I will be an Epic employee in one month

Faithful readers, I found a new job! I'm going to be a software developer at Epic in Madison, WI. There are so many great things about this prospect that I could write a lot of words. Instead, I'll do a bulleted list.

-I get to be a software developer, something I've always wanted to do but was afraid that I lacked the training for. But I got to prove that I had the skill during the programming test that I took. Yay me!
-The company culture, if I didn't make it clear in my last post, is super chill and unstifling.
-I'll be making ~2.77 times what I did at my last job with a starting salary of $72,000.
-I'm going to have real-people insurance that covers many things including getting a physical, which is something I've been wanting to do for about a year and a half that my old insurance didn't cover.
-I'll be living in Madison which I think is more my style than Chicago: somewhat dense, but not so much crime and much more bike friendly.
-I may get to live in a co-op.

So there you go. My unemployment ends April 6th. I'll spend the time between now and then feverishly packing up my apartment, finishing up my part-time jobs, and saying bye to people. My wife will still be in Chicago and I'll be visiting every weekend, so it's not out of the question that I'll see my Chicago people again after I move.

That's the catch, though: my wife will still be in Chicago. That's a pretty big downside. At least Madison is close to Chicago and it will be temporary. We've spent time apart before (when she started grad school in Chicago while I was finishing my Bachelor's degree) so we know what it's like and that we are capable of it. We've talked it over and we are ready. So now I'm trying to focus on all the positive.

I'm afraid to believe that this is happening. To have found such a sweet job after so much uncertainty seems very unlikely, even though it did happen. At least, I think it happened. I won't believe it until I get my first paycheck.

So I can't know how much more I'll be posting here. Probably not much. Since I'll be leaving so many awesome people behind, I may start some sort of blog so people can keep track of my life. But I don't know about that. Check back in April; if I do start that sort of blog, I'll post here about it.

My big interview

I think it went really well.

The company I interviewed with is kind of like a cult. They have a *huge* amount of land in a suburb of Wisconsin where they have a campus of interconnected, geothermally-heated buildings. There are currently six work buildings, and they are all decorated very uniquely (the buildings have different architectural and decorational themes). The conference rooms are amazing. Maybe you think it's weird to get excited about a conference room. I think you just have to see them to know what I mean. They are huge and comfortable and pretty.

Anyway, the company has a really lax atmosphere. No dress code, no one gets hired in as a manager, and so on. Every employee gets his own office. They have a cafeteria with really cheap ($3) lunches. Oh, and they've experienced ~30% annual growth over the past 10 years with no sign of slowing down, especially with the passing of the stimulus package (which affects them a lot). I definitely like the company's foundations.

I also like the work I'd be doing. The position I originally applied for was in Implementation Services, where I'd know a lot about the software and I'd travel to installation sites to customize the software for the client and make sure everything goes smoothly. They always have their prospective employees take a test to make sure they will be able to understand the necessary coding. I did so well on the test that they moved me from implementation services to software development! That's exciting because I wasn't crazy about all the traveling, I've always wanted to try software development, and software developers make more money (minimum of $65k!) and have the lowest turnover rate at the company.

So, I like the company, I think I'll like the work, they like me enough to put me in a $600 hotel room for the night, and they are financially poised to hire me. The only drawback is that they are in Madison while my wife has to stay in Chicago to finish her Ph. D. The two cities are only about 3 hours apart, and my wife only has a little longer than a year before she's done, so it's workable and temporary.

Big week

Hi readers! This week is sort of a big deal in my household. My wife has a committee meeting Thursday, the same day that I have my final interview with a company in Madison, WI. After that big day, we are going to start packing and looking for a new apartment, since our lease ends 4/30/09 and we've been planning for a long time to move closer to my wife's work.

Moving will be tricky, since I'll have to move to Madison if I get the job in Madison (of course), so we'll have to pack our stuff separately and decide who gets what. It's like a divorce except we are staying married. We definitely aren't looking forward to the time apart, but Madison is only 2.5 hours from Chicago, so it could be much worse.

I'm not really doing justice to the immensity of the changes that may be coming up for me, but honestly they are on my mind so much that I don't really feel like rehashing them here. Later probably, but not now.

I'll let you know how the interview goes.

Incidentally, the guy who sent the email I discussed last time is reconsidering me after I wrote him back and we exchanged a few emails.

