As time goes by, I'm more and more grateful that I picked up the contract job that I have right now. OK, so the pay isn't fantastic, but the flexibility is very useful for someone who has to work AND look for job.
I took the new laptop with me when I took a few days to visit the parents. It kind of worked...only it turned out to be hard to find enough time to actually do the work I wanted to do. After all, the parents DID deserve some attention. :-) Would have been better if I had access to a Wireless network, but in the end, it worked well enough. I'm a bit behind on my hours, right now, but I'll catch up (somehow, I don't know how I'll get in 30 hours in the next 2.5 days). Having the iPhone really helped with the lack of wireless access. I could still do the email thing as needed. And, of course, when I needed serious Internet access, I used my Dad's machine.
On another note, my resume is starting to get noticed and I'm getting more calls from recruiters. Oddly enough, all this activity happened while I was away. Would have been more convenient to have it happen while I was at home. I suppose that now that I'm home, all the activity will die down. Some sort of weird karma?
I'm becoming convinced that the only people looking to hire right now are part of a conspiracy of oddness. I've been trying to get a phone interview scheduled for several weeks now. It was supposed to happen while I was away, but the manager never seemed to be available at the times he set for the conversation. So, maybe next week.
Today, I had an interview that consisted of driving an hour to the office and then speaking to all but one person over the phone (apparently they used to use the video conference equipment for the remote interviews, but it freaked out the interviewees :- ) ). I did well on the interview and several people assured me that I will likely be called back for a second round. Cool. On the other hand, based on my conversations with the team, a few red flags went up. When a company is proud of calling their way of operating "managed chaos," especially one that's over 7 years old, one needs to tread carefully. Also, a company that touts the wonderful benefit of providing employees with dinner every night (read...we're understaffed and proud of it!) requires careful examination. Why do companies spend so much money feeding their overworked employees instead of staffing appropriately? On the other hand, the teams are scattered all over the place, so they do have a liberal work from home policy. Time will tell if I actually get a chance to find out more.
It IS encouraging that I'm getting more calls and a few interviews along the way. I am very grateful for that -- even if some of the jobs are not appropriate (and some of the contracting rates are ridiculously low). And, in general, my interviews are going well. So, this week, I'm feeling more optimistic.
Let's see what next week brings as the search continues.
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