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.