Changing Careers Is Difficult

I heard back from a user-oriented design and engineering firm that I applied to a few weeks ago. Here's the email I got from the contact person in its entirety:

"Your resume does not seem to be a good fit. Just wondering why you want to change careers and do a 180?"

This is the exact sentiment that I fear many HR people experience while looking at my application materials. Because of that fear, I address the sentiment in my cover letter. Which I sent to this guy.

Whatever. Cover letter aside, my fear is that people see I don't have a degree in Industrial Design and don't give my application a chance. Or that people get stuck in the most conservative possible view of careers: that we must do what we picked to do at the age of 18 or 20 or whatever and we are allowed to change our path only if we can do it without any dead spots on our resumes.

I had feared these things without any evidence that I should fear them. But now I have this email, so I know I'm not completely crazy.

And I know changing careers is hard. It's not that I didn't expect this. I think my problem is more with the seemingly-simplistic nature of his thoughts: "Y U wan 2 change careers?!?!"

Also, his firm does engineering. I am an engineer. It's not a 180. It's maybe a 50.

I could also just be a little sensitive about everything.

The Experience of Clocking Out

Not too much has been changing for me, so there isn't much to update on. I'm still waiting for interested companies to get back to me about interviews. Realistically, I think only two companies will actually be getting back to me.

And I don't know if that's a sign of the times or what, but it's been a little draining living in uncertainty for so long. So, this week I've been focusing on/embracing the part-time jobs I've begun: tutoring and programming.

I experienced something at my programming job that I haven't felt in a long time: the day was over and I clocked out. I could stop being the focused programmer and go home and relax. This is the result of structure. And boy did I miss structure; I didn't know that was even possible.

Some good news I can take to the bank

On Monday (2/9), I interviewed for a part-time programming job with a lab at Northwestern. Tuesday evening, I found out that I got it! It's ideal in many ways: it's somewhere I already know, it's flexible, it's permanent, and it could actually go on my resume. I start next week. It's only 10 hours per week, but it's better than nothing.

I'll also be doing some tutoring. I'm meeting with my first client today.

All in all, even with the potential money made from programming and tutoring, my wife and I are still in the red on a monthly basis. But the extra money will definitely help to keep us afloat until I find a full-time job. And it's more comforting than I could have guessed to finally be making some money.

Oh, and I found the flyer for the programming job on February 3rd. I think I mentioned how February 3rds always offer me something unique and useful.

Temporary work

I'm still in a state of waiting on a number of opportunities. As a quick summary, I'm waiting on

-One final interview
-One post-testing-but-maybe-not-"final" interview
-One response from an interview
-Two first interviews
-Four responses to directed-strike style job applications that I sent in last week or the week before (I have no reason to believe that these four companies will ever get back to me beyond by own belief that I'm a very good fit and I wrote really good cover letters).

To alleviate the financial stress I'm feeling due to unemployment, I've started looking at temporary technical work, which I'd never really given much thought to. I've posted ads on a few sites as a tutor/freelance programmer. It felt really good to do that, and I realized that if I were getting money in any fashion right now it would really change the mood of the times.

So far, nothing has come of these ads, but I have found possible temporary work as a scientific paper editor for a Japanese company and a part-time programmer for a lab at Northwestern. I interviewed for the programming position today and did pretty well. The Japanese paper-editing people are supposed to send me a sample to edit soon.

Cushion of Free Money

My wife and I were talking last week about how I can make some sort of money while searching for a job. I'm now hesitant to search for temporary employment for two reasons: 1) Even though I feel like it will be a long time until I'm permanently employed, I'm afraid of starting up work somewhere and immediately having to quit 2) I'm also afraid because of what happened with GE in October; they wanted to fly me to their location for an interview, but I had another interview that day and asked to reschedule, and they then told me they weren't interested. If I have a job, this sort of thing could happen again, and it's scary.

Anyway, another solution we came up with was unemployment money from the government. I was hesitant because, like many others, I didn't want to be taking money from hard-working people to feed myself while I did nothing. I looked into it and it isn't exactly like that. It doesn't pay a lot, there's a time limit, you have to verify every week that you are jobless, they force you into this job-finding program, and so on.

I tried to register for unemployment benefits Thursday, but the website was telling me I needed to call. The lady I talked to said that I wasn't in her system, as if I had not had a job in the past 15 months. If I wanted to correct this, she told me, I'd have to come down to the office.

