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Drawing Out The Drama – Again

I left Panera and got home around 4pm to find my internet connection had been restored. Woo hoo! I checked my e-mail to find that a company I thought was long gone still has some interest in me. They want to do a phone interview with me to gauge my technical skills. Fine. The e-mail says to give them a call on Wednesday so we can set up a time to do this.

Wednesday morning I call and get voicemail. I leave my name, number and the reason I’m calling at around 9:30am. I literally wait by the phone… I take it with me everywhere I go in the house. It doesn’t ring once.

By 3:30pm I’m a little curious so I call the guy back. The guy is totally disorganized and I’m wondering if he really remembers who has called him. Long story short: we reschedule the appointment.

Do these people not realize that lives are hanging in the balance here? This is a person’s life we’re talking about. This is the same company where the first guy to call me was almost unintelligible. At least I could understand this new guy.

On another front, I e-mailed “Anna” (that’s the woman I used to work with who is striking out on her own) and basically said “what’s up?”

In ten words or less she said she thinks the project is on but there is timing to be worked out. I want you to know I expect nothing to happen here. If it does, I’ll be pleasantly surprised but I am not pinning any hopes here nor am I holding my breath.

This is a frustrating process. This whole “hurry up and wait” deal is wearing me thin. I don’t mind coming out to your place and talking about the job. If I’m not right for it – I totally understand. But don’t jerk me around and keep putting me off. Quite frankly it’s unprofessional.

My fervent hope in these situations is that they offer me a job (at a lousy pay) and I can tell them where to shove their stinking job! The problem with that is: I’m a professional who knows better than to burn any bridges.

And finally, from the “coming full circle” file: I got an e-mail from one of the guys I worked with at my most recent job. He had an instant message chat with one of the women in the office asking who I was.

He proceeded to send her flattering words about me (I know, I saw the transcript) and then he asked “Why?”. It seems that my resume ended up on her husband’s doorstep – he’s starting a company and saw on my resume that I had worked at the same company as his wife.

I knew her, that is to say I knew her name and could point her out in a lineup. I don’t know that we ever had any meaningful conversations and when I think of her now she was just ‘one of the programmers’ (whereas I was one of the ‘networking guys’).

From the transcript it seemed like she was going to pass on the good sentiments that were given to her. Nice!

It’s been a while but I’m ending on a positive note.

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