

    Sounds very encouraging. I hope it all works out. I agree that having a 'Side Gig' is a wise choice, especially with an economy which is wobbling.

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    1. I hope so too - And yes, the side gig thing is something I have intellectually thought was a good idea in the past but never implemented. Time to take that extra step, especially in this economy.

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  2. Nylon123:28 AM

    Well now, this is indeed good news. You and your family have been in the prayer rotation for a bit TB. Please keep us up to date on the inside of the grocery store business..........:)

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    1. Thank you Nylon12! We appreciate it.

      And yes, I am looking forward to exciting tales of produce to add to these pages.

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  3. A good reputation gets you support from coworker friends.

    Proverbs 22:29 speaks to this

    KJV
    29 Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.
    ESV
    29 Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.
    NLT
    29 Do you see any truly competent workers? They will serve kings rather than working for ordinary people.

    https://bustedhalo.com/life-culture/5-proverbs-make-better-employee#:~:text=5%20Proverbs%20to%20Make%20You%20a%20Better%20Employee,...%205%205.%20Give%20it%20your%20all%20

    Side gig is awesome, my chicken lady friend has levered her side job in produce to keep her hens well fed.

    Your in my prayers. Develop your gardens.

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    1. Thanks Michael! Those are versus I have actually committed to my somewhat spotty memory.

      I was doing some math last night, and even a small number of hours makes a difference.

      I reminded myself yesterday the garden thing was on my CARVER chart. As it appears that we will be spending more time here, something to get on.

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  4. Indeed great news! I must say though I'm a bit surprised by the number of engagements that one must go through in your position. Engineering in my experience, is a lot difference. Generally after the one and only interview, I knew if I had the job and then it was just phone discussions to nail down salary and benefits. Occasionally, I had the job before I arrived for my in person interview (I guess from reading my resume or word of mouth) and it wasn't really an interview but a show and tell and a discussion of what I required for me to accept the job.

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    1. Thanks Ed! This is actually a great deal more than I have had to do for other positions, although multiple rounds of interviews are not uncommon for the industry as a whole. Especially at smaller companies, I think there is a greater sense of wanting to make sure you "fold into" the corporate culture.

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  5. As the others have said, good news.
    In the immortal words of Han Solo to Luke Skywalker, "Great kid! Don't get cocky!" (smile)

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    1. Thanks John - And yes, that thought has occurred to me as well...

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  6. Excellent news. The dynamics you mention "there is a lot of stress that comes with it that I do not miss", is that just normal for QA or does the corporate culture dictate most of it? Or is it a personal trait that goes with you?

    There were men in my district team that seemed to have zero concern for doing their job well or even showing up at times. I would stress about getting to the work site with enough time to find the issue and resolve it before the customer HAD to have the device working. I strove to hit all the metrics and be the goto. My stress was on me like a tattoo. Or in me like DNA. I took it everywhere.

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    1. STxAR - Good question. Likely it is a combination of Quality in general (and the responsibility therein), the corporate culture (and especially one's boss), and the fact I do tend to take on more stress than I need to - like you, apparently.

      The first and second are largely out of my control, although I have come to learn the phrase "managing expectations" to help me deal with that. The last one is 100% in my control.

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  7. Anonymous8:15 AM

    Impressive turn in your search. Interesting that former coworkers helped network” you in for the interview.
    Wishing you all the best TB.
    Franknbean

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    1. FnB - It is, although everything you read says that networking is far superior to the job seeking equivalent of "cold calling".

      Thank you for the good wishes.

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  8. I'm guessing that the job market has more seekers than offers, so it's a relief to see a possibility come up so quickly.

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    1. Leigh, my guess - just based on layoffs that I am seeing - is that the market is either flooded with job-seekers or soon will be. Hopefully being early will result in a better outcome.

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  9. I am wishing the best for you!!!

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  10. One prayer, coming up!

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