Thursday, June 25, 2009

Day 13 – where my hopes are dashed

So today I had a telephone interview with a potential employer and things seemed to be going pretty well. I think you can generally tell how well an interview is going. Some times it’s clear the two of you are not really on the same wavelength, but other times it’s like you’re talking to someone who you could imagine as a friend, or at least a work mate. Then he mentioned a company I’ve done some work for recently and I thought things were going even better. In the past, quite a few of my jobs have come not necessarily from my knowledge or experience but from having some kind of connection with the company I’m interviewing with. At Metastorm, one of my former colleagues worked there. At APT, I knew the person who would become my boss. At Process Mapping, the boss was a former work mate. Of course, I’m sure that’s not the only the reason I got those jobs, but it certainly didn’t reduce my chances.

So the thing was having that connection made me think I’d at least get a face to face interview. But then the agency tells me they’ve decided not to go any further and I was somewhat disappointed. If it had been one of those awkward interviews where there is no common ground I’d have been cool with it, but now I’m sitting here wondering what did I miss, what did I say that came across badly and how do I rectify it? But then of course the next interview will be with someone completely different who has completely different requirements and a completely different perspective on who they are looking for. So it’s a different game, one where you find out the rules after the game has finished.

4 comments:

Scottaltham said...

Hey Doogal,

I know where you're coming from here. I'm (at this very moment) preparing to move back to the UK where I've got a new job (sorry ;). My point however is that I've been living in Amsterdam for 3 years and spent the last 8 months looking for work in the EA/B2B market (EDI/XML/Biztalk etc). A majorly frustrating time during a global recession and not being able to speak the primary language. I went for a Biztalk role at Tom Tom, where everything looked great, I'd been tested and had in total a 3 part interview up to the Director of IT Services. Then I got bumped at the last moment for a referred Dutch man - ofcourse the Biztalk team where mostly dutch. Sucks right.

Ok, so a slightly different situation to yourself and I'm now working for a BPM Consulting firm doing Business Process / Integration work (Metastorm appears ofcourse).

Couple of points. 1) Get feedback from the interviewing company, I always did that (although they tend to BS you a little).
2) There could be a potential BPM Consultant role at this company. Its smallish, but the BPM world seem's to be focusing on Metastorm, which clearly is a growing product (that and Cordys Process Factory). Anyway, get in touch for further info. Base location is not important as its client site/home specific - I'm moving to liverpool. .NET/Metastorm is a BIG plus.

Doogal said...

Scott

I'd certainly be interested in any Metastorm BPM positions that are available. You can email me on doogal at doogal dot co dot co dot uk

Doogal said...

Of course I mean doogal at doogal dot co dot uk

Scottaltham said...

Hey Doogal, I forgot to check back your site (whoops?!)... But I hear you are back in the grind now, so that's great.

Cheers
S.