I just got back from the office. I guess I was only there for two hours, but it sure seemed to take longer than that, most likely because of how uncomfortable I was there. There was that nagging feeling about the kinds of people who are on unemployment, that I was surrounded by them and that I was soon to be one. I waited in the one, slow line, was told to fill out different forms, filled out the forms, got back in line.

I was denied benefits because I was a student. They don't give benefits to people who were students, I guess. I'm not sure whether the lady understood that I went to classes AND worked full-time, or if she just heard the word "student" and wanted me gone. I should've called myself a "graduate researcher" or something.

It was sad. I had high hopes that that money would see me through to finding a job. As it is, I have high hopes for tomorrow; February 3rds have always been interesting days for me on which many strange and great things have happened.

Snow!

Honestly, when I think about the future, I can't see myself with a job. I believe I'll be doing this forever. And it's not the product of despair, which is to say that it's not a horrible feeling. It's just the way it is, or at least the way it seems it is. I can't imagine what starting a new job will feel like because I can't imagine starting a new job. I guess I've been unemployed for some critical amount of time such that it's coloring my worldview.

There was a huge career fair at my Alma Mater Wednesday. I drove down to my parents' house Tuesday afternoon to spend the night there and be closer to the fair (it was 1 hour from my parents' house and ~3.5 hours from my home in Chicago). When I got about an hour from my parents' house (i.e. at about 4:00pm), it started snowing, and it didn't stop snowing until Wednesday around 11:00am. At that point about 10 inches had fallen. There were snow emergencies scattered throughout Indiana, and the authorities were asking people not to drive if they didn't have to. I decided not to risk it and went back to Chicago later that day, once the roads had been cleared and the career fair was over.

I had a list of 24 companies I wanted to talk to at this fair. Nine of them canceled because of the snow, so I wasn't alone in my traveling difficulties. I've been contacting companies in the order of how interesting they seem. An email doesn't really have the same impact as meeting in person, but since I don't really have a choice, I'm trying to make the emails conversational and including my story of why I'm interested.

Now, I know I was just saying that I believe, on some level, that I'll never have a job. But that runs counter to what I've been experiencing since I came back to Chicago. A headhunter who I thought had disappeared called with good news: the company with which she's brokering wanted to test me!. So I took their online math test, logic test, and personality test, and now they're going to interview me next week. They are in a suburb of Chicago. Also, I took a written test proctored at the public library for a company in Wisconsin that I found on Monster. I've already done a personality test and a phone interview with them. If I tested well, they'll interview me in Wisconsin.

So, I've got two pretty solid prospects. I'm reminded of the last time I had two solid prospects. Both fell through, and at least one was because they didn't have the money. I hope that doesn't happen again. I hope that, by this time, companies have realized that this low in the economy could be long-term, and maybe have budgeted appropriately.

Rejections

I was talking to a friend last weekend who made me a little more sensitive about the nature of rejection in a job search. If you look at my Job Statz, you'll see that I only hear from about 20% of the companies I apply to, split pretty evenly between companies that want to interview me and companies that say they aren't interested. The other ~80% clearly aren't interested because they never contact me again. But the fact that I never hear anything from them creates an air of anxiety: as the applications pile up, I build a general feeling that some company from my past applications may contact me at any time. It would be a little beneficial to my psyche to know which ones I don't have to worry about.

I can see it from their side, as my friend explained. The HR people doing the hiring get paid for hiring. It may not even be in their job description to tell unqualified people to go away. And they may get lots of applications, so I could see it taking a significant portion of time to contact everyone you definitely don't want to hire to tell them to try somewhere else.

It doesn't really bother me that much when a company does this, mind you, especially because I know there's not much I can do about it. I do appreciate it when a company takes the time to tell me they aren't interested.

After having this conversation last weekend, I got two letters in the mail from patent law firms saying that they aren't interested! I think that's really cool of them to send an actual letter to someone who emailed them an unsolicited job application. Maybe they only did it for legal reasons, but I'll believe that the folks at Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP and Leydig, Voit, & Mayer Ltd. are nice people.

The job update: companies from the career fairs are either taking some time getting their stuff organized (understandable, as two of the three career fairs were really busy) or no one is interested in me at all. But, I do have a pretty good lead from Monster. I've done a phone interview with them. This week, I'll be doing a skills assessment for them, proctored at the Evanston Public Library. If they still like me, they'll do an in-person interview.

