Job searching & changing gears.. Part 1

 

Disclaimer: to HR who might review this, consider the fact that all of these experiences are subject to careful consideration and balanced in fairness. The great part of this story is that it can be used to help staff and management better understand employing hiring and firing; now called onboarding and offboarding (some cruise ship term probably acquired by an offsite HR team on a cruise ship experience to explore how to better an organization and get away from the derogatory reality and being more politically correct and easy on the younger X, Y, and Z generations. Alas, I digress... ;-) doh!

 

About 1 month ago, I started looking at job opportunities since Mountain Computers has been changing gears for nearly 1 year. Less retail, more small and corporate business, so less foot traffic.

 

Ironically, by going into "business only" mode, some of my legacy customers are a little concerned, but I told them to remain rest assured, I was not going anywhere right away.

 

When I relocated from Winnemucca to Reno in 2002, about 20% of my clients continued to leverage my services because they would come to Reno weekly. That has continued on for nearly 16 years.

 

Back to job opportunities... the irony is when you apply you are put into this abyss of application processing that I seem to wonder if they ever look at your application. My experience when Robert Half Technology approached me and wanted to represent me was 50/50 good/bad. The irony is that they never said they applied my application and when in fact they did not when they said they did, well, that's another story. I received an apology from the Division Director when I was quietly lost in the mix and no record of my existence in their sales force system existed while considering IT positions at Employers here in Reno.

 

The additional irony is that some of the application processing is just like it was 16 years ago. Apply and two things happen:

 

1. if you're a great candidate regardless, the company processing your application will take 3-9 months to get back to you; and if you are good, you already got a job, and if you're a bad candidate and everyone else bailed on them you were the alternate offer, well, let's just say; you were not their first candidate but the only one to accept the offer after others did not work out.

 

2. if you're a bad candidate to them, it's good they never get around to letting you know.

 

My saying goes, "slow to hire, quick to fire."

 

Alternatively, if this is an emergency hire, that's different. Look for emergency hire situations if you can. you might be the right fit for the job if you are mover and shaker and the position is in dire need of a great candidate. If the position is just mandated, and not really a high priority job other than federally mandated, well, a maintainer or sustainer type is required. Blue or white collar, it does not matter.

 

Also, if it's a token hire, that's totally different. Regardless of the unspoken and undocumented rule of diversity; it works like, this, we need a female, non-white, veteran, handicap to fill this square in our organizational chart "org chart". That is real 30 years ago, and even now. Affirmative Action should go by the wayside unless it is now to include the protected class of those over 50 years old, white male or female Caucasian which is a dying breed and in need to job protection with or without union protection.

 

What I also notice is that if you are an employer / staff member and go in and out of corporate from time to time, some like that, to get fresh ideas and blood into the company and others don't like it. It just depends on the company needs.

 

I had one lady from Robert Half Technology interview me and said I am not the "employee type" because I have owned and operated my own businesses on and off again for 35 years. I was like, sort of appalled, but then again, HR tends to screen appropriately in some cases, and then screen inappropriately in other cases. For a director level or VP level job, you want an employer / business owner type because you are managing a critical role of all encompassing activities in a division or business group where your hats are many, just like a business owner, and you know how to calculate risk, manage challenges and work with people and clients from any angle.

 

 

 

Let's see if I get a job offer anytime soon. Companies like SNC, Employers, Reno Tahoe Airport, Renown, Arrow Electronics, etc.. those are all on the radar. Even Chewy and ACH Foam are interesting to say the least. Just tweeted to Tesla as a follow-up to see if they are even looking for great talent, or is HR just filling organizational chart boxes. Oddly, Microsoft does and did the same; not looking at the long range forecast but just the short range needs.

 

An interesting interview I had back in 2002 with Hometown Health. It was a SQL Database Developer opportunity and wow, the interviewing team was shall I say, rather skewed and interesting...they like SQL CURSORS.. sort of a no-no depending on the situation. Since I was told at Microsoft though they included the innovation in SQL 7 they discouraged us from using them for good reason. I did not get the job because to say the least, they wanted a CURSOR kind of database developer.

 

Alas, more to come....