[Wednesday: 3.1 miles on treadmill; today 3.4 miles]
I had a quick trip to investigate a possible business proposition this week. The air travel was uneventful.
I enjoyed two, count ’em, two dinners with my friend Kevin. One with Lisa along also!
I had what I thought was a good series of meetings. I talked, tried to answer their questions. Later on I thought of more things to say, but it was too late of course.
Also, my eye was acting funny all day. In the evening I discovered that my soft contact was torn and it was irritating my eye.
So, I wasn’t at the top of my game. I’m not sure I have ever had a top of my game. But I was me and I liked what I saw. So I hope it develops.
Update Friday:
Today I received a “no thanks” email. I thought their email deserved a reply, so I replied. But that should be the end of it.
Their stated complaint was that I didn’t have the relevant experience for a “senior” position. I found that frustrating because I had applied for a junior position and they asked me to change my application to the senior position after our telephone interview. Ok, whatever.
Job searching reminds me of traffic accidents. Let us imagine that I run a red light and crash into your car. It may be that you and I both know it was my fault. The way our legal and insurance systems work, I’m supposed to ignore that and just give you my insurance information. They then will be my representatives and (we hope) fix your car and your cracked bones and make everything right. So there’s a falsity about the post-crash interaction. I can’t just say “I’m sorry!” it has to all be mediated by lawyers and specialists. I hate that.
Same with a job search, or so it seems to me. So much of it is fake. Who knows if their reason is the real reason.
We had an incident at my workplace. We were doing an interview-like situation on a potential future boss for our group. One of our group members is from another country. That person said, “Do you have children? Tell us about your family.” and the whole room got quiet. An employer can’t ask that. Later the co-worker told me that in his country being a family leader was a sign of responsibility and honor; he was giving the guy a prompt to brag about his position of responsibility at home. But in our twisted system you can’t talk about that.
So anyway, I don’t blame them for flushing my application. But it is frustrating that the benefit I could get from the experience is nearly completely mooted by the lawyer rules that surround what is mostly a social dance, nothing like the actual work I would be called on to perform.
Update #2 still Friday:
I was talking to my wife at dinner. Most of the jobs I have had, I don’t know how it was accomplished. For my current job I was newly laid off from one place and frantically searching for the next thing. An advertisement showed up in the local newspaper, which is kind of bizarre to begin with seeing as how it was a small town newspaper and didn’t have many ads of that kind. But the company at that time was required to advertise in the four owner cities. So I responded to the ad. It wasn’t a job title I had ever had before, it was slightly different. But I had some passing acquaintance with the systems they were talking about. They had me down for an interview at a restaurant and the three managers looked me over and I got the job. I don’t know if there were other applicants, or if I was particularly attractive for some reason. (Nobody ever asks, “why did you hire me?”)