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05/20/2005: "on the cusp"
This has been an unusually active week. Things are coming to a head on a number of fronts, making the coming week ripe with potential.
First, I've been informed that this weekend the long-awaited VW Cabrio will be delivered to me. This has been a long time coming, and the whole process has been lots of waiting and very little communicating. My benefactor is very pregnant with twins, so I obviously don't want to pester her to take her car for free. However, they took delivery of their new minivan, sold their pickup truck, and their storage contract ends within days. Thereby, I get my Cabrio soon. I'm still not sure excatly what I'll do once I get it, although getting a mechanic to look at it, changing the fluids, and pricing out new spedometers are all in the cards at some point.
Yesterday I embarked upon the first part of my journey into becoming a Master's student. Having put it off a while, I finally finished off my letter of intent and the associated paperwork and hand delivered it to the university. Now I have to spend some time online filling out the application, and then chase down my letters of reference. While I was on campus I thought I'd try to track down the professor I'm trying to get a letter off of, but of course he wasn't in his office. Hopefully my business card and hand-written note will get a reaction more than my previous e-mails did. I'll also be following up with phone calls next week.
Now, on to all the happenings relating to my job search. There's lots to report, too.
As I mentioned in my previous posting, the so-titled engineering manager at the company I'm working at now isn't exactly a thrill to work with. Trying to exert power he doesn't have, trying to feign adequacy and competence... it's pretty painful to watch. Thankfully things are getting better, as he's learing quickly that I can't be pushed around like the lackey it seems he hoped I would be. So things are getting more bearable. In addition, there's some hope blowing in the breezed. A few days ago the HR manager came in and mentioned something to him about his wanting to work out of a different location permanently. This company has a number of divisions, and only one of them is at my current location. If this talk is true, this guy could effectively disappear off the face of the planet in the coming weeks or months. I'd still want to know what the president has in store for me, but having this guy out of the picture certainly would make things rosier.
Meanwhile, I'm still investigating other leads, all of which have come from recruiters at this point.
The most exciting lead is a job that would necessitate a move. As much as I don't want to move, this company is one I'd move for. My wife has said as much as well. Turns out I've actually worked for a division of this company before (it's a HUGE multinational corporation with literally hundreds of divisions worldwide), and it's the one career move I actually regret. So getting back would be a real coup, and would allow me to finally settle into a company that would still allow me lots of career path options, all within the same corporate framework. I still haven't heard from the company itself, but I have been told that the hiring manager wants a phone interview. Of course, I'll put stock in it when I actually talk to someone other than the recruiter, but for now the possibility is exciting.
Equally exciting is a company that I would not have to move for. A company literally down the street from my last position (and the one before that) is starting up a new division, and the hiring manager apparently prefers graduates from my university, and employees with experience at one of the companies I've previously worked for. In short, it sounds like I've got what they're looking for, at least enough to get an interview out of the deal. The company isn't quite as large as the other opportunity I'm working on, but it was purchased a few years ago by a much larger company that has very deep pockets. In other words, the company's not going anywhere. And with a brand new division, getting in on the ground floor would be a great career move. We'll see what transpires there - something I should know more about next week.
This last item isn't as interesting a career opportunity, but is a neat story nonetheless. I got a call from yet another recruiter about the same large multinational company I'm hoping to get into. Obviously, I had to tell her that I was already represented. No biggie, this happens all the time. We got to talking a bit more, and she asked if I had ever marketed myself (her terminology) to a certain company. I'd heard of them before, but didn't know exactly what they did, nor had any reason to investigate. Well, she thought that I would have an excellent chance of getting in there, and that they may even be hiring at this time. With a recruiter, I would normally expect them to be the middle man between me and any potentially hiring company. Instead, she says that I would have much better luck getting in without being represented by a recruiter, so she gives me the contact name for the engineering manager and his phone number. Wow. We'll see if anything comes of it, but I'm highly impressed that she would do something like that for me.
Next week should be a good week. A short work week, and loads of possibility.