Job Persona

There was *another* career fair Tuesday (1/20). That makes three in a span of seven days. I didn't have as much time to prepare for this one because Northwestern bumbled a little and sent out incorrect dates and company information, but there weren't too many companies that I was interested in to begin with. I had pretty good conversations with two places. By my count, that makes eight solid leads from three career fairs.

You might say I'm exhausted. Wearing a suit a lot and being outgoing and cheerful takes a lot of energy, for me at least, so I'm glad Northwestern's career fairs are done for the winter.

I've been really busy finding a job, and this adds to my exhaustion. I'm talking with three headhunters right now and trying to follow up on the career fair leads and also staying on top of opportunities I got through Monster. I'm glad there are so many opportunities that it makes me busy. My wife and I are watching a t.v. show from a few years ago set in the Great Depression; I hope things don't get that bad.

But here's something cool: The dad of a friend from college runs a business in California. I wrote him asking for advice or leads or anything. He says his people are undertasked until the Spring. He may have work for me then. I appreciate that. But then he did something really awesome: he looked through other companies in the professional organization his company belongs to, found companies in Chicago that are doing work like his firm does, and compiled the contact information of higher-ups that I should contact. I'll have to send him a fruit basket or something. After getting his email, I spent a few days carefully writing a cover letter for these companies. I sent my whole application to a few places and have already been well-received at one. So there you go: opportunity everywhere.

I guess I should focus now on keeping hold of the leads I have. Maybe I should slow down with the applications and spend more time bothering the HR people I talked to at the fairs. It's occurring to me that I don't know what to do right now. They always talk about writing thank you notes after a career fair; is this the reason why?

Winter Career Expo

What do you think it would be like to search for a job for a year? The idea just struck me today. It seems like the kind of thing a person might write a book about: being professionally unemployed for a year, or something like that. I wonder what sort of things you'd learn about the job market, interviewing, career fairs, and so on. I've only been at it for a month and a half and I think I know what career fairs are all about. Here's how it works:

-Beforehand, you narrow it down like this: which companies will be there, which ones are hiring for the kind of work you are looking for (full-time, co-op, internship, part-time), which ones sound interesting, which ones sound like they require skills you have.
-Make little packets about yourself. Mine currently are comprised of my resume and my unofficial transcripts. You can also include cover letters and maybe put everything in a folder. The folder makes you stand out a little and shows foresight.
-The company rep conversation should go about like this: introduce yourself, explain your education, describe why you are interested in them, ask a question or two, give them your packet, and discuss. Don't forget to take notes and be charming.

That's really it. It just takes a little practice to get used to the experience.

Anyway, the second career fair was today. I talked to less companies than I did at the Tuesday fair, but I feel I got a better reception. I actually got scheduled for an interview at the fair, which has never happened to me before. The companies that I talked to were almost all consultancies. I think I'd like the variety of being a consultant.

I'm trying to come up with some more-organized way of communicating to my readers which job opportunities I'm currently in the running for. Maybe some kind of embedded Google Spreadsheet? For now, you'll have to settle for these text updates: tomorrow, I'm talking on the phone with a headhunter about one of the positions I've mentioned previously, phone interviewing with the Chicago software opportunity I also mentioned previously, and regular interviewing with an infrastructure engineering company that I met at today's career fair. Phew.

Non-profit Career Fair

Until last week sometime, Northwestern had the wrong dates for the career fairs on their website, and I posted those incorrect dates on my blog here. In truth, there was a non-profit/government career fair yesterday, and there will be an open career fair (for any major) tomorrow.

There were some interesting opportunities at yesterday's career fair. I got good vibes from a few people, but we all know that vibes aren't worth anything. Some of the jobs would require being away from the states for a year. Like teaching English in Korea. Sounds cool. I won't weigh the career growth options until I at least hear that they are interested.

I need to enumerate, at least for my own sake, the interview/we-are-interested-in-learning-more things I've got going on right now.

1) A headhunter in Chicago is looking for someone to fill two positions at a sales software company. She was supposed to hear by Friday (1/9) what the company thinks, but I haven't heard anything.

2) A different headhunter in Chicago is looking for someone to fill a position as a Sales Engineer for a company that makes Vacuum Fluorescent Display. I'm meeting with the headhunter today.

3) A company from Monster got my application and liked it. They do software in Texas.

4) A different company from Monster got my application and liked it. I'd be an internal consultant with them. They are in Chicago.

Sounds like a lot happened in a week, right? It kind of feels that way, too. But, at least with these headhunter things, I won't be surprised if they just evaporate. That's seems to be the way they go. With these opportunities plus those I acquire from upcoming career fairs, seems like I'm bound to get something. Let's wait and see.

Some opportunities are forming

I have a phone interview Monday (1/12) with a recruiter on behalf of a company in Chicago. I have been cleared to schedule a phone interview with a programming company in Texas. A recruiter has sent my information to software company in Deerfield (west of Evanston). Things are happening!

Introducing Job Statz

I'm trying to post more frequently now. I had slowed down with the posting since I thought my job search was ending, but that was obviously not the case.

I've introduced "job statz" to this blog. It's something I'll be updating everyday (even days I don't post). I just wanted to give a more-detailed picture of how a job search feels and how mine is progressing. If anything is unclear, or if there's a category of statz you'd like to see implemented, I'm happy to help. Just post a comment or email me or something.

The statz are in approximate order of excitement. Here's some more detail on the numbers:

Job applications submitted: The raw number of times I've sent a company my resume and/or filled out a company's online application form. It's safe to say that I saw myself as a good fit for most of these applications. This number includes any applications that led to interviews, rejections, or were ignored.

Outright rejections: The number of times a company was nice enough to tell me they weren't interested. This number is only for companies that didn't interview me.

Interviews: This is the total number of companies that have interviewed me or that have interviews pending. This means I submitted an application and the company wanted to know more about me. This includes any companies that later rejected me and companies that I'm waiting to hear from.

Got close and ended with nothing: This is the total number of companies that interviewed me (maybe even more than once) and invited me to tour the facilities and so on, but ended up not offering me a job.

Got close and still waiting: This is the current number of companies that have interviewed me as many times as they deem necessary and are now just making that final decision.

Job offers: Someday, this number will be non-zero.

Darkest before dawn?

I'm not gonna lie; it's been rough coming back from my holiday vacation. It was jarring, even though I knew this was the situation, to come back to my apartment to face the fact that I have no job prospects. And it was demoralizing to begin my retail job search and not see much prospect there either.

But, at least jobs are communicating with me again. Yesterday, two head-hunters called me with job opportunities. One of them had something for a postdoc (which is not me), but the other has three openings for software development at a place in Illinois. And today one of the many companies I've contacted through Monster actually got back to me with good news: they want to interview me for a software engineer position in Houston. None of these may lead to a job, but it feels good to know that people can be interested in me.

I am starting to remember that things are going to be ok.

Today, I attended the practice qualifier talk of a Ph.D. student in the lab that I'm technically still a part of. I was a little jealous. He's going to have a Ph.D. someday if he keeps at it (which he will). On my current track, I can't see what I'll end up with if I keep at it.

Career fairs on the 15th, 17th, and 28th. Maybe this time companies that attend won't decide to get rid of the positions I'm applying for!

Jamba Juice isn't hiring until late February

Yesterday was the first day that I've regretted leaving the Ph.D. program. It hit me that I picked a very bad time to add the uncertainty of unemployment to my life, since the economy seems to be doing poorly and jobs are very hard to find. And then I started thinking to myself "Was being a Ph.D. student really so bad?" At any rate, I certainly left the program in the worst way possible: citing wanting to be honest, I chose to tell my boss as soon as I'd decided, thinking that he'd keep me around until I'd defended my Master's thesis. That's how I ended up unemployed in December. I should have stayed in the program until I had a job lined up and then left.

No, that can't be right. Staying like that still seems disingenuous to me, and I wouldn't have as much time fail at finding a job if I had stayed.

Today I walked around Evanston a little trying to find temporary employment. Everyone I talked to wore this weird smirk when I asked if they were hiring. I found 4 places that are hiring (and I have since heard about 2 more). That should make me hopeful, but *every* retail place I walked into featured employees standing around waiting for customers. And the places that are hiring always take applications, so they might just be looking for the perfect person to come along.

Job-hunting feels desperate now. I think employers can feel it.

My wife and I feel it, too. We are going into emergency-save-money mode.